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STATE 6 PREP
POLICE PROMOTION · PREPARATION

Thames Valley Promotion Board Preparation

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

8 July 2026

2025-27 PEEL assessment

Grades

8 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

Thames Valley HMICFRS snapshot

What the inspectors found

Thames Valley Police was assessed across eight areas of policing in its 2025-27 PEEL inspection. The force has made improvements in responding to the public and preventing crime since its last inspection, but requires improvement in investigating crime and safeguarding.

PEEL grades

  • LeadershipRequires improvement
  • Investigating crimeRequires improvement
  • Protecting vulnerableRequires improvement
  • Police powersAdequate
  • Managing fraudAdequate
  • Responding to publicAdequate
  • WorkforceGood
  • Preventing crimeGood

Areas for improvement

  • The force needs to make sure all areas of its new operating model manage demand effectively
  • The force has strategic governance arrangements, but it must strengthen tactical implementation and leadership accountability
  • The force needs to show how it considers and evaluates the impact of changes to its processes, policies and procedures
  • The force needs to improve its recording, data retrieval and scrutiny of use of force
  • The force needs to improve its external scrutiny processes for stop and search and use of force
  • The force needs to improve its approach to problem solving
Show the other 9 areas for improvement
  • The force needs to attend calls for service in line with its published attendance times
  • The force should allocate high-risk and complex investigations to officers who have the competency and experience to manage them effectively
  • The force should carry out high quality, thorough, and timely investigations for all reported crimes
  • The force needs to improve the quality of supervisory reviews for investigations so that they consistently add value and enhance the service to victims
  • The force needs to improve how it manages offenders who have failed to appear in court or should be in custody
  • The force needs to improve its processes for identifying and safeguarding high-risk victims of domestic abuse
  • The force needs to improve its systems and processes for promptly notifying schools of pupils living with domestic abuse
  • The force needs to adequately train those who investigate fraud
  • The force needs an allocation policy and procedure that meets demand effectively and prevents solvable crimes being closed without investigation

15 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: Thames Valley’s inspection reports on the HMICFRS website.

In their own words

What Thames Valley says it is focused on

The inspection picture above is what HMICFRS found. These are the priorities Thames Valley 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 Thames Valley. It is published under the name Protecting Thames Valley.

  • Protecting CommunitiesCrime prevention, neighbourhood policing, road safety, anti-social behaviour and public confidence.
  • Protecting PeopleThe most serious offences: rape and sexual offences, domestic abuse, the night-time economy, serious violence, and abuse and exploitation.
  • Protecting PropertyAcquisitive crime: residential burglary, retail crime, vehicle crime, rural crime, and cybercrime and fraud.

Read the plan on the commissioner's website

Strategic Plan 2026 to 2027

Set by Thames Valley Police. The force calls these four headings its pillars.

  • Serving VictimsVictim satisfaction, call answering, incident response times, investigation quality and crime recording accuracy.
  • Fighting CrimeOutcome and charge rates, outstanding suspects and repeat offenders, knife enabled crime and serious organised crime.
  • Building TrustPublic trust and confidence, anti-social behaviour, violence against women and girls, domestic abuse, and protecting vulnerable children and adults.
  • Valuing our PeopleWelfare and professional development, removing barriers to working, retention, sickness management and internal trust.

Read the force's strategic plan (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 20 September 2026.

Other HMICFRS inspections

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

What this means for your board

Thames Valley is graded Requires improvement for leadership, investigating crime and protecting vulnerable people. Its Police and Crime Plan 2024 to 2029 leads with the priority “Protecting Communities”. Your panel knows both without looking it up, and an example that speaks to either is one they will recognise.

A promotion board at Thames Valley 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 Thames Valley 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 Thames Valley

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

Prepare for your Thames Valley 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 Thames Valley, 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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