Information about PDRs and how they can support wellbeing, career growth and personal development.
The professional development review (PDR) is a tool used to support police officers and staff to take ownership of their personal and professional development.
It provides a clear and structured way to have meaningful two-way conversations that offer support, discuss performance and career development, and boost motivation by helping people feel valued and included.
PDR discussions
PDRs are intended to be regular, two-way conversations between line managers and staff to discuss:
- learning and development opportunities
- wellbeing
- career progression
- performance management
In accordance with Police Regulations 2003, all police officers who are on pay progression, up to the rank of chief inspector, must have a PDR.
Effective professional development review (PDR) is much more than an annual form-filling exercise.
It’s about having conversations throughout the year that support your
- development
- wellbeing
- career journeys
Good PDR is having
- regular catch ups that fit around your shift and flexible working patterns
- open conversations about the support and development you need
- recognition for the work you do and your achievements
- clear plans to build your skills and explore career opportunities
- a safe space where you can talk about any challenges you’re facing
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Good practice
Supporting people to set goals, understand their contribution, and plan for the future, can lead to greater job satisfaction and better outcomes for the public. Good practice includes:
- Regular conversations that work around shift patterns and flexible schedules
- Opportunities to discuss career goals and development needs
- Recognition of personal and team achievements
- Clear plans for developing skills and continuous learning
- A safe space for staff to talk about challenges and find practical solutions
The PDR approach puts people at the centre – highlighting wellbeing, skills development, recognising achievements, and exploring career aspirations as key topics of regular conversations between staff and their managers.
PDR tools
To help forces enhance and further embed good practice for PDR, the College has created two core resources:
Strategy
The PDR strategy outlines the purpose, benefits and key principles of the PDR, showing how it supports professional policing.
Guidance
The PDR guidance is a practical tool for individuals and managers, with advice and conversation prompts to support meaningful PDR discussions.
Go to more supporting materials at the bottom of this page.
It’s really important that all police forces identify and nurture the talent which exists in abundance in policing, so that we can identify people going to be the future leaders, the future specialists or people who simply want to be the very best at what they do because they care about serving the public. Meaningful professional development reviews underpin all of this.
I’ve also experienced PDRs – professional development reviews – myself that have felt like tick boxes, so we don’t want that. What we do want is professional development reviews done properly, a real exchange of information about how things are going.
That could be about workloads. It could be about work-life balance. It could be about training needs. Of course it is about ongoing, urgent performance, but it’s got to be about much more than that.
It cannot be done once a year and must be built from regular one-to-ones.
There was a time when I was a sergeant, when I experienced cancer.
But because I had a good relationship with my line manager through regular PDRs and one-to-ones, he knew exactly what’s happening. He knew that I was probably pushing myself too hard to come back to work through my chemotherapy treatment, and he arranged for me to be seconded.
None of that would have happened without good PDR management and good leadership that I was lucky enough to experience.
I wouldn’t be here now, having achieved what I’ve achieved in policing, without that sort of leadership and support through good PDRs and meaningful one-to-ones. I want everyone in the service to experience that. It will make a difference to wellbeing.
It will make a difference to our performance, our trust and productivity, and it will make sure that we keep the very best people in policing for as long as possible.
PDR is a fantastic tool because it harnesses good leadership and it harnesses our attention around improvement and talent spotting and wellbeing.
But it also, importantly, harnesses all of our efforts towards what the objectives of policing should be: cutting crime, catching criminals, keeping people safe and building trust.
National talent development strategy
PDR plays a key part in delivering the vision of the national talent development strategy (NTDS), which recognises that everyone in policing has potential. By identifying excellence, encouraging continuous learning and supporting development, PDR helps individuals progress – whether that means building more skills in their current role or getting ready to take on new responsibilities. This also means we’re developing the future leaders who will help shape the future of policing.
More information
For more information on PDR, contact our implementation team at implementation@college.police.uk