Hampshire Officers’ Morale Boost

MORALE at Hampshire Police is higher than in most other forces, the 2020 Pay and Morale Survey has shown.

Of the Hampshire officers who responded to the survey, 39% said that their morale was either low or very low: the third lowest figure out of all forces. On average in England and Wales, 48% said their morale was low or very low.

The results are also a big improvement on last year, when 58% of Hampshire respondents gave that answer.

Hampshire Police Federation Chair Zoë Wakefield said: “We think the results are really positive around morale. This is clearly a result of all the work that not just the Federation has done, but also the force has done around wellbeing.

“We’re going to be doing some work with the national Federation around everything that we’ve been doing, because we’ve been contacted by some other Federations to ask, ‘How did you do so well in the survey?’”

However, Hampshire officers’ responses about their financial situations were not as positive, with 61% of respondents saying they felt worse off financially than they were five years ago. This proportion is higher than the equivalent proportion for England and Wales as a whole, where 59% of respondents said that they were worse off financially than five years ago.

Zoë said: “We’re the 10th highest for those who feel financially worse off compared to five years ago, but the majority of forces in that top 10 are South East forces, with the Met being first.

“That shows there’s more work to be done around the South East allowance and the cost of living in the South East.”