During the excellent Reflective Practice session yesterday SPO”s noted how difficult it is for new recruits as many offices do not have experienced staff, making the learning harder. In my old team I managed five trainees and three qualified officers one newly qualified.

As a trainee I was trained in an Ilford office with eight other trainees and no other staff. I would see my service users once a week at Stratford. Whilst there I’d bombard the many experienced officers with questions. They were truly amazing as was the MAPPA lead SPO

I remember showing him my first MAPPA referral and him bluntly telling me it was awful but then sitting down with me for an hour explaining what needed to be in it and why. When I presented itthe police said it was one of the best referrals and presentations they had.

My Practice Development Assessor would give me two pre sentence reports a week to write, with the focus on analysis. Staff at Stratford supported me willingly giving me scenarios challenging discrepancies and signposting me to other areas of learning

Once I qualified in 2010, my SPO would offer get complaints from solicitors about me because when commenting on dangerousness I would say why the person was dangerous. Apparently they were used to just receiving a definition of seriousness without any analysis

My practice development assessor always said that I had to give analysis. She was great. Am still in touch with her