Human Resources
QUEST academy and training programme
The QUEST academy gives frontline police officers the skills they need to work more effectively and was launched by the Home Office Value For Money and Productivity Unit (VFMPU).
The academy is the induction and training week for police officers who the QUEST particpant forces have seconded to the QUEST project team. All QUEST police forces start the project by attending this police training programme to further improve performance and give the public an even better policing service.
The academy has been developed to give frontline police officers the freedom and skills to analyse their work and streamline work processes so they can work more effectively.
On the programme, police officers will learn about world-class tools and techniques, tailored to the operational reality of modern policing and designed to help solve the issues that frustrate officers on a daily basis (for example, how to speed up procedures and improve customer service).
Academy training programme
The academy training programme has equipped officers from all QUEST forces with the skills to further improve force performance. It has improved morale, increased performance and raised citizen satisfaction ratings.
The latest round of completed QUEST projects (QUEST 4) has built on the successes of frontline officers in the first thee rounds of QUEST. Highlights include:
- In Devon and Cornwall, 235 hours of supervisor time was saved over an initial five weeks through streamlining the allocation of crimes for investigation. In addition, 5,261 officer hours a year will be saved as a result of improved incident grading and a reduction in unnecessary deployments.
- North Wales has seen a number of improvements since introducing an Investigation & Bail Manager role, including the volume of failed bails reducing by 83% and the number of rebails dropping by 38%.
- Before QUEST in North Wales, the average time between allocation and finalisation of crimes was 47 days. Since 'Go Live', there has been a reduction of 91% to four days per crime.
- Greater Manchester Police have streamlined crime reports and introduced scripts to ensure high quality and consistent crime reporting - this has resulted in an initial drop of returned records from 60% to 42%.
A recent issue of The Sharp End carries a major article on Operation QUEST.
For further information about QUEST please e-mail James Brady.
