Evidence-based practice guidance on effective supervision, to support the wellbeing, learning and performance of everyone working in the police service.
These guidelines provide clear, evidence-based practice guidance on effective supervision, to support the wellbeing, learning and performance of everyone working and volunteering in the police service. They specify the actions that supervisors need to take to support their staff, as well as the behaviours they need to display to be effective in their role. They also set out the actions that chief constables need to take to support supervisors.
Unless otherwise stated, references to supervisors, staff or employees in this document are all-inclusive and cover police officers, police staff, special constables and police support volunteers.
The guidelines consist of:
- three guidelines for chief constables, which set out the organisational structures and processes required to support effective supervision
- seven practical guidelines for supervisors
The type and strength of the evidence underpinning each guideline is shown as follows.
- Overall strength of the empirical evidence.
- Practitioner evidence available.
Information about these different types of evidence is included in how evidence-based are these guidelines?
The supporting information that follows each guideline includes a brief summary of the evidence and what the guideline might mean in practice.
The guidelines can also be used as part of a suite of products that are being developed by the College of Policing National Centre for Police Leadership to support the development of leadership capability in policing.
These include:
- new national standards and associated learning programmes for effective leadership performance (you will need to log in to College Learn)
- Leadership expectations guidance including a diagnostic tool enabling individuals to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement (you will need to log in to Leadership Learning)