Growth under the Neighbourhood Policing Programme, as at 28 February 2026: management information
Published 7 April 2026
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2026
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/neighbourhood-policing-programme-as-at-28-february-2026/growth-under-the-neighbourhood-policing-programme-as-at-28-february-2026-management-information
Frequency of release: One-off ad-hoc release
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Home Office responsible statistician: Jodie Hargreaves
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Growth under the Neighbourhood Policing Programme, as at 28 February 2026: management information
In December 2024, under the Safer Streets Mission, and as part of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee (NPG), the government announced a commitment to put 13,000 more policing personnel into neighbourhood policing roles. Forces could access funding from 1 April 2025 on the basis that they demonstrated growth in their neighbourhood policing teams.
Across England and Wales, forces agreed to deliver 2,972 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers and PCSOs by the end of the first financial year, covering the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. This target was first surpassed in January 2026, and this ad-hoc release reports on the latest neighbourhood policing growth data, as at 28 February 2026.
The data in this release is derived from management information (MI) provided by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). Individual force plans are available in table NHP2 of the Neighbourhood Policing data tables published alongside the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales, as at 30 September 2025’ release, and this publication provides an early indication that the government’s target of 2,972 additional neighbourhood police personnel for the first year of the NPP has been met.
This is the second growth milestone reported under the NPP; growth as at 30 September 2025 was first published in an ad-hoc release on 20 January 2026 as MI and was later published as Official Statistics in the regular ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales: 30 September 2025’ publication.
Prior to the NPG, the Home Office collected information on neighbourhood police numbers on an annual basis only, as part of the ‘Police Workforce’ data collection, usually published in July as part of the ‘Police Workforce, as at 31 March’ statistical series. Neighbourhood policing data within this ad-hoc release, covering the situation as at 28 February 2026, is based on bespoke monitoring information collected by the NPCC, on police officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) who are either categorised in the 1a neighbourhood policing function (under the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Police Objective Analysis (POA) framework), or in training and destined for the 1a neighbourhood policing function on completion of training. This bespoke collection was set up to allow reporting under the Neighbourhood Policing Programme.
Information on neighbourhood police growth as at 28 February 2026 is being published as management information to provide an early indication that the target of 2,972 additional neighbourhood police personnel has been met. Management information is released to support transparency and timely understanding of progress, but it is subject to greater uncertainty than accredited official statistics. Accredited official statistics on neighbourhood police numbers, covering the position at 31 March 2026, will be published as part of the regular statistical release in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical series in July 2026.
Table 1 shows the growth in police officers and PCSOs in neighbourhood roles (including officers in training destined for a neighbourhood policing role) at 28 February 2026, compared with 31 March 2025, when funding for the programme began. The number of police officers and PCSOs in neighbourhood policing roles at 31 March 2025 was 17,175 FTE.
The MI shows that on 28 February 2026, forces had grown by 3,123 FTE since 31 March 2025, this is against an overall delivery target of 2,972 FTE for year one of the programme.
Table 1: Provisional NPCC management information: Growth (FTE) in neighbourhood policing roles (police officers and PCSOs) compared with 31 March 2025, as at 28 February 2026, by Police Force Area, England and Wales
| Police Force Area | Total growth FTE (including those in training destined for neighbourhood policing), compared with 31 March 2025 |
|---|---|
| Cleveland | 48 |
| Durham | 40 |
| Northumbria | 216 |
| North East | 304 |
| Cheshire | 42 |
| Cumbria | 34 |
| Greater Manchester | 255 |
| Lancashire | 120 |
| Merseyside | 79 |
| North West | 530 |
| Humberside | 16 |
| North Yorkshire | 49 |
| South Yorkshire | 53 |
| West Yorkshire | 55 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 172 |
| Derbyshire | 14 |
| Leicestershire | 56 |
| Lincolnshire | -27 |
| Northamptonshire | 26 |
| Nottinghamshire | 56 |
| East Midlands | 124 |
| Staffordshire | 43 |
| Warwickshire | 18 |
| West Mercia | 40 |
| West Midlands | 338 |
| West Midlands | 440 |
| Bedfordshire | 28 |
| Cambridgeshire | 34 |
| Essex | 80 |
| Hertfordshire | 40 |
| Norfolk | 37 |
| Suffolk | 19 |
| Eastern | 239 |
| City of London | 13 |
| Metropolitan | 565 |
| London | 579 |
| Hampshire and Isle of Wight | 92 |
| Kent | 71 |
| Surrey | 51 |
| Sussex | 122 |
| Thames Valley | 85 |
| South East | 422 |
| Avon and Somerset | 63 |
| Devon and Cornwall | 24 |
| Dorset | 17 |
| Gloucestershire | -4 |
| Wiltshire | 13 |
| South West | 113 |
| England | 2,922 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 7 |
| Gwent | 43 |
| North Wales | 60 |
| South Wales | 91 |
| Wales | 201 |
| England and Wales | 3,123 |
Source: Home Office: ‘Growth under the Neighbourhood Policing Programme, 28 February 2026: data table’
Data notes
Police workers categorised as working in a neighbourhood policing role use the following definition from the CIPFA POA framework:
- neighbourhood policing teams, and Safer Neighbourhood teams whose primary role is neighbourhood based
- planned response that is scheduled or dealt with by appointment
Police workers are categorised, by police forces, based on their primary role, that is, the role in which they spend most of their time. Police workers with multiple responsibilities (or designations) are recorded under their primary role or function.
Police officers and PCSOs in training and destined for neighbourhood policing roles are included in reporting of growth against the baseline.
As with the total number of police workers, the number of police officers and PCSOs in neighbourhood roles can vary throughout the year depending on fluctuations in recruitment, retention, and rotations. Therefore, figures should not be used to compare the progress of one force against another.
Figures presented in Table 1 are MI based on 28 February 2026. The Accredited official statistics covering the final position at the end of year one of the programme at 31 March 2026 are scheduled for publication in July 2026 as part of the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales: 31 March 2026’ statistical release. That release will include breakdowns of worker types (officers and PCSOs).