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Detective Sergeant Gemma Smith explains why she made the move to Lincolnshire.
My main reason for transferring to Lincolnshire police was career progression, wanting to get promoted through to Sergeant rank, which at that time wasn't available to me in Nottinghamshire Police.
So I came here and completed a promotion interview and passed it so I came here as a detective sergeant.
I was sent to Boston divisional CID where I worked for about a year and a half, where I got a real understanding of what the police was about before moving over to the Public Protection Unit, essentially moving to the CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation) teams based at Grantham Police Station. And through the development of Public Protection Unit I was afforded the opportunity to act as an inspector.
We are constantly reviewing training opportunities and all our detectives have been trained receiving their tutorship, mentoring, coaching and also SCAIDP training which allows them to conduct the business that they need to in a thorough way and an understanding of partnership working, so they can do their job.
The focus of Lincolnshire Police and their working ethos, I would say, is about [being] family-focused and work/life balance. We have extra days of welfare leave each year, there's a real focus on mental wellbeing along with physical wellbeing with new gyms being built in all police stations, an encouragement of people to participate in group activities, and just really working together in acknowledgement that you need to look after your staff.
I work over on the east coast but still live in Nottinghamshire. One thing that people think is that [about] is the travelling distances but actually my travelling time over here is no different than me travelling into the city which is what I was doing before.
There's an acceptance from senior officers about the distance that we travel within Lincolnshire, we've all been provided with laptops and an acceptance that potentially we need to work from different locations.
Anybody transferring from beyond Lincolnshire and the Midlands will notice a big difference in the opportunities within Lincolnshire Police but also your living accommodation.
I've already sent my daughter into a school into Lincolnshire, which is [in] far greater standing in OFSTED inspections than the ones that are available to her in Nottinghamshire.
I think the benefits of me transferring into Lincolnshire Police have been undoubtedly the support that I've received around career progression. If that's something you're interested in I certainly think Lincolnshire Police is the place to be.