The national sift consists of two online exercises that reflect the competencies, values and behaviours that are crucial for the role of PCSO. These are a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) and a Behavioural Style Questionnaire (BSQ).

Situational Judgement Test (SJT)

This part of the online assessment will present you with a variety of situations that you may face as a PCSO, and a choice of different actions that you may take. You will be asked to rate these different actions in how effective they are in addressing the situation given.

Behavioural Style Questionnaire (BSQ)

This section will ask you to review a series of statements and ask you to indicate how much you agree or disagree with them, on a sliding scale. This assessment is designed to look at your typical behaviours in a variety of work-related circumstances.

Please see the College of Policing National Sift Candidate Guidance for further information about this.

Passes of these assessments are valid for two years, so if you have already completed them for another role or force, you will not need to do them again. Just let us know and we can advise on your next steps!

After passing the National sift assessments, you will then be invited to attend a face to face interview with our PCSO team. Our interviews are currently conducted at our Police Strategic Headquarters in Eastleigh.

You will be interviewed by a panel of two, and will be asked a series of competency based questions, to determine your suitability for the role of PCSO. 

The current competencies for the PCSO role are below for you to review. We have put some information together on each one to help you understand what they mean, and what we would be looking for you to demonstrate.

We are Emotionally Aware Level 1

We Take Ownership Level 1

We are collaborative Level 1

We Deliver, Support and Inspire Level 1

We Analyse Critically Level 1

Transparency

The interview will last around 45 minutes and we will then notify you of the result by email. Further information about our interview process will be sent to you along with your invitation. 

If your interview was successful, you will then receive a conditional offer of employment from us, with all the details of the role being offered to you. Your letter will contain links and instructions to initiate your pre-employment checks.

These checks will include:

• Reference form asking for 5 years of employment history
• Police vetting, including biometrics
• Medical and eyesight form
• Job related fitness test (Bleep test to level 5.4)
• Evidence of Level 2 qualifications in English and maths if applicable (see eligibility for further information)
• Posting preference form
  

Posting Preferences

We ask you to complete this form so that we can gather some more information about your current home location and circumstances. This allows us to find a suitable posting for you, also taking into account our current operational need.

Download and take a look at our current posting information here.

Currently, we are looking primarily for candidates for roles across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Some of the checks we complete can be lengthy, especially in relation to the police vetting process, so we ask you to be patient with us. We will be working hard to get you processed as quickly as possible.

As soon as you have cleared all the above checks, you will be notified and be enrolled on the next available PCSO intake.