TWO staff from West Mercia Constabulary have been honoured by the Queen for their work in developing police training.

Mary Vaughan and Ann Bicknell are among the first winners of the Queen's Awards for Innovation in Police Training and Development.

The award, which is being presented for the first time, recognises achievement in harnessing new technology to deliver training and lifelong learning.

There were four winning projects across the country and each will receive £15,000 to help implement their training over the coming year.

West Mercia's prize-winning project, "Integration and Evaluation of E-learning", aims to pilot new ways of encouraging the police to make more use of IT.

The project, which was submitted for the award in February, has now been rolled out across the force area in the last six-months, with specially equipped learning zones introduced on all divisions.

Data protection training and organisational, management and communication skills are just part of the 35 packages of E-learning already in place for police officers to use.

According to a delighted Mary Vaughan, manager of the new learning strategies unit at the force's training centre, in Hindlip Hall, the new technology and extra funding will both prove very worthwhile.

"E-learning is a valuable way for us to deliver training to staff," she said.

"It enables them to receive flexible and timely training while reducing the need for people to attend courses away from their normal workplace."

Ann Bicknell, a consultant psychologist currently working with the training school, specialises in evaluation.

She will be looking at how much people learn, how long they retain the information and how it improves their performance.

"I am delighted their project has been recognised in this prestigious way," said Kim White, head of training.

"This gives West Mercia the opportunity to position itself at the forefront of E-learning for police services nationwide."

The results of the project will be provided to the Home Office, who will be looking to publish the findings.