The Blue Light Leavers Podcast

Looking Back and a Blueprint for Policing with John Sutherland Police Commander  This week's episode is a very welcome return to former Police Commander John Sutherland .  John is a former Met Police Chief Superintendent, he is the best-selling author of the books Blue and Crossing the Line , he's a highly sought after police commentator with the national press and media and host of the...

How to Really Stand Out in Interview This week's episode takes a slightly different format and is more of a tutorial, based on my own experience of being interviewed on so many occasions since leaving the job in early 2015, my experience of conducting interviews for new staff, and successfully helping many others (check out the videos and written testimonials on the Blue Light Leavers website), an...

From Policing to Train Driver with Matt Kent In this episode, I'm talking with Matthew (Matt) Kent . Now I think this episode is going to be incredibly popular, because Matthew is a former Police Officer, who left after 10 years to become a train driver, and he's been a train driver for the last 5 years. In this episode, we talk about his reasons for leaving, and what he actually did in the job, w...

From Policing to Operations Duty Manager Elizabeth Line with Dave Glennon If you come from an operational background or you're interested in any operational role, I promise this interview is going to be of huge interest to you and will help you massively. So in this interview, we talk through Dave's policing career and his background. We also talk about his catalyst for change and why he needed to...

All things LinkedIn with Charlotte Eve CK Futures  As well as being a professional CV writer, Charlotte has been writing LinkedIn profiles for people for many years. During this interview, we cover everything from the absolute basics, so if you've never even been on LinkedIn before, we talk you through, from start to finish, all the way through to how to create and all-star profile, how to make su...

Coping with grief and the Grief Recovery Method with Joan Hughes and Sara Donnelly Grief is something we are all too familiar with, personally and when dealing with the grief of others, including our families, friends and colleagues and the last year has been more challenging than ever. In line with the National Day of Reflection and exactly 12 months since the first lockdown, in this episode I'm...

From Policing to HS2 Engagement Specialist with Michael Newbrook  Mike is a former Sergeant who reached around 17 years service before looking to leave and is another former student/alumni of The Blue Light Achievers Programme.  Mike started looking at his options outside of policing for roles with greater work/life balance after the birth of his youngest child. He got in touch with me l...

Successful police career, retired, knock backs, lacking confidence to dream job!  If you're retired or close to it and you're feeling a little bit lost and not sure how to go about moving on, or what opportunities are out there for you, then this will really help I promise.  This week's episode is with a former student/alumni of The Blue Light Achievers Programme, Brain Faint.  Brian is a retired...

Louise is the Operations Manager for UK Missing Persons within the National Crime Agency.   She's a former uniformed PC that left policing to join, what was, the Serious Organised Crime Agency which later became the National Crime Agency. In this interview, she talks us through why she wanted to leave policing and talks us through the current application process. We talk about how to map your...

Support for those leaving or having left the job on ill-Health retirement or those who have suffered physical or psychological harm This is an area I've been wanting to support members and listeners of the podcast for a while and I'm very honoured to say that Police Care UK and Blue Light Leavers will be working closely together over the coming weeks and months to support those going through IHR o...

From Police Officer to Project Manager Damien Ellis Damien's story is all about resilience, consistency and the ability to bounce back and I know you'll find it really helpful and inspirational. Damien and I connected a while back when he was going through a really tough time and looking to leave Policing and we started working together to put a plan in place and went through the whole proces...

Managing Director of Frontier Risks Group - Pete Lawrence This may ring a bell as Frontier Risks Group have been mentioned before on the Blue Light Leavers podcast and in particular, the Security Risk Management Consultants (SRMC)  course I've heard so many great things about. This course is recognised globally as the best there is for anyone looking to move towards strategic risk consultancy...

From Policing to Safeguarding and Welfare Lead - Kelly Fardon Kelly is a former Police Officer who has a background working on the domestic violence team and online paedophile unit. She's also a cancer survivor. In this interview, she explains how she'd been looking for a new role for about 2 years but lacked the courage and self belief to make the move. Despite some financial challenges, having r...

This episode features a former Detective, Helly Walters. Helly spent a number of years in Child Protection before a really difficult personal tragedy gave her the reason, impetus and motivation to look for a new career away from policing.  Helly talks us through the moment she spotted a particular role with the Care Quality Commission and how she could immediately see how her skills and exper...

From Frontline Policing to Close Protection and Security Risk Consultant This week's guest is a former response and beat officer and mum of 3, Alecia Emerson-Thomas. Alecia talks us through her career and also talks about the impact of living with someone who is suffering from complex PTSD. This alongside being a mum and significant work pressure, caused Alecia to suffer mental health challenges h...

From Policing to Cyber Security with Carl Osborne - Principal Cell Site Specialist In this fantastic episode, Carl talks about his Policing career and why he left to follow a career in Cyber Security. Carl was given Counselling support due to the challenging role he had in Policing. It was the moment where his counsellor described it as an abusive relationship, that gave him crystal clarity that h...

It's fair to say, we're going through a bit of an economical bumpy ride at the moment and it's likely to last at least a few months longer yet and although there are firms recruiting, a number are having to lay people off.  Financial security, specifically through a number of income streams can be the difference between sleeping soundly or worrying about yours or your family's financial future.  I...

This week's podcast guest is Simon Turner, Head of Reed Secure (part of Reed Global), Reed Secure specialise in working with former police officers, security cleared and cyber security professionals and are experts in providing specialist resources in investigation, project management, fraud, safety, compliance, risk assessment and cyber security. Simon has been in recruiting for 25 years, has a v...

My guest is a former Detective Sergeant who was one of the first on scene at the Edgeware Road 7/7 bombing. She is a multi-award winning entrepreneur and franchise creator, business owner, transformational coach and Angel Investor and has been recognised as one of the top 100 female entrepreneurs in the UK. Jenni Dunman is the creator and Director of Daisy First Aid and has grown her business from...

I'm very conscious that many of you and members of the Blue Light Leavers Facebook group won't know much about me, my own journey of leaving the Police to freelance Business Change Manager via Project Management, the challenges, set backs and successes I've had, how Blue Light Leavers came about and why and some of the success stories of those I've mentored.   I had the honour of being asked to be...

If you're approaching retirement from policing, Law Enforcement or any of the Emergency Services, or if you've retired at full service or due to ill-health, you've had your second (or third) career and you're looking to retire fully, then this podcast is for you.  If you're anything like me towards the end of my service, you'll be feeling really apprehensive and unsure about what the future holds....

Management Consultancies, big or small, can be a really good fit for Emergency Service professionals. It's challenging, you need to be resilient, the ability to communicate and manage challenging and demanding stakeholders, remain calm under pressure, manage a high workload, advise and support clients, manage expectations, have challenging conversations and be results orientated. Any of this sound...

Neurolinguistic Programming and other associated support methodologies have been of huge interest to so many in the Blue Light Leavers Private Facebook group and have proved incredibly helpful for many officers and their families within the BLL group! Rak Nathwani works with the individuals and families, the Police Firearms Officers Association, Police Federations, Police Mutual, numerous charitie...

Elaine Innes left the job after 15 years, moving into really well paid roles within the Telecoms industry that are incredibly sought after by former Cops and then made the decision to follow a passion, moving into Personal Training and coaching and has not looked back! We talk about the reasons why Elaine made the decision to leave, the interview processes, that transition to a new role and the ch...

Don't forget you can access the private Facebook Group via this link: www.facebook.com/groups/bluelightleavers Today I'm talking to Steve Hardy. Steve is a Military Veteran and former Police Officer who started his career in Leicestershire Police, before transferring to Devon and Cornwall Police. Whilst in D&C Police he became a Security Coordinator and subsequently spent many years as a hostage n...