NCFE · RQF Level 3
NCFE Level 3 Diploma in Policing (720)
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 3
- Guided learning720 hours
- Units in this qualification23
Awarded by NCFE · on the Ofqual register
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What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
This qualification has been allocated UCAS points. Please refer to the UCAS website for further details of the points allocation and the most up-to-date information.
These are the units NCFE registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Carry out map reading and navigation across open countryReal unit · NCFE
You'll develop map reading and navigation skills for open country, understanding safety requirements such as weather forecasting and hazard identification. They will plan and undertake routes and evaluate their navigation performance.
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how physical and mental wellbeing may be affected during navigation
- Describe terrain, adverse weather conditions, clothing and equipment required for different routes
- Understand how to respond to and report an incident or accident
- Prepare a plan for a route across open country
- Prepare route cards to navigate across open country
- Prepare and deliver a safety brief for participants on the route
- Undertake a route across open country using relocation strategies when necessary
- Review their own map-reading, route-planning and navigation skills
- Evaluate the accuracy of the route card
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the safety brief
Collaboration between the emergency servicesReal unit · NCFE
This unit develops understanding of collabouration between emergency services during major incidents. You'll identify involved services, their roles, benefits and challenges of collabouration, and participate in joint exercises.
What you'll be able to do
- Identify the statutory and non-statutory services that may work together in a major incident
- Describe the roles and responsibilities of each service at a major incident
- Describe the benefits and challenges of working collaboratively in the emergency services
- Analyse a major incident
- Describe how it was resolved
- Explain theories of team building
- Participate in a joint services team activity involving a major incident
- Participate in a joint services collaboration exercise
- Produce a debrief at the conclusion of the exercise
Crime scene investigationReal unit · NCFE
This unit equips learners with principles and practical skills for crime scene investigation. You'll understand crime scene preservation, roles of investigation personnel, evidence types, and procedures for securing and analysing crime scenes.
What you'll be able to do
- Describe the basic principles of crime scene management
- Demonstrate the use of basic crime scene investigation principles
- Prepare evidence
- Produce a crime scene report
- Analyse outcomes of the data gathered
- Consider possible scenarios from the data gathered
Dealing with emergency incidentsReal unit · NCFE
This unit provides knowledge of responding to emergency incidents, including classification and roles of statutory and non-statutory services. You'll understand scene preservation, health and safety considerations, and effective response procedures.
What you'll be able to do
- Identify what is classified as an emergency incident
- Explain the role and responsibilities of the call handler and resource controller
- Describe call grades and response criteria allocated to incidents reported to the police
- Explain the importance of responding safely to emergency incidents whilst in response vehicles
- Identify the actions of the first responder at the scene of an incident
- Describe the roles of the statutory and non-statutory agencies
- Evaluate an emergency incident and the collaboration between statutory and non-statutory agencies
- Identify the reasons for preserving the scene of an emergency incident
- Describe the specialist roles that could be involved in the investigation of an emergency incident
- Explain the measures taken to preserve the scene of an emergency incident
- Identify dangers that can exist at an emergency incident
- Describe measures to be taken for self-preservation
- Identify methods of communication with the public
- Describe the current legislation and regulations to health and safety at the scene of an emergency
Develop aspects of physical fitness for entry to the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
This unit supports learners in developing physical fitness for police service entry by assessing current fitness, producing a training programme, and understanding health and wellbeing components relevant to physical fitness.
What you'll be able to do
- Participate in fitness tests
- Identify own level of physical fitness in relation to the police service physical activity standards
- Explore methods of achieving physical fitness to meet the entry standards of the police service
- Carry out SWOT analysis and SMART targets
- Monitor and record fitness activity and outcomes within the defined timescales
- Undertake the planned training programme
- Review the fitness assessment
- Understand current government guidelines and standards for healthy eating and how to meet them
- Describe methods of measuring and recording physical attributes
- Explain the effects and consequences of hydration, nutrition and performance enhancing drugs on
- Explain the principles of training
- Review the outcome of their fitness assessment
- Review the content of the training programme
- Review changes in personal fitness
Develop leadership skillsReal unit · NCFE
This unit develops leadership skills by exploring different leadership styles, demonstrating key leadership abilities such as communication and motivation, and critically reviewing personal leadership effectiveness.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain different leadership styles
- Identify their own style of leadership
- Plan and prepare a team task
- Brief the team for the task
- Respond to and deliver constructive feedback during the task
- Evaluate their leadership skills in the team task
Emergency planning and response in the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
This unit covers the impact of major incidents on individuals and organisations within the police service. You'll understand key factors in emergency situations, develop skills to manage emergency scenarios, and evaluate outcomes to improve response effectiveness.
What you'll be able to do
- Describe what is meant by a major incident
- Describe the effects of major incidents on individuals and organisations
- Understand the need for emergency planning
- Explain the Civil Contingencies Act
- Explain the role of different agencies involved in emergency situations
- Explain the deployment of agencies to a major incident
- Plan for an emergency major incident scenario
- Undertake emergency response procedures
- Demonstrate primacy and chain of command
- Demonstrate effective communication procedures in emergency situations.
- Review their personal performance during the simulated exercise
- Evaluate the outcome of the simulated exercise and effectiveness of the plan
Equality, diversity and inclusionReal unit · NCFE
You'll gain an understanding of equality, diversity, and inclusion, alongside radicalisation, British values, and standards. The unit considers the impact of extremism and terrorism and the importance of promoting inclusive practices.
What you'll be able to do
- Define the meaning of equality
- Define the meaning of diversity
- Define the meaning of inclusion
- Describe British values of tolerance, rule of law, democracy, mutual respect, individual liberty
- Explain radicalisation, extremism and terrorism
- Evaluate the impact of radicalisation, extremism and terrorism on a multi-cultural society
- Review radicalisation, extremism and terrorism in terms of tolerance, respect and community inclusion
- Identify and evaluate the impact of hate crime
ICT in the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
You'll understand ICT systems and procedures used by the police service, including legal and security requirements. The unit also covers online safety and security, emphasising their importance and potential consequences of breaches within policing contexts.
What you'll be able to do
- Identify the different types of systems used by the police service
- Outline the legal and security requirements of using ICT systems in the police service
- Describe the benefits of ICT for use within the police service
- Understand online safety and security
- Identify examples of when online safety and security has been relevant
- Review their online security
- Review the information that appears on their online profile
- Consider the potential impact of their online profile
Mental and physical wellbeing in the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
This unit highlights the importance of mental and physical wellbeing in the police service. You'll identify wellbeing factors, create and use personalised healthy lifestyle plans, and review these plans to maintain fitness for service.
What you'll be able to do
- Identify factors that can affect mental and physical wellbeing
- Explain the importance of mental and physical wellbeing in the police service
- Produce a personal healthy diet plan
- Produce a personal exercise plan
- Produce a mental wellbeing journal
- Use the plans for a given period
- Review any changes to their mental and physical wellbeing as a result of using their plans
Neighbourhood policingReal unit · NCFE
You'll understand criminal behaviours affecting communities and the role of neighbourhood policing. The unit covers Community Safety Partnerships, police responsibilities, collabourative approaches, and the impact of policing on community safety.
What you'll be able to do
- Describe the types of criminal behaviour affecting communities
- Analyse the effects that criminal behaviour can have on local communities
- Identify the role of Community Safety Partnerships in reducing criminal behaviour in local
- Describe the roles and responsibilities of the police officer within neighbourhoods
- Describe the role of statutory and non-statutory services
- Describe the structure of a neighbourhood policing team
- Evaluate intelligence led neighbourhood policing
- Analyse the collaborative approach and impact of neighbourhood policing
Preparation for Higher EducationReal unit · NCFE
This unit equips learners with skills for higher education, including research techniques, academic writing, referencing, and planning. You'll produce academic work and reflect on their future educational aspirations.
What you'll be able to do
- Identify different methods and techniques of study used in Higher Education
- Demonstrate participation in an academic discussion and participate in study groups
- Describe research techniques
- Explain how to structure and produce an academic assignment
- Develop an academic argument in an assignment
- Demonstrate academic referencing
- Plan for the written piece of work
- Produce the written piece of work
- Review the written piece of work
- Identify their future aspirations
- Explain Further and Higher Education options
- Review and evaluate alternative options
Prepare for a career in the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
You'll prepare for a career in the police service by understanding career opportunities, identifying personal development needs, preparing for entry processes, and evaluating their performance during application stages.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain different career opportunities in the police service
- Describe career options in the police service
- Explain personal goals and targets for entry to the police service
- Identify ways to achieve personal goals and targets
- Discuss the importance of the police application form and what’s involved
- Participate in an interview
- Participate in a selection process
- Explain their performance in an application and selection process
- Consider areas for development
Safeguarding and the Prevent DutyReal unit · NCFE
You'll study safeguarding principles relating to vulnerable people and children, including relevant legislation and police measures. The unit also covers recognising signs of abuse, the national safeguarding context, and the Prevent Duty to counter extremism.
What you'll be able to do
- Describe what safeguarding is
- Identify current legislation relating to vulnerable people
- Explain the measures taken by the police in safeguarding vulnerable people and child protection
- Identify national policies and local systems that relate to safeguarding and protection from abuse
- Explain the roles of different agencies in safeguarding and protecting individuals from abuse
- Identify reports into serious failures to protect individuals
- Define types of abuse
- Describe the signs and/or symptoms that may be associated with different types of abuse
- Explain why individuals might not disclose abuse
- Define and describe the Prevent Duty
- Describe the key features of the Prevent Duty
- Identify ways to reduce the risk of radicalisation
The development of the UK police serviceReal unit · NCFE
This unit explores the historical development of the UK police service and the impact of legislation on policing. You'll examine key historical events, technological advancements, and how legislation shapes police powers and operational practices.
What you'll be able to do
- Identify significant points in policing history which have contributed to the development of UK policing
- Discuss modern technologies which have aided policing
- Review case studies about the impact on modern policing
- Explain the legislation that has impacted upon policing
- Identify significant reasons and/or historic events which resulted in new legislation
- Describe police powers to stop and search
- Describe police powers of entry, search and seize
- Describe police powers to arrest
- Describe police powers of detention
The influence of UK government, international organisations and the media on the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
You'll explore the influence of the UK Government, international organisations, and the media on policing. The unit covers governmental and judicial impacts on police roles and analyses media effects on public perception.
What you'll be able to do
- Describe sections of UK government that influence the police service
- Explain the roles of international organisations that work in co-operation with the police service
- Describe the impact of the judicial process on police service personnel
- Explain how public perception of the police service is influenced by the media
- Describe how the police service use the media
UK legal systems and the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
You'll gain knowledge of UK civil and criminal law and their impact on policing. The unit covers legal system structures, roles within courts, burdens of proof, and how legal frameworks influence police procedures and limitations.
What you'll be able to do
- Describe the differences between UK civil and criminal law
- Identify the structures of the UK legal systems in civil and criminal matters
- Explain the roles of personnel within the UK courts systems
- Explain the legal constraints and limitations when dealing with different situations
- Demonstrate the processes involved in dealing with criminal cases
Understand conflict management and personal protectionReal unit · NCFE
This unit provides knowledge of conflict management and personal protection, covering types of conflict, emotional responses, escalation factors, legal implications, and practical self-defence techniques for personal safety.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain the importance of vigilance for self-protection in hazardous situations
- Explain personal space
- Describe verbal and non-verbal communication techniques that can be used as a self-defence
- Explain how and when to use different self-defence techniques
- Explain reasonable force
- Explain the defence of property
- Explain the implications of using self-defence techniques in a conflict situation
- Outline legislation related to self-defence
- Use a variety of self-defence techniques to respond to armed and unarmed attacks
Understand the impact of war and conflict on the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
You'll explore the effects of war and conflict on the UK police service, including operational challenges and political influences. The unit also examines police responses to terrorism and conflict, enhancing understanding of security and prevention measures.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain how conflict or civil unrest can affect the operational capacity of the police service
- Describe how the changing political agenda of government can impact the police service
- Summarise causes of war and conflict
- Explain methods used by the UK police service to combat and prevent both national and international
- Analyse the effects that recent acts of terrorism have had on society
- Review the impact of terrorist acts on the police service
Understanding discipline in the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
This unit provides an understanding of discipline and authority in the police service. You'll study the need for discipline, relevant rules and regulations, concepts of conformity and obedience, and demonstrate self-discipline in practical contexts.
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the need for discipline in the police service
- Outline the rules and regulations for discipline in the police service
- Explain conformity and obedience
- Explain authority in the police service
- Describe the types of authority in the police service
- Demonstrate self-discipline
- Demonstrate compliance with or adherence to conformity
- Evaluate/review own levels of self-discipline
Understanding mental healthReal unit · NCFE
You'll explore mental health problems, their social consequences, and links to substance misuse and offending. The unit covers factors influencing outcomes, challenges faced by carers, and the relationship between mental health and the criminal justice system.
What you'll be able to do
- Describe factors which influence outcomes for someone with a mental health problem
- Describe difficulties which family members and/or carers might experience
- Describe the links between mental health problems and poor physical health
- Explain the impact of mental health problems on society generally
- Describe different drugs or substances both prescribed and non-prescribed
- Describe the effects on an individual and their behaviour
- Explain why someone with a mental health problem might take non-prescribed drugs
- Describe potential consequences of substance and/or alcohol misuse
- Explain why a non-judgemental approach is important
- Explain the connections between mental health and offending
- Explain the provisions within mental health legislation for the assessment and treatment of people
- Describe the challenges that may be faced when supporting a person with mental health problems
Values and standards in the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
You'll identify and apply appropriate personal values, standards, and morals for the police service, analyse public perception influenced by specific incidents, and reflect on their own ethical positions in relation to policing.
What you'll be able to do
- Explain the difference between ethics (values, standards and morals)
- Describe the importance of service-specific core ethics (values, standards and morals)
- Explain public perception of the police service as influenced by a specific incident
- Participate in moral dilemma activities
- Produce a self-assessment
- Compare own values, morals and standards with others
Volunteering in the police serviceReal unit · NCFE
It teaches you to understand the significance of volunteering in the police service and available roles. You'll participate in a volunteer role, following relevant procedures and legislation, and reflect on the experience and its benefits.
What you'll be able to do
- Understand types of volunteering opportunities
- Describe different roles within volunteering opportunities
- Describe the benefits of volunteering to the individual
- Identify skills and qualities needed to be a volunteer
- Identify legislation affecting volunteers
- Participate in a volunteering role
- Review and evaluate the volunteering opportunity
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 3 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Carry out map reading and navigation across open countryCollaboration between the emergency servicesCrime scene investigationDealing with emergency incidentsDevelop aspects of physical fitness for entry to the police serviceDevelop leadership skillsEmergency planning and response in the police serviceEquality, diversity and inclusion
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
NCFE Level 3 Diploma in Policing (720)
- Advise on the fitness of individuals for police interview
- Deal with incidents, hazards and emergencies in community environments
- Deploy resources to respond to emergency situations and incidents
- Organise emergency reception and treatment services following a major incident
- Respond to Emergency Service Calls
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
Advise on the fitness of individuals for police interviewDeal with incidents, hazards and emergencies in community environmentsDeploy resources to respond to emergency situations and incidentsOrganise emergency reception and treatment services following a major incidentRespond to Emergency Service Calls
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
One-to-one, on your real workNo lectures, no past-papers. Every unit is practised on the actual tasks your job throws at you, a tutor beside you, not a video in front of you.
Taught to the top, not the testMost courses stop at remembering. Your companion keeps climbing: analysing, judging, creating. That’s the part a machine can’t do for you.
Credits you keep, a map that continuesEvery unit is regulated and yours for good. The day you finish, Zavmo already knows the next role your new credits open.
Applied to your own work
Learners will develop map reading and navigation skills for open country, understanding safety requirements such as weather forecasting and hazard identification. They will plan and undertake routes and evaluate their navigation performance.
How the thinking builds
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for NCFE Level 3 Diploma in Policing (720)
23 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by NCFE.
- Carry out map reading and navigation across open country
- Collaboration between the emergency services
- Crime scene investigation
- Dealing with emergency incidents
- Develop aspects of physical fitness for entry to the police service
- Develop leadership skills
and 17 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
Why this matters: AI can already remember and understand for you. What it can’t do is
take your real problem and judge the right call. So the only learning worth paying
for is the learning that takes you to the top. That’s exactly what a tutor doing it with
you, on your real work, is for.
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.