Government urged to work with Federation to target police funding

10 March 2025

The Government is being urged to work with the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) to ensure that investment in policing goes to the right areas.

Suffolk branch chair Darren Harris welcomed news that the Government is doubling the funding to £200m for delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood police officers by 2029.

But with the service facing a recruitment and retention crisis, he questioned how the new officers would be enlisted.

Instead, he called for pay restoration and said that rewarding officers for the unique role they perform would help make policing more attractive to the best candidates and ease the retention crisis.

Suffolk branch chair Darren Harris.

Darren said: “It’s great the Government is putting more money into neighbourhood policing and into recruiting more officers. Any investment in policing is welcome.

“But where are these officers going to come from because we’re short of numbers as it is?

“Retention of existing officers is something the Federation is continually highlighting and officers leaving the profession is a serious concern.

Overworked

“Members have had their pay cut in real terms, they are overworked and feel undervalued for that work, so it’s no wonder some are looking elsewhere."

The most recent workforce figures show that Suffolk recruited no new officers in the six months to 20 September 2024. The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) officers remained the same at 1,400.

In the rest of the eastern region, a total of 82 FTE officers left policing (0.6 per cent).

That was in line with the national figure, which saw 878 FTE officers leave police forces in England and Wales, or 0.6 per cent.

Invest

Darren said: “Results of our own Pay and Morale Survey showed that 14 per cent of respondents intend to leave the service with morale (92 per cent), the impact of the job on mental health and wellbeing (88 per cent), and how the police are treated by the government (84 per cent) the main reasons.

“The Government needs to take notice of these figures, and work with the Federation on the best ways to invest in policing.

“And the best way is to invest in our people, restore their pay, provide health and wellbeing support, so that we can retain our officers and attract the best candidates.

“At the moment, I feel like they’re just sticking a plaster on a gaping wound.”