Sergeant numbers
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/26/010076/N
Version Date: 30/06/2026
The Force has oversubscribed with Seargeants this year due to a serious error in recruitment - not enough posts to fill. Please can you give the exact excess Seargeant numbers awaiting posts currently & also what the Force is doing about it
The Alliance Resourcing & Development Department has provided the following information:
We haven’t made a serious error in recruitment. Assuming that this is in relation to the recently completed National Police Promotional Framework (NPPF) step 3 Constable to Sergeant process, the intention with this process, in line with the NPPF operating manual, is to:
- Assess candidates’ potential to perform at the next rank against the relevant behavioural competencies and
- provide a robust and fair mechanism to broadly match the number of successful candidates to the number of expected vacancies.
When considering the number of expected vacancies, we review both the immediate number of vacancies and the number of anticipated vacancies over the next 12 months which may arise as a result of leavers (e.g. officer retirements).
All officers who are successful at NPPF step 3 are initially added to a promotion pool and as vacancies occur, they are selected for a role. Officers are added to a promotion pool for 12 months from the date they are informed they are successful and will be considered for vacancies on a monthly basis via the posting panels.
As at today (8th June 2026), there are currently 14 officers in the promotion pool for Constable to Sergeant. Whilst in the pool, these officers will be considered for vacancies every month via the monthly posting panels. Officers in the pool must wait patiently until a post is available.