Behind the Headlines – Police Uplift Programme

In this new feature, we speak to colleagues working to deliver some of the Home Office’s most high-profile campaigns and programmes. We look at the contributions of individuals working in different roles to help understand what they do and how their work has contributed to delivery of the project as a whole.

In the first of this series, we take a look at the Police Uplift Programme.

The aim of the Police Uplift Programme is to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers by March 2023 in order to deliver a more resilient, capable and diverse workforce. By now, over 11,000 officers have been hired across England and Wales, with increasing numbers of female officers joining.

We spoke to three colleagues working on this project.

Sandeep, who works as a Project Manager in the team, said: ‘The Police Uplift Programme is a complex initiative being delivered by the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing. It involves a great deal of collaboration, not only between these organisations but also between colleagues within the department. It has been great to see different Home Office professions working closely together to deliver the programme.’

Rachel works as a Policy Advisor in the team. She said: ‘When we are developing policy we rely heavily on the work of analysts and project managers – we couldn’t do our work without them! Our project team keep us all on track and our analyst colleagues are integral to making sure our data is handled and published correctly.?It’s truly a team effort.’

This is echoed by Analyst Meghan who says: ‘Our policy colleagues really engage with us, valuing the role of analysts’ in policy making and delivery. When we are gathering data, we liaise closely with policy colleagues to help us decide where we should focus our efforts.’

Sandeep is working on a pilot project to re-design the police officer assessment process which aims to reduce disproportionate outcomes for Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates. He says: ‘One of our main challenges is improving diversity and inclusion. Our partners’ analysts are providing the community research and data which will help design the criteria for the pilot. Individual police forces must successfully engage with communities so they start to see policing as a career path for their children. We are working with communications specialists to develop strategies to make jobs in policing attractive to a wide range of communities.’

Meghan’s says: ‘Working on this programme has given me an incredible insight into how staff from different parts of the Home Office can support one another, leaning on each other’s expertise to work towards shared outcomes. There is a genuine collaborative team spirit in the department which means that whatever level you are, your contribution is encouraged and valued.’

Rachel says: ‘We’re over halfway there, with more than 11,000 additional officers already recruited, but there’s still a lot more to do.’ She has enjoyed the challenges so far, saying: ‘The work has been varied and interesting; I genuinely care about the work I am doing which makes even the tough days worthwhile.’

Sandeep agrees: ‘It’s great to know that the programme is already helping to put officers on the streets and keep the public safe, but we need to build on this to make the biggest possible difference to the diversity of our police force.’

Meghan is already looking forward to seeing the programme develop: ‘I feel a sense of pride when I see commissions or projects I have worked on filtering into policy changes and having such a clear impact. As we collect more data, we will be able to do more analysis looking at the progress year on year, which will be super interesting to see!’