Nottinghamshire Police adopts new recruitment process to further increase diversity within its ranks

Police forces in England are changing the way they assess applicants who want to be police officers, using the new National Sift from College of Policing.

Traditionally, applicants who want to be police officers have needed to complete a series of competency questions which would be marked according to a scoring guide.

From now on, anyone wanting to be a police officer will instead complete an online test to judge their suitability for the role.

The National Sift is much quicker for applicants to complete and has been shown to be better judge of success in the role.

Nottinghamshire Police adopted the new model on June 10 – ahead of schedule and at a time when its ranks are at their highest levels in a decade, having recently smashed its national Uplift recruitment target.

The College of Policing produced the National Sift after research found that people from underrepresented groups tended to be less successful at the assessment stages.

Testing of the National Sift has shown this disproportionality has been virtually eliminated and those who pass the Sift are much more likely to go on to pass the National Police Assessment Centre interview.

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Superintendent Louise Clarke, Nottinghamshire Police head of Operation Uplift, said: “While we hit our uplift targets, we will still continue to recruit and want to get the best candidates from the most diverse backgrounds.

“We are always looking to improve and saw the opportunity to bring in a fairer, more intuitive process.

“We have introduced the National Sift ahead of time, as we recognise not everyone has the same support available for applying and we want to level the playing field for all, regardless of background.”

Last year, the Home Office commended Nottinghamshire Police after figures revealed the force had recruited a greater proportion of officers from black and minority ethnic backgrounds than any other force in England and Wales.

Furthermore, the force now has more female officers than ever before. A total of 35 per cent of police officers in Nottinghamshire are women – up from 32 per cent in March 2020 with most new intakes seeing a near 50-50 split.

To apply to join Nottinghamshire Police, see bit.ly/3b7JFaI