Join our Force Control Room

As part of the initial application, you will be required to answer four questions. The information and examples provided in your supporting statement will be how you are marked/scored as to how your examples meet the essential and desirable criteria required for the role. 

Q1) In the Force Control Room excellent written and verbal communication skills are key.

1. Explain what effective communication means to you
2. Please provide an example of when you have used excellent communication skills

Q2) As a Force Control Room operative you could be answering 999 calls or deploying officers to incidents where the decisions you make need to be accurate despite working within a time critical environment.

1. Demonstrate an example of how you have had to work effectively under pressure in the past.

Q3) Operatives within our Force Control Room are expected to be able to access and interrogate multiple computer systems across multiple screens to progress the reports we receive. Full training is given but the ability to multi-task is a key skill you will need.

1. Please tell us about a time when you have had to do multiple tasks concurrently

• • Include in your answer what the situation was, as well as how and why you may have prioritised one task over another

Q4) Force Control Room operatives regularly conduct risk assessments on the reports we receive. Many of us make multiple risk assessments unknowingly within our daily lives.

1. Please give us an example of where you have had to make a decision based on a risk assessment.

• • Include in your answer how you assessed the situation, identified your options before then taking action and the rationale for this decision along with anything you learnt as a result

Once we receive your completed application form, two independent moderators will check it against our standard recruitment criteria, giving each question a score out of four. If your application is unsuccessful at this stage, you will be contacted by email to let you know.

Our assessment centre is held at Northamptonshire Police HQ, Wootton Hall, Northampton, NN4 0JQ. Please allow up to two hours for the assessments. The assessment centre is made up of five parts:

Computer literacy

You will find in front of you, a sheet of paper with some instructions on them. Please follow through the steps to log on to the computers and load up your documents needed for the assessment. This is your first part of your assessment where we are testing your ability to navigate around the computer and accessing files.

Typing Test 1

For this test you will be required to type the information from the PDF onto the blank document. You will need to type word for word in capital letters including any punctuation that you see.

Spell check and copy and paste is not allowed.

To pass this section, you will need to achieve an average typing speed of 30 wpm and 90% accuracy.

Typing Test 2

The next test is a 1 minute 50 seconds audio piece that will be played out loud to the room to everyone at the same time. You will be required to capture the correct information in the correct places on the form in front of you. You should try and be as accurate as possible as you will be assessed on the amount of information you record and which section it is recorded in.

When the recording ends you will have 30 seconds to make any changes.

Problem Solving

For this exercise you will follow the instructions and then answer questions based on the information you have read. This question is designed to test your problem-solving ability based on certain rules and incident details. As well as an ability to assess risk.

You will have 5 minutes to complete the exercise on the document in front of you.

Mock Call

For the final part of the assessment, we ask that you sit out in the waiting area/reception before calling you back in individually. We will call you back in alphabetically. Whilst you are waiting you will have the opportunity to read the instructions to brief yourself. You will not be able to take notes during this time.

For your final assessment this will be a role play exercise where you take the role of Northamptonshire Police Force Control Room Operative.

During this exercise, you will be scored based on the questions you ask as well as the notes you record on the document.

The interview will be held at Northamptonshire Police HQ, Wootton Hall, Northampton, NN4 0JQ. Please allow up to an hour and 30 minutes.

Please ensure you bring two pieces of ID as per the requirements sent to you via your interview invite.

You will be asked six questions that link to the essential criteria for the role on the job description. Some questions will require an example and other are more scenario based. To prepare - think about your transferrable skills: what do you do now either for work, home or hobbies that will help when you are answering the questions. Do your homework on Northamptonshire Police, what we do, what services we offer in the Control Room in particular, for example.

If successful, you will be invited to attend a drugs test and medical which will take place at either Northamptonshire Police HQ or Leicester Police Occupational Health Department.

Before anyone joins Northamptonshire Police, we need to undertake a series of vetting checks to help identify and assess any identified risks. To help us do this, we ask you to complete a detailed vetting form which asks for details of your family members and any criminal associates. You must let anyone whose details you have provided know that they will be looked into as part of your pre-employment checks. Legislative constraints mean that we’re unable to disclose the results of enquiries on third parties.

Criminal Convictions

If you have convictions or cautions this doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t be able to appoint you. It depends on the role you’ve applied for and the nature of the offence. Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 all police staff applicants have to declare previous convictions and cautions which would ordinarily be considered ‘spent’.

However, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exemptions) Order 1975, provides that if you’re applying for a police staff role you do NOT have to declare any information in relation to a PROTECTED caution or a PROTECTED conviction.

A protected conviction is one where ALL the following applies:

• It is not for a ‘listed offence’* under Article 2A(5) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975
• No custodial sentence was imposed
• The individual has not been convicted of any other offence at any time
• 11 years or more have passed since the conviction, if the individual was aged 18 or over at the time of conviction, or five and a half years or more have passed since the conviction if the individual was under 18 at the time of the conviction.

A protected caution is one where ALL the following applies:

• It is not for a ‘listed offence’* under Article 2A(5) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975;
• Six years or more have passed since the caution, if the individual was aged 18 years or over at the time the caution was given, or two years or more have passed since the caution if the individual was under 18 at the time the caution was given.

As an applicant, you are responsible for understanding if you have a protected caution or conviction and to complete the vetting form correctly. If in doubt, contact our vetting unit for advice.

Northamptonshire Police apply the criminal convictions guidance contained in the College of Policing Vetting Code of Practice and associated Authorised Professional Practice (APP) to all police staff applications and will reject applications in all cases where: 

• offences were committed as an adult or juvenile that resulted in a prison sentence (including custodial, suspended or deferred sentence and sentences served at a young offenders’ institution or community home);
• the applicant is, or has been, a registered sex offender or is subject to a registration requirement in respect of any other conviction.

For all other convictions or cautions we will reject applications where any of the following apply:

• offences where vulnerable people were targeted
• offences motivated by hate or discrimination
• offences of domestic abuse

We take particular care where an applicant has been convicted of (or cautioned for) offences of dishonesty, corrupt practice or violence, which will also likely result in rejection.

We consider each case on its own merits and, whilst you should presume convictions, cautions or other sanctions will lead to your application being rejected, there may be occasions where this will not be the case. 

There may also be circumstances where your suspected involvement in crime, or criminal associations make an offer of employment inappropriate. 

Financial Status

We run a credit reference check on all applicants. Police staff have access to privileged and highly sensitive information, which may make them vulnerable to corruption, so it’s important for us to understand applicants’ financial situation. Applicants to the police service should normally be free from serious debt or liability and be able to manage existing loans. We place our emphasis on managing debt sensibly.

If you have existing County Court Judgement’s outstanding or have been registered as bankrupt and have not discharged your bankruptcy we’ll be unable to consider your application. If you have been registered as bankrupt and have discharged their bankruptcy debts, you won’t be considered until three years after your discharge of the debt. Debt Relief Orders (DRO) are treated in the same way as bankruptcy.

We will consider your application carefully if a credit reference check reveals you have a current individual voluntary arrangement (IVA). We don’t make clearance decisions until we’ve seen evidence that you’ve maintained regular IVA repayments over a number of months and taking into consideration also the size of the debt. The same principle applies where you have defaulted on accounts.

If you can show you have and are adhering to debt management arrangements you may be considered. We’ll need to see documentary evidence to demonstrate your commitment and adherence to any debt management arrangements and will consider each case on its own merits.

Open Source Checks

We will check content on publicly available social media sites.

Vetting Decisions

If your vetting is successful, our vetting unit will let the recruiting department know. If your clearance is declined our vetting unit will notify you personally and provide as much information as we can as to the reason. There may be occasions where we are unable to provide a detailed explanation.  There is an appeal process available.

* Listed offences include serious, violent and sexual offences and offences that are of specific relevance to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults, and will never be filtered or protected. There is a a list of offences which will never be filtered or protected.

After you have successfully completed all of the above, you will be given a formal offer of employment. 

You will undertake 11 weeks of training

• Weeks 1 - 6: The first six weeks will be classroom based, running on an 08:00 - 16:00 Monday - Thursday, and 08:00 - 15:30 on Friday's
• Weeks 7 -11: These 4 weeks will consist of 'model office' training. Here, you will be taking live calls whilst being closely monitored by a trainer. This will follow the two-week schedule of
  • Week 1: 08:00 - 16:00 Tuesday - Friday
  • Week 2: 08:00 - 16:00 Monday, 13:00 - 21:00 Tuesday - Friday, 08:00 - 15:00 Saturday

After your training is complete, you will then go on to start whichever rota pattern you have chosen. You can view the full rota patterns below.