Freedom of Information Request Reference No: I note you seek access to the following information: Please can you point send me the following information or point me to where it is published? - Constable to Sergeant candidate information pack, including the MET Leadership Framework - Sergeant to Inspector candidate information pack, including the MET Leadership Framework. Can you confirm whether these are also publicly available documents, published on your website anywhere? Please can you also provide or direct me to any summary documentation which outlines your MET Leadership Framework? If possible, this should include the associated requirements against your MLF competencies for each rank. DISCLOSURE Please find attached the candidate booklet for the PC-PS process which includes the Met leadership framework for the Sergeant rank. I am advised that the candidate booklet for Sergeant-Inspector, alongside the framework for all ranks had not been released at the time of your request, therefore this part of your request is not held for the purpose of this FOI request. I can confirm that these documents would be published on the MPS careers website if the process was being advertised externally. Information Rights Unit
Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Information Pack Constable to Sergeant Promotion Process June 2016
Contents Section Page Number Introduction 3 The Selection Process 4 How to Prepare 10 Appendix One: Timetable 11 Appendix Two: Met Leadership Framework 12 Appendix Three: Met Values 13 Appendix Four: Assessment Matrix 17 2
Introduction Thank you for downloading this information pack and for your interest in the Sergeant role. This pack is intended for officers thinking about applying for promotion to Sergeant, and should be read alongside the relevant section of People Pages and Police Promotions SOP (available via Policy Pages on the intranet). The Met is going through the most significant period of change it has ever experienced. In addition to large-scale transformation, there s the unique and ever-evolving challenge of policing London. This means that as a Sergeant, there are more opportunities for you to get involved with making London the safest global city in a time of unprecedented change within the UK s largest Police Service. We ll look to the successful candidates to deliver results in line with our priorities, working collaboratively with our partners to understand and manage the diverse needs of our customers and communities in all that we do. As a Line Manager, you will be responsible for how we deliver our front line services, with the trust and confidence of our customers and communities being a direct reflection of how you fulfil the challenges of the role. You ll lead by example, upholding our professional standards, and showing personal flexibility in the face of change. To be successful in this process, individuals will need to demonstrate the behaviours as set out in the Met Leadership Framework, and also have a commitment to our Met Values. Commander Richard Martin is the Assessment Director for this process. We all recognise the critical role that the rank of Sergeant has in enabling the Metropolitan Police Service to operate effectively in an ever changing and dynamic arena, and to continue our drive to make London the safest Global City. As the Assessment Director my responsibility is to ensure we set a challenging yet fair process to identify those of you who feel you are ready to take on this role. My commitment to you is that the assessment process whilst challenging is fair and relevant to operational policing and that we deliver a process that gives you the best opportunity to demonstrate to us you are ready for the role of Sergeant now. If this sounds like you, and you also fulfil the eligibility criteria listed on page 4, we look forward to hearing from you. 3
The Selection Process 1. ENTRY TO THE PROCESS Expressions of interest are invited during the period of Monday 20 th June to midday on Friday 24 th June 2016. The application process launches on Monday 27 th June 2016, with the following timeline being applied: Once you have completed your sections of the application form, your Inspector will need to complete their part of the form. Your Inspector is required to complete their section of the form by the close of business on Friday 8 th July 2016, at which point they are required to provide your (B)OCU Commander with the completed application form. Your (B)OCU Commander will moderate all applications and Inspector assessments of readiness, and will then submit all applications to the Police Promotions Team by midday on Friday 22 nd July 2016. Before applying, we recommend that you read through this pack carefully, as well as the relevant section on People Pages. To be eligible to apply for this process, you must: 1. Be a current substantive Police Constable / Detective Constable with a valid NPPF Step Two Legal Examination pass; 2. Have an overall competent or exceptional PDR rating for the performance year ending 31 st March 2016; 3. Meet the Met s attendance management criteria (see People Pages for more information); 4. Be free of any bar to promotion as a result of disciplinary outcomes; 5. Have completed and submitted an expression of interest form (available via My HR SelfService) by midday on Friday 9 th September 2016. Unfortunately we cannot accept or review applications if you have not submitted an expression of interest form; 6. Have updated your diversity data via My HR SelfService. Disability and Health Queries We welcome all applications to this promotion process. If you consider yourself to have access or reasonable adjustment requirements that need to be accommodated should you be invited to an assessment centre, we would ask that you contact us at the earliest opportunity to request consideration of your needs. When 4
contacting the Police Promotions Team to request consideration of a reasonable adjustment, please provide a medical report to inform assessment of your request. The Police Promotions Team will work with you and your Line Manager where necessary, in consultation with a medical / specialist / professional advisor to develop suitable adjustments where appropriate, to enable equality of opportunity for success in this promotion process. Professional advice (medical or otherwise) related to a request for access / adjustment needs will be sought in all cases. All matters will be treated in strict confidence. Application Form Candidate Action The application form will contain three competency based questions, asking you to provide examples of your experience which reflects the skills and competencies required at the Sergeant level. In addition, the application form will include a motivation question to understand your drive and motivation for moving to the rank of Sergeant. For each question asked, you will have 1,600 characters (including spaces); answers cannot be extended to a continuation sheet, and must therefore remain within this limit. For each piece of evidence you provide, you must provide the details of an individual who can verify the evidence. Please ensure that all individuals cited as verifiers within your application form are aware that they have been named in this capacity. You must complete all sections of the application form that are designated for the candidate to complete, before forwarding this to your Inspector. Please note, candidates currently on secondment outside of the Met will be required to complete the external candidate application form which will then be considered at a central Met cross-business group panel, rather than requiring local moderation. Application Form Inspector Action You are asked to complete an assessment of readiness, which you will find within the application form designated for Inspectors to complete. The assessment of readiness is designed to bring more consistency as to how we assess an applicant s readiness to enter a promotion process. Inspectors are asked to consider the questions on the assessment of readiness and score them. Guidance will be cascaded to Inspectors via your (B)OCU Commander to support with the assessment of candidate readiness against the Met s Leadership Framework. Once the assessment of readiness is complete, Inspectors should forward application forms to the (B)OCU Commander for moderation. All application forms should be submitted to (B)OCU Commanders by midday on Friday 8 th July 2016. 5
Application Form (B)OCU Commander (B)OCU Commanders will be asked to review and moderate assessments of readiness, confirming that they are satisfied with the scores and rationales presented. Where a candidate is assessed with a score of 2 or below in any of the questions, their application will not be supported to progress to assessment centre. Once application forms have been moderated, they should be submitted to the Police Promotions Team by email to HR Mailbox Police Promotions. All applications, be they supported or unsupported following moderation, should be submitted to the Police Promotions Team. The deadline for submission of moderated application forms to the Police Promotions Team is midday on Friday 22 nd July 2016. 6
2. ASSESSMENT STAGE In response to the increasingly competitive nature of promotions, the new promotion assessment process will be more rigorous than ever, designed to measure those who demonstrate the skills and behaviours needed to be a Sergeant. If you are supported at application by your Inspector and (B)OCU Commander, through a moderated assessment of readiness, you will be asked to attend a central assessment centre, and a locally managed interview. The purpose of the assessment process is to assess the key skills and behaviours which are required for the role, based on the Met s Leadership Framework. During the assessment process, your performance will be assessed across a range of different exercises to maximise the fairness of the process and your opportunities to demonstrate your skills and abilities. It will also provide you with a realistic preview of the types of tasks and situations which you will face in the role. Further detailed guidance and support for how to approach this assessment process will be provided in the form of candidate preparation webinars. The assessment centre will consist of the following elements: Situational Judgement Test Simulation Exercise Interview In the Situational Judgement Test, you will be presented with a number of realistic scenarios typically faced in the Sergeant role. Each scenario will be followed by four different actions which you could take to respond to the situation. You will be provided with a detailed instructions and an example question before you start the test. In the Simulation Exercise, you will be presented with a range of information on a laptop and will need to decide how best to respond to the information and address the different situations presented. This is different to the Situational Judgement Test as in some instances you will be required to present a more detailed response to the task at hand without being provided with specific options. In the Interview, you will be asked for a combination of previous work examples and how you would deal with some hypothetical situations. For the previous work examples, you will be asked to outline the situation you were faced with, the task you had to address, the action you took and the result. For the hypothetical questions you will be presented with an example situation which you could face in the role of Sergeant and asked how you would respond to the situation. 7
What You Will be Measured Against The basis for the assessment is the Met s Leadership Framework, which consists of four key competencies: 1. A Sharp Mind 2. Drive and Energy 3. Being Yourself 4. Leading Others These competencies have been broken down into sub-competencies, and it is these subcompetencies that you will be measured against. Different exercises within the assessment process will focus on different sub-competencies, with each sub-competency measured in at least two independent exercises. Underpinning each competency and throughout all exercises, the Met values will also be considered: Compassion, Courage, Integrity and Professionalism. Appendices 2 and 3 provide you with the definition of what behaviours are expected for each competency within the Sergeant role, and more detail in relation to the Met Values themselves. Appendix 4 provides you with the detail as to which sub-competencies will be measured in each assessment element. How You Will be Scored Candidates will be assessed against the 11 sub-competencies across 3 exercises, to support a balanced and rounded assessment of their suitability for promotion. Historically, our promotion processes have considered candidate performance by applying pass marks to assessment elements. As a result of the greater breadth of evidence that will be gathered from this process, following the conclusion of the assessment processes, your scores from each exercise will be used to form an overall average score for each of the four competency areas. This will be supplemented by a fifth score generated through your performance in the Situational Judgement Test. We will add your scores together to get a total score, with you needing to hit the acceptable standard (3 or above) in four of the five areas (four competencies and the Situational Judgement Test) to be in with a chance of being successful in this process. Candidates being scored at 1 twice or more within a single competency area will be automatically considered as unsuccessful. At the end of the assessment process we will hold a panel. The final review panel, chaired by a Commander, including representation from staff associations and the business, will decide how many officers go into the promotion pool based on the projected number of vacancies and the candidates scores. This will mean in some processes the scores needed to get into the promotion pool will be higher than in others. 8
During this process, scoring results are anonymised and all outcome decisions are made in respect of performance and anticipated vacancies. You will be provided with your scores and a summary of your performance across all exercises to help you identify your likely strengths and development areas at the Sergeant level. When You Will be Assessed The assessment process will be conducted in two parts: 1. A locally scheduled interview; 2. A centrally managed assessment centre to complete the Situational Judgement Test and Simulation Exercise. Assessments will take place throughout September, and into the early part of October (subject to operational commitments). 3. POST PROMOTION PROCESS If you are successful at the final assessment stage, you will either be offered immediate promotion to Sergeant, or be placed in our promotion pool to await a vacancy (which will be for a maximum of 12 months). Once you start your new role, you will be allocated a Work Based Assessor. To achieve substantive promotion, you will need to satisfactorily complete work-based assessment, Step Four of the National Police Promotion Framework (NPPF). In addition, you will be asked to attend a pre-promotion course within the first three months of taking up your posting. Candidates unsuccessful at the final assessment stage will be advised in writing. Thank you again for your interest in the Sergeant role. The next section provides you with some detail as to how you can best prepare yourself for assessment. For any further information, or queries regarding the process, please contact the Police Promotions Team at HR Mailbox Police Promotions. We wish you the best of luck with your application, should you choose to proceed. Thank you, and good luck. 9
How to Prepare your Application Form The process is just as much about ensuring that you feel you are ready for the promotion as measuring your potential. Please ensure that you are yourself throughout the promotion process. You will be assessed based on how you answer and what our assessors see; remember that credit cannot be given for things you may be thinking unless you express these. The assessment process has been designed to give everyone a fair chance to display the necessary skills and behaviours; it is not about trying to catch you out so be yourself and be honest. Application Form You can prepare for the application form by considering some previous examples of where you have demonstrated the key competencies outlined above. It will be important for you to provide sufficient detail within the word limit following the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format. In recognition of the introduction of the new assessment framework for this promotion process, a webinar will be available to you that will provide an overview of the new assessment framework, with hints and tips as to how you can structure your evidence when completing your application form. Please refer to People Pages for details in respect of this webinar. Tips for Completing your Application Form Ensure you set aside plenty of time in a quiet, undisturbed environment to complete your application form. Familiarise yourself with the competencies so you know what will be expected of you in the application form. Consider what examples you might use as evidence of the Leadership Framework. Take your time to read the information made available to you, and the questions asked of you under each behavioural heading. Further information on how to prepare for the assessment elements will be provided to you at the point of invitation to assessment. 10
Appendix One - Timetable Activity Date Launch Sergeant promotion process 20 th June 2016 Candidate complete the Expression of Interest via My HR SelfService (please see the Do-It Online section for guidance on completing this process). Applications to be completed by candidate, with assessment of readiness completed by the Inspector, and submitted to the (B)OCU Commander. Moderated applications to be submitted to HR Mailbox - Police Promotions via your (B)OCU Commander. By midday on 24 th June 2016 By midday on 8 th July 2016 By midday on 22 nd July 2016 Notifications to unsuccessful candidates w/c 8 th August 2016 Locally Managed Interviews Throughout September Centrally Managed Assessment Centre September, through to 7 th October 2016 Promotion review panel w/c 24 th October 2016 Results to candidates w/c 31 st October 2016 11
Appendix Two - Met Leadership Framework The assessment exercises will be assessed against the Met s Leadership Framework for the rank of Sergeant, which is underpinned by the Met Values. More detail on the Values is included on the next page. 12
Appendix Three - Met Values 13
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Appendix Four - Assessment Centre Matrix Competencies / Sub-Competencies to be Measured Stage 1 Sifting Application Form Stage 2 Assessment Centre Interview Simulation Exercise Competency Scores A Sharp Mind: Timely Decisions A Sharp Mind: New Ideas A Sharp Mind: Sound Judgement Drive and Energy: Positive Attitude ()* Drive and Energy: Drive and Hunger to Progress Drive and Energy: Willingness to Learn Being Yourself: Courage Being Yourself: Self-Confidence Leading Others: Inspiration Leading Others: Inclusivity Leading Others: Mindfulness SJT Score: Assessing the sub-competencies of Timely Decisions, Sound Judgement, Positive Attitude, Willingness to Learn, Courage and Inspiration. Total Score: * Assessed directly by observation no direct question. 17