KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Scottish Government Funded Malawi & Zambia Programme
This programme continues to be the most significant commitment for the International Academy (IA). As updated last year, Scottish Government agreed to three years of grant funding rather than one year and this has supported the development of a longer-term training delivery strategy covering 2025 - 2028.

The focus of the programme remains on Gender Based Violence (GBV), Sexual Crime and Child Protection and prior to 2025, the priority for Police Scotland training delivery was targeting frontline responders to upskill them through our Sexual Offences and Child Protection for First Responders (SOCP) Course. There was also a Train the Trainer (TTT) programme which would ensure Malawi and Zambia Police Officers could cascade train their own officers in the SOCP course.

In response to the review undertaken in January 2024, the plan for training delivery in year 2025-2026 was amended to ensure training delivery in more remote areas of both countries where it is recognised vulnerable persons are at heightened risk of abuse. In addition, decision to postpone the TTT programme, maintain the SOCP courses and introduce three new, more specialist training:

Sexual Offences Liaison Officer (SOLO)
Child Interview Training
Advanced Investigator

These courses are based on the Police Scotland versions with adjustments for in-country legislative, practical, procedural and cultural variations. The content heavily focuses on trauma informed approaches to victims. The IA was keen to ensure the course took a partnership focus and sought support from key stakeholders for delivery.

They were successfully piloted in both countries and whilst some revision is required to ensure maximum benefit, the feedback has been that all Victim Support Unit officers would benefit from attending the SOLO and Child Interview courses. Of note, the inclusion of inputs from in-country subject matter experts such as a Magistrate and a Forensic Medical Examiner were seen as hugely beneficial both in terms of sharing knowledge but also building relations. Partner agencies were allowed to attend parts of the course – again feedback provided was that this was seen as a significant step forward in building partnership working towards combatting GBV.

The Advance Investigator Course involved 12 middle managers from both police services travelling to Scotland and residing at the Scottish Police College. The officers selected hold roles as Senior Investigating officers or Deputies in their equivalent of Public Protection Units and it was felt upskilling these officers would complement the upskilling brought about by the SOLO and Child Interview training, we had developed.

This course focused on investigative techniques for GBV, rape and sexual crime and child protection, understanding the impact of trauma on victims, how to provide support to the victims and methods of improving partnership working. It further covered topics such as Human Trafficking, Cybercrimes, forensic considerations and general management of complex cases.

The feedback from the attending officers was overwhelmingly positive with indications of returning to Malawi and Zambia with a view to cascade train officers.

Benefits to Police Scotland: The Malawi/Zambia programme continues to provide development opportunities for Police Scotland officers and staff. A total of 37 officers and 2 members of police staff have been deployed in 2024-2025 to Africa. In addition, the creation of the new courses mentioned above were supported by officers in Scotland – providing a challenge to consider cultural variances and appropriate use of language and working examples in the course content. (Please read appendix – Officer Deployment Report – Ruth Elder)

Finally, the Advanced Investigator Course content was delivered by Police Scotland subject matter experts which not only boosts confidence in presentation skills but also exposed the officers to cultural variances through the conversations and debates that took place in the margins.

The IA was supported throughout the two weeks visit by officers who had previously been deployed to Malawi or Zambia. These visitors came from two of the poorest nations in the world and so assisting during their stay in terms of advice, guidance, general hospitality was appreciated. This was all done on their rest days and weekends, an acknowledgement that they were “paying it back” in terms of their own unique opportunities.

Further to the training delivery mentioned, the IA also supported the roll-out of a nationwide Public Awareness campaign (still on-going at time of writing) to reach many thousands of people in effort to educate them of the law and their rights when it comes to GBV. The focus is to share the message that this behaviour is unacceptable, encouraging communities to unite against it and that perpetrators need to be identified and reported to the Police.

Funding was also provided by Scottish Government through Police Scotland for One Stop Centres – similar to SARCs and Bairns Hoose. The significant funding was used to target five centres for major improvements, making them more victim-centred, child friendly and hopefully improving the likelihood of survivors attending for support.

Global Police Innovation Exchange Leadership Programme (GPXLP)

Police Scotland have led, in collaboration with the Australian Federal Police (AFP), to create and deliver this 12-month programme which saw the participants (superintendent rank) operate in syndicates with allocated themes to work on and deliver options and approaches to tackling global policing challenges (GPC). The 4 themes this year were Vulnerability & Law Enforcement, Crime & Migration, Mis & Dis Information and finally Wellbeing & Resilience.

The programme consisted of multi module learning including sessions via a shared Moodle site, in person residential (Australia April 2024 and Scotland February 2025), a study tour (Singapore October 2024) and online learning and input session from GPX countries. The programme concluded with each syndicate presenting their GPC to the GPX Board at the Scotland residential in February 2025 in addition to submitting a syndicate 5000-word essay in support.

This year’s programme was the second pilot and evaluated very positively again (as per pilot 1). Discussions are currently ongoing with the AFP with regards to running the course on a permanent basis. A key focus is identifying areas where cost can be reduced without impacting the integrity and success of the pilot programme content.

Benefit to Scotland: The GPXLP was designed to create a global network of police leaders equipped with the skills, knowledge and understanding to adapt and respond to emerging issues affecting policing and society.

The GPXLP brings together high potential police representatives to develop their leadership capacity, with a focus on vertical, rather than traditional horizontal leadership development. Participants are given the opportunity to build professional networks while discussing and developing strategies to prepare their organisations for the challenges ahead in themes that resonate with the policing community around the world.

Preparing for Major Football Events Programme

Early in 2025, the IA received several enquiries from American agencies around how Police Scotland polices football matches. With the next World Cup being held in North America (and Mexico), it was recognised that football (or soccer to use their terminology) is not an event that policing in North America tend to have experience in. The IA therefore seized the opportunity to design and deliver a bespoke Policing Football programme.

Engagement and collaboration with partners including the Scottish Football Association, Celtic and Rangers Football Club; Glasgow City Council and numerous internal colleagues linked to Events Planning and managing football games, saw the IA create a 5-day programme. Utilising well established contacts through other IA work, the programme was shared across American and Canadian law enforcement agencies.

Between11-16 March 2025, the first ‘Preparing for Major Football Events’ programme was delivered at Tulliallan. Twenty-three participants attended from various policing and non-policing agencies from both the United States and Canada. The programme was progressive, culminating in attendance at the globally recognised and challenging major sporting event, Celtic v Rangers.

Internally, Gold and Silver Commanders provided their insights as well as Operational Support Division who demonstrated various tactical options.

The initial feedback has been excellent with a clear appetite for more courses. A second iteration of the course is currently being delivered (at time of writing) to coincide with another Old Firm fixture and whilst not finished yet, early feedback has been excellent.

In addition, through contacts made in the GPX programme, early discussions are ongoing to bring a couple of senior officers from the Netherlands to participate in the next programme. This is to support their understanding of the differences in how we police football in Scotland compared to the Netherlands and for them to share their experiences from a European football perspective.
2.6. Benefits to Scotland: This course has highlighted Police Scotland in a very positive and professional light in terms of major events planning. It strengthened the partnerships within Scotland and created new links to law enforcement agencies across North America. Future courses will expand this with the likelihood of further links to the Netherlands Police. The course is fully cost recovered.

Twinning Relationship with the Royal Falkland Islands Police (RFIP)

Through the Home Office, Police Scotland is twinned with RFIP. This relationship has seen a mutual benefit to both organisations with several long-term secondments to the Falkland Islands by Police Scotland constables. RFIP have had significant challenges in terms of recruitment and their current cadre of officer lack operational policing experience. The seconded Police Scotland officers have both bolstered their frontline resource whilst taking on a mentoring/tutoring role. They have experienced working in one of the most remote areas of the world and had to tackle all the challenges this brings. The feedback from RFIP and the seconded officers has been overwhelmingly positive.

Police Scotland currently has two Sergeants (one uniform and one detective) on a 3-month secondment. Their role has been to mentor the RFPI Sgts in several skills, including complex case management; management of sex offenders; community policing, risk management in custody to name a few.

There had previously been a request to send an Inspector for 6 weeks, however, on review of the request, it was felt there was insufficient benefit to Police Scotland and the officer and this was not supported.

All secondments to RFIP are fully cost recovered to Police Scotland.

Benefit to Scotland: The officers seconded to RFIP see both a personal development opportunity in terms of their mentoring and tutoring skills. They are also exposed to extreme remote policing and development of their problem solving, communication and leadership skills. They represent Police Scotland in a positive light in terms of their professionalism and the relationship we have with this British Overseas Territory is held as an exemplar by the Home Office IPAS team, recently presented to other UK forces as the desired standard to achieve with their twinned partners.