To join as a Police Officer with Northumbria Police:

Applicants for the Police Constable degree apprenticeship must have:

• Level 2 qualifications in both English and Maths for example a GCSE or iGCSE at grade C (level 4) or above, Functional Skills Level 2, Key Skills Level 2 (Communication and / or Literacy) or Adult Numeracy / Literacy PlusAND
• Level 3 qualifications where the grades total 120 UCAS points or higher. Your Tariff Points can be made up of a number of different types of qualifications. Please utilise the UCAS calculation tool to help you. Please utilise the UCAS calculation tool to help you.

OR​

• A minimum of 2 Level 3 (or higher) qualifications PLUS a minimum of 3 years work experience that will support your progression into the Police Officer role. We will review work experience in line with our core force values and the National Police Officers competency and values framework.

Applicants for the Degree holder entry programme and Graduate detective programme must:

• Be a level 6 degree (or higher, i.e. master’s degree/ PhD, etc.) holder in any subject area or be a student within the final year of study for a degree

AND

• Hold level 2 qualifications in both English and Maths. For example a GCSE or iGCSE at grade C (level 4) or above, Functional Skills Level 2, Key Skills Level 2 (Communication and / or Literacy) or Adult Numeracy / Literacy Plus

Whilst our health and fitness requirements are not nearly as demanding as is often assumed, you will need to be able to cope with the physical and emotional demands of the job. This includes for example, being able to deal with volatile or traumatic situations and cope with working long shifts.

It’s important you are aware that at the point of recruitment you will go through a thorough health screening and medical assessment, which can result in an unsuccessful application due to previous or ongoing health conditions that may create an unacceptable risk in the role. Support is in place to help our police officers; however, the recruitment standard is set to protect yourself, our officers, and members of the public and to optimise successful recruitment of long-term police officers into the force.

We cannot assess your medical history prior to a conditional offer of employment so please ensure you read through the Home Office Medical Standards and Annexes A & B to understand if your medical history or any current conditions may have an impact on your eligibility for the role. Those documents set out the current best medical advice in relation to medical fitness to be appointed as a police officer. Whilst each application will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, it is likely that your application may not be successful if you apply when, for example, still on mental health treatment, have had a recent major operation or have recently had an epileptic seizure.

As part of our medical checks, you will also be expected to pass a BMI analysis with 18-30 as recruitment standard. Getting to the expected level of health and fitness can be very different depending on each person – we’re all unique! – but can be achieved with some determination, practice, and support.

You must meet a national police eyesight standard. You are permitted to wear contact lenses or spectacles to meet the standard.

This contradicts everything the role of a police officer stands for – if you are currently using any illegal drugs, this will rule you out of the recruitment process automatically.

You will be tested for substance misuse during the recruitment medical process. You may also be subject to substance misuse testing at any stage during your career with us.

The fitness test allows an assessment to be made of your endurance to ensure you are able to meet the demands of operational policing.

The test focuses upon aerobic capacity. You will carry out a shuttle run over a 15 metre area and run in time with a bleep. At the end of each level the time in between the bleeps is shortened and you therefore have to run faster to keep up with the pace. The recruit pass mark is level 5.4. This involves running for approximately 3 minutes 40 seconds. If you do not think you can achieve this level, you should ensure you start improving your fitness levels as soon as you can (please check with your doctor before making any big changes to your fitness regime).

Police officers are in a privileged position with regard to access of information and could be considered potentially vulnerable to corruption. Most of us have debts such as mortgages, student or other loans, and credit/store card debts. Whilst this is generally accepted within other roles, applicants to the police service should not be under pressure from undischarged debts or liabilities and should be able to manage their debt sensibly.

Dependent upon your circumstances, it’s unlikely that you will pass our vetting process if you have an existing county court judgment outstanding.

If you have been registered as bankrupt, and your bankruptcy debts have been discharged, you are unlikely to receive clearance until three years after the discharge of the debt.  Debt relief orders (DROs) are treated in the same way as a bankruptcy.

If you are the subject of a current Individual Voluntary Arrangement you will be required to provide supporting documentation and proof of regular payments over a number of months.

You could run a free credit report before completing your application to highlight defaulted accounts or County Court Judgements that may be resolved or managed before you submit your vetting application.

Cautions and Convictions

Cautions or convictions will not necessarily preclude you from joining Northumbria Police. It will depend on the nature and the circumstances of the offence.  However an applicant’s honesty and integrity will be brought into question if information is considered to have been purposely withheld during the vetting process.

Each case will be considered individually within our standard vetting procedures.

Circumstances that will prevent you from passing our vetting process include:

• offences were committed as an adult or juvenile which resulted in a prison sentence (including custodial, suspended or deferred sentence and sentences served at a young offenders’ institution or community home)
• the applicant is , or has been a registered sex offender or is subject to a registration requirement in respect of any other conviction.

The following circumstances may also result in rejection:

• offences where vulnerable people were targeted
• offences motivated by hate or discrimination
• offences of domestic abuse

You must be aged 17 years or over to apply, if successful in the application process you are not able to start employment until you turn 18.

There is no upper age limit for applying to the police service. However, please bear in mind the normal retirement age for police officers is 60 years and new recruits are required to undertake a probationary period of three years.

You must have been continually resident in the UK for the three year period immediately before an application is made.  This is to satisfy the requirement to vet all applicants fairly.  If you have travelled overseas on a gap year or similar we consider that to be on an extended holiday and you have therefore maintained residency in the UK (generally considered 12 months or under) .

We have a policy to prevent officers and staff from becoming members of organisations or groups whose aims, objectives or pronouncements may contradict our duty to promote equality (e.g. BNP, Combat 18, National Front etc.).  Therefore, if you are a member of a proscribed organisation or other group, you will not be accepted.

You will need to look smart and clean at all times when representing the Force on duty. Religious or cultural clothing can be worn, provided it is suitable for the purpose.

Headwear – If you wear a turban or an Imama Shareef a force badge must be on display. Anyone wearing a hijab or skullcap must wear their headwear over it when on foot patrol.

Facial hair – operational officers should not have a long beard, because of health and safety risks; although we can make exceptions for religious reasons.

Jewellery – religious requirements to wear jewellery are judged on their own merit. They are only allowed if not a significant health and safety risk and unobtrusive.

You must declare any other employment or business interests you intend to maintain.

The purpose of this is to ensure business interests and additional occupations do not conflict with the work of the police, undermine public confidence or adversely affect the reputation of you as an officer or Northumbria Police.

Tattoos do not prevent you from becoming a police officer; however tattoos on the face are not acceptable other than for religious or medical reasons. In addition, tattoos, whether visible or otherwise should not:

• undermine the dignity and authority of the office of constable;
• cause offence to members of the public or colleagues and/or invite provocation
• indicate unacceptable attitudes towards any individual or section of the community
• indicate alignment with a particular group which could give offence to members of the public or colleagues; and
• be considered inflammatory, rude, lewd, crude, racist, sexist, sectarian, homophobic, violent or intimidating.

Although tattoos will not prohibit applicants from joining Northumbria Police (subject to the above), it is recommended they are covered when at work to maintain a professional image. The dress and appearance protocol outlines that officers should wear appropriate work wear which covers tattoos as far as possible when at work, which will be issued accordingly.

If your tattoo is determined as not acceptable, your application will not be progressed.

You must have a full UK manual driving licence, but we do accommodate for applicants who don’t drive due to a disability.

To be eligible for appointment, you must be a British citizen or resident in the UK free of restrictions (eg under the EU Settlement scheme or through the UK’s post-Brexit points based immigration rules).

If you are not a British citizen, you must provide proof during the recruitment process that you have no restrictions on your stay in the UK and that you have the right to work in the UK. Information on UK immigration rules can be found on the government visa and immigration website.

If you have a family member, friend or associate who you know has criminal convictions, or you believe that they are, or have been, involved in criminal activity then you should declare this within your application. You should explain what your association is with that person, how often you see them, what your relationship with them is like and what steps you have taken to disassociate yourself from their criminal actions. You must provide as much information as possible based on what you know. 

Having an inappropriate association does not necessarily mean that you won’t be granted a vetting clearance. On occasion risk mitigation measures will be put in place after appointment, such as regular monitoring or you would be posted to a specific area.

The College of Policing advise us to look for inappropriate comments, behaviour and views on publicly available social media accounts to ensure the applicant’s online behaviour is compatible with the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Behaviour. We therefore conduct social media checks on all applicants and consider every social media account, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube etc.

We have and do decline clearance as a result of inappropriate, sexualised, racist and homophobic social media posts which are considered inconsistent with our values and behaviours.

It is strongly advised that you review your public social media content before submitting your vetting form.  Have you liked any posts or groups that represent a conflict in values with the police service? Do you really know all of your ‘friends’ you are linked to?  Think about how your content could be perceived by the public or the press, as well as your own online personal security.

Where relevant information is not declared at the vetting stage, the presumption is that the applicant’s honesty and integrity are in question and this may lead to them being refused clearance.  Many people claim they were told by the police officer that dealt with them that there would not be a record of the event.  You should presume that everything is recorded and failure to mention it will have an adverse effect on your application.  If you declare something which is not relevant, the Force Vetting Unit will discount it.