Citizen focus on promotion

Dorset’s move to involve members of the community to form a promotion selection panel drew initial scepticism, but has proved to be a valuable tool to both employer, applicant and panel member.

Lay panels are new methods in which members of the police force of all ranks are assessed for promotion by panels of lay members of the public as well as internal police force personnel.

After some initial concerns, the new public orientated system of promotion is proving to be a positive way in which to promote members of the force. “The Police Federation is very much in favour after monitoring the results of the selection process and some considerable initial concerns.”

Superintendent Dave Thorp, Head of the Organisational Development Unit at Dorset Police force has had first hand experience of a lay panel in January 2005, as it was via this method in which he obtained promotion to his current rank, the first person to be promoted through this public-influenced scheme.

He explains the ideas and significances of Lay Panels: “It comes from an idea to look at selection processes that incorporate the views of the public; around citizen focused policing and listening to the public, to meet their expectations.

“Integrating the public into selection procedures, initially for promotion of police officers, aims to influence the policing and the policing managers of the future.

“Initially there was some reticence, some concern within the force over the process with the Federation standing back and watching. However, once we started they have become very strong advocates of it.” he adds.

According to Mr Thorp, an overall advantage of using lay panels is that it brings positive feedback to the applicant: “It is a big step in the right direction for us to actually have members of the public coming in and effectively taking part in the selection process; we are seeing the right people being selected.”

Mr Thorp highlights the positive aspects of a lay panel, saying it involves: “The members of the public, albeit with specialist interests around diversity and public involvement in policing service, telling us what they think of the people coming through, looking at competence, what the officers say and being able to make comments on what their impressions are.”

What is important about the lay panel procedure is not that new insights are reached from an involvement with the public. A level of internal/independent procedure is maintained with the application form and assessment process, but it is the interview panel that highlights the main development in methods of assessing promotion.

Mr Thorp explained the workings of the panel: “It is three members of the public who carry out a competence based interview. They look for evidence of what the officer has done in relation to specific competences such as diversity and community and customer focus.

“The Panel then scores the level of competence, which is combined with a score from a police panel interview. As a result the members of the public actively influence the people who get promoted.”

The benefits of these new approaches in promotion can also benefit the officer on an individual level. Drawing on his own experiences, Mr Thorp commented on some of the advantages: “It was a more relaxed approach to the promotion assessment. It was a process I felt comfortable in because I was talking to members of the public who wanted to listen to how I felt I could influence the way in which the police service could progress.

“They were very interested in what I had to say but I also knew they were looking at my passion and my belief in what I had to say. After going through the process I could see the fantastic value of it” he said.

The composition of a lay panel is just as important to the success as its procedure. Those appointed says Mr Thorp, “have to come from backgrounds that focus on issues of diversity: people who work with charities, offenders and rehabilitation are appointed. We ensure they have an understanding that this is a fair and open process, w