Top police award for Wearside cadet with special educational needs

By Tony Gillan
Published 3rd Nov 2023, 15:49 BST
Updated 4th Nov 2023, 17:18 BST
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A police cadet from Washington with special education needs has overcome his challenges to win a prestigious national award.

Michael Kerr, 21, joined his fellow cadets to beat off 246 other teams from across England and Wales to win the Lord Ferrers Volunteer Police Cadet Team Award for their outstanding contribution to volunteering in policing.

Michael and his colleague Daniel Kelly attended a glittering, black-tie ceremony at the historic Lancaster House on The Mall in London to collect their prize from broadcaster Sir Martyn Lewis, on behalf of their cadet team.

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The award winning cadets completed their cadetships at the Percy Hedley Foundation’s Hedley’s College in North Tyneside, in partnership with Northumbria Police.

Award winning Washington police cadet Michael Kerr, centre, with colleague Daniel Kelly and broadcaster Martyn Lewis.Award winning Washington police cadet Michael Kerr, centre, with colleague Daniel Kelly and broadcaster Martyn Lewis.
Award winning Washington police cadet Michael Kerr, centre, with colleague Daniel Kelly and broadcaster Martyn Lewis.

Hedley’s College is an independent specialist further education provider for students aged 16 to 25 who have education, health and care plans.

The cadets learned about all about policing.

Topics covered included the phonetic alphabet, hate crime, anti social behaviour, knife crime, crime prevention, internet safety, dog handling, well being and mental health, theft, road safety/drink driving and anti bullying.

They learned through lots of off-site visits to various places including a mosque, a speedwatch exercise, a local beach, the force’s dog handling unit, as well as classroom-based lessons.

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The Volunteer Police Cadets (VPC) is the uniformed youth group of policing and, until now, had only been accessible to able bodied, mainstream educated young people.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Lord Ferrers Awards, the police’s OK9 Wellbeing Dogs were special guests at the reception.

Joanne Rees-Proud, college principal at the Percy Hedley Foundation, said: “We were thrilled to launch the first police cadets scheme in the UK for people with disabilities and additional needs and the first eight cadets have done some fantastic work for the police service.

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“We strive to offer our students education and experiences that help them reach their fullest potential in all aspects of their lives, and this cadetship very much supports that goal.

“To see how proud the cadets were to win this big award was a very special, emotional moment for our staff and their mentors at Northumbria Police.”