Policy Scope:

This policy affects: South Yorkshire Police Authority and all police officers and police staff involved in the training planning process. It covers the processes and procedures involved in: the identification of training needs, the nomination of individuals for training and the attendance of individuals on training. The policy works on two levels and covers the Strategic Training Planning cycle and the underpinning Operational Responsibilities.

Policy Aims and Objectives:

Aims

The aim of this policy is to implement a structured Training Planning Process across South Yorkshire Police (SYP). This will provide a corporate framework to effectively control the identification of training needs, provide appropriate training to meet those needs and then to secure relevant student attendance on that training.

Objectives

• To implement a structured planning cycle for the SYP Training Planning process.

• To formalise the identification of training needs across districts/departments within a corporate framework.

• To streamline the nomination procedures, ensuring decision making is devolved to the appropriately informed local level.

• To improve the attendance levels at training events, reducing non-attendance and improve the cost effectiveness of training events.

Associated Procedural Instructions:

This policy is supported by the following procedural instructions:

The identification of training needs, the commissioning of training to meet those needs, the nomination of individuals to attend the training and the actual attendance on the training are all aspects covered within these processes.

The overarching timetable for the strategic training planning process is outlined at Annex A. This document details all the relevant stages and associated deadlines contained within the cycle and highlights the roles and responsibilities of individuals and departments.

The actual delivery of this strategic process is further broken down in the operational responsibility chart attached at Annex B. This charts the progressive stages of the training planning process covering:

• Identification

• Nomination

• Attendance

Roles and Responsibilities

Police Authority

• In January of the cycle, (prior to the commencement of the new financial year in April) they will receive an overview of the projected Training Plan for the forthcoming year. Allowing for any amendments and changes they will approve and send the Cost of Training model to HMIC before the end of June.

• They will review the Training Plans on a quarterly basis throughout the year.

Learning and Development Board (L&DB)

• This board will oversee and take responsibility for the annual strategic training and planning process. They will assist in the identification of corporate training issues to be added to the SYP Training Plans.

• They will approve the final projected corporate Training Plans before submission to the Police Authority.

• They will review the corporate Training Plans on a quarterly basis throughout the year.

Performance Development

• In September of the planning cycle they will send out guidance and blank templates (containing T-coded courses) to all districts and departments.

• Staff will act as liaison with Personnel Managers in helping to identify training need.

• They will identify corporate training issues for inclusion in the SYP Training Plan.

• By mid November they will provide a composite SYP training template (detailing need) to the Training Centre/OSS.

• They will produce a populated Cost of Training model for submission to B-plan in line with emerging force needs.

• They will also produce an overview of projected internal and external delivery and costs based on the previous year’s costings.

• The Cost of Training model will be reviewed and amended with B-plan with a final version produced by mid April.

• In April (beginning of the new financial year) they will allocate external training budgets to individual districts and departments.

• They will assist in the review of the individual training templates on a quarterly basis throughout the year, providing an updated SYP template for L&DB.

Training Centre/OSS

• In September of the cycle they will review the associated factsheets for all training courses.

• Between mid November and by the end of December they will produce a training schedule for all internally delivered courses (based on the training needs identified by districts and departments). This schedule will list all the projected training courses for the forthcoming financial year.

• During this time they will produce their relevant information required for the Cost of Training model.

• By the end of February in the planning cycle they will have produced a definitive list of actual courses to be delivered, detailing dates, numbers of places available and the allocations for each individual district/department.

Training Support

• As a part of the ongoing course nomination process they will set up events on Oracle for each internally delivered course.

• They will create joining instructions for all courses. The joining instructions will be sent to Personnel Managers.

• They will take responsibility for the monitoring and updating of those joining instructions as necessary and monitoring the updates of the event booking system.

• From Oracle (details supplied by Districts and departments) they will create class lists for training courses.

• They will update the event bookings on Oracle from actual course attendance details.

• They will provide information on non-attendance to the Head of Training and Head of Performance Development.

Personnel Managers

• In September, at the start of the review cycle for the forthcoming financial year they will consult with key personnel in their respective district/department to identify local training needs.

• They will complete draft training templates which capture their local mandatory training needs subdivided into internal and external training. These templates should also include any non-mandatory training deemed necessary. Liaison with their Department Head/District Commander is important on this issue.

• When approved by local command teams these templates need to be finalised and updated (on G:drive) for Performance Development by mid November.

• On an ongoing basis they will monitor the Skills Development Action Plans from individual staff’s PDRs to ensure that any non-mandatory training needs are collected. These should be recorded in the appropriate section of the local training template.

• In March of the strategic cycle they will use the course prospectus information provided by Training Centre/OSS to begin the process of nominating individual students to fill the places allocated to their district/department.

• This process of identifying nominated students at a local level will continue throughout the year.

• They will e-mail the prospective student’s line manager confirming their nomination.

• If for any reason a delegate cannot attend, an appropratel substitute (from their district/department training needs list) should be allocated to that place.

• Bookings on courses should be confirmed by updating student details to the Oracle event within 14 days of events.

• They will be responsible for monitoring student attendance and updating local templates to reflect such details.

• The local district/department training templates will be reviewed on a quarterly basis to reflect any changes or developments in training needs and to monitor training delivery against local demand.

District/Department Senior Managers and Line Managers

• They will work closely with Personnel Managers to identify local district/department training needs.

• They will form an integral part of the local quarterly review process, which will monitor the local Training Plans progress.

• They will play a key role in identifying training needs for their teams/departments. To achieve this they will make full and appropriate use of the PDR appraisal system utilising the Skills Development Action Plan where necessary.

Equality Act 2010

In principle, this document has been assessed for discrimination, which cannot be justified, among other diverse groups.

Human Rights/Discretion:

The purpose of providing policy is to give an indication to staff of the expected course of action. However it is not possible to cater for every possible combination of factors that would justify a departure from stated policy. The Human Rights Act 1998 requires the proper use of discretion at all times and nothing within this policy and associated procedural instructions prohibits the proper use of discretion in appropriate circumstances.

Where action is taken that has the potential to interfere with an individual’s Human Rights, the reasons behind the making of the decision to act in that way should be recorded on the appropriate forms, or where this is not practicable, in pocket books or policy logs.

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Exemptions do not apply to this statement of agreed policy under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Audit Review Arrangements:

This policy together with its Equality Analysis will be reviewed every 3 years

Rights of redress for members of the public:

Anyone who feels that a member of staff has behaved incorrectly or unfairly, or who is dissatisfied with organisational matters, service delivery or other operational policing issues, has the right to make a complaint.

Initial action should be taken in one of the following ways:

• Complain in writing or in person to the Senior Officer at the appropriate police station or to the Chief Constable of the force concerned.

• Visit a local Citizens' Advice Bureau

• Contact a Solicitor

Rights of redress for South Yorkshire Police personnel:

South Yorkshire Police personnel who feel they have grounds for concern in relation to the implementation of policies may, as appropriate:

• Pursue concerns through their line manager.

• Contact a First Contact Advisor.

• Pursue a grievance formally through the South Yorkshire Police Fairness at Work Procedure.

• Seek advice from their staff association or trades union.

• Use procedural instruction D50241 Management of Complaints, in the section entitled Handling Complaints relating to Direction and Control. 

Start Date:

23 January 2006 (Amended January 2007)