New director for Strategic Command Course announced
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the Metropolitan Police Service’s (MPS) head of Specialist Operations, is to join the College of Policing on secondment as director of the Strategic Command Course (SCC).
He will be responsible for leading the 2021 course, which prepares police officers and staff for promotion to the most senior ranks in the service.
Mr Basu will be taking up the role to ensure the content of the course meets the needs of the service. This includes a secondment to the college in the weeks leading up to the start of the course to ensure the final planning and preparations are completed, and from September 20 to December 17, 2021, he will lead the delivery of the SCC.
This year’s SCC course will follow the conclusion of the Senior Police National Assessment Centre (SPNAC), which has recently started and will run until the end of May.
The SCC will be run mainly with face-to-face modules at the College of Policing’s site in Ryton, but will also include online work to be completed by the candidates.
Bernie O’Reilly, interim chief executive officer of the College of Policing, said: “We are delighted Neil will be joining us to oversee the SCC, which is policing’s most senior leadership development programme.
“His extensive operational experience across a range of areas of policing and his varied career over four decades in the service means that he has all the qualities and skills needed to lead the SCC.”
Commenting on the appointment, Mr Basu said: “It is an honour to have been chosen to lead the 2021 SCC as director. Senior police leadership roles are without doubt some of the most challenging in the country. I passed the course in 2012 and I know that it has shaped my approach to senior police leadership ever since. I hope to be able to play my part in inspiring the next cohort of senior police leaders as they approach this major new stage in their careers.
“I know that I will also gain a lot personally from this role, and look forward to bringing that experience back into the Met.”
Mr Basu became a police officer in 1992, and has spent his whole career with the MPS. Since March 2018, he has served as MPS assistant commissioner specialist operations and is the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for counter-terrorism policing.
He is currently the most senior serving British police officer of Asian heritage.
