Number Of Officers Quitting Service 'To Be Expected'

18 September 2025

The number of officers leaving the police service is to be expected and is not high when compared with other sectors, the chief executive of the College of Policing has said.

Sir Andy Marsh was speaking at the Police Superintendents’ Association Annual Conference, addressing the fact that 8,795 police officers left the 43 police forces in England and Wales in the past financial year. The most common reason for leaving was voluntary resignation (53.1% of leavers).

He pointed out that this represents just 6% of officers nationwide, which “would be the envy of many other sectors”. In the context of the recent policing uplift, many more people have been through training, he said, adding: “I think it probably is quite right that some people leave, because the job's not for them or we find they're not for us.”

Also speaking at the session was Michelle Skeer, His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue at HMICFRS.

Asked whether policing was now a transient job rather than a career for life, Michelle said it was “definitely different” to when she joined the service in 1990. She said: “I think our younger people don't see it as a job for life, and we need to adapt in policing to make it easier for talent to come in and to be able to rejoin – going out and getting some experience in another industry and coming back in.”

She continued: “I do think it's a changing face of employment, and that you won't have people doing one job for 35 years [any more]. We need to get better at how we manage that.”

But she added that “the bigger worry is around morale” and that the service needed to look at issues such as occupational health and career progression.

Andy agreed with Michelle that the expectations of job-seekers had changed, saying: “I would like people to stick at policing for a lifetime, but we have to recognise that society needs to change and the service needs to change with it.”

He then asked the audience to think of a time when they felt most fulfilled in their job: “You'll probably be thinking of these things: making a difference, developing yourself, being part of a team that pulled together…getting recognised when you did well, but also being part of a team where poor behaviour, let alone bullying, wasn't tolerated, it was called out at the earliest moment.”

He said this all came down to good leadership, adding: “I don't think the service has invested anything like enough effort or funding in developing leadership at every level.”

Andy said that the Senior Leadership Programme Level 4 was an “excellent” course and that forces needed to invest time in getting their people trained up, otherwise “what does that say about a broader commitment to leadership development? Do [forces] simply pluck people who seem really good at doing their job off the street, and say, ‘You have a crack at it now’?”

He continued: “When you look at the forces that do well, I'd say there's a couple of really big characteristics. The first is they systematically problem-solve at a strategic and tactical level. Why are we not answering the calls quick enough? Why is our investigation not at the right standards? What's happening with the shoplifting problem at Morrisons down the road?

"You cannot do that unless you master your own data, and some forces simply have not mastered their own data sufficiently. And as a system, we have not mastered our own data to strategically problem-solve across England and Wales. That's priority one. But the second reason why forces do well, or otherwise, is where they invest in leadership.”