1. Instructional
Staff
| In addition to providing instruction and training, members of the Instructional Staff act as first line managers to the student officers. In this role they manage all aspects of study support, welfare, discipline, sickness and personal issues and act in a liaison and referral role to support units and other advice providers.
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| 2. Course Directors | Course Directors (Inspectors and Sergeants) are responsible for the management of all staff and student officers within their own intake. As such they have a responsibility for all line management issues. Referrals are made by Course Directors to the Head of Firearms Training (Chief Inspector) on matters of welfare and discipline. The ratio of Instructors to students is approximately 1:2.
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| 3. Welfare Procedures
| Officers requesting firearms training must complete an application form that is signed by both line manager and OCU commander. This details why the officer wishes to undertake the role but additionally covers other matters relating to the wider questions of the carriage of firearms. Eg Have they discussed the matter with friends and relatives? Have they fully considered the potential consequences of the carriage of firearms? SO19 has a web site on the internal intranet, which contains information on recruitment and training. Officers who are considered suitable for training and pass this filter process are then allocated courses. Officers are allocated a dedicated administration officer who is responsible for all pre-course welfare and training issues. They send out pre-read joining instructions and are available for issues around training prior to attending the course. An instructor mentor is appointed for each officer at the start of each course. Every student has contact outside course hours with the course duty officer who is available until 10pm for additional training, development and welfare issues and available after 10pm through the reception desk via mobile or pager for welfare issues. Each student has a daily feedback from their dedicated instructor and on completion, if students are successful; they receive a de-brief and see their course report through their OCU Commander. If they fail, a full debrief takes place prior to leaving the site and a development programme will be discussed and agreed. Eg if shooting skills are the problem area, a one-day re-authorisation could be agreed and arranged.
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| 4. Police Federation | The Police Federation have full-time representatives on site and are available at all times to advise officers on a wide range of issues. Federation representatives are available for Constable, Sergeant and Inspector ranks. The Police Federation address all intakes of Initial firearms officers welfare and post-incident procedure. The role of the Federation is fully explained along with the assistance they can provide whilst the students are in training, throughout their armed duties and particularly post-incident.
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| 5. Safety Issues | Officers attending initial training are given full access to protective equipment appropriate to the exercise and location being trained eg while on the range they wear ballistic protection and glasses. Whilst undertaking simmunition training they wear appropriate body protection as advised by the company and a risk assessment for the exercise. Weapons and ammunition are drawn as appropriate to the exercise by nationally qualified instructors and handed back in to the armourer at the end of that specific training. Officers have no unsupervised access to firearms or ammunition. Full specific risk assessments are carried out for each individual training exercise.
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6. Post-incident
Procedures
| All officers attending Initial Firearms training are given a full input on action taken post-incident. They are instructed on all issues of the subsequent investigation and the welfare facilities available to them. They are made fully conversant with how to obtain advice from the Police Federation, Legal Services and Occupational Health. They are made aware of the return to operational duties procedure and the debriefing processes.
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