Assessing the aerobic demand (VO2 max) of police personal safety training (PST) to set standards for existing fitness tests.
| Lead institution | |
|---|---|
| Principal researcher(s) |
Professor John Brewer
|
| Police region |
West Midlands
|
| Collaboration and partnership |
Lilleshall Consultancy Services. |
| Level of research |
Professional/work based
|
| Project start date |
|
| Date due for completion |
|
Research context
This project aims to understand the aerobic demand of the new personal safety training (PST) curriculum that is scheduled to be rolled out across the service in 2023. This demand will then form the benchmark for the job-related fitness test (JRFT).
The police PST is an extensive two-day training course designed around scenarios where officers must defend themselves against assailants (demonstrating established defence techniques) and affect an arrest.
The successful bid will be required to outline a detailed methodology as to how they plan to capture the exertion of participants (police officers) conducting the training.
The completion of the JRFT will be a key component of the national recruitment process and form part of the health and safety risk assessment for participation of the PST. As such, failure to complete the test will have a significant impact on career progression. Therefore it is essential that the research captures any equality impact in relation to protected characteristics.
The Chester Treadmill Police Walking Test (CTPWT) has since been implemented in all forces.
The College requires a supplier to deliver the technical work by the end of March 2023 to ensure that the new fitness testing regime can be implemented in line with the national roll out of the new PST curriculum.
Research methodology
The research phase has started following successful peer review of the methodology.
This involves testing aerobic demand of the training over the two days with a broad population to reflect the police workforce. This will be ongoing until 22 September with the research team being supported by the College of Policing and those delivering the training in Avon & Somerset Police.