Pay award will help young in service

21 July 2022

The £1,900 pay award announced by the Government on Tuesday will help young in service officers and therefore recruitment but will do little to help tackle the exodus of experienced officers, according to the chair of Hertfordshire Police Federation.

The £1,900 uplift, which will come into effect on 1 September, amounts to an average pay increase of five per cent.

“It’s very difficult for us to balance our response to this pay award,” says Federation branch chair Luke Mitchell, “The Federation has long argued that new recruits are underpaid. They are joining a profession where they are putting themselves at risk while serving their communities and yet by the time many have covered their monthly expenses they are left with very little disposable income. This has only been compounded by the cost of living crisis and the zero per cent pay rise last year.

“While training, many are also undertaking degree courses which means they are under a huge amount of pressure. I am not sure how the police service is expected to attract the very best recruits when pay is so out of kilter with the private sector.

“We are pleased the Government has recognised that young in service officers deserve better pay but I still feel they deserve more.”

Hertfordshire Police is currently being hit by a £5,000 payment offered to officers who wish to transfer to the Metropolitan and the Force has tried to counter this by taking its South East Allowance payment to the maximum of £3,000.

In recent years, it has faced issues retaining experienced officers demoralised by the effects of the austerity measures with low morale caused by below inflation pay rises, increased pressures due to surging demand and a lack of recognition of the unique role of police officers from the Government and the media.

“The pay award does very little to help us with the issues we are facing in terms of retaining our experienced and time served officers, these officers are getting a below five per cent increase and certainly those at inspector or chief inspector level are unable to claim over-time to make up the shortfall, with some of them getting as little as a three per cent increase,” says Luke.

“We need these officers not just to ensure we get the best return to the Force in terms of the investment it has made with their training and career development but also because they are the ones who can help support and develop our new recruits, passing on the knowledge they have gained along the way, and ultimately hold responsibility for decisions making around, threat harm and risk.

“It's these experienced officers who have had 10 years of pay cuts and are again getting another poor pay offer from the Government.”