Transparency data

Police Covenant Oversight Board minutes 28 April 2025

Updated 30 July 2025

Applies to England and Wales

Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm

Venue: Virtual Meeting

Attendees

• Peter Spreadbury – Deputy Director, Home Office
• Nick Smart – President, Police Superintendents’ Association
• Nicola Faulconbridge – His Majesty’s Inspector, HMICFRS
• Gareth Wilson – Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association
• Tiffany Lynch – Police Federation of England and Wales
• Andy Tremayne – Association of Police and Crime Commissioners
• Andy Rhodes – Director, National Police Wellbeing Service
• David Wilbraham – Chair, Police Memorial Trust
• John Harrison – Chief Medical Officer, College of Policing
• Harriet Mackinlay – Policy Team Lead, Home Office
• Iain Barton – Policy Lead, Home Office
• Emma Marriott – Policy Lead, Home Office
• Sally Hasselby – Board Secretariat, Home Office

Apologies

• Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson DBE – Minister of State for Policing and Crime Prevention
• Gavin Stephens – Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council
• Sir Andy Marsh – CEO, College of Policing
• Sarah Taylor – Police and Crime Commissioner

Welcome and introductory remarks

Peter Spreadbury welcomed attendees, noting the Minister’s absence due to an urgent parliamentary question.

He conveyed her apologies and indicated her desire to go ahead with the meeting in her absence.

Annual Report update

Iain Barton informed Board members that work on the draft annual report was progressing but had taken longer than anticipated. He confirmed that a draft had been prepared, contributions have been received and officials are in the process of fact-checking the draft report before it is circulated to the Board. He anticipated this to be in the next few weeks.

Tiffany Lynch asked what the clearance process entailed and at what stage ministers would sign it off.

Iain Barton clarified that the Board will first need to approve the draft report before it goes through government clearance processes.

Terms of reference

Peter Spreadbury provided the context for the terms of reference, explaining that they are reviewed regularly to ensure they are up to date and that the membership is made up of the right organisations. He asked the Board members if they have any thoughts or questions on the terms of reference.

David Wilbraham noted that, as agreed with the Minister during the previous Board discussion, the Police Charities UK Group will be represented on the Oversight Board, though this was not currently reflected in the terms of reference.

Iain Barton confirmed that the Secretariat team will amend the terms of reference, removing the independent panel member and including DW as the representative from the Police Charities UK Group.

Nick Smart asked if there was scope to invite a member from NARPO into future PCOB meetings, as they are keen to be involved in discussions to offer solutions and support for police officers who have left the service.

Peter Spreadbury recognised the interest NARPO has in these discussions. He noted that a presentation was given by the group at a past Board meeting under the previous government. PS noted that the participants for the Oversight Board needed to be core members of the policing landscape who can actively contribute to the Board’s delivery mechanism and that this should be the basis on which any new members were considered. He also noted that this would help manage expectations from other organisations who may wish to sit on the Oversight Board.

Tiffany Lynch expressed her support for NARPO joining the Oversight Board given the crucial part the group plays in supporting retired officers.

Andy Rhodes echoed the views of TL and NS, whilst acknowledging the need to manage the size and focus of the Oversight Board. He mentioned the regular conversations he has with NARPO and confirmed their positive contributions. He felt that there was good evidence that NARPO can make a similar positive contribution to future Oversight Board meetings.

Peter Spreadbury acknowledged the support from Board members to include NARPO in future PCOB meetings and took an action for officials to consider ahead of the next Board meeting.

Dashboard, delivery and healthcare update

Andy Rhodes provided an update on the live dashboard tracking Covenant deliverables. He reported progress on a follow-up action from the previous Board discussion regarding the Operation Hampshire Assaults Plan. AR met with Gillian Routledge, NPCC Strategic Lead for Robotic Process Automation, who highlighted two key issues:

• forces use disparate systems, especially for health and safety, risking increased workload - contrary to efforts to reduce organisational stressors
• inconsistent use of definitions in the Operation Hampshire question set (e.g., injury severity) make data difficult to standardise.

GR proposed adding three new questions to the annual data collection from forces and expressed her commitment to supporting the Covenant’s data efforts within NPCC.

Andy Rhodes provided an update on the launch of the NPCC National Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which was approved by Chief Constables’ Council in March and has received positive feedback from force HR leads. Separately, good progress was being made on the workforce prioritisation guidance.

Andy Rhodes also brought the Board’s attention to the new National Police Wellbeing Survey. This new survey would bring a number of improvements to the previous annual wellbeing survey. It would empower the workforce, inspire and inform action, track possible impacts and reduce complexity. The survey will run from the 19 May to 4 June. He mentioned the team had picked up a piece of work through the Workforce Committee to reduce survey fatigue by controlling the number of surveys, particularly from the NPCC and the College.

Andy Rhodes stated that it has been a year since the launch of the National Suicide Action Plan. The NPWS are currently working with forces to do a self-assessment. In addition, the Mental Health Crisis Line will be rolled out later this year, available to everybody in policing, including Non-Home Office Forces, Counter Terrorism Networks and the National Crime Agency, and with a view to making it available to families and leavers in future. There will also be an extended pilot of the Police Leavers’ Gateway following interest from other forces. This will work in a similar way to the Armed Forces Leavers Gateway.

Andy Rhodes informed the board that NPWS have received anonymous data from the Health Observatory relating to mental health peer supporters, which indicates that the reasons why people approach them have changed. There are also noticeable differences in gender, ethnicity and age which will help create a more tailored and efficient service. There is also ongoing work on fatigue risk management with more than 1000 people now enrolled in the course. AR noted, however, that more work needs to be done in breaking down cultural barriers and supporting new officers to cope with working on shifts. Finally, the guidance for blood-borne viruses in Accident & Emergency (A&E) protocols is being reissued by the Chief Medical Officer to ensure that line managers, force incident managers and local A&E departments know what crucial steps to take in the first 72 hours.

Peter Spreadbury acknowledged the huge amount of work that is being carried forward by AR and his team, in particular the work on suicide and blood-borne viruses. In relation to the Wellbeing Survey, he asked whether a single national wellbeing survey would be likely in the next year or two.

Andy Rhodes stated the issue with this was that forces have their own surveys, built up over many years providing them with longitudinal data. It will be difficult to convince these forces to adopt a singular national survey. However, he mentioned the Wellbeing Survey is cost effective as there is potential to link up to the local force surveys. AR flagged that the NPWS now controls the national question set which previously they did not. Working with Chris Curtis (NPCC), they have started a scoping exercise to understand how many surveys are carried out within forces and see if they can put in a form of governance around the number of surveys sent by the College of Policing and NPCC. However, AR is confident forces will adopt a singular national survey over time.

Peter Spreadbury welcomed the approach.

Tiffany Lynch informed the Board of the work the PFEW are doing to support the suicide action plan, in particular, the work in collating the figures for officer suicides which has proven to be very difficult. There have been 28 branches that have returned figures, but the data is not accurate. The PFEW are working with PSA to obtain their figures.

Peter Spreadbury noted the challenges in obtaining this data and proposed Home Office could support discussions between the PFEW and relevant forces in obtaining the data required.

Nicola Faulconbridge agreed with AR on the difficulties around adopting a singular national survey and confirmed she will reach out to him outside of the meeting on data sharing and fatigue work.

Occupational health update

Peter Spreadbury welcomed NF to provide an update on occupational health and its introduction into HMICFRS’ inspection methodology.

Nicola Faulconbridge updated the Board on the Workforce Health & Wellbeing Observatory. As part of the PEEL inspections question set, the second question will focus on workforce (the first being leadership), which demonstrates the importance that the inspectorate places on the need for forces to support their workforce. HMICFRS will inspect how forces provide this support, including how they make efforts to retain officers and staff, whilst meeting the needs of the community. During the last set of inspections, it was identified that most forces have a focus on wellbeing and have measures in place to monitor and improve wellbeing. This included surveys and psychological screening. However, provision was inconsistent across forces. It was also flagged there is a lack of awareness amongst officers and staff on the support available on the national suicide line and how to access it.

Nicola Faulconbridge also raised concerns from officers regarding welfare issues linked to workloads. NPWS and HMICFRS have seen reports from officers informing them they don’t have the ability to access the services because they simply don’t have time to step away from their responsibilities. A change of IT systems has also been identified as a common stressor amongst officers as they try to adapt to the new systems whilst dealing with the daily demands of their workload. NF confirmed that HMICFRS’s work with forces was not just focussed on surveys, it also included focus groups, interviews and discussions with officers. This multi-pronged approach has proven effective and has helped drive higher response rates on surveys.

Nicola Faulconbridge stated that the focus of the next round of the PEEL assessment will be on how forces understand their own workforce’s wellbeing, and whether they are acting on feedback. HMICFRS have seen the same issues raised each year which means issues are either not being addressed or changes made by chief officers and senior staff are not effective.

Nicola Faulconbridge concluded her update by informing the Board that the HMICFRS and NPWS approach moving forward was to ensure that forces are addressing the drivers of poor wellbeing, that leaders at every level understood the need to support their workforce, and that forces were being preventative in their approach as opposed to being reactive. They want to see wellbeing treated as a priority, with staff being able to access and have confidence in the local leadership, and the wellbeing plans that the force develops should be all-encompassing in-line with the wellbeing strategy. 

Peter Spreadbury thanked NF for her comprehensive and constructive update and appreciates the challenges her team are facing in tackling some of the issues mentioned.

Nick Smart questioned whether a holistic approach to wellbeing can be maintained amid workforce budget cuts, and high staff turnover among younger officers caused by stress and heavy workloads.

Nicola Faulconbridge confirmed that retention was being looked at by HMICFRS and that they are asking forces questions about how they are looking after officers, and how they are taking account of the differing wellbeing needs of younger and older officers. She confirmed that they review separately how forces are spending their money and the rationale for difficult decisions.

Nick Smart informed the Board that his team are working with NPWS to provide psychological risk assessments for superintendents in England and Wales. He noted that they have encountered some resistance from senior managers, which appears to stem from ongoing stigma and cultural issues around how the provision of welfare is understood within some forces.

Gareth Wilson flagged that more senior officers had encountered similar attitudes in some areas and noted that CPOSA would be meeting with the Minister to discuss the chief officer wellbeing survey results.

Peter Spreadbury thanked all for their contributions.

Medals and honours update

Iain Barton provided an overview of the work going on in recognising outstanding officers, staff and volunteers in policing. The team have pushed for a higher number of officers to be recognised for the good work they’re doing and members of staff over the last two years. Primarily the focus has been on existing systems, although there has been some public interest of potential new forms of medallic recognition following campaigns. He informed the Board of the work with policing organisations to maximise the number of nominations for gallantry through the George Cross Committee. This has resulted in 30 nominations received, in contrast to normally 3 or 4 nominations a year. The first tranche of nominees has received their Elizabeth Emblems (awarded to the families of individuals who lose their lives in course of, or as a result of, their public service). The second tranche has also gone through the George Cross Committee, and we are waiting the formal readout from it. IB also mentioned there are two public campaigns the team are considering. These are of a Police Staff Long Service Good Conduct Medal, and an Injury / Ill Health Retirement Medal.

David Wilbraham shared concerns related to the relative parity of awards. He noted that a new medal being awarded, such as the Ill Health Retirement Medal, may lead to some perverse outcomes if not very tightly worded. He gave the examples of several officers still serving with similar injuries to those who are ill health retired. He also mentioned potential complications relating to retrospection with officers who are retired.

Iain Barton acknowledged the concerns raised and that the team are working on ensuring this is handled in a robust and respectful manner.

AOB and closing remarks

Peter Spreadbury thanked the Board for their continued engagement and work, noting the Minister would be pleased the Board covered some important actions from the previous meeting. It was noted the following actions will be taken forward:

• consider the context of the terms of reference
• consider NARPO attendance at future PCOB meetings
• Home Office to help facilitate discussions if PFEW encounter resistance from relevant forces on sharing data on police suicide