Dark blue curved felt shoulder badge marked "Police Cadet" in light blue coloured embroidered lettering within a similar cloured embroidered curved cartouche.
Use
For use by a paid police cadet on shoulders of their tunic
Context
The original police cadet system was first established in 1948 in the Metropolitan Police with youngsters being employed full time from the age of 16 to 19, in a uniform support role and given the option of becoming full time constables when they were old enough. The scheme was introduced in an attempt to increase levels of recruitment to the regular force, by attracting school leavers who were not yet old enough to become constables. Similar schemes operated with some changes in many other police forces until the 1980s when the paid schemes were discontinued.
From the mid to late 1980s the paid police cadet schemes were discontinued. Volunteer schemes were retained or begun for younger children, operating purely as youth organisations on similar lines to those run by the military. These schemes now fall under the national Volunteer Police Cadet programme and are organised on a local territorial police force basis.
Paid schemes were run in Sussex from the 1950s and after the 1968 amalgamation. The earliest cadet uniforms consisted of blouson type jackets, similar to those used by the army as "battledress" but coloured dark blue/black with appropriate force buttons. By the 1960s these were replaced with tunics as worn by constables. In both cases badges were worn on both shoulders identifying the wearer as a cadet. Where there were volunteer cadet schemes in operation, those cadets would have some form of shoulder badge identifying them as a volunteer cadet.
This particular badge is thought to come from Sussex and could have been used before or after amalgamation. It is not from West Sussex Constabulary as their cadet should badges included the wording "West Sussex Constabulary". It probably dates from the Sussex Constabulary/Sussex Police period when the force still ran a paid cadet scheme. At this time the Volunteer Cadets in Sussex had light blue shoulder patches with "V.C.C" in purple lettering.
