Location

These are either office based or Remote Access worker posts. These posts will be attached to one of our London, Leeds or Birmingham offices. Globe House, 89 Eccleston Square London, SW1V 1PN; Waterside Court, 471 Kirkstall Road, Leeds, LS4 2QB; or 5 St Philips Place, Birmingham, B3 2PW. Remote Access workers, as part of the secondment will not be entitled to London Weighting Allowance. You will be required to attend HMICFRS offices or other locations on a regular basis and your travel, accommodation and subsistence costs will be reimbursed according to HMICFRS policy.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces and fire & rescue services in the public interest.

These are demanding and dynamic roles which offer individuals the opportunity to work in the changing environment of HMICFRS as it influences reform. We are independent of the government, police forces and fire & rescue services.

Job description

Working in HMICFRS as a Force Liaison Lead (FLL) puts you at the heart of our inspection work. You will lead a team of inspectors in force during a set period of fieldwork and be instrumental in developing inspection plans, carrying out regular monitoring and writing reports for the public.

You will be the primary point of contact between HMICFRS and your allotted force(s), supporting Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI) and their chief of staff to build and manage the relationship successfully. Through your work, you will gain a wider picture of policing in England and Wales, seeing how other forces meet challenges and respond to our findings. You will be in regular contact with chief officers in your allotted forces, giving you excellent networking opportunities and personal exposure.

The role usually involves working with two or three forces, depending on the local context. You will spend about a third of your time in force on inspection work and/or managing relationships. Inspection duties are carried out in force, so you will need to travel, and spend some periods away from home. You will be able to do most of your planning and report writing from home.

Please note: there are 6 FLLs post for Home Office forces plus 2 FLLs for non-Home Office / Specialist forces.

Main responsibilities

As an FLL, you will:

• Lead PEEL inspections for your allocated forces, including planning and fieldwork.

• Draft reports of your force’s PEEL inspections, and work with central HMICFRS teams to get your draft reports QA’d and edited through to publication.

• Contribute to other inspections such as child protection, crime data integrity and custody inspections of your allocated forces.

• Supervise inspection staff, including associates, peers and short-term secondees, and provide feedback on their performance.

• Support other FLLs in their forces where appropriate.

• Maintain relationships with your allocated forces and the relevant office of police and crime commissioner or equivalent, through regular contact, and keep the forces updated about future inspection work.

• Advise the HMI and Chief of Staff on relevant public confidence issues, such as cases of misconduct, matters affecting the chief officer team, police deaths on duty and deaths in police custody.

• Together with the force’s and HMICFRS’s analysts, monitor force performance and make sure our monitoring portal, which includes our register of recommendations, is kept up to date.

• Make sure the information HMICFRS holds about allocated forces is accurate and up to date.

• Help the Chief of Staff review applications for extra funding through the special grants process and make sure forces make suitable nominations for the Queen’s birthday and new year honours process.

• Deal with complaints from the public to HMICFRS about your allocated forces.
 

Responsibilities

Essential criteria

You will need:

• Detailed operational knowledge of policing and/or law enforcement, its management and how policing and law enforcement operates within England and Wales.

• Experience of relationship management and working with partners; and

• Experience of seeing the big picture by synthesizing a wide range of incomplete and complex data and presenting well-considered conclusions.

For the two non-Home Office / Specialist posts, you will also need:

Proven experience as a senior leader, in charge of the police response to critical incidents, major investigations and complex operations.

Operational and strategic command experience, including the following:

- SIO (to PiP 3 where appropriate)

- CT SIO/CT network experience

- Tactical/strategic firearms command

Desirable Criteria:

• Skills for Justice HMICFRS Inspection Development Programme accreditation; or

• Experience of the HMICFRS inspection processes; and

• Experience of report writing for publication for an external readership or for the public.

• Evidence of identifying and/or leading organisational improvement.

Development

HMICFRS has an Inspection Development Programme and linked accreditation process that all inspection staff undertake in our organisation. The scheme is approved by Skills for Justice and is based on you demonstrating competences against a framework of role-specific tasks. The expectation is that all new inspection staff will complete a portfolio of evidence within agreed timescales (normally 12 months) and once this is complete it will be assessed by a trained assessor.

Allowances

Your full-time employer will continue to pay your salary as well as any allowances, including compensatory grants and pension contributions you are entitled to. If you are employed by a police force, your force will then invoice HMICFRS for the amount. While on secondment, you will be entitled to a central service allowance of £1,260 per annum (non-pensionable).

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check