January 2020 Recruitment.

My main issue is lack of communication from recruitment. A few of us contacted them last week to ask for an update. Common decency would have been to give all applicants an update without hearing it in the news.

They’ll not scrap recruitment completely, just more delays unfortunately. Doesn’t make sense for them to have wasted the money on a recruitment campaign and start up another one just to scrap them completely. I’d say the unfortunate March cohort are being used as the point to drive home that the government promised to increase numbers and have then 1 year later turn around and cut funding. We’ve waited 2 years, just a bit longer to go

Hope people didn't get the call and have handed notice in for their present job.

Hi, does anyone know if we get a laptop or even a work phone when we start? Thanks

All the background stuff will continue

I presume they still have to recruit a certain amount of officers? They wouldn’t be able to stop fully or it would become really unsafe but they will prob take even less officers for that intake? The funding hasn’t been fully set yet but with Connor Murphy in charged I’d be surprised if he changes

Surprised there has not been an email or announcement from PSNI today. Even just a bit of reassurance for candidates going through the process.

Yeah I don't think any offers had actually gone out, if that had been the case then folk who had contacted recruitment last week would have been told that

Think it’s doubtful they’d scrap the entire campaign, likely a call out for more of a budget. Does anyone know if there’s a certain amount of time you can stay appointable before they would consider scrapping it/redoing it or is there no timescale as such?

Highly unlikely they would scrap an entire campaign. The process and time taken to recruit again is too long, I can imagine this applies to both this campaign and the new one (2021). Seems more logical to just carry it on and hold appointable people in the pool until funding and availability. Current stats show only 400 left from previous campaign (2020), (bear in mind, not all of these 400 will make it to appointment), so with natural wastage of serving personnel over the next 6 months, the 400 (or less) will be in low numbers. This would then need a further recruitment, which is where the 2021 campaign comes in.

These are just my thoughts at least.

I am in the latest campaign at the moment and waiting on my AC date. This is certainly something I will be asking at the test centre.

The budget has already been sent out for consultation and is implemented in 1st April, so basically we have to wait until April before they consider making any more calls it seems, so assuming they do start intakes again could be May/June at the earliest I would guess.

https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/publications/2022-25-draft-budget

No I don't know anyone that has. Annoyingly, the new campaign has gathered pace. I've just been given my AC. Was going to withdraw but might keep it going just incase.

This has me very intrigued. Why contact folk if no more offers will be made at this time?

I thought it meant they are contacting people who had maybe deferred their dates until March?

I really hope they do! It does say in the email that some sort of recruitment is preferred so hopefully they just get on with it. As you say it would be madness cancelling it when they have already spent so much on our campaign? It just feels like never ending I finally thought right this is it then I seen the news article

I don’t think many in this campaign are far off being appointable now

Anyone heard anything regarding the "small pool" who would be contacted in the coming days?

it`s so deflating after all this time, optimism is all was have now, our time will come...It has to.

At the end of the day, they are not going to have wasted millions on another recruitment campaign just to scrap it all. We will all get in eventually if appointable. Dept of Justice sent back around 45million to Westminster last financial year, the money is there, I think it was just about showing there would be a serious issue if funding wasn’t allocated. They need more officers on the ground and that’s the bottom line

Yeh Naomi Long has said on Twitter they will be voting against it. Not only did they hand 45 million back they have just handed even more back this year too. The fact they are still running the 2021 campaign and putting money in to that gives some hope that they are surely going to recruit. Just crap our jobs are being used to play politics and the fact this has been TWO years