We have put a course on in Hatfield in order to cater for the Surrey assessments next month(May). The course will be in our normal Hatfield venue at the Oak Hotel, on Roehyde Way, next to the University. We have already started to take bookings for this. Whether you come with us or not, make sure you prepare well. Compettion will be fierce for these places, and this chance will not come around again for a long time!

Taken from an extract from The Guardian Online from 29/11/10.Please visit their website for the full story. This happens in many forces, which is why you need to do a course!

A 

Grahame Maxwell, who heads the North Yorkshire force, will be accused of gross misconduct, while his deputy, Adam Briggs, faces a straight misconduct charge over claims that friends or family of existing staff were favoured to fill a handful of jobs.

Both men are expected to deny the charges, with those against Maxwell the first to be levelled against a chief constable in the UK for 35 years.

Two other members of the force have been dismissed for nepotism, while a constable has been given a final written warning in connection with the affair.

The moves follow an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission into allegations following the recruitment drive, which took place last winter.

More than 300,000 people applied for 60 jobs in the force, and the jobs line set up to cope with applications repeatedly crashed.

The IPCC worked with North Yorkshire police authority’s professional standards subcommittee, which made the recommendation for the two misconduct hearings.

The commission said the two senior officers were accused of working with staff under their line management to “circumvent the recruitment process”.

“The IPCC will not be in a position to publish its findings from the investigations until all misconduct matters are concluded,” a spokesman said.

North Yorkshire police said: “The individuals in question have a right of appeal. For that reason, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment at this time.”

The joint report is understood to contain evidence that the chief constable and his deputy misused their influence in the appointment process to give priority to a relative or relatives of Maxwell.

When the inquiry was announced in March, the IPCC commisioner, Nicholas Long, called the allegations a matter of “extreme concern.”

In a statement at the time, the IPCC said: “It is alleged the chief constable, Grahame Maxwell, gave assistance to one of his own relatives and a relative of Deputy Chief Constable Adam Briggs. It is also alleged DCC Briggs gave assistance to that same relative.

“Additionally, and separately, two police staff members are alleged to have used their positions to circumvent the initial phase to benefit themselves and one other person.”

The inquiry was led by Chief Constable Mike Cunningham, of Staffordshire police. The North Yorkshire assistant chief constable, Sue Cross, said at the time: “Our principal concern is to reassure applicants and the communities we serve that our recruitment process is fair and transparent.

“To that end, North Yorkshire police is currently conducting a very thorough integrity assurance exercise and co-operating fully with the IPCC.”

police chief and his deputy are to face serious misconduct charges following an independent report into alleged nepotism during a botched recruitment exercise. 

A police chief and his deputy are to face serious misconduct charges following an independent report into alleged nepotism during a botched recruitment exercise.

Grahame Maxwell, who heads the North Yorkshire force, will be accused of gross misconduct, while his deputy, Adam Briggs, faces a straight misconduct charge over claims that friends or family of existing staff were favoured to fill a handful of jobs.

Both men are expected to deny the charges, with those against Maxwell the first to be levelled against a chief constable in the UK for 35 years.

Two other members of the force have been dismissed for nepotism, while a constable has been given a final written warning in connection with the affair.

The moves follow an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission into allegations following the recruitment drive, which took place last winter.

More than 300,000 people applied for 60 jobs in the force, and the jobs line set up to cope with applications repeatedly crashed.

The IPCC worked with North Yorkshire police authority’s professional standards subcommittee, which made the recommendation for the two misconduct hearings.

The commission said the two senior officers were accused of working with staff under their line management to “circumvent the recruitment process”.

“The IPCC will not be in a position to publish its findings from the investigations until all misconduct matters are concluded,” a spokesman said.

North Yorkshire police said: “The individuals in question have a right of appeal. For that reason, it would not be appropriate to make any further comment at this time.”

The joint report is understood to contain evidence that the chief constable and his deputy misused their influence in the appointment process to give priority to a relative or relatives of Maxwell.

When the inquiry was announced in March, the IPCC commisioner, Nicholas Long, called the allegations a matter of “extreme concern.”

In a statement at the time, the IPCC said: “It is alleged the chief constable, Grahame Maxwell, gave assistance to one of his own relatives and a relative of Deputy Chief Constable Adam Briggs. It is also alleged DCC Briggs gave assistance to that same relative.

“Additionally, and separately, two police staff members are alleged to have used their positions to circumvent the initial phase to benefit themselves and one other person.”

The inquiry was led by Chief Constable Mike Cunningham, of Staffordshire police. The North Yorkshire assistant chief constable, Sue Cross, said at the time: “Our principal concern is to reassure applicants and the communities we serve that our recruitment process is fair and transparent.

“To that end, North Yorkshire police is currently conducting a very thorough integrity assurance exercise and co-operating fully with the IPCC.”

Since the coalition government announced big cutbacks, almost all forces started to suspend recruitment campaigns. I will refrain (almost) from commenting about the hundreds of people who had they doen a course would have by now been in the job. However, what is certain is that competition will now become even more fierce. S.yorks police are doing a special dyslexic assessment centre in early december at ryton near coventry. If you are doing that, or your force is showing the green shoots of starting assessments again, I would strongly suggest that you really prepare hard. Places in the police were always hard to get, they have just becoem even harder!

Our book, “The Talking Blues guide to passing the police recuitment process”, has now been formally published by Howtobecome books. (Note this is an entirely diffeernt book from the course manual we use on our seminars). You can buy it from Amazon, Waterstones and all good bookshops, as they say. The list price is £12.99, but Amazon are selling it at the time of writing for £8.44

We are no longer selling the book or the CD therefore direct from our site. We are currently getting our site updated.

We promise you it is by far and away the best bok on the market!

Regards

For those applying to A and S, you may be interested in the above date. We have heard rumours that A and S are really going to be tough in these assessments, as they are looking to cut down on the numbers they are recruiting. Now is a great time to make sure that you do not just pass the assessment, but that you get a high score to lessen the risk of being filtered out.