PFEW conference: policing's toll on officer health and wellbeing

23 October 2026

Policing is making its people sick, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has warned.

PFEW has declared policing a public health emergency as new research highlights the toll of the job on officers’ health and wellbeing.

The Federation’s 2026 Pay and Morale Survey found that 78 per cent of respondents had experienced stress, low mood or anxiety in the previous 12 months. Of those, 94 per cent said their work had caused or worsened their condition.

Two-thirds of officers said fatigue had made it difficult to carry out their duties, while 76 per cent reported that exhaustion had affected their family or social life.

Acting deputy national chair Paul Williams addresses Conference
(Credit: Anderson Photographer)

Speaking to PFEW’s annual conference, acting deputy national chair Paul Williams said the findings could no longer be treated as the inevitable consequences of working in policing.

“Policing is a service making its people sick,” he said. “We are asking officers to respond to life-or-death emergencies, protect victims and run towards danger, while routinely denying them the rest, resources and support they need to do their jobs safely.

“The service has become so accustomed to operating under pressure that it no longer recognises the warning lights on its own dashboard.

“We cannot allow another generation of officers to believe that breakdown is simply part of the job.”

Exhausted

The survey received 18,537 responses from constables, sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors.

It highlights the consequences of a policing model the Federation said relied too heavily on exhausted officers working beyond sustainable limits.

Paul questioned whether the same approach would be tolerated in other safety-critical professions, pointing to the risks associated with excessive fatigue and impaired decision-making.

He said policing had normalised practices such as officers routinely losing rest days and having annual leave cancelled to fill gaps in the workforce.

The Federation has written to the Home Secretary asking whether the current policing model is sustainable without causing further harm to officers’ health.

It is also calling for an independent investigation into the health, wellbeing and welfare of officers during their first five years of service.

PFEW said that its Pay and Morale Survey revealed a clear wellbeing crisis in the first five years of an officer’s career, with those serving between three and five years reporting the lowest happiness and the highest levels of fatigue and anxiety.

Wellbeing crisis

Extreme fatigue, job satisfaction and happiness are at their lowest point between three and five years into a career in policing, PFEW said.

The Federation said the investigation needs to bring together relevant data and officers’ lived experience and recommend concrete measures to improve support.

The Federation is also calling for reforms to reduce demand and bureaucracy, rebuild experience and make policing a sustainable career.

Paul said: “Our message to government and policing leaders is clear: enough is enough.

“Enough of treating exhaustion as commitment. Enough of treating experience as expendable. Enough of asking officers to give more when they have nothing left to give.

“We have a broken service to fix, a profession to defend and a future to fight for. And we are going to fight for it.”