S6
STATE 6 PREP
POLICE PROMOTION · PREPARATION

Durham Promotion Board Preparation

If you’re preparing for a Sergeant, Inspector or Chief Inspector board at Durham, 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

17 November 2023

2023-25 PEEL inspection

Grades

9 areas

Causes of concern

None

in the latest PEEL report

HMICFRS support level

Level One

Default position, as published 16 July 2026. What this means

Durham HMICFRS snapshot

What the inspectors found

Durham was graded good for data recording and preventing crime in the 2023-25 PEEL inspection, but requires improvement in responding to the public and protecting vulnerable people. All other areas were graded adequate.

PEEL grades

  • Responding to publicRequires improvement
  • Protecting vulnerableRequires improvement
  • WorkforceAdequate
  • LeadershipAdequate
  • Police powersAdequate
  • Managing offendersAdequate
  • Investigating crimeAdequate
  • Recording dataGood
  • Preventing crimeGood

Areas for improvement

  • The constabulary needs to improve how it records equality data
  • The constabulary needs to improve the time it takes to record crimes
  • The constabulary needs to improve how it records crime when 'antisocial behaviour personal' is reported
  • The constabulary needs to improve its training to make sure that officers understand and use stop and search powers fairly and appropriately
  • The constabulary needs to improve the effectiveness of its internal and external scrutiny of officers' use of stop and search powers
  • The constabulary needs to make sure it answers calls quickly enough
Show the other 14 areas for improvement
  • The constabulary needs to attend calls for service in line with its published attendance times
  • The constabulary needs to make sure it promptly identifies vulnerability when people go missing
  • The constabulary doesn't consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims
  • The constabulary needs to make sure it is using outcomes appropriately, which comply with force and national policies, leading to satisfactory results for victims
  • The constabulary should establish an effective performance framework for its multi-agency safeguarding arrangements to make sure it is capable of meeting current and future demand
  • The constabulary needs to make better use of protective measures to keep vulnerable victims safe
  • The constabulary needs to improve how it manages multi-agency risk assessment conferences and multi-agency tasking and co-ordination referrals
  • The constabulary should improve the timeliness of disclosures made under the criteria of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme
  • The constabulary needs to make sure that bail is always considered as a safeguarding measure
  • The constabulary should review how it uses its resources to manage registered sex offenders
  • The constabulary needs to improve the effectiveness of its professional development reviews and make sure the workforce is fully involved
  • The constabulary needs to do more to support the development and career progression of people from underrepresented groups
  • The constabulary should make sure it is effective at managing demand and can show it has the right resources, processes, or plans in place to meet current demand
  • The constabulary needs to make sure that it prioritises investment in new technology that will make its systems and processes more efficient and effective

20 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: Durham’s inspection reports on the HMICFRS website.

In their own words

What Durham says it is focused on

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

Police Crime and Justice Plan 2025 to 2029

Set by the Police and Crime Commissioner for County Durham and Darlington. Stated aim: To make our communities safer, stronger and more resilient to crime, drugs and anti-social behaviour.

  • VictimsVictims of crime treated as the first concern, kept informed about their case and given support that meets their needs.
  • Safer People Safer PlacesPolicing in town and city centres, with work against serious violence, exploitation and violence towards women and girls.
  • Safer NeighbourhoodsNeighbourhood teams tackling the crime, drug harm and anti-social behaviour that people in an area report.
  • Safer CountrysidePolicing shaped around the needs of people living in rural areas.
  • Safer RoadsFewer people killed or seriously hurt on the roads, and criminals denied the use of the road network.
  • Criminal JusticeA local justice system that is fair and open, and that deals with cases without long delays.

Read the plan in the council's committee papers (PDF)

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 Durham, and the areas your panel is most likely to be conscious of right now.

What this means for your board

Durham is graded Requires improvement for responding to the public and protecting vulnerable people. Its Police Crime and Justice Plan 2025 to 2029 leads with the priority “Victims”. Your panel knows both without looking it up, and an example that speaks to either is one they will recognise.

A promotion board at Durham 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 Durham 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 Durham

You don’t have to research any of this yourself. Durham’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 Durham’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 Durham board.

Prepare for your Durham 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 Durham, 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.

← All forces·What the performance levels mean