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POLICE PROMOTION · PREPARATION

Derbyshire Promotion Board Preparation

If you’re preparing for a Sergeant, Inspector or Chief Inspector board at Derbyshire, your panel already knows your force’s inspection picture. Here’s what that means for you, and how State6 builds it into your preparation.

PEEL report

24 May 2024

2023-25 PEEL inspection

Grades

8 areas

Causes of concern

None

in the latest PEEL report

HMICFRS support level

Level Two

Early or low-level concerns, as published 16 July 2026. What this means

Derbyshire HMICFRS snapshot

What the inspectors found

Derbyshire requires improvement in four areas in the 2023-25 PEEL inspection: responding to the public, investigating crime, protecting vulnerable people, and leadership. The force was graded good only for preventing crime, with adequate grades elsewhere.

PEEL grades

  • LeadershipRequires improvement
  • Investigating crimeRequires improvement
  • Responding to publicRequires improvement
  • Protecting vulnerableRequires improvement
  • WorkforceAdequate
  • Police powersAdequate
  • Managing offendersAdequate
  • Preventing crimeGood

Areas for improvement

  • The constabulary needs to improve its officers' confidence in using stop and search as an investigative tactic
  • The constabulary needs to improve its training for recording the use of force, and better support officers to follow force policy and improve data quality
  • The constabulary needs to improve the time it takes to answer emergency calls
  • The constabulary should attend calls for service in line with its published attendance times, make sure that deployment decisions are supervised effectively and update the caller when there are delays
  • The constabulary needs to better support officers to make the most of early evidence opportunities
  • The constabulary doesn't consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims
Show the other 10 areas for improvement
  • The constabulary should make sure there is supervisory oversight of investigations to make sure that all appropriate investigative opportunities are taken
  • The constabulary needs to make sure that it complies with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime
  • The constabulary needs to make sure its domestic abuse risk assessment process considers the full range of risk and harm and the full context of previously reported incidents
  • The constabulary should consider vulnerable victims' experience of its services and actively work to make improvements based on their feedback
  • The constabulary should proactively monitor preventative orders to reduce the risk of reoffending and increase safeguarding to victims
  • The constabulary needs to improve how it oversees and monitors use of pre-charge bail and released under investigation
  • The constabulary needs to do more to support the development and inclusion of people from under-represented groups
  • The constabulary should make sure that problems and performance issues are raised to the appropriate level within the constabulary's governance structure
  • The constabulary should scrutinise the implementation of any changes to make sure they are achieving their intended aims
  • The constabulary should make sure that leaders at all levels are visible, so that staff and officers are appropriately supported and challenged

16 areas were identified in the full inspection. Inside State6, each is mapped to the CVF competencies it affects, so you know exactly what to evidence.

Source: Derbyshire’s inspection reports on the HMICFRS website.

In their own words

What Derbyshire says it is focused on

The inspection picture above is what HMICFRS found. These are the priorities Derbyshire and its commissioner have set for themselves, and the people on your panel work to them every day.

Police and Crime Plan 2024 to 2029

Set by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Derbyshire. It is published under the name Safer and Stronger Together. The commissioner reviews it every year, most recently in October 2025.

  • Serious Violence including Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
  • Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and Community SafetyAction on all forms of anti-social behaviour, alongside burglary, vehicle theft, hate crime, retail crime and road safety.
  • Neighbourhood PolicingA dedicated Safer Neighbourhood Team for every area, with more visible officers and easier access to 999 and 101.
  • Bringing Offenders to JusticeStronger investigations and case files so more offenders are charged, and better information for victims going through the justice system.
  • Drug Dealing and Substance MisuseBreaking up drug supply and county lines, seizing drugs and criminal assets, and preventative services for young people.
  • Supporting Victims and SafeguardingCommissioned support services for victims of crime, and safeguarding for children and adults at risk of exploitation.

Read the plan on the commissioner's website

Use these to choose which of your examples to tell, not as phrases to recite. An answer about a team problem lands harder when the panel can see it serves something the force has already said matters.

Priority names are the publishers’ own headings. The summaries are ours. Checked against the published documents on 21 September 2026.

Recent inspection activity

Inspections published since the last full PEEL assessment. These are often the most current picture of Derbyshire, and the areas your panel is most likely to be conscious of right now.

What this means for your board

Derbyshire is graded Requires improvement for leadership, investigating crime and responding to the public, among 4 areas at that grade. Its Police and Crime Plan 2024 to 2029 leads with the priority “Serious Violence including Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)”. Your panel knows both without looking it up, and an example that speaks to either is one they will recognise.

A promotion board at Derbyshire isn’t only assessing whether you can lead a team. It’s assessing whether you understand the force you’re asking to lead in, and where your leadership fits its priorities. Officers who connect their examples to what Derbyshire is actually focused on stand out. Officers who stay inside their own team don’t.

You don’t do this by quoting the inspection report. You do it by letting your force’s priorities shape the decisions in your answers. If you want the full method, read our guide on what HMICFRS grades mean for your promotion board, or compare every force’s PEEL grades side by side.

How State6 prepares you for Derbyshire

You don’t have to research any of this yourself. Derbyshire’s real HMICFRS picture is built into State6. The Question Bank shapes practice questions around it, and every AI Board Review weaves your force’s context into the feedback on your answers. You’re preparing for the board you’ll actually sit, at the force you’ll actually sit it in.

You can also sit a full voiced AI mock board calibrated to Derbyshire’s inspection picture, answering out loud while the panel listens, probes and scores you against the CVF 2024.

Calibrated to your target rank, too. See what panels look for at sergeant, inspector and chief inspector level.

Prefer to start free? Our free promotion board question bank gives you real questions for every CVF area at sergeant, inspector and chief inspector level, free to download as you prepare for your Derbyshire board.

Prepare for your Derbyshire board

Practice questions, AI board reviews and your force’s inspection picture, all in one place. Try it free first: one AI Board Review, ten practice questions, fifteen coaching rounds and one spoken mock board question, no card needed.

See plans and pricing

State6 is an independent preparation platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Derbyshire, the College of Policing or HMICFRS. Inspection findings are summarised from the publicly available HMICFRS PEEL reports.

HMICFRS inspection data: Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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