3.36 Knowledge into practice: Reviewing the knowledge into practice effects of the CPRL Tutor Constable research on the development of the Tameside (GMP) academy

The project seeks to assess the effectiveness of Tameside's (Greater Manchester Police) initiation of the ‘Tameside District Academy’; a 15 week post-tutoring intervention designed to structure the learning and development of new officers and to address training needs and skills gaps in young in service officers’ practice. In addition, the project will further examine the mechanisms through which the Centre for Policing Research and Learning’s (CPRL) Tutor Constables research shaped the academy’s approach and the impact of this knowledge into policing practice. 

The objectives of this project are twofold:  

1. To examine the nature and effects of the extra supported post-IPS (independent patrol status) period in the form of the academy. This will not only seek the views of the student officers themselves, but also the response teams, instructors, tutors and assessors. It will further study the effects of this intervention on retention rates and student wellbeing. 

2. To explore how the knowledge generated from the CPRL Tutor Constable research programme supported and influenced the design and implementation of the academy, looking at both the barriers and facilitators in getting this knowledge embedded into practice. The research will explore how research findings affect practice in police forces; demonstrating further how findings are transformed as they make their way through force structures, the barriers that need to be overcome for knowledge to shape practice, and the difficulties in evaluating the effectiveness of research into practice when interventions are still in their early stages and have not generated a large quantity of data