'Pay and Morale Survey must serve as a wake-up call', says chair

27 March 2024

New research which found more than one in five officers across the country plan to quit the service must serve as a wake-up call, says Suffolk Police Federation chair Darren Harris.

Darren said the study made for ‘difficult reading’ and warned that the retention crisis in policing will only get work unless the Government improves pay and conditions for officers.

Darren was commenting on the Police Federation for England and Wales’s latest Pay and Morale Survey, which revealed that 22 per cent of officers nationally are planning to quit the service.

More than three-quarters of those (78 per cent) said that poor treatment from the Government was a contributing factor in wanting to leave. Morale (85 per cent), mental health and wellbeing (73 per cent) and pay (70 per cent) were also key factors.

Darren said: “Once again the PFEW pay and morale survey makes for difficult reading and suggests that things are getting worse for our members.

“After more than a decade of real terms pay cuts, cuts to funding, cuts to infrastructure, cuts to officer numbers, cuts to support staff, cuts to just about everything, our members are saying they’ve had enough.

“The fact that one in five officers want to quit is worrying, but not necessarily surprising and threatens to undo all of the work, time and investment in the Uplift programme. This needs to serve as a wake-up call.

“My worry is it will get worse until the Government's attitude to police officers changes.

“Significant steps towards improving morale would be to pay our members fairly for their unique work, and to introduce a fully independent, transparent pay review process to replace the existing system, which isn’t fit for purpose.”

The PFEW pay and morale survey found 85 per cent of respondents feel they are not fairly paid given the hazards they face within their job, up from 78 per cent in 2018.

That is illustrated by 15 per cent reporting they had suffered one or more injuries that required medical attention because of work-related violence in the last year.

More than three quarters (78 per cent) of police officers disclosed they are ‘dissatisfied’ or ‘very dissatisfied’ with their overall remuneration (including basic pay and allowances), while 18 per cent reported ‘never’ or ‘almost never’ having enough money to cover all their essentials.

More than half (58 per cent) of respondents feel their morale is ‘low’ or ‘very low’, while 87 per cent feel morale within their force is currently ‘low’ or ‘very low’.

More than two-thirds (82 per cent) indicated they had experienced feelings of stress, low mood, anxiety or other problems with their mental health and wellbeing over the last 12 months.

Other findings include:
• 95 per cent said how the police are treated by the Government had a negative impact on their morale.
• 81 per cent said their pay had a negative impact on their morale.
• 73 per cent said they would not recommend joining the police to others.
• 71 per cent said they did not feel valued within the police.
• 92 per cent of respondents feel they are not fairly paid given the stresses and strains of their job.
• 86 per cent said they do not feel there are enough officers to meet the demands of their team or unit.
• 64 per cent said their workload has been ‘too high’ or ‘much too high’ over the last 12 months.
• 39 per cent said their workload being too high had an impact on their mental health and wellbeing.

PFEW national chair Steve Hartshorn said: “At a critical time where the police service is looking to rebuild eroded public confidence, a sustained recruitment and retention programme is needed to meet demand and deliver. The numbers we currently have are not enough and we are haemorrhaging officers.

“We do not need to scratch our heads wondering why they are quitting, because the evidence is right here, with unfair pay at the centre of it all.

“A fair pay mechanism is urgently needed, namely the ‘P-Factor’, a payment for remunerating officers for the harm they may encounter while carrying out their duties among other restrictions. It is there to address a series of unique issues experienced by police officers, and independent research agrees with this positioning.

“To help the Government understand these unique challenges to policing, PFEW is undertaking its own review of the P-Factor design and formula to support our campaigning on this matter.

“The survey findings ultimately demonstrate the need for committed action, and a vote for the members to make a decision around whether they want to seek greater industrial rights, specifically collective bargaining and binding arbitration in relation to pay and conditions, will be held as soon as is practicable this year.”

Read the full survey.