PW-2-2026

Keeping you informed

Professional Commission Project Leads

Mentoring Program Presentation

sport and all the other wonderful cultural connections that come with huge IPA events like this. The National Golf Competition will also take place in Blairgowrie, Scotland between 9-11 June with twenty-one members taking to the fairways from four regions. Good luck to everyone getting involved with IPA sport this summer. As we begin the preparations for the National Council Meeting, which will be held online on Saturday 6th June, it will mark the 1-year milestone of this term in office. It will be a time to reflect on the work that has been done, those who have stepped up and made a huge contribution to the effort of steering Section UK through the most challenging of times, and the positive plans that lie ahead to help the section to flourish again. These are exciting times for Section UK, and I look forward to sharing them with you here over the coming months.

On return from this meeting, I circulated the questions for the Convention of the Statutes to our regional committees in order to get a sense of the feeling in Section UK for the questions under consideration. I thank all those who fed back into the NEC discussion. In Lisbon, Section UK was present in its capacity of Founding Section, something that we should be rightly proud of and not lose sight of when sometimes the difficulties of 2025, our very own annus horribilis, can seem all-consuming. When the convention notes are available, I will share them through the regional committees, because it these troubling times, it is interesting to understand the discussion which shapes the direction of travel for the International Organization. Of course, this was a consultation, and any changes that are deemed appropriate will be tabled as motions at World Congress in Sri Lanka. I should add here that the event was held at the IPA Lisbon House. If you haven’t visited it, I highly recommend it for a stay in Lisbon. It is great value for money and very well situated. I have also been immensely proud of the work that Section UK has been doing to support activity and engagement with colleagues in the British Overseas Territories. We have been asked by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office to deliver the online British Overseas Territories Women in Policing Awards on Wednesday 29th April. There is more about this from Assistant VP Learning and Development Lorna Corbin in her article. I look forward to continuing to grow this work with her and Emma Portfleet (Region 10) throughout the year. March also saw us host friends from Section Ireland in London. VP Kieran English invited Gillian O’Donoghue and Steve Moore to share their Mentoring Program for young members, something recognized at international level as being an immense success in attracting and retaining new, younger, serving members. I found their presentation illuminating and Kieran will be looking to progress a Section UK model in the coming months. So, looking ahead, we have thirty-nine representatives from Section UK participating in the IPA Games in Wroclaw 10-15 May. This is fantastic, and we have competitors in women’s football, table tennis, 5K and 10K running, tennis, pistol shooting, and badminton. Our women’s football squad will be hoping to be as dominant as they were at last year’s World Football Competition, which they won. It will certainly be an exciting few days of

Karen Duckworth President Section UK

International President Martin Hoffmann, Section UK President Karen Duckworth and guests take a break from the 2026 Region 1 New Year Ceilidh, held in Aberdeen.

5

POLICE WORLD Vol 71 No.2, 2026