ANALYSIS: The latest police workforce data for England and Wales shows the roller coaster ride for resources during the 2010 to 2024 Conservative-led governments, with numbers dropping sharply followed by a rapid but partial with the Uplift after 2019; in this last of three articles, Ian Wiggett looks at changing trends in workforce profile across England and Wales, and how this may affect resource management.

ANALYSIS: The latest police workforce data for England and Wales shows the roller coaster ride for resources during the 2010 to 2024 Conservative-led governments, with numbers dropping sharply followed by a rapid but partial with the Uplift after 2019; in this second of three articles, Ian Wiggett looks at the current workforce mix across England and Wales, and the recruitment and retention challenges.

ANALYSIS: In the latest in our series of articles on the policing workforce in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett reviews the official data for the 2022/23 financial year, and explores some of the resulting challenges facing police forces – including the significant reduction in staff and PCSOs, the struggles for some around retention and resignations, and how to adapt to the ‘new normal’.

ANALYSIS: When the Government announced its intention to recruit an additional 20,000 officers in under four years, there were many who doubted it could be done, but the target has been surpassed by some way; with headcount grown by 20,951 from the November 2019 baseline, and only one force – the Metropolitan Police – failing to recruit its allocation, Ian Wiggett takes a deeper look at what all this means for the service.

ANALYSIS: Three years ago, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the ambitious Uplift plan to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers by April 2023, and despite significant political upheaval since, the Government remains ‘determined’ to keep to its pledge; in the last of this current series on UK police workforce structure, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett assesses whether that target will be met, and what comes next.

ANALYSIS: In this third article in our latest series focusing on police workforce development in England and Wales – and with the Government and current Home Secretary Suella Braverman remaining committed to the Uplift target of 20,000 new police officers by April 2023 – Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the ‘churn’ of officers joining and leaving the service, the increasing number of resignations, and the marketplace for inter-force transfers, and considers the implications of these factors for the service.

ANALYSIS: In this second article in our latest series focusing on police workforce development in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at police staff and police community support officer numbers, and the overall resource picture; while the public and politicians focus on the amount of police officers, forces are complex organisations, and overall capacity and capability depends on the combined staffing picture.

ANALYSIS: The UK Government’s ‘Uplift’ initiative to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales is well underway, but the challenge of balancing new recruits with those leaving posts means not all forces are expanding at the same rate; in the latest in a series of articles on the police workforce, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the key issues of service leavers and joiners, the pandemic effect and the need for more accurate data.

ANALYSIS: Policing in England and Wales is now over half way through the UK Government’s ‘Uplift’ initiative, designed to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by April 2023, but while the programme is already delivering significant workforce growth, not all forces or roles are experiencing the same expansion; in this second in a series of articles on the police workforce, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at changes in the numbers of police community support officers and police staff, and what that means for the total workforce picture.

ANALYSIS: For the final article in our series on police workforce numbers in England & Wales, Ian Wiggett revisits his first article, which forecast likely officer numbers for each force in 2023, to take into account data just published by the Home Office that clarifies the calculations used to measure progress in recruiting the planned 20,000 uplift in officers.

Analysis: In the fourth article of our series looking at police workforce numbers in England and Wales, Ian Wiggett examines the current police funding formula and how it increases disparity between forces, impacting decisions, including recruitment.