Oscar Kilo wellbeing survey finds high levels of officers considering leaving the force

21 February 2024

Suffolk Wellbeing Lead Helen Self says a sense of duty to the public ‘can’t be relied on forever’.

The number of police officers with an intention to quit the force has increased to its highest level in four years, the recent National Police Wellbeing Survey has revealed.

Wellbeing Lead for Suffolk Police Federation Helen Self says this finding from the survey, developed by Oscar Kilo, the National Police Wellbeing Service, and Durham University, should be a significant cause for concern.

“The fact that colleagues are thinking of leaving a vocation they once loved is devastating. This needs to be a wake-up call to improve police wellbeing before it’s too late,” said Helen.

An increase in the same intention across wider police staff was also noted, which came amid trends of declining emotional and physical energy throughout the workforce. Results indicate a worrying number of workers have reached burnout, with 69 per cent of officers and 56 per cent of staff reporting high levels of fatigue.

While she hopes more attention will now be paid to wellbeing issues nationwide, such figures come as no surprise to Helen.

“Alarm bells have been ringing for a long time. Policing is both physically and emotionally demanding and everyone has to endure such relentless pressure,” she added.

“It’s pivotal that we have adequate support and we have long been let down in this regard.”

Causes of low energy reported by officers include not being able to recover from stressful incidents, difficulty switching off outside of work hours, and impaired rest days. These difficulties revealed by the survey have overshadowed some positive findings surrounding senses of resilience and control at work.

Helen continued: “It’s good to see resilience is still moderately high, but that only leads me to think about the increasing demands the force is having to be resilient to. Officers probably feel they have no choice but to keep going.

“It’s testament to the commitment to public service that my colleagues still feel a deep sense of duty - But we can’t rely on that forever.”

The findings of the survey, which had over 42,000 responses, will be used as evidence within the continued work of the National Police Wellbeing Service and College of Policing.

In addition, there is an expectation on a local level that wellbeing improvements continue to be made, geared ultimately towards officers and staff feeling more valued by their force, another theme found to have lower average levels by the survey.

“Above everything, our members need to feel valued. They deserve to have their wellbeing taken seriously,” Helen ended.

For full results of the survey visit the Oscar Kilo website.