Some see tenure of post as a vital ingredient of a policy on Investors in People, designed to provide enhanced career opportunities for a greater number of officers and furnishing the force with a proper distribution of skills and experience. Others have no set period of tenure and see this as allowing flexibility to achieve a proper balance of experience to meet the needs of the force and individual careers. HMIC has no particular view on the issue of tenure in so far as it applies to the Special Branch function but stresses the importance of the robust management of staff appraisal and succession planning as key elements to the success of a fair and effective system. Generally, the HSB or department deputy oversees training course allocation and ensures that officers attend courses on a rotational or prioritised basis. External training providers for Special Branch officers include the Security Service, Scottish Police College and the Metropolitan Police.
Forces also share in-house training.
In 1998 a national working group was established to review the training of Special Branch officers. It included a training needs analysis. All forces in Scotland have adopted the national appraisal system and were found to be making good use of this as the mechanism for developing staff skills and training needs. In all forces sickness absence was not found to be an issue, which reflects positively on the motivation, commitment and dedication of staff. The information contained on this WWW site is Crown Copyright but may be reproduced without formal permission or charge for personal or in-house use.