Avon and Somerset Police has signed up to a new fast-track apprenticeship aimed at tackling a chronic shortage of investigators.

The force has a shortage of 40 detectives and this is expected to rise to 60 by the summer.

To close the gap, the force is recruiting roughly 10 graduates with two years’ work experience for the Police Now National Detective Programme.

A job advert says: “The course starts with the 12-week ‘detective academy’ and is followed by hands-on experience alongside qualified police.

“After two years you’ll be a fully qualified detective, with a guaranteed job with Avon and Somerset police.” But, when the Home Office announced the project last summer, the England and Wales Police Federation criticised the idea as “an insult to detectives” and warned it would “shatter morale and do nothing to instil public confidence and trust.”

Avon and Somerset Police Federation chairman Andy Roebuck said he had concerns about the training but welcomed the additional officers.

He said: “We have got real pain with our numbers of staff, so obviously any injection that brings more capacity for us is a positive.

“The demand has gone up, the complexities of what our detectives are investigating has gone up, but the resourcing levels have gone down.

“In theory, the Police Now scheme would be much-needed assistance to our creaking investigations and the detectives we have at this moment.

“Our main concern, which we have just started discussing with the constabulary, is the actual training and what that looks like.

“Just by having a 12-week course doesn’t make you a murder detective.

“We’re very conscious we need to support these new people coming in.

“Yes, we’ve got concerns about the standard of the 12 weeks, but the organisation is very responsive.

“They do not want people that are going to suffer because they cannot deal with what they’re being requested to investigate, because that fails the public, and the individual doesn’t feel they’re doing a meaningful job if they cannot do it.

“We’re in agreement with the force that it has to be meaningful training.