We are looking for people with exceptional qualities who can work under pressure in a challenging, fast paced and rewarding environment. Wiltshire Police are proud of our Crime and Communications Centre, which puts our communities at the heart of everything we do and our operators are the first point of contact for all emergency and non-emergency calls from the public.
Our call handlers take more than 380,000 calls a year. All 101 non-emergency and 999 emergency calls across Wiltshire come into our state-of-the-art operational control room – calls relating to anything from road accidents, firearms incidents, and assaults, to anti-social behaviour and missing people.
You will need to be able to assess situations quickly, have an excellent telephone manner and be able to listen and offer reassurance and advice to the public. Remaining calm and focused under pressure is essential.
Contact Centre Salary
The basic salary during initial training starts at £22,551, rising to £23,895 on completion of your probationary period, currently 12 months.
For working 24/7 shifts you receive an additional 20%, equivalent to £4,510 per annum.
You also receive an extra payment for weekend working, based on an average of hours worked at weekends over a six-week period.
The shift allowance and weekend working payments start once you have completed the initial 8 weeks classroom training and go into a team
Application Process
Stage one of the application process will completing the application through our online recruiting tool and completing and fulfilling all the requirements of the eligibility check.
Eligibility check Please click apply to take the eligibility check. You will need to create a log in for Oleeo (the online recruitment system) before being able to begin your application.
You will need at least a Level 2 qualification in both Maths and English to undertake this role. Applicants will need to undertake three shortlisting questions all of which are essential criteria from the job description. You should include examples in your answers, and we suggest using the STAR model to help you answer your questions. The STAR model guidance is attached to the main advert. To apply you must complete the application form and your status on Oleeo should read application received once submitted. Only applications that read APPLICATION RECEIVED with be progressed through to the next stage of recruitment.
Registration closes when we have reached our maximum numbers.
Stage two – Assessment Centre
Week beginning TBC - If successful at stage one you will be invited to an assessment Centre and interview at Devizes HQ. Please allow half a day for the assessment, which will consist of multiple tasks designed to test your customer service skills, followed by a formal interview.
Wiltshire Police are a disability confident Leader – if you feel that you would benefit from support in your application, please do not hesitate to contact our Positive Action Team on PositiveAction@wiltshire.police.uk.
Training will be mainly at Force HQ Devizes.
It is strongly advised that you have access to your own car in order to manage the 24/7 shift pattern.
Hours
The Initial training course is full time (Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm) for a period of 8 weeks, primarily at Devizes Police HQ, although some sessions maybe held at other Force locations, dependent on operational circumstances. Training is classroom based. Following the initial training, staff will work a period of tutorship. Please see below.
Full time staff 6 weeks tutorship>Crime Recording. 10 weeks tutorship >Incident Control
These weeks will be aligned to core teams working a 24/7 shift pattern. This will attract unsociable shift and weekend working allowances.
May we therefore request that you do not book holiday for 18 weeks commencing from this date and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Career progression
Once you're experienced in one role and we’ve identified your key strengths and skills, you can move to either the crime and recording team or the incident control, answering 999 calls and managing resources and incidents. There are also supervisory roles within the department offering competitive salaries.
Policing for most people is a whole life career and many who start in the Crime and Communications Centre go onto other roles in the police service. The training, experience and confidence for policing you will gain will hold you in good stead for your future career.
Training: Successful applicants will begin their training at the end of 2022 onwards.