Research and analysis

Police Uplift Programme New Recruits Onboarding Survey 2023 - Report

Published 30 November 2023

Applies to England and Wales

Authors: Police and Fire Analysis Unit, Home Office Analysis & Insight (HOAI)

Press Enquiries: pressoffice@homeoffice.gov.uk

1. Background

On 5 September 2019 the Prime Minister announced the Government commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by 31 March 2023. The Police Uplift Programme (PUP) launched in October 2019, with progress towards the 20,000 target tracked regularly through Home Office statistical publications.

Alongside the high levels of recruitment that are critical to delivering this programme, a key objective of PUP is to retain newly recruited police officers at high levels. In response to this objective, the Home Office launched the ‘PUP New Recruits Onboarding Survey’ in 2021 with the aim of improving understanding of the retention of new officers.

The primary aims of the survey are:

• to provide insight into the views and experiences of new officers, including how satisfied they felt about their police career, and whether they intended to remain in policing

• to better understand the onboarding process that new joiners experience, including recruitment, training, management, support, and wellbeing

• to identify how views and opinions vary across sub-groups of interest (including gender, ethnicity, age, length of service and entry route), and collect richer information on the backgrounds of new joiners

Research teams at the Home Office and College of Policing jointly designed and administered the survey, with input from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) PUP Management Team. This joint approach enabled Home Office and College of Policing objectives to be met within a single survey, minimising the burden placed upon police forces. In addition to some areas of shared interest, each organisation led on analysing the survey findings specific to their objectives.

The PUP New Recruits Onboarding Survey was first run in 2021 and repeated in 2022. The findings from 2021 and 2022 are published in Home office analytical reports. The survey was conducted again in 2023 to collect the data from new police officers joining during the final year of the PUP, and allow for tracking of the onboarding experiences throughout the Programme.

This report presents the findings of the 2023 PUP New Recruits Onboarding Survey. It explores the themes analysed by the Home Office analysis team. The College of Policing will report in due course on themes not covered in this report, including police education and training, evidence-based policing and problem solving.

---

2. Methodology

The 2023 PUP New Recruits Onboarding Survey opened in late March and closed in early May 2023. The survey was conducted online, with new police officers from all 43 police forces invited to take part. In total, 11,765 officers were invited to participate. A total of 3,556 valid responses were received, representing a 30% response rate.

2.1 Eligibility

The survey focussed on understanding the experiences of new police officers during their first year in the role. Any new officer, excluding transferees^{[footnote 1]}, that joined their force between February and November 2022 was eligible to take part in the survey. These parameters meant that at the launch of the survey in late March 2023, all eligible participants were recruited during the PUP and would have between 4 to 14 months’ experience in the role. A minimum tenure of at least 4 months ensured that all participants had completed their initial classroom training and begun to experience practical aspects of the role. The eligibility criteria were the same as the 2021 and 2022 survey to ensure a high standard of reliability for year-on-year comparisons between the data collected.

2.2 Sampling

Home Office statistical publications on the PUP provided a guide as to the eligible sample size for this survey. Figures published on 25 January 2023 indicated that during the eligible period from February to November 2022, a total of 12,807 new police officers were recruited across England and Wales (see Table U4). This represented the maximum potential sample size. This figure was expected to drop slightly when samples were prepared, as not all officers recruited during this period would still be in post at the time of sampling.

Considering the size of the available sample and last years’ sampling strategy success (a response rate of over 30%), all eligible participants were invited to take part this year as well. Achieving a similar response rate would produce a sufficient sample size for analysis across a range of sub-groups. This approach had the added benefit of simplifying the sampling process and ensuring that all eligible participants would have equal opportunity to participate in the survey.

As all eligible participants were invited to take part by email, the sampling process consisted only of collating a list of work email addresses for eligible officers in each police force. A single point of contact (SPOC) was established within each of the 43 police forces, typically a member of the Learning and Development team, who would liaise with the Home Office and College of Policing on the sampling and other aspects of delivering the survey. SPOCs in every force were provided with instructions and offered a briefing on preparing a sample of email addresses. This sample always remained within the force to protect the anonymity of eligible officers. Only the total eligible sample size for each force was shared with the Home Office and College of Policing. This total figure would enable response rates to be calculated during the fieldwork period.

Once all force samples were prepared, the total eligible sample size for the survey was 11,765 officers.

2.3 Questionnaire design and scripting

Researchers from the Home Office and College of Policing jointly designed the survey questionnaire. Stakeholders from the Home Office, College of Policing and NPCC were consulted throughout the development process. The questionnaire was designed to take no longer than 15 minutes to complete, to limit the chance of participants dropping out due to time concerns or survey fatigue. To guarantee that the completion time remained within 15 minutes for all, some questions were routed into 2 modules within the questionnaire, each answered by around half of the sample. The questions were very similar to those used in the 2021 and 2022 surveys to ensure reliable comparisons could be made. A few amendments were made, and a small number of additional questions were added.

The questionnaire included several standard demographic questions but no officer names or contact details were collected. Full anonymity in the published reporting of the questionnaire was provided to participants to increase responses and encourage honest feedback.

The agreed questionnaire was scripted into a short online survey hosted via the Smart Survey platform. The research team tested the script thoroughly ahead of the survey launch to ensure accuracy in the set-up.

2.4 Data Collection

Soft launch pilot

Prior to the full survey launch, the research team undertook a short soft launch to ensure the survey infrastructure was working as expected. The main aims of the soft launch were:

• to ensure that the email invitation system worked as expected and eligible participants received emails
• to confirm that participants could enter the survey and complete a response
• to confirm that the survey script routing worked correctly

Any issues identified during the soft launch were corrected before the full launch of the survey to all eligible police officers in England and Wales.

Main fieldwork period

The full survey launch took place on 28 March 2023. SPOCs from all police forces sent invitations to the eligible participants in their sample by email, including a link to follow to complete the survey. The main fieldwork period continued for 6 weeks after the first email invitations were sent. All eligible participants received a reminder email one week after the full launch, with 2 further reminders sent in the following consecutive weeks. The survey closed on 9 May 2023 to give time for additional reminders to be sent where necessary to increase response in a small number of forces.

At the close of fieldwork, a total of 3,556 valid responses had been received, representing an overall response rate of 30%.

2.5 Data cleaning

Following the completion of survey fieldwork, a data cleaning stage took place to ensure full confidence in the survey data before analysis got underway.

Despite efforts through the questionnaire design to minimise the survey dropout rate, there were still some incomplete responses. The research team removed all partially completed responses from the dataset before the analysis stage. A small number of fully complete responses were also removed from the data, either due to participants providing a start date which fell outside of the eligible period of February to November 2022 or indicating that they were a transferee into their force and therefore not new to policing.

The survey questionnaire included several questions which contained an ‘other’ category, which invited participants to type in free text responses if their answer was not present on the closed response list. The research team reviewed all these responses and created additional closed answer categories for free text answers that came up regularly to ensure the analysis captured these responses.

2.6 Survey weighting

Home Office Police Uplift statistics provide information on the profile of new police officers recruited during 2022 for 2 demographic variables – sex and ethnicity (see the workforce open data tables). This created the opportunity, as is standard on surveys of this nature, to complete some basic demographic survey weighting to correct for minor imbalances in the achieved sample. Although the achieved sample closely matched the known demographic profile of new police officers, the research team applied survey weights on both sex and ethnicity. This ensured that the achieved sample reflected the profile of the full eligible sample. The impact of these weights on the sample is outlined below.

Table 2.1 Sex weights

	Unweighted % of sample	Weighted % of sample
Male	54.9%	56.2%
Female	43.9%	42.4%
Intersex	0.0%	0.0%
Other	0.0%	0.0%
Prefer not to say	1.3%	1.5%

Table 2.2 Ethnicity weights

	Unweighted % of sample	Weighted % of sample
White	92%	88.6%
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic	6.9%	11.3%
Prefer not to say	1.0%	1.1%

Weighting was also applied at police force level, to account for differential response rates between them. This made sure that responses from each force were in proportion to the size of their PUP intake.

The final weighted sample had a weighting efficiency of 81%.

---

3. Headline findings

The PUP New Recruits Onboarding Survey (2023) found that the overall picture is positive with high satisfaction and strong intentions to remain within policing. More than 8 in 10 new officers are satisfied with the role and the support they receive from their line managers, and more than 7 in 10 indicate that the role has met or exceeded their expectations. There continues to be encouraging findings with regards to new officer retention, as more than 7 in 10 new officers indicate they intend to stay in the service until retirement or pension age.

The findings from the 2023 survey are generally more positive than the 2022 findings, although less positive across all key areas when compared to the 2021 survey. The findings also raise similar challenges for policing to those raised in previous years. The survey results highlight that the experiences of new officers from minority ethnic backgrounds are not as positive as those of their white colleagues. This emerges as a consistent theme across a number of questions. Positive responses to questions are also generally lower for recruits over 40 years of age, and those who had served longer than 12 months.

Finally, challenges around new officer wellbeing remain. Around 4 in 10 new recruits report ignoring their personal life needs due to work strain and agree that tension and stress from work adversely affects the rest of their life, each significantly higher than in 2021, but an improvement on last year.

Headline survey results for the 2023 survey at national level and year-on-year comparisons between key findings are outlined in the details that follow. Reference is made to findings from the 2021 and 2022 survey throughout this report where there are notable differences in the findings. Where differences between sub-groups were found to be statistically significant, additional information has also been provided.

3.1 Year-on-year comparisons

Satisfaction with the role and support received

The overall picture was positive in 2023 with more than 8 in 10 new officers satisfied with both their role as a police officer and the support they receive from their line manager. There was a significant decrease in satisfaction compared to 2021: 85% indicated they were satisfied with their role in 2023 (down from 90% in 2021), and 82% were satisfied with the support they had received (down from 88%), however, satisfaction improved in comparison to last year and overall remains high.

Figure 3.1: Charts comparing findings from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 surveys for how satisfied new recruits felt with their role and with support they received from their line manager

Satisfied = ‘Fairly satisfied’ and ‘Very satisfied’ combined

Q38 (2021), Q42 (2022) and Q14 (2023). Overall, how satisfied are you with your job as a police officer? Total respondents, unweighted base: (2021 - 1,842; 2022 - 1,517; 2023 - 3,556)

Q18 (2021), Q19 (2022) and Q23 (2023). Since joining the service, how satisfied would you say you are with the level of support you have received from each of the following? Total respondents, unweighted base (manager): (2021 - 3,341; 2022 - 2,872; 2023 - 3,556)

Expectations of the role and intentions to stay

More than 7 in 10 participants indicated that the role either met or exceeded their expectations prior to joining (71% down from 79% in 2021). More than 8 in 10 officers indicated that they intend to stay in their role for the next 3 years or more (85% down from 90% in 2021). Around 7 in 10 officers intend to stay until retirement or pension age. This is lower than last year and the year before that (72% down from 77% and 81% respectively).

Figure 3.2: Charts comparing findings from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 surveys for whether the role met recruits’ expectations, and recruits’ intentions to remain within policing

Role meeting expectations = ‘A lot better than I expected’, ‘A little better than I expected’ and ‘About the same as I expected’ combined.

‘Stay’ = ‘I want to continue as a police officer until retirement/pension’ and ‘I want to continue as a police officer for at least the next 3 years’ combined.

Q39 (2021), Q43 (2022) and Q15 (2023). How does your job as a police officer compare to your expectations prior to joining? Total respondents, unweighted base: (2021 - 1,842; 2022 - 1,517; 2023 - 3,556)

Q15 (2021), Q15 (2022) and Q19 (2023). How long do you intend to stay in your role as a police officer? Total respondents, unweighted base: (2021 - 3,462; 2022 – 2,872; 2023 – 3,556)

Wellbeing

Results from the 2023 survey indicated that new officer wellbeing has stabilised between this and last year and not quite reached the levels of 2021. More than a third of new recruits agreed that they ignored their personal life needs due to work strain (35% down from 37% in 2022 and up from 24% in 2021) and that the tension and stress from work adversely affects the rest of the life (38% down from 40% in 2022 and up from 38% in 2021).

Figure 3.3: Charts comparing findings from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 surveys for wellbeing statements regarding the impact of work on recruits’ personal life

Agree = ‘Agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’ combined; Disagree = ‘Disagree’ and ‘Strongly disagree’ combined.

Q26 (2021), Q29 (2022) and Q34 (2023). To what extent do you agree with each of the following statements? Total respondents, unweighted base (2021 – 3,462; 2022 - 2,872; 2023 – 3,556)

Similarly, the proportion of new recruits agreed that work leaves them with little time and energy to do any other non-work related activities (49% down from 51% in 2022 and up from 38% in 2021). When the inverse was measured, relatively more new recruits disagreed that they have sufficient time and energy to engage in activities outside of work (37% up from 36% in 2022 but down from 45% in 2021).

Figure 3.4: Charts comparing findings from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 surveys for wellbeing statements regarding new recruits’ capacity to engage in non-work related activities

Agree = ‘Agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’ combined; Disagree = ‘Disagree’ and ‘Strongly disagree’ combined.

Q26 (2021), Q29 (2022) and Q34 (2023). To what extent do you agree with each of the following statements? Total respondents, unweighted base (2021 – 3,462; 2022 - 2,872; 2023 – 3,556)

3.2 Job satisfaction

When asked how satisfied new recruits were with their job as a police officer, more than 8 in 10 indicated that they were satisfied: 58% of recruits selected that they were ‘fairly satisfied’ and 27% that they were ‘very satisfied’. Only 3% of recruits indicated that they were ‘not at all satisfied’ with their job.

Figure 3.5: Chart showing the level of satisfaction of new police recruits

Q14. Overall, how satisfied are you with your job as a police officer? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Job satisfaction was consistently high across a range of sub-groups. Satisfaction was highest amongst new officers who had served for less than 6 months, and lowest for officers aged 41 and over and officers with more than 12 months service.

There is higher satisfaction amongst new officers this year than last year, although lower than in 2021 (85% in comparison to 82% and 90% respectively). In 2021, satisfaction was highest amongst new officers aged 25 and under, and similarly to this year, lowest for officers aged 41 and over.

Figure 3.6: Chart showing the percentage of respondents who were satisfied with their role as a police officer, explored by respondent sub-groups

Satisfied = ‘Fairly satisfied’ and ‘Very satisfied’ combined.

Q14. Overall, how satisfied are you with your job as a police officer?

Total respondents, unweighted base: Overall (3,556); aged 25 and under (1,661); 26 to 40 (1,642); 41 to 55 (249); Male (1,951); Female (1,560); White (3,272); Minority ethnic (247); Disability (467); No disability (2,998); Heterosexual/straight (3,007); LGB (402); Under 6 months service (855); 6 to 12 months service (1,872); Over 12 months service (829)

The role meeting expectations

More than 7 in 10 new officers indicated that their job as a police officer had met or exceeded their expectations prior to joining (71%). Almost a third of new recruits suggested that the role exceeded their expectations (20% a little better than they expected and 12% a lot better than they expected).

Less than 1 in 3 new officers indicated that the police officer role fell below the expectations they had before joining; 6% said the role was a lot worse than they expected.

The percentage of new officers that agreed the role met or exceeded their expectations is lower than in 2021 (71% down from 79%) although at a similar level to last year (69%). In 2021 more than a third suggested the role exceeded their expectations (36% in comparison to 32% this year) and less than 1 in 5 indicated the police officer role fell below their expectations (18% in comparison to 27% this year).

Figure 3.7: Chart showing how new recruits felt their officer role met their expectations

Exceeded expectations = ‘A little better than I expected’ and ‘A lot better than I expected’ combined; Below expectations = ‘A little worse than I expected’ and ‘A lot worse than I expected’ combined.

Q15. How does your job as a police officer compare to your expectations prior to joining? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Retention and career intentions

Most new officers indicated that they intend to stay in their role for the next 3 years or more (85%), with the vast majority intending to stay until retirement or pension age (72%). Only 4% of new officers expressed a clear intention to leave within next 3 years.

Figure 3.8: Chart showing the career intentions of new police recruits

Q19. How long do you intend to stay in your role as a police officer? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Intention to continue as a police officer until retirement or pension age varied across sub-groups. New officers who had served for less than 6 months were the most likely to express intention to stay until retirement or pension (78%). New officers from minority ethnic backgrounds were the least likely to have long-term career intentions (59%).

Intentions to stay until retirement or pension age were lower compared to 2022 and 2021 (72% down from 77% in 2022 and 81% in 2021). This year, as with last year, those with under 6 months service were more likely to state long-term career intentions and those with longer service and ethnic minority officers were less likely to do so.

Figure 3.9: Sub-group breakdown of long-term career intentions of new police recruits

Long-term = ‘I want to continue as a police officer until retirement/pension’.

Q19. How long do you intend to stay in your role as a police officer?

Total respondents, unweighted base: Overall (3,556); aged 25 and under (1,661); 26-40 (1,642); 41-55 (249); Male (1,951); Female (1,560); White (3,272); Minority ethnic = (247); Under 6 months service (855); 6 to 12 months service (1,872); Over 12 months service (829)

Most common reasons for new officers not intending to continue as a police officer until retirement or pension, like last year, included lack of work-life balance; insufficient salary and benefits, and the impact the job has on recruits’ health and wellbeing.

Figure 3.10: Reasons for not intending to continue as a police officer until retirement or pension

Q20. Which, if any, of the following are reasons why you do not intend to continue as a police officer until retirement/pension? Total respondents, unweighted base: 563

3.3 Joining the police service

Most influential factors in decision to join

Variety, excitement, helping people in the community and career opportunities were the most influential factors for new officers when deciding to join the police service. Other factors such as salary prospects, the status of the job, knowing existing police officers, and support from family or friends were less influential.

The findings align with 2021 and 2022. Throughout all 3 surveys, the opportunity to gain a degree-level qualification and lack of career alternatives were the least influential factors for joining the police force.

Figure 3.11: Chart showing the most influential factors for joining the police selected by new recruits

Influence = ‘5’ (Very influential) and ‘4’ (Influential) combined.

Q17. How influential were each of the following factors in your decision to apply to join the police force? Please respond to all of the following statements. Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

*Q18. How influential was the opportunity to gain a degree-level qualification in your decision to join the police force? Total respondents, unweighted base: 1,316

Awareness of the realities of being a police officer

A little more than half of new officers agreed that the realities of being a police officer were clearly explained to them as part of the recruitment process; 53% agreed with the statement, while 28% disagreed.

There is minimal difference between this and last year’s results.

Figure 3.12: Chart showing whether the realities of being a police officer were clearly explained to new recruits as part of the recruitment process

Q35. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements: ‘As part of the recruitment process, the realities of being a police officer were clearly explained to me’? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Support received during the recruitment process

A little more than a third of new police officers received support to prepare for the initial application, while just over 4 in 10 received support for the assessment centre stage of the recruitment process. Less than a third received support at the post-assessment centre interview stage. A smaller proportion of around 1 in 6 received support with vetting.

This year a smaller proportion of recruits received support at every stage in comparison to previous years. The largest difference is visible between this and previous years’ proportions of recruits receiving support at the application stage (34% down from 46% in 2022 and 45% in 2021).

Figure 3.13: Chart showing proportion of applicants receiving support at each stage of the recruitment process, from either the force directly, family or friends involved in policing, or a commercial provider

*Calculated as a proportion of those eligible for a post-assessment centre interview

Q36. During the initial application did you make use of support from any of these sources? Support from the police force directly; Support through a commercial provider / course that I paid for; Support from friends or family involved in policing. Total respondents, unweighted base: 1,908

Q38. When preparing for your assessment centre did you make use of support from any of these sources? Total respondents, unweighted base: 1,908

Q40. When preparing for your post-assessment centre interview did you make use of support from any of these sources? Total respondents, unweighted base: 1,538

Q42. When completing the vetting process did you make use of support from any of these sources? Total respondents, unweighted base: 1,675

Access to IT and HR services

Just over half of new recruits found it easy to access IT systems, software, and hardware upon joining their force; 46% indicated they found this difficult. Accessing relevant HR policies and procedures on topics such as pay, pensions and probation was reported to be similarly difficult for new recruits.

This year’s results are similar to last year’s for the ease of access to IT systems. The results are more positive for ease of access to relevant HR policies (56% up from 52%).

Figure 3.14: Chart showing how easy or difficult new recruits found accessing IT and HR services

Q44. When you first joined your force, how easy or difficult was it to access each of the following? Total respondents, unweighted base: 1,908.

3.4 Managerial support

Satisfaction with support

Satisfaction with the support received from superiors was consistently high. More than 82% of new recruits were satisfied with the level of support they had received from their line manager, tutor constable and trainers in their force. Tutor constables generated the highest levels of satisfaction amongst new officers (89%).

The results were similar to 2022 and 2021 however, marginally lower than those in 2021 for the line manager category, when 88%, 90% and 86% reported being satisfied with each source of support respectively.

Figure 3.15: Chart showing new recruit satisfaction with support from their police force

Satisfied = ‘Very satisfied’ and ‘Fairly satisfied’ combined. Dissatisfied = ‘Not very’ and ‘Not at all’ satisfied combined.

Q22. Since joining the service, how satisfied would you say you are with the level of support you have received from your tutor constable? Total respondents, unweighted base: 2,809

Q23. Since joining the service, how satisfied would you say you are with the level of support you have received from each of the following? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

There were consistently high levels of satisfaction with line managers, tutor constables, and trainers in the force across all sub-groups, dropping slightly for officers over the age of 40.

Figure 3.16: Sub-group breakdown of new recruit satisfaction with their police force’s support

Satisfied = ‘Very satisfied’ and ‘Fairly satisfied’ combined.

Q22. Since joining the service, how satisfied would you say you are with the level of support you have received from your tutor constable? Total respondents, unweighted base: Overall (2,809); aged 25 and under (1,291); 26-40 (1,324); 41-55 (190); Male (1,547); Female (1,228); White (2,596); Minority Ethnic (185)

Q23. Since joining the service, how satisfied would you say you are with the level of support you have received from each of the following? Total respondents, unweighted base: Overall (3,556); aged 25 and under (1,661); 26-40 (1,642); 41-55 (249); Male (1,951); Female (1,560); White (3,272); Minority Ethnic (247)

Regularity of conversations

Conversations about professional development and personal wellbeing occurred much more frequently with tutor constables than with line managers. Around 7 in 10 new officers reported having at least a monthly conversation with their tutor constable about their professional development and personal wellbeing. About half of new officers were having these conversations at least monthly with their line manager.

Although new recruits in 2023 report having conversations with their supervisors more frequently than recruits in 2022, those do not occur as often as in 2021. This is clearest when looking at regularity of conversations with tutor constables: 81% and 77% of new recruits had conversations with their tutor constable about professional development and personal wellbeing in 2021, compared to 72% and 68% in 2023.

Figure 3.17: Charts showing the regularity of new recruit conversations with line managers and tutor constables

Q24. Roughly, how often do you have a conversation with your line manager about … Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Q25. Roughly, how often do you have a conversation with your tutor constable about … Total respondents, unweighted base: 2,809

Confidence in having conversations

The proportion of new officers that felt confident in discussing their professional development and personal wellbeing with their superiors was generally high. When asked about professional development in particular, nearly 9 in 10 new officers felt confident discussing this with their line manager (86%) or tutor constable (88%).

New officers felt more confident discussing professional development over personal wellbeing with both their line manager and tutor constable. On personal wellbeing, the proportion of new officers lacking confidence to discuss this with their line manager (20%) or tutor constable (13%) was higher than for professional development (11% and 7% respectively). In general, new officers felt slightly more confident having these conversations with tutor constables than line managers.

Confidence to discuss personal development and wellbeing with line manager is similar to last year, and not as high as in 2021 (for discussing personal development 86% down from 87% and discussing wellbeing 76% down from 78%). Findings regarding confidence to discuss those matters with tutor constable show a similar picture (for discussing personal development 88% down from 91% in 2021, and discussing wellbeing 82% down from 85% in 2021).

Figure 3.18: Charts showing the confidence of new recruits in the support they can get at work

*Confident = ‘Fairly confident’ and ‘Very confident’ combined; Not Confident = ‘Not very confident’ and ‘Not at all confident’ combined.

Q26. How confident would you be to discuss the following with your line manager? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Q27. How confident would you be to discuss the following with your tutor constable? Total respondents, unweighted base: 2,809

Tutor supervision ratios

Over half of new officers reported being managed by a tutor on a one-to-one basis. Around a third were managed by a tutor that oversees at least 2 officers on probation, with one in 5 reporting that their tutor oversaw 3 or more new officers.

A stable proportion of recruits across the 3 years are being managed by a tutor on a one-to-one basis, (52% compared to 54% in 2022 and 50% in 2021).

Figure 3.19: Chart showing tutor to recruit ratios for new recruits

Q29. Including yourself, how many officers on probation does your tutor constable oversee? Total respondents, unweighted base: 2,809

Satisfaction with levels of support from tutor constables was higher for those who reported their tutor overseeing one or 2 officers (92%), compared to recruits managed by a tutor who oversees 3 or more officers who reported significantly lower satisfaction with the support they received from their tutor constable (84%).

3.5 Inclusion and wellbeing

Inclusion

A high proportion of new officers felt respected, welcomed, treated fairly, and able to bring their whole self to work. When asked if they felt valued for the work that they do, most new officers were positive overall but less so than for other inclusion statements. Over half (60%) of new officers agreed that they feel valued, but a significant minority either disagreed (16%) or opted to neither agree nor disagree (23%).

The findings were very similar across all measured aspects of inclusion to those from 2022 and less positive than those from 2021. In particular, the proportion of new recruits agreeing with the statement ‘I think that my force respects individual differences’ was 79% this year compared to 86% in 2021.

Figure 3.20: Chart showing new recruit feelings of inclusion at work

Agree = ‘Agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’ combined; Disagree = ‘Disagree’ and ‘Strongly disagree’ combined.

Q32. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Most new officers across all sub-groups agreed that they can bring their whole self to work without judgement. However, officers from minority ethnic backgrounds, female officers, officers with disabilities, officers aged 41 and over, LGB officers, and those who had served for longer than 12 months at the time of the survey were all less likely to agree.

Overall, the proportion of new recruits agreeing that they can bring their whole self to work without judgement is high, although slightly lower than in 2021 (75% compared to 78%).

Figure 3.21: Sub-group breakdown of new recruits feeling able to bring their whole self to work without judgement

Agree = ‘Agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’ combined.

Q32. To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Total respondents, unweighted base: Overall (3,556); aged 25 and under (1,661); 26 to 40 (1,642); 41 to 55 (249); Male (1,951); Female (1,560); White (3,272); Minority ethnic (247); Heterosexual/straight (3,007); LGB (402); Disability (467); No disability (2,998); Under 6 months (855); 6 to 12 months (1,872); Over 12 months (829)

Wellbeing

Less than 4 in 10 new officers reported that tension and stress from work adversely affects the rest of their life and a similar proportion ignore needs in their personal life due to work strain. Just under half reported that work leaves them with little energy to do any other non-work activity and nearly 4 in 10 felt they have sufficient time and energy to engage in activities outside of work.

Results from the 2023 survey indicate that new officer wellbeing has increased in comparison to last year but is still not quite as good as in 2021. This decline was seen across all wellbeing statements, though the greatest change was in recruits ignoring needs in their personal life due to work strain (35% up from 24%) and being left with little energy to do any other non-work activity (49% up from 38%).

Figure 3.22: Chart showing recruit sense of wellbeing at work

Agree = ‘Agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’ combined; Disagree = ‘Disagree’ and ‘Strongly disagree’ combined.

Q34. To what extent do you agree with each of the following statements? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

As in 2022 and 2021, new officers that have been in the force for over 12 months and those from minority ethnic backgrounds were most likely to feel that work stress was adversely affecting the rest of their life.

Figure 3.23: Sub-group breakdown of new recruits’ work impacting rest of their lives

Agree = ‘Agree’ and ‘Strongly agree’ combined.

Q34. To what extent do you agree with each of the following statements? Total respondents, unweighted base: Overall (3,556); aged 25 and under (1,661); 26 to 40 (1,642); 41 to 55 (249); Male (1,951); Female (1,560); White (3,272); Minority Ethnic (247); Under 6 months (855); 6 to12 months (1,872); Over 12 months (829)

3.6 Uplift cohort profile

The age, gender, and ethnicity of new recruits are already collected in detail and reported on a regular basis in Home Office statistical publications. Beyond these categories, the New Recruits Onboarding Survey also provided insight into some other characteristics of the new cohort.

Disability, sexual orientation and religion

The survey asked new officers whether they consider themselves to have a disability. For the purpose of the survey, disability was defined as a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. This includes progressive and long-term conditions from the point of diagnosis, such as HIV, multiple sclerosis, cancer, mental illness or mental health problems, learning disabilities, dyslexia, diabetes, and epilepsy. This also included ‘disabled’ as per the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, as well as wider conditions, including neurodiversity. The findings show that 13% of new recruits reported having a disability by this definition, compared to 12% in 2022 and 8% in 2021.

When asked about their sexual orientation, 85% of new recruits reported identifying as heterosexual or straight. A further 5% of recruits identified as gay or lesbian, 7% identified as bisexual, and fewer than 1% chose to self-describe their sexual orientation in another way. This was similar to the characteristics of the 2022 and 2021 cohorts.

The majority of new recruits reported having ‘No religion’ (62%). The largest religious identity reported amongst recruits was Christian (28%), and 2% of new recruits reported being Muslim. Again, this aligns with the 2022 and 2021 cohorts.

Figure 3.24: Charts showing disability, sexual orientation and religion of new recruits

Q6. Disability is a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. This includes progressive and long-term conditions from the point of diagnosis, such as HIV, multiple sclerosis, cancer, mental illness or mental health problems, learning disabilities, dyslexia, diabetes, and epilepsy. This also includes ‘disabled’ as per the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, as well as wider conditions, including neurodiversity. Do you consider yourself to have a disability according to the definition above? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Q13. Which of the following options best describes how you think of yourself? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Q9. What is your religion even if you are not currently practising? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Prior links to policing

More than half of new officers (51%) had either a family member or friend who had worked for a police force.

This is similar to 2022. In contrast, in 2021, only around a third of new recruits had prior links to policing (35%). Whilst the proportion of new recruits with a family member in policing this year is similar to 2022 and 2021 (22% compared to 21% and 23% respectively), in the last 2 years there was a significant increase in the proportion of new recruits who had friends working for the police (21% this year and 22% in 2022 up from 7% in 2021).

Figure 3.25: Chart showing new recruits links to policing via family or friends

Q50. Has a member of your family or a friend worked for the police, either as a police officer, police staff, special constable or volunteer? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3,556

Nearly a quarter of new police officers had previously held another policing role before becoming a police officer. Similar to previous years, new officers have come from a wide range of other policing roles, but the most common route was having previously been a Special Constable or Police Community Support Officer (PCSO).

Figure 3.26: Charts showing new recruits with prior policing roles

Q51. Prior to becoming a police officer, did you hold any other role within policing (for example, PCSO, special constable, police staff, volunteer, cadet)? Total respondents, unweighted base: 3556

Q52. What was your most recent policing role before becoming a police officer? Total respondents, unweighted base: 862

Previous job sector

New police officers had a wide variety of job roles immediately before becoming police officers, with the most common job sectors being ‘retail and customer services’ (20%) and ‘hospitality and catering’ (12%).

Figure 3.27: Chart showing the previous job sectors of new recruits

Q53. What was the main job sector that you worked in before becoming a police officer? Total respondents, unweighted base 3,556

1. Transferees were excluded as they do not go through the same onboarding process as a newly recruited officer. ↩