2020 marked the third occasion where police officers from federated ranks across England and Wales will be given the opportunity to express their views on issues that impact them.

The purpose of the survey, which is run every two years, is to gather evidence to help influence positive change for the entire police service.

The Demand, Capacity & Welfare Survey provides every officer, from the rank of Constable to Chief Inspector, the opportunity to help shape PFEW’s future policy on a range of issues and to describe how these have impacted them.

The survey is designed to provide a full and accurate assessment of the main challenges currently facing policing and includes bespoke questions around officers’ personal experiences of policing the pandemic and the plan to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by 2023.

Other topics covered in the 2020 survey include resilience within the police service, the day-to-day demands facing officers and the stress and impact on their mental health and welfare.

2020 Survey results

The results from our second survey have been published.

• Welfare Survey 2020 - Headline Report: PRRB (January 2021)
• Welfare Survey 2020 - Technical Annex (January 2021)
• Welfare Survey 2020 - The Officer Uplift and Sergeant Impacts (January 2021)
• Welfare Survey 2020 - The Impactof COVID-19 (February 2021)
• Welfare Survey 2020 - Mental Health and Wellbeing Support (July 2021)

Individual force reports are on our Survey Hub.

2018 Survey

In August 2018, we conducted a second survey to repeat what we did in 2016, this gave a fuller picture of the main challenges facing the police service across both England and Wales. The online survey gave officers the opportunity to provide their opinions on current welfare, demand and capacity issues. The results enabled meaningful comparison with those gathered in 2016.

2016 Survey

Our first Demand, capacity and welfare survey was conducted in February 2016 with approximately 17,000 police officers completing an online survey concerning job demands, capacity to meet those demands and their welfare.  The survey, in conjunction with the University of Nottingham, found that stress and poor psychological wellbeing is widespread in the police service. 

Read more about the 2016 survey results.