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Notice for PCA

Jalapeno peppers

Is it usually 4 weeks notice you are given for your PCA date? Or are you given 4 weeks from familiarisation session?

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chickidee

You may contact them to explain the situation. Use either 101 and ask to be put through to someone in recruitment or use the email address given on previous correspondence.

Jalapeno peppers

Mop a top wrote: »

Settle! It will come. They won't do them all at once. I passed my PCA in April and vetting didn't pass until august.

You were right! The post just came ridiculously late

got it now

Mop a top

Pete84 wrote: »

Hi, I got my date today but I'm unable to attend on that date due to a appointment that there is no way I can miss. Has anyone heard of people getting there PCA date changed? Are they run over a couple of days or would I have to wait to the next batch potentially 6 weeks after to do it? Having a bit of a melt down here as this is my number 1 priority but I can't miss this appointment.

I hate to say this but unless it's the birth of your first born, don't miss it lol. They'll rearrange it for you but who knows if they're doing a couple of PCA's over a few days. That's what they did last time. At least 2 a day and over 2/3 days. Might be different cos there's not as many being processed this time round. Definitely call 101 and ask, they're really nice people. Could you even go at a different time on that date?

Jalapeno peppers

Was anyone else a bit surprised by the location?

MissWillow12

I thought there would have been more people posting about getting the date. Mustn't be a very big group who got processed.

Icarus9

Only the 98 vetted will have received PCA dates, most of whom I suspect read the forum but don't post.

KevBo2015

MissWillow12 wrote: »

I thought there would have been more people posting about getting the date. Mustn't be a very big group who got processed.

As we have seen in the past loads of people watch this forum but for some reason only come to life when they are successful, to tell us about their success and then are active or go away again haha.

I'd say there is a fair few who got invites watching this site.

Shield

KevBo2015 wrote: »

As we have seen in the past loads of people watch this forum...

I'm going to ask Boards.ie staff for some stats on this, because it IS true, I'd just love to know how true it is.

-Shield.

KevBo2015

Shield wrote: »

I'm going to ask Boards.ie staff for some stats on this, because it IS true, I'd just love to know how true it is.

-Shield.

Without doubt, take a look at this from my public page...

'1405 campaign news
I can confirm I have recieved my invite today. Very important few weeks coming up in my life.... good luck to everyone taking part in the PCA
1 day, 3 hours in PSNI Recruitment by KevBo2015 677 Replies 47,619 Views'

From the other day when I confirmed I received my PCA letter... 47k views.... CLEARLY lots of people are viewing this forum for what ever reason.

EDIT - simple math here, 27 hours ago that post... divided by 47,619 views is 1763.666 views an hour. Lot of people watching... *waves* HELLO!! lol

chickidee

I agree.

That's why I have been reluctant on various occasions to post anything I've heard.

If people are interested in the forum and the next stages of the recruitment process (especially to all those who have applied) - they should come on and chat.

At present there's only about 30 people in all these threads who have stated where they stand in this process - compared to the 900 we know are on the merit list.

Apologies that this isn't in line with the topic of the thread, but I am sometimes put off that people are happy to come here for information without contributing anything.

Campaign 1 was much livelier.

Icarus9

Kev I don't think those figures are quite right, it says there has been 677 replies which would indicate those figures are the total replies and views since this particular thread was started and not related to your particular post? Or possibly relates to your posts and views as there has t been 677 replies to this thread. I'm really not sure but surely there can't have been 47000 views since yesterday!?

Goonerdee

Icarus9 wrote: »

Kev I don't think those figures are quite right, it says there has been 677 replies which would indicate those figures are the total replies and views since this particular thread was started and not related to your particular post? Or possibly relates to your posts and views as there has t been 677 replies to this thread. I'm really not sure but surely there can't have been 47000 views since yesterday!?

It is sitting at 48,506 as I type this. That will be views since the thread was started. It will be interesting to see how many views it has tomorrow or the next day.

Mop a top

chickidee wrote: »

Campaign 1 was much livelier.

We were an overly excitable and far too chatty bunch lol. Perhaps it's cos there's not as many being recruited campaign 2 for there to be lots of watchers and boardie members. Anytime I'm on it says at the bottom of the screen how many members and "guests" are online.

I wouldn't think there's that many views on a particular post though

Jalapeno peppers

I can't believe there's that many views on this thread... It started off as a pretty boring question :P

Shield

I echo what the others have said here Kev. The thread itself has 48.5k views since it started in January of this year. It certainly isn't the number of views your post has drawn in!

Having said that, it does appear to be popular, as there are 677 posts on here so far, and that doesn't include the 19 deleted posts that I get to see.

It had 48,505 views when I started this post - it now has 48,535. 30 views in the space of 10 minutes because I went and counted the deleted posts just to get an accurate idea of post count to give me an accurate signal to noise ratio as possible.

48,535 divided by 696 (677 plus 19 deleted posts that were visible at one point in time) is 69.734. That very roughly tells us that each post is viewed around 70 times.

Anyway, I better get back on topic before the Moderator starts wagging the finger.

-Shield.

EDIT: Just thought you people following this would be interested to know that the view count has gone from 48,535 to 48,575 in the space of 4 hours and 20 minutes, from 3:40am to 8:00am, just when you'd imagine most people would be asleep or at work. 40 people viewed that thread in 260 minutes, which is an average of 1 visit every 6½ minutes.

fish2690

Shield wrote: »

I echo what the others have said here Kev. The thread itself has 48.5k views since it started in January of this year. It certainly isn't the number of views your post has drawn in!

Having said that, it does appear to be popular, as there are 677 posts on here so far, and that doesn't include the 19 deleted posts that I get to see.

It had 48,505 views when I started this post - it now has 48,535. 30 views in the space of 10 minutes because I went and counted the deleted posts just to get an accurate idea of post count to give me an accurate signal to noise ratio as possible.

48,535 divided by 696 (677 plus 19 deleted posts that were visible at one point in time) is 69.734. That very roughly tells us that each post is viewed around 70 times.

Anyway, I better get back on topic before the Moderator starts wagging the finger.

-Shield.

EDIT: Just thought you people following this would be interested to know that the view count has gone from 48,535 to 48,575 in the space of 4 hours and 20 minutes, from 3:40am to 8:00am, just when you'd imagine most people would be asleep or at work. 40 people viewed that thread in 260 minutes, which is an average of 1 visit every 6½ minutes.

How does that counter work? Would it mean that 48k different people have viewed or could it mean that (for talks sake) 48 people have viewed that thread 1,000 times each?

Goonerdee

I was standing next to someone reading the Belfast Telegraph and noticed one of the stories was PSNI U-Turn on fitness test. Trying to read it without the person noticing but failed. Checked the BeleTele online in work but nothing there. Wish I'd bought one on the way to work now!

Edit: the sub headline was candidates would get a second chance.

panini

I read that this morning as well. Candidates will get a second chance and if the proportion of female candidates still isn't high enough then they may look at more radical alternatives.

Good news for those with PCA invites but bad news for those lower down the pecking order.

fish2690

I have to say that I disagree with this. You aren't going to get a second chance in the field when someone is threatening you so why should you get it here?

DesertCreat_15

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/psni-uturn-on-fitness-test-police-change-policy-on-physical-checks-for-female-candidates-31117024.html

chickidee

Hmm.

If people are allowed to retake it within 12 weeks, it will only exacerbate the waiting times for the rest of us. 3 months is a long time.

Yippee

Goonerdee

I think it's good that people can get a second chance. They should however have to pass on second attempt within 4 weeks.

chickidee

I think there's definitely a diminishing hope for the rest of us.

They are only taking a maximum of 200 recruits from this campaign - with a second PCA retake it looks unlikely that anyone who isn't 75+ upwards will be in with a chance at all in the long run.

I'm mid-low 70's so I am not holding out much hope I'm afraid.

As reluctant as I am to portray the Service in a negative light, I do think the process has been handled badly at points. Particularly seeing as we hear more about what is going on from the Belfast Telegraph than the Service itself.

HighburyLad

Only seen this there myself, interesting. If I'm honest everyone has had a year to prepare for this physical,so I don't see why there should be an excuse, but its good i suppose, I don't think it will hold anything up, if you fail you will just have to wait again to get a chance, but by that stage a squad or two could be ahead. Believe me folks if theyre saying about uturning on the physical, I think they will continue recruiting as best possible, it says in the policing plan for this year the sotp will continue as planned, it's just a waiting game. I'm not losing hope just yet.

Jalapeno peppers

I'm really glad that there's a second chance... Obviously I want to pass it first time but with that said I know my head will be in a much better place going into it knowing that it's not the end of the line if I dont pass, it means I can focus on the course rather than being in my own head the whole time

Sthm

chickidee wrote: »

I think there's definitely a diminishing hope for the rest of us.

They are only taking a maximum of 200 recruits from this campaign - with a second PCA retake it looks unlikely that anyone who isn't 75+ upwards will be in with a chance at all in the long run.

I'm mid-low 70's so I am not holding out much hope I'm afraid.

As reluctant as I am to portray the Service in a negative light, I do think the process has been handled badly at points. Particularly seeing as we hear more about what is going on from the Belfast Telegraph than the Service itself.

Surely this is inordinately negative? I have to put myself in the shoes of those with a score of less than 70, for example, who may read this and lose all hope. It's just my opinion, but this forum has been a great place for support during the lengthy waits but more recently it's a somewhat negative environment. Whilst I understand that it's mostly due to budget restraints and trying to remain realistic, I can't help but feel that this kind of negativity lacks tact or thought for those below what is being speculated as the appointable band.

From around January, whilst I was hopeful and waiting for the call, I kept reading posts about how people had 'heard' that campaign one was done and that 378 appointments had been made. Each month, with every batch of phone calls, posts about how 'surely it's the end of campaign one' and alluding to inside sources. I can imagine I'm not the only one who can say that it didn't help one bit reading posts like that. It also turned out that the speculation was incorrect given that 353 appointments had only been made from May 2014 - February 2015 and that another squad of 30+ were taken in March, taking the appointed figure over the target of 378. There are around 35 left on the merit list at the moment who I can imagine will form the last squad in June. First appointments for campaign two are envisaged for July or August apparently.

My point is - for anyone feeling disheartened - try to remain positive and take things as they come. You may want to take things with a pinch of salt, even my post if you wish. However, the figures I've quoted are from an official FOI response.

KevBo2015

Good news for us currently training for the PCA. Interesting to see how this pans out in the scheme of things, more women in the force surely. Its a pity that regardless of what ever changes they make, it comes down to the money not being there and its peoples dreams that are affected.

chickidee

Yes, you're right perhaps it is somewhat negative - but I do think we have to be realistic about the likelihood of getting a place. I am including myself in that bracket in stating that I am unsure if I will get a place based upon my merit score, which is difficult to contemplate. I'm not saying I'm right, I am no greater informed than anyone else, however everyone has their own viewpoint and perspective, which they are entitled to have.

We are in a much different situation that in campaign 1. There are 900 people for a maximum of 200 places. That is assuming the best case scenario, as PSNI have stated they will take somewhere in the region of 100 - 200 recruits from this campaign - yet to be finalized.

I am not advocating for anyone to give up training or to lose hope! I will continue with my training program and believe everyone should continue to do the same. However, the financial situation is presenting a bit of a barrier at the moment, and doesn't look likely to change anytime soon.

Razer33

I think it is natural to be worried about these reports if your score is lower, having said that this is the Belfast Telegraph reporting this i'll wait until i hear it directly from the PSNI before getting too worked up.
Personally im not fully on board with the change if it is happening, AC results came out in December, if you haven't bothered to train or still arent fit enough, be you male or female, for the PCA after what will likely be 5 months then the work rate or desire to get fit enough for it just wasn't there male or female. (extenuating circumstances not considered)

Women have passed the PCA, some even on this forum have done it multiple times, i dont see why the change is necessary, no one on the street will give any compensation to gender if you find yourself in a physical situation.

Sthm

I'll leave my personal opinion aside about re-testing, but here's the document the Belfast Telegraph is referring to if anyone's interested:

http://www.nipolicingboard.org.uk/written_response_to_questions_for_april__2015_meeting.pdf