Are You Seeking a Career That Makes a Difference?
We are opening our recruitment for Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and we want you to join us.
As the key link with communities across Sussex, our PCSO’s play a critical and visible role in helping keep our communities safe, identifying and protecting the most vulnerable and preventing harm.
In return, we offer you a good starting salary, great training experiences, opportunities for progression, and to achieve a professional qualification - Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice – with the pride and personal reward that comes from helping others
Please be advised that we may be required to close the advert early should we receive a large number of applications so we encourage you to submit your application as early as possible.
The Role
Our PCSO’s play a vital part in keeping Sussex safe.
Being a PCSO offers a challenging, yet incredibly rewarding career. Working alongside our policing prevention teams to prevent and tackle local issues; you will be out and about on the streets of Sussex, building relationships within the community and winning the trust of the public.
You will encounter a range of situations from dealing with anti-social behaviour, taking statements from victims of crimes, providing reassurance and helping resolve community challenges. As a PCSO you are the face of local policing for the community, ensuring we meet our policing priorities. There are a range of duties/responsibilities some are listed below:
• Going on highly visible foot patrols.
• Reassuring the public after minor crimes or anti-social behaviour.
• Building relationships with community, religious and business leaders.
• Working with young people and local schools.
• Making house visits to gather intelligence.
• Collecting CCTV evidence.
• Carrying out missing person enquiries.
• Protecting crime scenes until police officers arrive.
• Providing crime prevention and personal safety advice.
• Offering support at large public gatherings, such as sports events and public demonstrations.
While PCSO’s do not have powers of arrest and are not involved in interviewing or processing prisoners, they do have the power for a wide range of situations including issuing fixed penalty notices, requiring contact details and seizing drugs. You can find out more about PCSO powers here.
By successfully completing the recruitment process, you will join Sussex Police as a PCSO through our new 12-month apprenticeship programme. This will give you the best possible training and, upon successful completion, you will achieve a Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice – equivalent to a Higher National Certificate (HNC), foundation degree or the first year of an undergraduate degree. You will join us on a 18 month apprenticeship fixed term contract, following the completion of your apprenticeship you will transition to a permanent contract.
Could This Be You?
As the first point of contact for the community, you will require excellent communication skills, a good listener, calm, confident and compassionate. Think through the challenges and find solutions. Above all, you’ll simply care about the community and want to do what you can to keep it safe.
The role of a PCSO can be challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. If you want to help keep your community safe, then join us now and help make a difference, together.
Are You Eligible?
The following are our key eligibility criteria:
- Hold a GCSE A*-C (4-9) or level 2 functional skills qualification in both English and Maths at point of application. Read our guide to attaining Level 2 English and Maths or equivalent.
- Be aged 18 years or over (on the day you submit your application).
- Have lived in the UK for three continuous years, immediately prior to application.
- Have leave to enter or leave to remain and work in the UK for an indefinite period.
- Have a full UK manual driving licence (by the time of appointment).
- Not be a current or previous member of a proscribed terrorist organisation or group.
- Not have tattoos which could cause offence.
- Not have six penalty points or more on your driving licence.
- Not have served a prison sentence.
What We Offer You
We value all our staff and provide many benefits. Please click here to find out more.
For PCSOs the pay and holiday benefits are as follows:
- Starting salary of £22,599 plus unsocial hours shift allowance in the region of £5,600 per year.
- Fully-funded professional qualification – Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice.
- 177.6 hours per year annual leave, rising to 214.6 hours per year depending on your length of service. (A standard full time PCSO working day is 8.25 hours, this equates to approximately 21 days per year). In addition, you will receive 8 Public Holiday days per year.
- A competitive benefits package including pension, flexible benefits, employee assistance programme for advice and counselling, access to discounts / savings / cash-back rewards.
- A progressive approach to flexible working, enhanced maternity and paternity leave and potential for a career break (after two years’ service).
- Opportunities to join various support networks, staff associations and sports clubs.
Diversity Statement
Sussex Police have a strong commitment to promoting equality, diversity and being an inclusive employer, with an aim of employing a workforce that represents and reflects the all of the diverse communities it serves.. We have worked really hard to create a safe, open and inclusive culture. We have a range of staff networking groups to provide specific support and advice and we are proud to be members of Stonewall and Disability Confident, and to be aligned with the Armed Forces Covenant and the HeForShe movement.
We value the differences that people bring from all backgrounds and communities so, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, disability, social status or religious beliefs. We actively encourage individuals from under- represented groups to apply. To find out more visit our inclusion page. https://www.sussex.police.uk/police-forces/sussex-police/areas/careers/jobs/inclusion/
Additional Information
As a PCSO, you will work shifts. You will have a rotating shift pattern covering the full week Monday to Sunday between the hours of 8:00am and midnight, so you will need to be prepared to work weekends and Bank Holidays. The standard shift pattern is attached below.
We anticipate that successful applicants will join us on training intakes in June 2022 or October 2022.
The role of PCSO is tenured for 24 months, meaning that you will not be able to start a new position within the force during this time. You may however be able to apply for roles with longer recruitment timeframes e.g. police officer.
In addition to standard vetting requirements, this requires the post-holder to successfully pass biometric vetting. Successful applicants who receive a conditional offer of employment for this role will be required to provide fingerprint and DNA samples by consent. A speculative search against local and national databases will take place prior to appointment and any final offer of employment will be conditional upon the results meeting the required vetting standard. Upon appointment the fingerprint and DNA profile for the post-holder will be added and retained on the respective Police Elimination Database (PEDb), to be used for elimination purposes.
For all our eligibility criteria please see the FAQs on our website.
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