Home Office launch national goal to promote police wellbeing

The Home Office has published ‘A common goal for police wellbeing’. The publication, developed in consultation with Mind, outlines a national goal for police wellbeing to be in place by 2021.

The aim of this goal is to ensure every member of the police service – whether staff or volunteer- across England and Wales feels able to ask for, and receive, appropriate mental or physical health support when they need it, throughout their career.

Mind has worked together with other experts in police wellbeing to help shape the goal, as part of a roundtable led by the Minister for Policing, the Right Honourable Nick Hurd MP. The group was formed to create a shared definition of police wellbeing and to help to fill any gaps in support.

Mind will continue to support the delivery of the goal and how plans are implemented, alongside our partners. We’ll work closely with the College of Policing to look at what support is already available and where there may be gaps.

Responding to the publication, Mahbu Rahman, Blue Light Programme Manager, said:

“Our emergency services do an extremely challenging job, day in, day out. Their role can have a real impact on their wellbeing. As a mental health charity, we’re here to support all of our emergency services across England and Wales through our Blue Light Programme. A recent Mind survey found that over nine in ten (91 per cent) of police staff and volunteers had experienced stress, low mood or poor mental health while working for the police service. But three in four (75 per cent) thought their organisation did not encourage them to talk about mental health – this was much more negative than the general workforce population (45 per cent).

“Over the past three years, thousands of staff and volunteers across emergency services have actively challenged mental health stigma, learnt more about mental health and made positive changes in their approach to wellbeing, but there’s still a way to go. This publication is an important step in creating positive lasting change in how mental health is approached in our police services, on a national level. We want every member of our police, fire, ambulance and search and rescue services to feel able to talk about their mental health and to get the right support when they need it, now and into the future.”