Jessica Sharma, Staffordshire Police

Jessica Sharma of Staffordshire Police wowed the judges with her ASCEND – Advancing Staff Capability through Engagement, Nurturing and Development – Programme, which addressed a lack of structured development pathway for early-stage police staff.

Identifying that the unclear progression pathways were resulting in reduced confidence and underutilised talent, Sharma designed and delivered the programme as part of her level 5 Learning and Development Apprenticeship. She combined workshops, coaching, mentoring, shadowing and action learning, and worked closely with senior leaders, HR, line managers and operational teams to ensure buy-in and embed learning into employees’ day-to-day roles. 

From the beginning Sharma was innovative and adaptive, recognising early in the process that participants expressed significant anxiety around presenting, which risked disengagement. Rather than addressing it directly, Sharma redesigned elements of the programme to include informal “teach back” activities, deliberately avoiding the term ‘presentation’. When later reframed as presentations, “participants recognised their capability, resulting in a notable shift in confidence and engagement”, she said, noting that this approach was consistently highlighted in feedback as “transformative”.

The demand for the ASCEND Programme was an indicator of need, with 37 expressions of interest for the pilot cohort. Among them, engagement remained consistently high throughout delivery, with full attendance and active participation. Participants reported increased self awareness, improved communication skills and a substantial increase in confidence. At an organisational level, ASCEND has received strong endorsement from senior leadership, and has been adopted as a flagship development programme – a second cohort has already been commissioned.

“The results and overall success of the initiative have delivered both strategic organisational benefits, while feedback from participating individuals has also been highly positive,” the judges said, applauding its “clear strategic grounding, credible data use and good evidence of delivery complexity, stakeholder engagement and early impact”.