SOUTHEND Police's first ever woman boss will leave her post as divisional commander, just six months after starting the job.

Chief Supt Jacqui Cheer, 43, will leave Southend to take up a role as assistant national bureaucracy adviser at the Home Office.

It is a step up for the ambitious policewoman who will be promoted to the rank of assistant chief constable when she starts her new job.

She is on leave until the end of the month holidaying in America and is due to leave her Southend post on October 3.