What does the pledge mean?

In April 2025 the government introduced its Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee (NPG), as promised in both its 2024 election manifesto and its subsequent Plan for Change, published in December 2024.

The NPG performance framework, published in April 2025, consists of five ‘pillars’ based on the aims set out in the Plan for Change, each of which we’re monitoring separately.

The third pillar, “Clear performance standards and professional excellence”, pledged: “New training for officers and standards for professional excellence will ensure neighbourhood policing is developed as a specialist policing capability.”

The framework says that the “headline measure” the government will use is the total number of the policing workforce completing Neighbourhood Policing Programme (NPP) portfolios in their communities.

In the first iteration of its Policing Performance Framework document published in January 2026, the government has set out a commitment for “all eligible officers/staff” to have completed the training portfolios by the end of this parliament.

What progress has been made?

The first part of the Neighbourhood Policing Programme (NPP1) was rolled out to all police forces in England and Wales in June 2025, following a year-long trial involving officers from 11 forces.

The second phase of the programme was launched in October 2025, with phase three launched in June 2026.

The College of Policing says that the full training programme, which will consist of four parts (NPP 1-4), is expected to be available by 2027.

According to a press release published in June 2026, “more than 20,000” police officers and PCSOs had completed the first part of the training programme since its launch.