Read the original article at The Daily Express

You would have thought the police might have learned from the nurses. Once nurses were carers.

They emptied bedpans and mopped up sick, changed soiled bedlinen and took an interest in what every patient was eating. They helped the infirm to the loos and back. 

You did not need to ring a bell because a nurse was always within calling distance. Ward Sister held all and sundry to account, encouraging and rebuking, guiding and explaining. Then some bright spark decided that in the interests of “esteem” nursing would become a graduate profession, that nurses would be graded, with tests and presentations deciding who was where in the pecking order. 

So the wards became staffed with men and women who could pass exams but who failed to notice the old lady who had not eaten for three days or the empty drip or the wet bed. Now the police are making the same daft mistake. Bobbies on the beat will not be judged by how much crime they have prevented or how many criminals they have helped catch but by a test. 

There has been a graduate entry scheme for some time but trying to turn policing into a graduate profession is a mistake. Already both nursing and policing are bedevilled by statistics and form-filling and the endless counter-productive target culture. 

These vital public servants need to concentrate on their jobs, not worry about how their statistics look or whether they are going to satisfy an examiner. It should be enough to impress one’s sergeant.