What we've been up to
Occupational health guidance for the assessment of new police officer applicants
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and Oscar Kilo the National Police Wellbeing Service have published new occupational health guidance for the assessment of new police officer applicants.
This guidance has been developed to assist police occupational health services perform clinical assessments of new police officer applicants prior to the confirmation of appointment. It is intended for this use only.
The guidance provides forces with an updated, efficient, and effective national approach to medical assessments of applicants. Whilst recruitment decisions remain with individual forces, it is essential that the approach to assessment is consistent across all forces. This will ensure the health, safety and future wellbeing of police officers and will avoid unlawful discrimination. The assessment will ensure that health-related employment risks are assessed, and that reasonable and suitable support is provided to new starters, where necessary, thus contributing to the recruitment and retention of the next generation of a more diverse police workforce, in line with the policing vision 2030.
We are currently sharing the full guidance document and supporting documents with Occupational Health practitioners across the country and have made them available to download from our ‘Good Practice Hub’ in the occupational health practitioner member area of this website.
Supporting police leavers: Guidance for forces
This new guidance for forces has been put together with the aim of ensuring that those leaving the police service are given the knowledge, support and recognition that they rightly deserve.
When someone leaves policing, they're not just giving up a job. For many, a role in policing becomes a central part of their life and even their identity. Transitioning to a life outside of service can be tough. This guide has been designed for forces, with the aim of ensuring that those leaving the police service are given the knowledge, support and recognition that they rightly deserve.
The recommendations and guidance contained are as a result of extensive research with retirees, personal experiences and interviews with vested organisations, such as NARPO, the Police Federation and Unison.
The wider OK Leavers programme is underpinned by independently conducted research and the engagement work built on crowdsourcing the real-life experience.
We hope that this guide will help forces in developing how they communicate with and support those leaving the police service.
National Police Wellbeing Awards: Now open for entries
The National Police Wellbeing Awards are now open. These awards are your opportunity to recognise work that’s made a real difference to the wellbeing of officers, staff and volunteers across policing.
If your team, force or service has delivered something that’s had a clear impact—however big or small—we want to hear about it.
This year, we've taken a fresh approach to our awards categories. We have done this based on feedback from forces and with the aim of making it easier to shout about the work you're doing and connecting it to national approaches.
The new categories:
- Peer support
- OK9 wellbeing dogs
- Operation Hampshire
- Healthy living (sleep and fatigue, physical fitness, nutrition)
- Occupational health
- Trauma support and suicide prevention
- Support for police families or police leavers
- Staff engagement
What we’re looking for
We’re not asking for long or polished submissions. We want short, clear entries that show, what was delivered, how it was done and what changed as a result
We’re particularly interested in how local initiatives have used national tools and resources, or contributed to wider good practice. You don’t need a comms team to write this. We just want to understand what you did and how it helped.
How to enter
You'll find all the entry criteria for each of the categories and a downloadable application form on our 'How to enter' page.
Operation Hampshire update:
This month we held our latest Op Hampshire National Network meeting which saw 25 forces represented. The meeting focused on the issue of repeat assault victims and we were delighted to be joined by two guest speakers from Avon & Somerset Constabulary who gave a brilliant input on how good quality leadership and a detailed victim focused approach can make a real difference to an individual. This issue can have a real detrimental effect, so we need to ensure that we actively monitor for repeat victimisation and have effective processes in place to recognise when it's happening so we can provide supportive interventions for individuals.
New peer support and Operation Hampshire training course
Peer Support for wellbeing and Operation Hampshire are two key work streams for the National Police Wellbeing Service. By combining both elements we have created a course that will help extend peer support provision to officers and staff and enhance frontline delivery and awareness of Op Hampshire.
Aims, objectives and potential benefits of the training are:
- To support the introduction and development a local Op Hampshire Champions network
- Provide targeted post-assault interaction and peer support opportunity
- Quality assurance of the initial Op Hampshire response for recorded incidents
- To provide an avenue for and extending local peer support offer through and beyond Op Hampshire
For further information on that training please get in touch
Wellbeing at the forefront at Birmingham conference
On 24 - 25 March, those leading work in wellbeing across the network came together in Birmingham for the first counter terrorism police wellbeing conference in two years.
Our service director, Andy Rhodes OBE QPM, spoke about how Oscar Kilo was set up to provide forces with the support they need to deliver great wellbeing support for their people. He highlighted how, in 2022, the Police Covenant was granted Royal Assent effectively enshrining wellbeing into law and how we have come a long way in the last eight years although there is a lot more to do – always!
Some of our OK9 wellbeing dogs were also in attendance. Rosie the Labrador who was very keen to share everyone’s lunch and Margo, the cocker spaniel who was a happy recipient of much fussing. The magic that these dogs have was seen first-hand, when during a particularly hard story being shared, Rosie went over the presenter of her own accord to give a little reassurance.
What's coming soon
National police wellbeing survey 2025
We will be launching our new-look National Police Wellbeing Survey on 19 May 2025.
The new survey will follow evidence-based design principles ensuring wellbeing sits at the heart of the question set whilst including a renewed focus on the organisational drivers impacting upon motivation, stress, performance and productivity. The strength of evidence linking these avoidable ‘stressors’ is now well established and the survey will help the police service to better understand any issues and most importantly share best practice and innovation about how to improve.
The survey is open to all officers, staff, volunteers, and specials within all UK police forces and national law enforcement bodies. It is vital that we hear from as many people working in policing as possible so at both a national, and local level, we can prioritise the issues which matter the most, and design and develop the right interventions and support that policing needs.
Taking the survey:
We appreciate how precious your time is and so we have condensed this survey so it should only take around 10 minutes to complete. You will be able to access the survey from your force intranet from 19 May. Look out for more information in your force.
Oscar Kilo conference and awards 2025
Our 2024 Oscar Kilo Conference and awards ceremony is being planned for November and will take place at Crewe Hall Hotel and Spa, Crewe, Cheshire.
As last year we will be combining the conference with announcement of our Oscar Kilo awards. From feedback gather from attendees last year we will be moving the announcement of the Awards and celebratory gala dinner to the late afternoon/early evening of day one to enable more time for the sharing of ideas and making those important connections with your peers.
Over the next few weeks we will be emailing invitations with full details to all our member groups. If you have not received an invite by 12 May and think you should be on the list please get in touch.
A prospectus for change
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and Oscar Kilo the National Police Wellbeing Service are due to publish this document in the next few weeks.
Prospectus for change is aimed primarily at decision makers and change agents, it scopes out how Police Occupational Health needs to change to keep in line with proposed police reforms, to support the policing vision 2030 and to help deliver the UK government’s ‘safer streets’ mission. Occupational health is an important component of the health and wellbeing offering and the delivery of occupational health needs to be planned in relation to the new national health and wellbeing strategy.
The challenge of this project should not be underestimated, it will be complex and time consuming, work will commence in Spring 2025 and aims to complete in 2027.
Events
Over the coming months we will be at the following events, if you are attending, please come and say hello.
- IPPPRI25 - 19-21 May, London Heathrow.
- World Policing Summit - 13-15 May, Dubai
- Blue Light Show - 18-19 June, London Olympia
- Light the Lakes - 20-21 June, Cumbria