Pay, hours and leave
Pay
The starting pay for student officers is £29,907. This could potentially rise to £46,044 within your first 7 years.
Salaries are paid on the 16th of each month or the preceding working day if the 16th falls on a Saturday or Sunday. They are paid for a full calendar month, two weeks in arrears and two weeks in advance.
They are paid directly into your bank or building society account. We will need your bank details at your earliest opportunity to ensure you get paid.
Working hours and shift pattern
When you have finished your initial training, you will move onto the Response shift pattern which covers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and has a mix of early, late and night shifts. Earlies are usually 7am to 7pm, lates are usually 4pm to 12am or 5pm to 3am, and night shifts are 7pm to 7am.
You will work two early shifts or two late shifts, then work two night shifts, then have four days off. Every 8 weeks, an additional day shift will appear in your pattern which is 0900 to 1600, specifically allocated for Continuous Professional Development with the rest of your team.
Once you have been allocated to a team, your shifts will be shown on Crown DMS (the duty management system) for the year ahead so you can see what it is likely that you will be working, although your shifts are only confirmed for the 12 weeks ahead in line with Police Regulations. There may be last minute changes to your working hours if there is a significant operational issue, however this is only where absolutely necessary as a last resort, so should not happen regularly.
Flexible working
Applications for flexible working patterns are considered for all roles across the organisation, for both new starters and our current workforce. We work with you to ensure that wherever possible, such requests can be accommodated to meet the needs of our workforce and also our service to the public.
Due to the amount of training you will undertake at the start of your career, it is important that the training period is undertaken on a full-time basis. If, however, you wish to discuss a reduction in your hours or a change to your shift pattern beyond this, our Flexible Working Procedure outlines how to do this which you can access on the Intranet upon joining. You should discuss this with your line manager too.
Annual leave
Police officers get 22 days annual leave (expressed in 8 hour days) in each leave year.
Your specific annual leave entitlement will be detailed in your Conditions of Service. The leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
Your entitlement will increase several times during your career as you reach the required length of service.
Other leave schemes
There are also other family-friendly employment policies, including:
- Flexible working options scheme
- Part time hours
- Special leave scheme
- Career break scheme
Pensions
When you start you’ll receive automatic membership of the police pension scheme, the CARE 2015 scheme. This isn’t compulsory, so you can choose to opt out if you want to however we advise that you seek advice to fully understand the benefits you will lose should you opt out before choosing to do so.
XPS administer the police pension scheme on behalf of the Force and you will receive details of the pension scheme from shortly after joining us.