Lancashire Police Federation

02/11/2026

Oscar Kilo launch New police family support resource during International Stress Awareness Week...
.. bringing together information, advice and support in one place.

It provides guidance on topics including mental health, trauma, burnout, bereavement, resilience, self-care and supporting children through difficult conversations.

https://oscarkilo.org.uk/news/new-police-family-support-resource-launches-during-international-stress-awareness-week

28/10/2026

95% of Lancashire Police officers do not feel fairly paid for the stresses and strains of the job, and 79% are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their overall pay and allowances, new figures show.

According to the 2026 Police Federation of England and Wales Pay and Morale Report, 21% of officers frequently cannot meet their household’s financial needs.

68% say their workload is too high or much too high, and 72% have had at least one rest day cancelled in the past 12 months.

25% say they are satisfied with their job, and 26% intend to resign from the service either within the next two years or as soon as they can.

The survey also showed that 73% do not feel valued in the police and 81% would not recommend joining the service.

73% of respondents are not confident in their force's ability to resource appropriately for day-to-day operational demands, and 45% say their team has been fully staffed on very few or no shifts in the past three months.

74% say their force relies heavily on officer goodwill to meet routine operational demands, and 61% have felt unsafe on duty because of staffing levels in the past three months.

And 71% of officers who responded to the survey are too fatigued to carry out their duties. In Lancashire Police, 51% of officers have been physically attacked by a member of the public in the past 12 months, and 85% do not have access to double crewing at all times while on duty.

The survey also showed that 79% of respondents had experienced stress, low mood or anxiety in the past 12 months, and 50% find their job very or extremely stressful.

55% have sought help for stress, low mood, anxiety or other mental health difficulties, and 73% rate their force's support for officers and their wellbeing as inadequate or requiring improvement.

The survey also showed the effect that policing has on officers’ personal lives. In Lancashire Police, 36% of officers often or always pressured to work long hours and 85% had annual leave requests refused.

80% of respondents say they have been so fatigued that it has interfered with their family or social life in the past month, and 64% have had to cancel personal plans due to last-minute work requirements in the past 12 months.

36% have worked during annual leave to catch up, 29% have had at least one free day cancelled in the past 12 months and 28% have had their roster changed more than 10 times in the past 12 months.

For the first time, the survey asked about how policing affects parents and carers, with 65% of mothers and 47% of fathers in Lancashire Police saying they have had to change job roles or teams to meet their obligations as a parent.

The survey is based on 521 responses received from Lancashire Police officers.

23/10/2026

Police officers need more support from the Government, Lancashire Police Federation has said.

Chair Martin Midgley was talking after this year’s Police Federation of England and Wales annual conference.

He said: “I think it's been a really, really good couple of days. We're looking at the real state of policing. We're talking around the reality of what our officers are going through on a day-in-day-out basis, and the need to highlight how hard it is for them on the front line when we're looking at the trauma that they are seeing, looking at the mental health crisis that policing is in at the minute, the demands of workloads which are increasing.

“We've got officers burning out, we've got officers struggling to deal with the trauma of what they're seeing every day and they need greater support.

“The Government needs to understand and see the reality of what is happening on our front line at the minute.

“For the government's own advisory committee to say that we are exploiting officers by misusing their goodwill and the way they use them for cancelling rest days, and making policing work by using officers because they know they want to do a good job on the streets and they want to focus on the victims, so we're using them in that sort of way.”

“One of the most impactive things about this conference was we had a lady come in who talked about misogyny and abuse that she suffered whilst being a police officer2.

“For me it really highlighted that we all need to get better at how we see colleagues, see victims and really need to challenge ourselves about how we can support better. I'm already part of the He For She campaign and male colleagues have got a really big responsibility, I feel, in stamping out misogyny within forces and challenging any behaviour which is derogatory towards women.

“We know from surveys that female officers don't feel they're supported, they don't feel that they'll be listened to and they don't feel their concerns be taken seriously, and we've all got a collective responsibility, the Federation and the forces nationally, to work on this and improve the situation.”

Martin said the decision to increase the cost of a Federation subscription would be difficult for officers as the cost of living continues to increase.

He said: “We've had to agree a subs rise, and this is going to be hard for officers to understand and to put into context.

“The cost of living is going up. When the cost of living goes up, the cost of our solicitors goes up. The cost of our running the organisation go up.

“One thing we've been very clear on is we don't want to put any risk to the support we give to our members. At the minute, it's somewhere around £13 million a year spent on solicitors and legal fees. We have to protect that budget. We have to protect the running of the organisation. We have to have the budget to be able to challenge Government and take forward judicial reviews.

“It was a tough decision to come to, because we know it's going to be impactive on our members, and some will not understand why I've had to do it, but this is for the good of the Federation and our members more importantly, to make sure we can deliver that service.”

22/10/2026

Four in five Police Officers have experienced stress, low mood or anxiety, as survey exposes a service running on exhausted staff and goodwill.

The Police Federation of England and Wales has declared a public health emergency in policing, warning that the current model of unsustainable workloads and increased exposure to trauma is damaging the health of the officers expected to protect the public.

The Federation’s Pay and Morale Survey, published today, found that 78% had experienced stress, low mood or anxiety in the past year, with 94% of those saying work had caused or worsened it.

Two thirds said fatigue had made it difficult to carry out their duties, while 76% said exhaustion had affected their family or social life.

Paul Williams, Acting National Chair of the PFEW, said: "Policing asks a lot of its people. But it is taking too much.

"It is taking too much when hundreds of officers decide the only way they can afford the cost of living is to stop paying into their pension. When detectives investigating child abuse carry caseloads of 40, 50 or more. And when experienced officers hand in their warrant cards because they can earn similar money elsewhere without taking the trauma home.

"These are not isolated cases. They are hallmarks of a system failing the people it relies upon.

"Policing is a broken service that is breaking its people. More than 15 years of cuts have hollowed out the service, while falling morale, concerns about pay and mounting pressures have become entrenched.

"This is no longer simply a morale problem. It is a public health emergency.

"Officers are reporting levels of stress, fatigue and ill health that would raise serious concerns in any other profession.

"Rest days are lost, annual leave refused and overtime used to plug workforce gaps. Yet too often the response has been to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.

"Today I have written to the Home Secretary, calling on her to recognise that emergency and put urgent measures in place to tackle it.

"We also need urgent action to stop policing burning through its people. Half of PCs have fewer than five years’ service. Two-thirds of all officers resigning are those who have hit the five-year point and can give no more.

"That is why PFEW is calling for an independent investigation into the health, wellbeing and welfare of officers in their first five years of service, bringing together the data and lived experience needed to put concrete measures in place to better support them."

21/10/2026

Chair Martin Midgley has been meeting MPs highlighting the reality of what our colleagues are facing

21/10/2026

Remembering PC Robert Milne, of Lancashire Police, who died on duty on this day in 1979

19/10/2026

There’s no ‘I’ in Investment

Before you say, "You wally, yes there is!"... hear us out.

Investing for the future doesn't have to be a solo effort. Police Officers under 40 can receive a 25% Government bonus worth £1,000 when £4,000 is invested into a Lifetime ISA each tax year. And the good news? Parents and grandparents can help contribute too.

Find out more and see the Ts and Cs: policefriendly.org.uk/LISAWinner

19/10/2026

Officers need to follow the force’s training and guidance on the use of AI or they could risk facing disciplinary procedures, Lancashire Police Federation has warned.

Federation Chair Martin Midgley was speaking after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) wrote to police chiefs warning them that officers were at risk of unwittingly committing misconduct if AI policies aren’t fit for purpose.

The IOPC said it had received referrals from police forces in which officers and staff are alleged to have used AI inappropriately and outside what’s permitted in force policy or guidance. It emphasised that forces need effective, practical policies, agile governance, AI training, and clear AI leadership.

Martin said he was pleased that Lancashire Police had robust AI policies and had delivered mandatory training to its officers on using Copilot, inducing clear examples of what they could and couldn’t use it for.

But he added that officers still had to remember to be diligent not to put personal details of members of the public into AI.

He said: “It’s good that we've got training in force already, and officers should be aware of what's expected of them. But as forces use AI more, officers need to make sure they do not fall foul of disciplinary measures because of the details they are putting into it. I still think there are risks for officers, so we need to give those consistent messages.

“Compare it to the use of WhatsApp. We've got consistent messaging around WhatsApp and what you can and can't use it for. However, officers are still finding themselves in disciplinary procedures for putting details into WhatsApp that they shouldn't do. So we still need to be really wary.

“Officers need to be careful, and consider exactly what they're putting into Copilot or any AI software. Could that detail they're putting in could get them in any trouble?

“If you're disclosing personal information about members of the public, from statements or any other police system documentation, onto a system like Copilot, then you could face disciplinary action.

“Due to the pressures of their workload, officers could put more things into Copilot to try to speed things up. Don’t fall foul of doing the wrong thing by mistake.”

18/10/2026

All of us at Lancashire Police Federation send our best wishes to our colleague from Nottinghamshire Police who was shot on duty today.

We wish them a speedy and full recovery and are thinking of them, their family and close colleagues at this time.

A man and woman fled the scene and have not been found, the police said. A fi***rm has been recovered.

13/10/2026

Congratulations to all colleagues recognised at the recent Force Awards Ceremony

DC Alexis Walch honoured for her work on a domestic abuse case

Operation Babylon, led by Detective Inspector Brittany Shaw, won the Problem-Solving Award for work into prevention of knife crime

Police Constable Tegan McLaughlin commended for demonstrating exceptional courage, bravery professionalism and quick thinking when faced with a dangerous situation

Police Constable Katie Foster, honoured for making Lancaster and Morecambe safer

https://news.lancashire.police.uk/news/2026/october/over-50-police-staff-and-officers-celebrated-at-the-west-division-awards/