Instructors and Trainers
Public and Personal Safety Training — Authorised Professional Practice
Summary
This section provides guidance for police staff responsible for delivering Public and Personal Safety Training (PPST). Instructors must adhere to the national learning programme standards and maintain competence as defined in the PPST instructor role profile. Existing instructors can leverage accredited prior learning if they haven't completed the national programme. Trainers must also meet specific qualifications, including the police sector standard for trainers and a certificate in assessing vocational achievement. The guidance emphasizes that only approved techniques from the College's public and personal safety manual should be taught and that instructors should access relevant data to assess training effectiveness.
Key principles
- 1Instructors must meet the national learning programme standards.
- 2Occupational competence is required for both instructors and trainers.
- 3Only techniques from the College's public and personal safety manual should be taught.
- 4Relevant data must be used to ensure training effectiveness.
Defined terms
- CAVA
- Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement
- PPST
- Public and Personal Safety Training
- PPST guidance
- Guidance available to authorised users that outlines standards for PPST instructors and trainers.
Full guidance
Information for police staff delivering public and personal safety training (PPST)
This page is from APP, the official source of professional practice for policing.
Instructors must be trained to the standards of the national learning programme for public and personal safety instructors. Competence should be maintained and measured against the PPST instructor role profile. The national learning programme and PPST instructor role profile are both available in the **PPST guidance**(opens an external website in the same tab) (this link is available to authorised users who are logged on to College Learn).
Instructors delivering PPST should possess or attain:
occupational competence in the delivery of training against the PPST assessment criteria, as referred to in the **PPST guidance**(opens an external website in the same tab) (this link is available to authorised users who are logged on to College Learn)
Existing instructors who have not completed the national learning programme may be able to use their accredited prior learning to meet the instructor standard, as detailed in the **PPST guidance**(opens an external website in the same tab) (this link is available to authorised users who are logged on to College Learn).
The public and personal safety instructor training programme must only be delivered by qualified trainers who have obtained:
a certificate in assessing vocational achievement (CAVA) or the College of Policing assessing award
occupational competence in the delivery of training against the PPST assessment criteria
Instructors and trainers should ensure that:
only techniques contained in the College's public and personal safety manual are taught – see the **Training implementation** section for further details
they have access to appropriate support to put training into an operational context, as outlined in the instructor and trainer standards, as referred to in the **PPST guidance**(opens an external website in the same tab) (this link is available to authorised users who are logged on to College Learn)
they receive data in relation to PPST, which may include injuries during training, assaults on officers and staff, and use of force data so that they can identify the effectiveness of training and equipment – see the **Management and analysis of PPST data** section for further details
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APP is the authoritative source for UK policing practice and is updated over time. For the current, official version — including any operational detail not reproduced here — go direct.
Read the full APP guidanceSource: College of Policing — Authorised Professional Practice · Crown copyright, licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0. Summary fetched 2026-06-27.