Hello Angela,
I just wanted to provide a little cautionary tale for anyone coming to you asking advice about roles/contracts within the Met Police. In June of last year I was told that my contract with the Home Office would be coming to an ending so the time had come to start looking for another contract.
I applied and was successful in being recruited to work for an agency who had secured a contract (with the Met) in vocational assessing. This required low level NPPV (i think) vetting and so at the beginning of August I joined the queue to go through the vetting process and it was predicted that would take a couple of months. All was well as this suited my exit strategy and the start of the new role should dovetail nicely with the end of the Home Office job.
All appears to be well.
Last Tuesday after 5 months and a week of waiting I managed to get a phone number for the vetting office and called them. The news was bleak
“There is no predicted timescale for the completion of your vetting” said the very frank and honest man who answered the phone.
“Can you give me any kind of clue about how much longer I will have to wait?” says I
“I’m afraid not, we are just overwhelmed”.
And the best news of all …….
On the Friday I received an email from the contractor to tell me that my services would no longer be required and my job offer had been cancelled.
As an add on – I spied an investigator role (again in the MPS) and asked my vetting contact if I could transfer the first vetting into the new one “ No you will have to start a new Vetting process” – I think I’ll give it a miss
As you know Angela I am not one to moan and groan and this is not a sarcastic pop at the MPS. But I do know that there is a lot of activity around the PIP’s site on Linkedin and an awful lot of cops and ex-cops turn to you for guidance. Every set of circumstances are different and Vetting is like the A&E waiting room at hospital, i.e. ‘cases are dealt with according to priority’ AND NOT the deli counter at Tescos i.e. ‘first come first served’.
I don’t suppose that the MPS advertises these delays and wouldn’t to go public with my story but if there people out there looking at low risk roles or contracts with Londons finest beware, please, please don’t give up the current job expecting to start your new in a few weeks.
Extract from a recent email exchange – hoping it will be of use. The conversation can be found on the PiPS Linkedin group – click here
