British Transport Police (BTP) is extending its cascading internal coach development programme nationally.
BTP kicked off its Coaching Cascade programme in its 900-strong London Underground force but is now rolling it out across the 2,900 members of its organisation.
The Association of Chief Police Officers has estimated that some 28,000 police jobs will be lost over the next four years. Coaching is seen as one way to help police officers do their jobs well amid these swathing job cuts.
“The public cuts mean a reduction in police officers. If we go in the direction of Canada, for example, where they have one superior to 20, I need to feel comfortable that they can do that, and coaching is one of the things I think they need to be effective leaders,” said Superintendent Jeffrey Boothe.
It has around 50 BTP coaches who coach clients across the organisation, particularly those on its Step Up individual development programme. Coaches commit to having at least one client on the go at any one time.
By next year, it could be ready to introduce another tier of BTP lead coaches to support the next layer.
The programme was devised with Linbert Spencer Consultancy to help the organisation build internal coach capacity sustainably. Speaking at the European Mentoring & Coaching Council UK conference on 29-30 March in London, Boothe likened the cascading approach to teaching people how to fish so they eat for a lifetime, rather than feeding them fish so they eat for a day.
He said: “The measure of success is when you sit down with your staff and they tell me of the innovative things they’ve done or ideas of things we should be doing. I see people being proactive rather than reactive.”
Before being accepted as BTP coaches, candidates are invited to carry out a mini self-assessment, complete an application form and coach three assessors. Cohorts are of up to 24, usually junior staff with some middle managers, although one programme was run in which a chief superintendent attended, along with managers aspiring to move up the ranks.
BTP has just introduced a Chartered Management Institute Level 5 Manager Coach award.
Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 3