In response to the Home Office call for national forces to recruit 20,000 police officers by March 2023, we’ve been busy assembling our ranks with the county’s finest. Our campaigns to attract high calibre student officers to our new entry programmes have been a huge success.

The county’s new processes to becoming a fully-fledged officer are the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA) and the Degree Holder Entry Programme (DHEP). Both are based on curricula from the College of Policing’s new PEQF Framework for the national Policing Vision 2025 and combine study with patrol work.

Due to the increasing demand for investigative support, we are also introducing a dedicated detective pathway under the DHEP – a two-year programme which combines working as a police officer with a development and training programme to become a fully qualified detective (PIP 2 Investigator). This has generated enormous interest for job alerts and open days. For our homegrown courses we are extremely proud to be partnering UCLan – one of the first universities in the country to offer the new PCDA. Our debut intake of 35 apprentices underwent intensive training to be signed off fit for independent patrol in October 2020.

Following hot on the apprentices’ heels were our first waves of around 170 DHEP recruits last year, with a third cohort of at least 80 to begin in February 2021. These rigorous programmes are ensuring that, once fully trained, officers will be well qualified, both academically and operationally, to work within the modern policing environment.

Vitally, they also provide pathways for people from all walks of life, in line with our dedication to building a force that reflects the communities we serve.

At the end of the programmes recruits choose to specialise in one of the five core areas of policing: immediate response, community, road, Intel or investigation. Degree holders can also apply via Police Now’s national graduate scheme to go straight into neighbourhood policing.

So far 23 officers have chosen to join us through their scheme this year, undergoing intensive training so they can quickly work independently in the community.

All of these routes into Lancashire Police had a fantastic response in 2020 – 4,040 potential candidates expressed an interest in joining our force, nearly 2,400 signed up for our PC job alerts, and we welcomed close to a hundred transferees. We continue to seek first-class candidates who are passionate about policing.

If you, or anyone you know, is interested in pursuing a career as an officer, you can find out about the full eligibility requirements here.