- Conference
- 2025 Police, Probation and CAFCASS Conference
- Date
- 19 June 2025
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference notes that the Labour government has continued the Police Uplift Programme which has led to the continued surge in officer recruitment with significant investment and political focus.
However, this officer focused approach has come at the expense of Police Staff. The uplift has placed unsustainable pressure on overall policing budgets, leading to Police staffing cuts, post deletions, and growing instability in the police workforce. As more non frontline roles are either eroded or are filled by officers, skilled police staff are being sidelined, displaced, or made redundant.
Conference believes that this approach is short-sighted and damaging. Police staff are vital to effective policing and their work underpins frontline delivery. It is unacceptable that staff are losing their jobs while budgets are skewed in favour of headline grabbing officer numbers.
Conference therefore calls upon the Police, Probation and CAFCASS Service Group Executive to work with the Police Sector Committee and UNISON’s Labour link to:
1. Produce a coordinated plan to lobby government and educate politicians on the need to rebalance policing investment and protect police staff roles from further cuts;
2. Promote and strengthen the ‘We Are Police Staff’ campaign as a national priority;
3. Call for police staff to receive equivalent investment, recognition, and support as officers under the uplift programme;
4. Support branches to challenge any attempt to replace staff roles with officer posts and to campaign locally for the value of police staff to be properly recognised.