New partnership to standardise strategic workforce planning across England and Wales

The project, which aims to unify and standardise strategic workforce planning processes, will support improved recruitment and retention activities through greater alignment between workforce availability data and predicted future service demand.

Janette McCormick QPM, Strategic Workforce Lead at the NPCC, said this is “vital for aligning financial and human resources with operational requirements”.

A ‘trailblazer’ group of forces, including Cumbria, Merseyside, Staffordshire and Warwickshire Police, have come together to work on the pilot programme, which seeks to identify common demand, planning and data metrics to be used in the development of local, tailored workforce plans.

The thinking behind the project is that by agreeing upon a common language and methodology for strategic workforce planning, it will provide a mutually intelligible template and guide for forces, in addition to facilitating collaboration and the sharing of best practices.

A force’s approach to strategic workforce planning is one of the factors looked at by HMICFRS as part of PEEL assessments. Chief constables in England and Wales are also required to set out their strategic workforce planning priorities in annual Force Management Statements, something which will be further supported with a standardised workforce planning methodology, according to project lead, Jon Freegard, director at Skills for Justice.

“Strategic workforce planning provides a framework for understanding workforce patterns and trends and predicting how these might affect a force’s ability to meet future operational demands,” he said.

“It is most effective when sustained over the long-term and on a whole of organisation basis, allowing forces to understand people requirements and co-dependencies across functions, services and programmes of work. An agreed upon methodology is therefore essential to properly inform decision making and ensure continuity of the planning process.

“PEEL reports show that the maturity of strategic workforce planning differs from force to force and so the idea behind this project was to bring together police from England and Wales to develop a gold standard that forces can align to.

“We hope that this will provide a platform for improvements in strategic workforce planning processes at individual forces and support the development of shared insights and future collaboration to improve recruitment, attrition, promotion, training, retention and scheduling activity across the board.”

Ms McCormick commented: “We are proud to partner with Skills for Justice – drawing on their expertise in strategic workforce planning.”

“Strategic workforce planning is vital for aligning financial and human resources with operational requirements. It underpins efficient and effective policing and is therefore an essential part of overall performance.”

“This collaboration will provide forces with the best practice tools and resources to support improvements in their strategic workforce planning, providing a platform to better anticipate staffing requirements and service demand in the future.”

The strategic partnership between NPCC and Skills for Justice comes as staffing disparities continue to impact forces across England and Wales. Latest Home Office data shows a 0.9 per cent decrease in the total policing workforce in the year to September 30, 2025.

To find out more about the NPCC’s strategic partnership with Skills for Justice visit: skillsforjustice.org.uk/national-strategic-workforce-planning-with-skills-for-justice