Decisive action needed on retention, says branch chair

23 January 2025

Everything must be done to support police officers to stay in policing, says West Mercia Police Federation chair Steve Butler.

Steve welcomed new Home Office police workforce figures, which show that an extra 11 full-time officers joined the Force in the six months to September 2024 – a rise of 0.4 per cent.

The figures go against the national trend, which has seen numbers in England and Wales fall by 0.6 per cent, a total of 878 full-time officers, in the past six months.

Steve said the challenge now in West Mercia Police was around retention of officers.

West Mercia Police Federation chair Steve Butler.

He said: “We welcome our new colleagues to the Force and wish them all the best for their careers in policing.

“It’s positive that our workforce has bucked the national trend, and we have seen a rise in the number of officers in West Mercia.

“It offers a glimmer of hope locally, but the key now is making sure those people stay in the Force.

“We need commitment from the Government and police leaders to properly support and reward our members for the unique job they do on behalf of the country.

“While we welcome recent pay increases, there’s still some way to go until we have parity with where police salaries were before austerity.

“We need a fair and independent pay review mechanism, speedier conduct proceedings, less paperwork and bureaucracy, the list goes on and on.

Officer retention

“But it’s important that everything is done to retain officers. It’s a crying shame that all the time, effort, and money that goes into recruiting and training officers goes to waste when they decide to leave the service.”

Steve pointed to workforce figures that showed a significant rise in the numbers of Specials in West Mercia Police as evidence that people still want to be part of the police.

West Mercia Police welcomed 16 additional Specials to the Force in the year to September 2024, a rise of 28.1 per cent.

The figures again go against the national trend, which saw the number of Specials in England and Wales reduced by 300, a fall of 4.9 per cent.

Steve said: “Again, we welcome our new Specials and wish them well.

“They are an important part of our Force and, to me, it shows that people clearly still want to be in our Force and to be part of policing, they just don’t want all the rubbish that can go with it.”

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