Sergeant promotion
The sergeant board is the first time most officers are judged not on the job they do, but on how they lead the people who do it. The panel scores you against the CVF 2024 at first-line level, looking for real evidence of how you supervise and hold a team to account. State6 lets you practise the whole thing before the day, out loud and in writing.
Start preparing for sergeant→Part of Gold. Pay once for 90 days, no subscription.
Before we dig in
You will see these named throughout this page. Here is what each one means, and every one has a full, free guide on State6 with no account needed.
Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection
The structure for answers about a real past example. The second R, Reflection, is the part a promotion panel looks for and the part plain STAR leaves out.
Learn STARR free→Position, Evidence, Explore the tension, Lead
State6's structure for forward-facing questions, the ones that ask how you would handle a situation. This is an answer framework, not the HMICFRS PEEL inspection.
Learn PEEL free→What it assesses
Everything the panel scores is pitched at first-line leadership. These are the things a sergeant board is really testing.
The board looks for the move from being a strong officer to leading a team of them. Evidence of how you set a standard and held others to it counts for more than your own casework.
Your answers are weighed against the Competency and Values Framework at first-line management level. An answer pitched at constable scope will not reach the standard, however well delivered.
A panel can only score the individual, so it listens for I rather than we. STARR answers that name your own decision and its outcome land far better than a team narrative.
Forward-facing questions test your reasoning, not your memory. A PEEL answer that takes a clear position and follows it through shows a panel you can already think like a supervisor.
The questions
A sergeant board mixes questions about what you have done with questions about what you would do. Each one rewards a different framework.
You will be asked for real examples, such as a time you dealt with poor performance or had a difficult conversation you would rather have avoided. These call for a STARR answer built on a specific event you owned.
You will be given a situation and asked how you would handle it. These call for a PEEL answer that states a position, backs it with evidence and lands on a clear course of action.
Whatever you say, expect a follow-up that tests it. Panels push on vague claims and on anything you left out, so a learned script rarely survives the first question back.
The scenario and the scope are set at sergeant level. An answer that stays operational, solving the incident rather than supervising the response, reads as below the rank.
How State6 helps
A chair asks sergeant-calibrated questions out loud, listens to the answer you speak, probes on what you said and marks you out of five. You rehearse delivering under pressure, which a written tool cannot give you.
The STARR and PEEL builders score every answer against the CVF at sergeant level, with a descriptor breakdown and your I against we balance, so you see exactly what a panel would credit.
Turn on force context and your force HMICFRS inspection picture is woven into questions where it fits, so your preparation reflects the place you actually serve.
Your first board
That is the real challenge. You know the job, but you have never had to evidence your leadership to a panel against a framework, out loud, on a clock. The most common slip is reaching for the STAR model, which has no reflection step, and staying too close to the incident instead of the supervision around it.
State6 closes that gap. You sit full boards, get marked the way a panel marks, and learn to land your evidence inside the time you are given, so the real thing feels familiar.
Common questions
A panel asks a set of questions calibrated to first-line leadership and scores your answers against the CVF 2024. You face behavioural questions about your own experience and forward-facing questions about how you would lead, usually with a follow-up probe on each.
Use STARR. It adds a reflection step that STAR leaves out, and reflection is where you show a panel what you learned and how you would lead differently. For forward-facing questions, use PEEL instead, since those ask how you would act rather than what you did.
Only if your force is one of the small number running the SIPP trial. Every other force continues with the existing NPPF process. If you are unsure, check with your own promotions team, because the framework you prepare for should match the one your force is using.
Aim for around five to six minutes per main answer, the same window a real board gives you. State6 measures your speaking time and pace so you can practise landing your evidence without running over or finishing thin.
Start today
Sit a full board out loud, get marked out of five and read your debrief, all before you walk in. Gold includes five boards and every other tool on the platform.
Start preparing for sergeant→Secure checkout