Shared Practice, Learning, and Goals between Police and Young People: A Qualitative Analysis of the National Volunteer Police Cadets

Engaging all members of the public is of paramount importance to British policing. This assists with demystifying the role of police in society, and also providing a shared vision and partnership between communities and the criminal justice system. The National VPC programme provides the opportunity to achieve this, recruiting diverse young people into a structured programme led by a range of police officers and staff. A series of focus groups were conducted across the country with both cadets and adult leaders to explore the benefits of the cadet programme for both groups—those relevant to policing but also more widely for community cohesion and individual development. Although the benefits to policing were clearly articulated, a range of strengths to the programme were also identified.