Matt becomes branch deputy secretary
17 May 2026
The new deputy secretary of West Midlands Police Federation says he is fully focussed on supporting members and wants to be an integral part of the transformation of the Police Federation of England and Wales so that it is truly fit for purpose in terms of representing the membership.
Matt Manwaring took up his new role last Monday (11 May) having been elected to succeed Chris James who is now branch secretary following the retirement of Tim Rogers.
While he believes there is a need for a change within the Federation nationally, Matt says he is proud to be a part of the West Midlands Federation team.
Supporting members
He explains: “I genuinely believe the West Midlands branch is in a great place and, having seen first-hand how it is run, can see that it is in a good position nationally and supports both West Midlands and regional members extremely well. To be a part of this team supporting great members is a true privilege that I am honoured to be able to perform.
“I had never envisaged taking on a full-time Federation official position but am humbled by the faith that the Branch Board and Branch Council have in me to fulfill the role. There is a lot for me to learn about the way the Federation functions but this is a challenge I am definitely willing to accomplish as quickly as possible to support members and the branch.”
Matt joined the Force in 1997 and became a workplace Federation representative in December 2023 though initially only put himself forward when the current branch chair, Jess Davies, left Coventry where they were both based.
“After Jess moved to Solihull, there was no representation directly in Coventry, leaving a gap that was unfair on both Jess, who was still picking up all the support for Coventry, and the members who then did not have a local representative to talk to. I have always been a source of advice and support for colleagues and to become a trained Federation representative just felt the right and appropriate thing to do to better support my colleagues,” he says.
Specialist roles
Matt is a member of the branch Equality and Health, Safety & Wellbeing Committees, and has completed all the training associated with these specialist roles but also maintained his trauma risk management (TRiM) qualifications as both practitioner and manager.
He has completed mental health first aid and advocacy training and, having graduated in 2018 with a BSc (Honours) through an Open University course, enrolled on a Masters in leadership and management with Coventry University in January 2025 with an aim of completing this by next January.
“Having become a full-time rep, I have now signed up for unsatisfactory performance procedures (UPP) and conduct courses and will be completing my post-incident procedures course next month. These courses will enable me to provide wider support and fulfil the on-call function for members when needed,” Matt explains.
Better service
“I put myself forward for the deputy secretary role as an extension of the work I had been doing as a workplace representative and to ensure I could offer the best possible support to colleagues with the training required to afford them a better service.
“I genuinely care about people which I have always tried to incorporate into my work as a police officer and my role as a leader in policing. Key to me becoming a representative was the wellbeing of members and ensuring the appropriate support is there for them when they need it.”
Matt is involved in a number of charities, including Police Care UK and Thin Blue Line UK for whom he is a champion/ambassador to help provide extra external support for the police family and ensure they do not suffer in silence.
He has been the vice-chair of the board of trustees of the charity It Takes Balls To Talk (ITBTT) Foundation since its creation in 2015 off the back of the Mental Health Street Triage (MHST) project in Coventry and has incorporated its services in many policing events.
Matt has also previously organised annual emergency services days at Wasps Rugby when they were based in Coventry, which brought together and showcased all the emergency services, NHS and charities supporting the same.
Policing career
His policing career started on the M3 OCU in June 1997 where he worked with the Wyken neighbourhood team in Coventry. In 2000 he was given my first opportunity to act up as sergeant which continued to do this on and off for three years until he moved to the Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG) in 2003 where he spent just over four years, returning to Coventry at the end of 2007.
“I then joined a Neighbourhood Support Team which was ultimately a Response team of a different name and early the next year was seconded to Operation Scriber a corporate manslaughter enquiry within the Public Protection Unit in Coventry,” Matt recalls.
“On the completion of that investigation, I returned to response policing in the new model where the three OCUs of Coventry were merged to create one neighbouring policing unit working out of Coventry Central police station.”
In 2017, after continuing in acting and temporary sergeants’ roles, Matt was substantively promoted in 2017, again covering response policing in Coventry and Solihull.
During this time he led the MHST team in Coventry a function partnered with mental health services providing emergency response to those suffering mental health crisis,
Peer support
Matt explains: “My work with the MHST provided me the opportunity to be trained in TRiM, a peer support system for colleagues exposed to trauma and reduce the risk of PTSD type issues following traumatic events.
“I also became part of the Coventry & Warwickshire Suicide Prevention (C & WSP) Network, an organisation made up of all public sector and third sector agencies monitoring and responding to suicide risk in the region. Following my work with MHST and the C&WSP network, I was invited to talk at national events and invited to be a guest lecturer and speaker at both Coventry University and University of Warwick.”
In 2020 he left response policing and became a custody sergeant before passing his inspectors’ exam that year and beginning a role as PACE inspector at Oldbury custody suite in early 2021.
Leaving custody again in April four years ago, Matt returned to Coventry where he worked as North East sector inspector, sector coordinator and fulfilled various roles until the Commonwealth Games where he was deployed to support the policing function in July 2022.
That August he became the partnerships team coordinator and helped with the South North West sector coordinator role in UNISON and the following January moved to the St Michael’s sector as a coordinator, managing the serious youth violence and project guardian portfolios on top of his daily role.
Response team
In April 2023, following another Force reorganisation, Matt was moved to a response team inspector’s role, moving a few months later to a resilience inspector role where he covered for response inspectors across all five Coventry response teams.
In October that year he took over another response team as an inspector during which time he offered his services as a Federation representative and then in January 2024 moved back to neighbourhood policing where he performed the role of a neighbourhood sergeant looking after three of the wards on the south of Coventry before two years later going back to where it all started covering Wyken on the North East of the city in January 2026.
