Head of Performance Support & Intervention

College of Policing

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 4 weeks

Management

Flexible

£82,880 per year

Job summary

This post is open to applicants who can meet the College’s nationality, UK residency and vetting requirements.

About us:

Our mission is: Leadership, Standards, Performance. This guides our work with individuals, forces, and policing partners towards our vision. We exist to support police officers, police staff and volunteers to deliver the best service to the public. Only through high quality leadership, consistent standards and continual performance improvement can everyone in policing reach their full potential. Our mission guides our work with individual, forces and partners towards our vision.

Although we are a relatively small organisation, our work has a big reach. We are uniquely placed to work both with national policing organisations and local forces to support frontline officers, staff and volunteers in their day-to-day roles.

We offer a supportive and inclusive environment for people to thrive. Our extensive flexible-working policy, employee wellbeing support, family friendly policies, employers’ network for equality and inclusion membership (ENEI silver award winners), and status as a disability confident leader means everyone can bring their whole self to work.

Additional Information:

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.

Due to our status as Public Servants, we are not eligible to participate in the Civil Service transfer process. Therefore, while successful candidates can transfer in on their existing terms and conditions, any subsequent transfer out of the College to the Civil Service cannot be guaranteed on existing terms and conditions, and new starter/modernised terms may apply.

The College embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we comply with the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and apply the minimum selection criteria at sift stage of the recruitment process.

Our vetting

If you are successful at interview, you will be required to undertake pre-employment security checks. You will be sent a security questionnaire which must be accessed within 24 hours.

Please note, these checks can take up to 10 weeks. You will only be offered a start date after the checks have been completed. If the outcome of these checks is not satisfactory, your recommendation for employment will be withdrawn.

Job description

Support and Intervention Team

As part of national policing reforms, a new capability is being established in the College to help forces tackle issues that may be impacting quality of service to the public. Part of this capability includes the set-up of a new specialist support team designed to work directly with forces to make tangible improvements, drive cultural and operational reform and build public confidence. This role provides a rare opportunity to shape this nationally significant programme.

If you are driven by improving public confidence, strengthening operational delivery and raising standards across the service, this role offers the platform, scope and impact to do exactly that.

We’re looking for an exceptional leader to head our Performance Support & Intervention function. Someone who combines strategic authority, professional credibility and the personal impact to influence and inspire senior leaders across policing.

Person specification

As Head of Performance Support & Intervention some of your responsibilities will include:

Providing national leadership for the College’s performance support and intervention function, building, implementing and embedding the new function, shaping strategy, priorities, and delivery models to meet Home Office and ministerial expectations.
Building and maintaining credible, trusted and influential relationships with policing leaders, the Home Office, HMICFRS and wider partners, influencing strategic direction and securing buy‑in at the highest levels.
Leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver improvement support that has measurable impact.
Develop transformational strategies using research, evidence and innovation.
Oversee programme budgets and ensure robust governance and risk management.

To be successful in this role you’ll need:

Significant senior leadership experience, leading organisational and operational performance improvement, strategic interventions or system-wide change in policing.
Exceptional influencing and relationship building skills, with credibility at Chief Officer and executive levels, able to operate confidently in a politically sensitive environment
Demonstrated ability to lead teams through ambiguity, challenge, and high public scrutiny
Strong analytical capability, with the ability to interpret complex data and evidence to inform strategic decisions

Please see the attached job description which contains full details of the role.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Making Effective Decisions
Delivering at Pace
Seeing the Big Picture
Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Significant strategic senior leadership experience, leading organisational and operational performance improvement, strategic interventions or system-wide change in policing.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £82,880, College of Policing contributes £24,010 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

College staff have Public Servant status. As a Public Servant, you are eligible to join the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

The College is a great place to work. We're passionate about our people and offer a wide range of benefits, including (but not limited to):

Defined benefit pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
Up to 31.5 days holiday (this is in addition to 8 public holidays and 1 privilege day)
Continued professional development and structured career paths
Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
Flexi-time (for certain grades)
Benenden Healthcare
National Dental Plan
Discounts for on-line shopping
Free employee support line
Interest free season ticket loans
Rewards and recognition scheme
Learning and development tailored to your role.
An environment with flexible working options.
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.

We also have a number of thriving staff networks that provide the opportunity for advice, support and to drive change. A place to get your voice heard, share experiences and challenge our working practices to ensure equality of opportunity for all.

For more information about our benefits and staff networks, visit What we offer as an employer , College of Policing

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

This post is open to applicants who can meet the College’s nationality, UK residency and vetting requirements.

Vacancy reference: 7118

Anticipated interview date: 27th April 2026

An initial sift based on CV may be held if a large number of applications are received. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

This role is available until 31 March 2027 as a fixed term contract or secondment opportunity to:

colleagues employed directly by the College or the Civil Service. Please note you will be required to obtain the written support of your line manager prior to submitting your application.
serving police officers substantive in the rank of Chief Superintendent. All applicants must have the support of their Chief Officer which must be of NPCC rank, i.e., CC, ACC or DCC and this must accompany an application.
serving police staff at the equivalent rank of Chief Superintendent who have their chief officer's approval. Chief Officer’s approval must be of NPCC rank, i.e., CC, ACC or DCC. Approval for a secondment must accompany an application.
Please note applicants applying from force must have approval for a secondment, without this you application will not progress beyond sift, even if you are successful.

There is potential for this to be extended subject to funding confirmation.

Central service conditions may apply.

Please ensure you return the attached secondment approval form either as an attachment when submitting your application or via email to recruitment@college.police.uk.

For further information on applying for a secondment please visit the “Secondments into the College” page.

For fixed Term contracts:

Whilst this fixed term contract is offered on the understanding that it will only last as long as the stated contract length, there could be a possibility that it could be extended or made permanent should circumstances allow.

Internal applicants who are at risk of redundancy or in need of redeployment and pass the recruitment process, will be given priority over other applicants.

How to apply and contact information:

For further information visit our ‘Work for us’ page.

What it's like working at the College of Policing

If you would like to discuss the role in more detail please contact Nerys Thomas, Interim Director, Performance, Productivity and What Works Nerys.Thomas@college.police.uk

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Salary range

£82,880 per year