The force has confirmed it will be re-opening the IPLDP route as an alternative.

West Yorkshire will be placing the Degree Holder Entry Programme [DHEP] entry route on hold for the financial year 2023/24.

Instead it will be re-opening the traditional IPLDP route as an alternative for officers who do not want to do the PCDA.

It follows a period of turmoil over entry routes into policing after a u-turn last November on the planned cessation of the IPLDP route.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman asked the College to consider new non-degree entry route options, clarifying that the IPLDP route would remain open while they did so.

The College had previously announced the route would be discontinued from April this year.

It had sparked controversy among senior policing leaders as well as PCCs – some of whom are now making use of the renewed flexibility and returning to the old ways of doing things.

Hampshire PCC Donna Jones just this week announced an entirely new option for those completing their probation. Policing PLUS is affiliated to IPLDP and will allow those in year one and two of the degree programme to transfer out of it following completion of their current year. 

16 PCCs wrote to the Home Secretary last October asking for IPLDP to be kept open. No detail has yet been given on the new non-degree entry route that Suella Braverman asked the College to explore. 

A West Yorkshire Police Spokesperson said: “We have reviewed all our Police Constable entry routes and have decided to focus on the PCDA and IPLDP routes for 2023/24.  

“We are also awaiting for information from the College of Policing’s development of a PEQF non-degree entry route product.”