Cumbria Police Federation Announce Compassion Award Winner

24 June 2025

An officer who set up a programme to celebrate great safeguarding across the force has received the Compassion Award at the Cumbria Police Federation 2025 Recognition Awards ceremony.

Det Sgt Jenny Edmondson had the idea to identify and reward good safeguarding work among her colleagues, and set up the Safeguarding Superstars programme in October 2022.

She was keen to shine a light on this area of policing and encourage others to think about opportunities for safeguarding in their day-to-day work. She identifies candidates and arranges rewards in conjunction with the Federation and other partners.

In the past, Safeguarding Superstars have included an officer who helped a teenager who was being bullied at school; an officer who gained the trust of a victim of domestic abuse in the travelling community; a PCSO who helped a school deal with child exploitation issues; and a legal advisor who worked many hours overtime to secure Stalking Prevention Orders.

Each year the Safeguarding Superstars attend a prize-giving ceremony at HQ and there is a prize draw, where all the nominees’ names are put in a hat. This year, first prize was a spa day and meal at a Lake District hotel, and there were two runners-up prizes of afternoon tea.

Det Sgt Edmondson said: “I like to promote the good that our people are doing, because a lot of the stuff you hear is doom and gloom. And our communities deserve the best possible service – that’s really what this is about. Sometimes the cops that do their absolute utmost to look after people, day in and day out, get forgotten about.”

“I even kept it going over my maternity leave. I run it with a team of people, and the Federation pays for it – they completely understand why I’m doing it. On a monthly basis, anybody can email me the details of someone at Cumbria Police who should be nominated.

“They don’t have to be a police officer; they can be a volunteer or civilian staff member. I’ve had members of the public nominate people, which is really nice. We get wonderful thank-you letters from victims."

“One of our officers was nominated three times in the space of a month, for three different jobs. So we baked her a cake and gave her vouchers to her favourite beauty salon, to say a special thank you.”

Cumbria Police Federation Chair Ed Russell said: “What a fantastic initiative this is and we are delighted to support it. Jenny worked tirelessly to get this programme off the ground and we are happy to help her – she has an infectious attitude and is motivated by huge compassion towards her colleagues. She is a deserving winner of this Award.”

Det Sgt Edmondson will attend the 2025 Cumbria Police Federation Recognition Awards on Wednesday 25 June. The Cumbria Police Federation Recognition Awards are in association with Axon.

Also sponsoring the awards are The Cumbria Police Group Insurance Scheme, Slater & Gordon, Uniform Mortgages, No1 Copperpot Credit Union, Serve and Protect Credit Union, Accord, National Police Healthcare Scheme, Police Friendly, and Philip Williams.