Police Community Support Officer - West Sussex Division

We are opening our recruitment for Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and we want you to join us on West Sussex Division. As the key link with communities across Sussex, our PCSO’s play a critical and visible role in helping keep our communities safe, identifying and protecting the most vulnerable and preventing harm. You will require excellent communication skills, a good listener, calm, confident and compassionate. Above all, you’ll simply care about the community and want to do what you can to keep it safe. The role of a PCSO can be challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. If you want to help keep your community safe, then join us now and help make a difference, together.

In return, we offer you a good starting salary, great training experiences, opportunities for progression, and to achieve a professional qualification - Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice – with the pride and personal reward that comes from helping others.

The Role & Key Responsibilities

Our PCSO’s play a vital part in keeping Sussex safe. Being a PCSO offers a challenging, yet incredibly rewarding career. Working alongside our policing prevention teams to prevent and tackle local issues; you will be out and about on the streets of Sussex, building relationships within the community and winning the trust of the public. You will encounter a range of situations from dealing with anti-social behaviour, taking statements from victims of crimes, providing reassurance and helping resolve community challenges. As a PCSO you are the face of local policing for the community, ensuring we meet our policing priorities.

• Going on highly visible foot patrols.
• Reassuring the public after minor crimes or anti-social behaviour.
• Building relationships with community, religious and business leaders.
• Working with young people and local schools.
• Making house visits to gather intelligence.
• Collecting CCTV evidence.
• Carrying out missing person enquiries.
• Protecting crime scenes until police officers arrive.
• Providing crime prevention and personal safety advice.
• Offering support at large public gatherings, such as sports events and public demonstrations.

While PCSO’s do not have powers of arrest and are not involved in interviewing or processing prisoners, they do have the power for a wide range of situations including issuing fixed penalty notices, requiring contact details and seizing drugs.

By successfully completing the recruitment process, you will join Sussex Police as a PCSO through our new 12-month apprenticeship programme. This will give you the best possible training and, upon successful completion, you will achieve a Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice – equivalent to a Higher National Certificate (HNC), foundation degree or the first year of an undergraduate degree.

Eligibility Criteria

To apply you must:

• Be aged 17 at date of application, you must be 18 before you start – no upper age limit.
• Have lived in the UK for three continuous years immediately prior to application.
• Have leave to enter or leave to remain and work in the UK for an indefinite period.
• Have obtained and be able to evidence GCSE Maths and English grade A*-C/9-4 or a Level 2 equivalent. Candidates without Level 2 English and/or Maths must obtain them by the end of the 1 year apprenticeship.
• Have a full UK manual driving licence (by the time of appointment).
• Not be a member of the British National Party (BNP) or other relevant organisations.
• Not have tattoos which could cause offence.
• Not have more than six penalty points.
• Not have served a prison sentence.

If successful at meeting the eligibility requirements you will need to complete an initial assessment to demonstrate a functional skills level one before your application can be progressed to the next stage.

Why Work With Us?

For PCSOs the pay and holiday benefits are as follows:

• Starting salary of £27,747 plus unsocial hours shift allowance of approximately £6,146.16 per year, (pro rata).
• Fully-funded professional qualification – Level 4 Diploma in Community Policing Practice.
• 177.6 hours per year annual leave, rising to 214.6 hours per year depending on your length of service.
• A standard full time PCSO working day is 8.25 hour, this equates to approximately 21 days per year.
• In addition, you will receive 8 Public Holiday days per year.
• A competitive benefits package including pension, flexible benefits, employee assistance programme for advice and counselling, access to discounts / savings / cash-back rewards.
• A progressive approach to flexible working, enhanced maternity and paternity leave and potential for a career break (after two years’ service).
• Opportunities to join various support networks, staff associations and sports clubs.

Further Information

As a PCSO, you will work shifts. You will have a rotating shift pattern covering the full week Monday to Sunday between the hours of 8:00am and midnight, so you will need to be prepared to work weekends and Bank Holidays. The standard shift pattern is attached below. It is anticipated that successful applicants will join us on training intakes in October 2025. The role of PCSO is tenured for 24 months, meaning that you will not be able to start a new position within the force during this time. You may however be able to apply for roles with longer recruitment time-frames e.g. police officer. The role will be on an initial fixed term contract however on successful completion of the Apprenticeship you will transition to a permanent contract.

Diversity Statement

We are only as good as our people. It’s important that our officers and staff can be themselves in the workplace and we know that as an organisation we’ll grow from the variety of thinking, approach, and the skills that diversity brings; all of which help us to deliver a better policing service. We strive to ensure how we deliver our services, provide information and how we recruit is open and accessible to all. We have multiple staff support groups who help to improve our understanding of minority issues and ensure they are reflected in our work. We are proud members of Disability Confident, hold Race Equality Matters Trailblazer status, are a signatory of the Race at Work Charter and are aligned with the Armed Forces Covenant and the HeForShe movement. We are committed to being an anti-racist police service. We promise to challenge injustice, ensure fairness and to uphold anti-racist principles in both our organisation and our communities. We value the differences that people bring from all backgrounds and communities.