Welcome increase in use of Federation welfare van

11 May 2026

North Yorkshire Police Federation’s welfare van is seeing a welcome increase in use following efforts to promote the resource.

Earlier this year, Federation reps Anya Hanbury and Stuart Diggle said the van was not being used to its full potential and took steps to raise the awareness with supervisors.

A news article on the Federation website and social media posts generated discussions among members. The online campaign was followed up with emails to supervisors.

Anya said: “We emailed all sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors across every department to remind them the van is there and how to access it.

“As a result, we’re seeing it being used much more for spontaneous events, which is brilliant.”

The van has been most frequently requested for crime scenes, particularly during the winter months when officers are working long hours in difficult weather conditions. Many deployments have been arranged at short notice, reflecting growing awareness among operational teams.

Anya said: “Most of the requests have been spontaneous, primarily for crime scenes.

“Quite often incidents happen over weekends, and we’ll come into work to an email saying ‘we’ve got the van, by the way’.

“It’s great because it shows people are thinking about it.”

And while van is delivering important support to members, Anya joked there may still be room for improvement.

“Maybe we could get Yorkshire tea to sponsor it and stock it up,” she said.