The living evidence base: 'Policing: The Job & The Life'

The UK's first survey to assess trauma management and working conditions in UK policing engaged with 18,175 officers and staff across the UK between October and December 2018. Headline findings set the UK’s first Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) prevalence rate in policing at 1 in 5 and the world’s first Complex PTSD rate in a working population (12%). In 2022, the same data evidenced the first known relationship between police working conditions and culture and trauma impact. 

The 15-minute online survey was based on the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) and included new questions about psychological hazards, trauma exposure and trauma impact in everyday policing, including a new screen for Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, the International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ). 

The survey was designed using focus groups conducted in June 2018 which informed a pilot with 20 Forces across the UK in August 2018. Analysis began in Spring 2019 with force-level reports being available to those forces in which more than 300 serving officers or staff completed the survey. Initial findings on trauma management, wellbeing and working conditions were published in the press with Police Care UK on 9th May 2019 to inform policy change and force-level intervention as soon as possible. Findings in 2022 have continued to inform work at a national level on police culture, including The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the National Police Chief's Council and Westminster Select Committees. 

The full peer-reviewed publication on PTSD and Complex PTSD is available here. The second on job quality and PTSD here.

Click here for the media presentation and here for the report briefing.