Police exodus fears as Federation warns: ‘Pay up or lose more experienced officers’

In the wake of the Autumn Budget, the PFEW says without competitive pay, fair conditions and proper support, policing risks losing more experienced officers. Officers must also have the right protective equipment to do their jobs safely, it added.

Paul Williams, Acting Deputy National Chair of the PFEW, said: “Police officers are battling the cost of living while putting themselves on the line every day to keep the public safe. They deserve fair pay, decent conditions and kit that protects them when danger strikes.

“When experienced officers leave, they take years of skills and knowledge with them, piling pressure on those left behind and putting public safety at risk. Even the Government’s independent police pay review body warned officers’ goodwill and personal sacrifice are being exploited, damaging morale, wellbeing and retention. This cannot continue if we are to keep experienced officers in policing and protect the public.

“Warm words won’t pay the bills, keep officers in the job or protect the public. Promises won’t plug the gaps in policing. Government must act now to deliver the pay, protection and resources officers need to do their jobs and keep our communities safe.”

His views were echoed by Nick Smart, President of the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA), who said while the Budget included a government commitment to ‘making streets safer,’ that ambition “must be matched by the resources needed to deliver it”.

He said it was “deeply disappointing” that there was no reference to additional funding for policing, adding: “Once again, it is a public service that is not viewed as a priority.”

The police funding formula has been branded outdated and ineffective by politicians for more than a decade, while the PFEW has been warning of the need for reform for just as long. Yet the Government has still failed to fix it.

It says short-term cash settlements and rising reliance on council tax are leaving forces in the lurch, fuelling a postcode lottery where the level of policing you get can depend on where you live.

“With the Lord Hogan-Howe review expected to consider police force structures, funding must be central to the debate. Reform must not come at the expense of frontline officers, their working conditions or public safety,” the PFEW said.

The Federation is urging parliamentarians to press the Government on three priorities:

• Fair pay and conditions: Fully fund police pay awards, protect rest days and introduce meaningful collective bargaining and binding arbitration.
• Sustainable reform: Guarantee that restructuring costs are funded separately, without transferring the burden to frontline officers through increased workloads or reduced resources.
• Urgent funding formula reform: Set a clear timetable for reform and provide immediate support to forces facing exceptional financial pressures.

The PSA president said: “We cannot stress strongly enough that safer streets and safer communities depend on a police service that is sustainably and adequately funded. We have been making this case for more than a decade.

“The Government has heard evidence from across policing about the financial pressures facing the service and the consequences of trying to meet growing and increasingly complex demand with insufficient resources. There is a clear internal threat to which we must respond through policing, rather than solely focussing on the external threat.

“Forces are using reserves to support day-to-day policing and making extensive savings simply to balance their budgets. Policing has been dealing with the consequences of sustained financial pressure for around 15 years. If the Government is serious about moving beyond austerity, that must extend to the police service.”

Mr Smart said at the same time, pressures elsewhere in the criminal justice system are “creating further demand for policing and significant challenges for communities and criminal justice partners”.

“The Early Release Scheme alone has been forecast by the NPCC to cost policing an additional £480 million in the next year, without additional funding to meet that cost and burden of managing offenders who pose an increased risk to the community and require ongoing management,” he added.

“Policing also continues to absorb demand that should sit elsewhere in the public sector, which prevents us from delivering an effective service to meet the needs and expectations of the public. There remains no clear definition of the police mission – simply doing everything should not be an option.

“Until government addresses both the resources available to policing and the demand being placed upon it, delivering the everyday service communities rightly expect will become increasingly difficult.

“This is not simply a financial issue. It is having a direct impact on our people. National data shows that 44% of the police workforce report often or always feeling burnt out because of their job, compared with 32 per cent within the NHS. More than half of the police workforce, 55 per cent, struggle to take sufficient breaks, while almost two-thirds, 63 per cent, work unpaid hours every week. This is neither safe nor sustainable.

“Police officer numbers per head of population remain below where they were 15 years ago, and the lowest in Europe, while demand continues to rise. The gap between what policing is being asked to deliver and the resources available to deliver it cannot continue to widen.”

Mr Smart added: “Police reform has begun. We welcome the opportunity it presents to build the police service our country needs for the future. But reform cannot be delivered on ambition alone, and it cannot become another demand placed upon a service without the resources to deliver it.

“Our message to government is urgent and clear. As it develops its 10-year plan and Spending Review, it must properly fund policing, define the police mission, address the demand being placed on the service, and within this review the entire criminal justice system – police reform cannot be done in isolation.

“This early Budget suggests another year of austerity for policing, which would be shameful. If the Government wants safer streets, stronger communities and meaningful police reform, it must invest in the police service and the people expected to deliver them.”

A recent survey at Thames Valley Police found 93 per cent of its officers do not feel fairly paid for the stresses and strains of the job, and 78 per cent were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their overall pay and allowances.

Almost half (49 per cent) were not confident in their force’s ability to resource appropriately for day-to-day operational demands, and 28 per cent said their team has been fully staffed on very few or no shifts in the past three months.

Sixty-nine per cent say their force relies heavily on officer goodwill to meet routine operational demands, while more than half have felt unsafe on duty because of staffing levels in the past three months.

Thames Valley Police Federation chair Aileen O’Connor said the most concerning finding was the number of officers who say they intend to resign.

The survey found 27 per cent intend to resign from the service either within the next two years or as soon as they can, which is above the national average and among the highest forces in England and Wales.

“More than two-thirds of our members say their workload is too high or much too high – again this is above the national average,” said Ms O’Connor.

She added: “I am also keen to compare the data from 2025 with this year because at first glance there are areas that have improved – for example personal and force morale, and pride in policing across TVP remains relatively strong.

“However, the more worrying news is that more officers are considering leaving, workload pressures have increased, fatigue is having greater impact on operational effectiveness and family life and leave refusals have become a major issue.

“It’s a priority for me to look at the data around the sheer amount of unnecessary demand that our officers are facing, for example attending non crime-related matters where other authorities or agencies should be the first port of call.

“I will be discussing these results with the chief in the coming days to see how we can improve.”