6. Recruitment stages and timescales

The start of the recruitment process will be to complete the online eligibility section of our E-Recruit system. It is important that you are open and honest with your responses.

This section checks your eligibility in line with the national recruitment standards. If you have met all the eligibility criteria you will be able to progress to the application form.

For applicants who do not possess a level 3 academic qualification or equivalent qualification, you will need to submit a competency based Personal Statement detailing your previous experience. This will be assessed against Level 3 knowledge and skills descriptors as part of the recruitment process.

What to include in your personal statement

• A statement of no more than 750 words
• Your current roles and responsibilities
• Any additional training you have undertaken
• Any volunteer or support roles you might do

We recommend you use the STAR model to help your structure your statement

• Situation
• Task
• Action
• Results

You will have 5 days from submission of your application form to complete and return your personal statement to us, so that we can progress your application.

The competency based personal statements will be reviewed by a panel of three people from across the force to assess whether it meets the necessary descriptors.

What we'll assess you on

Knowledge Descriptors

• You have factual, procedural and theoretical knowledge and understanding of the field of work or study you are in
• Completing tasks and addressing problems that while well-defined, may be complex and non-routine
• Can interpret and evaluate relevant information and ideas
• You are aware of the nature of the area you study or work in
• You are aware of different perspectives or approaches within your area of study or work

Skills Descriptors

• You can identify, select and use appropriate cognitive and practical skills, methods and procedures to address problems that while well-defined, may be complex and non-routine
• You can use appropriate investigation to inform actions
• Review how effective methods and actions have been

To find more information on the Ofqual descriptors for Level 3 qualifications, please visit the Ofqual Handbook on the gov.uk website.

If your Personal Statement does not meet the required standard you will be withdrawn from the application process.

If you are successful through the online eligibility section, you will be able to access the application form. Your online application form must be submitted by the deadline of the particular recruitment drive you're applying for.

For candidates who are required to complete a competency based personal statement, you will be given 5 additional days to submit the personal statement for review.

You will be required to attend a mandatory familiarisation event before we progress your application to Assessment Centre.

This event is designed to give you a real insight into the role of a police officer, the reality of daily tasks, training, career development as well as the benefits of joining the police.

You will hear first hand accounts from police officers and will give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have.

You must be able to attend  the event in order to progress to the next stage of the application process, the assessment centre. 

Following attendance at the Mandatory Familiarisation event your application will progress to next stage of the recruitment process the National Sift.

This process is run by the College of Policing and is a virtual process designed to assess your capabilities, strengths and behaviours to ensure you have the relevant competencies and values to become a police officer.

You will have 1 week to complete the two exercises:

• Situational Judgement Test (SJT)
• Behavioural Style Questionnaire (BSQ)

You should receive your results within two weeks of completing the National Sift.  If successful at this stage, you will be invited to attend the Online Assessment Centre. 

If you are unsuccessful you must wait for 3 months before you can apply again within a police officer recruitment campaign.

The Assessment Centre will be run by The College of Policing and is a virtual process designed to test the key competencies and values that are important for police constables.

You will have 1 week to complete the three exercises:

• Competency-based video interview
• Written exercise
• Briefing exercise

These exercises are designed to test your ability to think on your feet, make quick decisions based on sound judgement and also to measure your basic numeracy and literacy standards.

You should receive your results approximately four weeks after the Assessment Centre closes. If you are successful at this stage, you will then be invited to attend an interview at Police Headquarters in Quedgeley, Gloucestershire.

We use the interview to get to know more about you and how well suited you are to the role of an officer with Gloucestershire Constabulary.

The interview is based on Competency and Values Framework (CVF) and you will be assessed against Level 1 - Practitioner in each case.

A medical assessment will generally be carried out by our Occupational Health Unit.

We will check:

• BMI (between 18-30)
• Eye sight (full details later in this guide)
• Colour vision (full details later in this guide)
• Hearing

You will be asked to complete a confidential medical history questionnaire. Depending upon your medical history, we may need to contact your GP or other specialist for further information.

The role of a police officer is demanding. During the application and selection process we will be assessing your mental and physical fitness to undertake the role.

Fitness test

We test endurance through a fitness shuttle run commonly known as the Bleep Test. A good indicator of the fitness level needed for this test is to be able to run at a good pace for around four minutes over a distance of about 700 metres.

Bleep Test

Bleep Test (shuttle run) explained:

Required level is 5.4 = 5 levels and 4 shuttles over a 15 metre course.

Biometric Vetting

Prospective police officer are required to have their fingerprints and a DNA sample taken in accordance with Regulation 10A of the Police Regulations 2003 (as amended by the Police (Amendment) Regulations 2015).

The purpose of obtaining fingerprints and DNA samples is to allow for a speculative search to be made against the local and national databases prior to your appointment to the police service.

Your fingerprints will be retained separately on the Police Elimination Database and your DNA profile will be retained on the Centralised Elimination Database in line with the Police Regulations 2003. Your fingerprints and DNA profile will be used for the purposes of elimination only.

Substance Misuse Checks

Applicants are required to complete a substance misuse test to check for any illegal substances.  This involves taking a 3cm long sample of your hair normally from your head but it can be taken from other areas if you do not have sufficient head hair.

We will carry out security checks on you and your:

• Spouse/partner
• Father
• Step father/mother’s partner
• Mother
• Stepmother/father’s partner
• Brothers/sisters (full/half/step)
• Children/children of your partner (only those age 10
  years and over)
• Any other adult living at your address.

Financial circumstances

Applicants will have their financial status checked. These checks are carried out because police officers and police staff have access to privileged information, which may make them vulnerable to corruption. Applicants with outstanding County Court Judgements (CCJs), Individual Voluntary Agreements (IVAs) or who have been registered bankrupt with outstanding debts, will be rejected.

If you have discharged bankruptcy debts then you will need to provide a certificate of satisfaction with your application. At least three years will need to have passed since the date of discharge.

Ideally you should not have a criminal record, but some minor offences may not exclude you.

References

We will send reference requests to your current and previous employers in the last 3 years. If you haven’t been employed for 3 years, we will ask for an educational reference.

Successful candidates will be contacted by our Resourcing department with an offer of employment.

The timelines below are relevant for candidates who submitted their application before 23:59 on Sunday 1 December 2024.

Applications submitted after this date will be processed for our September 2025 or January 2026 intakes.

Opening date and time

8am on Monday 30 September 2024.

Closing date and time for applications to be submitted online

To ensure you have a place on the January 2025 Online Assessment Centre you must submit your full application by 23:59 on Sunday 1 December 2024.

Applications received after this date will be processed for our next Online Assessment Centre (March 2024).

Mandatory familiarisation events

Week commencing 2 December 2024.

National Sift

Both National Sift exercises by must completed and submitted online by 23:59 on Monday 16 December 2024 for candidates applying by 23:59 on Sunday 1 December 2024.

Assessment Centre

Opens on Monday 6 January 2025. The Online Assessment Centre will be available 24 hours a day and closes at midnight on Sunday 12 January 2025.

Interviews

Monday 17 February to Friday 21 February 2025.

Pre-employment Checks

Commencing February to April 2025.

First intake start date

Monday 23 June 2025.

Following intake start date

Monday 22 September 2025.