Met Police 999 call handler role working hours

Hi. I’m starting my call handler training shortly in Hendon. The 12 week training timetable that has been sent to me is mostly 40 and 48 hour weeks squeezes in the working week (Mon-Fri). I have asked the recruiters SSCL if this will be different when I start the actual role as the role is advertised as an average of 36 hours a week spread across a 7 day week. SSCL have not given me an answer (don’t get me started on how frustrating that company is to deal with 😡).
Has anyone gone through the training and can give me an insight into how the working week looks once qualified?
Thanks in advance

Hi. I’m starting my call handler training shortly in Hendon. The 12 week training timetable that has been sent to me is mostly 40 and 48 hour weeks squeezes in the working week (Mon-Fri). I have asked the recruiters SSCL if this will be different when I start the actual role as the role is advertised as an average of 36 hours a week spread across a 7 day week. SSCL have not given me an answer (don’t get me started on how frustrating that company is to deal with 😡).
Has anyone gone through the training and can give me an insight into how the working week looks once qualified?
Thanks in advance

It’s been a few months how are you finding it? What are your hours and weeks like? Is it stressful? I finished my vetting a few days ago now just waiting for a start date.

Good luck. I'm starting 23rd June after 7 months waiting. SSCL really upset me but here we are. I am very confused on the hours though. They confirmed 100x its 12 hour shifts and 36 hour working week. But then one thing they also stress and confirmed 100x is when training is over, you get 4 days on, 4 days off and/or 5 days on, 5 days off, which is what everyone wants. So how does that work? Wouldn't that be 3 days only? I'm very much a compressed-hours kind of guy and they did say in the interview, this can be adhered too, and flexible working is encouraged. But everything is so so so so so grey area, no one can give you a straight answer and it's frustrating because we wait SO long and what if it ends up not what we want/like? Regardless I'm excited. I just accepted offer today and getting my contract tomorrow hopefully. Do you have any infos? I think you are slightly further ahead.

I really happy for you. Congratulations on getting a starting date I hope you love it. I myself just submitted my vetting last month. Can I ask why it took you 7 months?? Why did your vetting take so long to get processed?? I am worried it may be like that for me

Thank you so much! Hope it goes fast for you. Baring in mind, I am a British national, born and raised here, 0 issues with law, so is my family, and also, I was a police officer for a month or so during Covid, and the whole process only took like 3 months back then, so you can imagine I was VERY...not happy...this took 7 months. When I say 7 months, it runs from 25th Oct til now, and my vetting form was only given in February. Anyways, the recruitment team lady confirmed it's because there is not many intakes as we think, so they want to start you with a few others, and it's not like it's an easy role to get, only a few people will be with you as opposed to a huge intake and can start multiple times. Essentially, you could have finished vetting in 3 months, but if the others are taking 6-7 months, then you have to wait for them. I think it's insane. Even though overall my vetting after submitting vetting form was only 3 months, it doesn't matter, it was purposely longer than usual. I think it also depends on your location (hendon, bow, lambeth) etc and how many people going there.

wow thanks for sharing this information. Honestly it does make sense why they do it like this because the initial
First month you are in a class room of
Up to 10 people and if I am the only person that has passed vetting it makes sense for them to wait for
More people to get offered a position so they are not wasting time, money and resources to train only one or a few people that may not even make it passed the 3 month training. So what you are saying makes sense. It’s just annoying because I really want to start and it’s constantly over my head. Plus I have plans with family towards the end of the year and I have to get past the 3 months training to book any holidays off. If not I will have to cancel my plans with family or wait even longer to start work. Plus this job is a huge upgrade financially from my current job so Would be nice to be making some decent money during this time of the year.

Hi there, as someone who completed training just over a year ago i can confirm the pattern is 4-5 on 4-5 off the hours however are all over the place. over the year it works out to 36 hours a week but some weeks you'll be doing 60 hours other weeks only 16 hours. this is a rough outline from part of the year last year (i hope you can see the image)

Yes the image is clear thank you for this. Is working 60 hour weeks common in one month and is it hard?

Tbh 60 only appears like maybe 3 times in the whole year and it really depends on the individual with the 60 week the times are shifted later so it may be something like 2 earlies a late and 2 nights so you get a bit more rest between shifts.
I'm on a 48h this week 2 earlies then 24 hours between and then 2 nights so you get a nice chunk between sometimes

Glad to hear 60hr weeks are not common because that’s sounds like a lot. Do you find yourself doing overtime often? Is there always overtime?

Hey guys, forgot to post ! I'm on week 4 of training, the above poster with the timetable is exactly how yours will look.
So, week 1 and 3, we are on earlies (7 - 3) and week 2 and 4 is lates (3 - 11). Everyday you do a bunch of topics, and some training on the system. On week 4, you do an exam, which is a 60 question multiple choice, and then 3 seperate scenarios that you have to input on the system. Our entire group has been crapping ourselves as our trainer seems to be not as engaged as the other trainers, so we are not progressing as good as others, but hopefully it will be fine. You do get a 2nd chance if you fail though. I just want this week to be over and it's not even started yet. You get another final practical call exam in week 12, but that's miles away, just need to pass this week !

Hi, sorry to bother you. Do you know what the timetable or hours for the training is like? Is it Mon - Fri 9-5 or day / night shifts like the timetable you sent? Thanks

Literally same as you. Big financial upgrade, plans coming up. Unfortunately, I've had to cancel mine since I know the dates now, so I hope yours is not cancelled too. Whilst it does make sense for all of this, I'm sorry but it's still utterly ridiculous in terms of communications. I'd rather be told a rough date of when I'm starting, especially towards the end of vetting. They want you to be an open book with no information and just be free for them. I think it's horrendous as I was left unemployed for months because of this, which is not a problem now anymore I guess, but still it sucked. They also confirmed that starting a new job whilst going through vetting has no effect on the speed of vetting, nor does it have any influence, it's irrelevant. Still waiting for the contract though, accepted the offer the same day and they said they would send it over, but nooo still here =/

I just received a email saying that i need to wait for my cyc vetting because its on hold because of the high demand and I'm supposed to start only in April 2026, so frustrating.

Same here @alicebritoo, applied in late January and received my provisional offer in March.. got an email in September saying that my cyc vetting is also on hold and that my actual start date has been delayed to potentially after April 2026. Haven’t heard anything since. Frustrating but I guess it’s just a waiting game until then.