National chair sends message to members: ‘We are listening, we are acting’

1 August 2025

Tiff Lynch, national chair of the Police Federation.

Members’ views will drive forward the Federation’s focus in the years ahead so that it can be truly representative and bring about the changes within policing that officers and Specials want to see, according to the new national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW).

Tiff Lynch says that member focus can already be demonstrated by the regular FedConnect seminars which are aimed at improving the links not just between officials and workplace representatives within Federation branches but also the wider membership, alongside the already successful webinars and member roadshows.

As a prime example of this initiative, Suffolk Police Federation secretary Ben Hudson – as part of his role as the chair of the Federation’s National Detectives’ Forum - gave a presentation to the July FedConnect session, providing an update on his work leading the Simplify DG6 campaign which seeks to bring about an amendment to the Data Protection Act and Data Information Bill to reduce the red tape around redaction and save hundreds of hours of offiicers’ time.

“We are now going direct to members so we can respond to what they tell us when setting our aims and objectives, that will give us more strength going forward,” says Tiff, a former Leicestershire Police Federation branch chair who officially became the second woman to hold the office of national Federation chair on 1 July.

“We have to be truly member focussed, and to do this means full re-engagement with the membership. While I can’t get out to see every single one of our 145,000 members, engaging with the membership will come in many, many forms. It’s going to be about sharing more information about what we are doing and also hearing from them about what is affecting them in their work.

“Historically, we have been accused of being a talking shop, we have listened, and our approach will be clear, actively doing what’s right for members and by them. The focus will be on what support they actually need to do a good job; this includes the terms and conditions they work to.”

Ask questions

Tiff is urging members to get more involved with the Federation, find out the breadth of its work, ask questions and to even put themselves forward as Fed reps.

“It’s no good sitting on the side-lines and throwing stones,” says Tiff, admitting, “We really need to raise the level of engagement with the membership and want officers to get actively involved.”

A poll of the membership has identified several areas on which they want the Federation to concentrate: officer suicide, with the Federation set to campaign for legislative change that will mean these incidents are properly recorded; pay and conditions, which is the focus of the Federation’s ongoing Copped Enough campaign on pay degradation; workloads; neighbourhood policing, already promoted by the Federation as a means of returning to the cornerstone of traditional policing; violence against women and girls and issues around uniform.

With plans in place for FedConnect to be held every year, Tiff adds: “We are inviting members from each of the Federation’s 43 branches across England and Wales to attend so we can find out what really matters and showcase the work the Federation is doing, for example, Ben’s work on DG6 and at the July session we also had an input from Chris Philp, the former police minister in the Conservative Government and now the shadow home secretary with those attending being able to ask questions of him.”

Tiff explains that Federation member roadshows will also be held, and work is underway to make sure there is a truly two-way dialogue with the local branches, again with the aim of ensuring the members’ views reach the national office and shape its priorities.

Realignment

The Federation recognises there is a lack of awareness among the membership of what the Federation does, something that Tiff is keen to address.

“They know about the legal provision but often little beyond that” she explains.

But, while fully appreciating the need to reconnect with the membership and raise awareness of the Federation’s work in terms of representing, negotiating and influencing, Tiff also accepts there needs to be a realignment between the local branches and the National Board.

“For us to move forward and be strong and effective, there has to be one PFEW, with one voice and one direction,” says the chair, highlighting the transformation project already being progressed at Leatherhead, the Federation’s national office, to look at where the organisation is going and what its focus will be.

As part of this, there will be an upskilling of reps to give them the skills and qualifications they need to better support the members, while two universities are helping develop members of the National Board and National Council to further improve their effectiveness. There is also a more detailed onboarding process, helping to introduce new reps to the Federation and to educate them about the organisation’s role and purpose.

“We are professionalising individuals but, in doing that, we are also professionalising the service we are offering the membership and the Federation itself,” Tiff points out.

One Federation

The Federation will use case studies, polls, academics and verified evidence to ensure that the national Federation and its branches are moving as one.

“We need to look like one Federation, and act like one Federation,” says the national chair.

The overall aim is to make sure the Federation is a strong, united organisation, adding weight to its negotiations with the Government and senior officers.

On the latter, Tiff is calling on more to get behind the six Chief Constables who, in the run up to the last spending review, spoke out on the need for a reinvestment in policing, warning that difficult choices would have to be made around service provision if budgets were not increased.

“It simply cannot be left to the rank and file to fix the broken system within policing. Chief officers have a duty and responsibility to look after their officers and staff. They should be coming out and shouting from the rooftops that more needs to be done to invest in policing and not be afraid of the consequences,” Tiff argues, while also calling on Police and Crime Commissioners to be more vocal too since they have a duty to ensure the effective running of the service, “To hear that there is no more money, quite simply isn’t good enough. They have a responsibility to find the money needed to fix a police service that is in crisis.

“If they don’t have the police officers, and if policing has a retention crisis, how can they be offering an effective police force for the communities they are elected to serve?”

Workloads

She does believe, however, that the current retention crisis can be partly attributed to problems within recruitment, the false selling of the realities of the job with adverts featuring dog handlers, fast cars and the like, inaccurately representing the realities of frontline policing.

“Given the ever-increasing workloads, lack of time away from work to properly rest and picking up jobs off other public services, officers have quite simply had enough,” Tiff points out.

“The new recruits are not staying, many have no intention of making it a career for life, others are joining just to gain a degree and we are suffering due to a huge vacuum of experience. We need a rigorous recruitment standard, fair pay, we need people with life experience to join the service and we need people who see policing as a career and a vocation not just a stepping stone to somewhere else with a degree that will have cost the police service around £180,000 when you look at the cost of advertising, training, salary and so on.

Tiff knows the Federation has a mountain to climb in terms of restoring trust in the organisation after a number of turbulent years.

“I know we have to rebuild trust, but I believe the best of the Federation is yet to come. We will be the proactive voice of our members, providing one true voice, one strong, robust, unapologetic voice,” she says.