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POLICE PROMOTION · PREPARATION

Sussex Promotion Board Preparation

If you’re preparing for a Sergeant, Inspector or Chief Inspector board at Sussex, 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 July 2025

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

Sussex HMICFRS snapshot

What the inspectors found

Sussex was graded good for responding to the public in the 2023-25 PEEL inspection - a positive outlier in an otherwise adequate performance profile. The force requires improvement in investigating crime, with all other areas adequate.

PEEL grades

  • Investigating crimeRequires improvement
  • WorkforceAdequate
  • LeadershipAdequate
  • Police powersAdequate
  • Recording dataAdequate
  • Preventing crimeAdequate
  • Managing offendersAdequate
  • Protecting vulnerableAdequate
  • Responding to publicGood

Areas for improvement

  • The force needs to improve the way it records crime when it receives a report of antisocial behaviour personal
  • The force needs to improve the way it records reported incidents of rape
  • The force needs to improve the way it records equality data
  • The force needs to strengthen the external scrutiny of its use of force
  • The force needs to consistently record and evaluate problem-solving activity so it can monitor performance more effectively
  • The force should make sure it has regular and structured governance processes to monitor the performance of neighbourhood policing activity
Show the other 10 areas for improvement
  • The force doesn't consistently achieve acceptable outcomes for victims
  • The force needs to make sure it carries out proportionate and timely investigations into reported crimes
  • The force needs to comply with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime
  • The force needs to improve the way it participates in multi-agency risk assessment conferences
  • The force needs to make sure all officers and staff in multi-agency safeguarding roles have the right training
  • The force should help supervisors better manage suspects and wanted people
  • The force should make sure it uploads all indecent images of children to the Child Abuse Image Database
  • The force must make sure it supports the development of all first-line leaders, and that it effectively trains them
  • The force must consider its professional development review process to make sure it is effective, and that officers and staff value it
  • The force should make sure it effectively scrutinises performance across the force and has processes and technology in place to meet demand

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: Sussex’s inspection reports on the HMICFRS website.

In their own words

What Sussex says it is focused on

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

Police and Crime Plan 2024 to 2028

Set by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex. It is published under the name My Plan to Cut Crime.

Prevent crime and support victims and witnesses
Investigate crime and bring offenders to justice
Improve trust in policing and build public confidence

Read the plan on the commissioner's website

Operational priorities

Set by the Chief Constable of Sussex Police. The force sets these out on its Priorities and direction page rather than in a dated plan, and the commissioner's plan lists the same three as the Chief Constable's operational priorities.

Protect our communitiesListening to local people and building up neighbourhood policing, so every area has a named officer people can contact.
Catch criminalsFocusing on the most dangerous criminals and on serious and organised crime, with more officers, extra enforcement capability and better use of data.
Deliver an outstanding serviceGiving victims, witnesses and the public the best service the force's resources allow, and keeping the public trust that policing by consent rests on.

Read the priorities on the Sussex Police 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 20 September 2026.

Other HMICFRS inspections

Other published inspections of Sussex. Useful background, but the PEEL assessment above is the fuller picture.

What this means for your board

Sussex is graded Requires improvement for investigating crime. Its Police and Crime Plan 2024 to 2028 leads with the priority “Prevent crime and support victims and witnesses”. Your panel knows both without looking it up, and an example that speaks to either is one they will recognise.

A promotion board at Sussex 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 Sussex 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 Sussex

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

Prepare for your Sussex 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 Sussex, 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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