National police wellbeing awards celebrate pioneering wellbeing work

Oscar Kilo, the National Police Wellbeing Service, last week hosted its annual conference and awards ceremony, championing and celebrating wellbeing in policing.  

Sitting within the College of Policing and working closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Home Office, Oscar Kilo provides vital support and guidance for police forces across England and Wales to foster and maintain wellbeing.    

The conference – which allowed wellbeing, Occupational Health and HR leads in policing to come together to share best practice and new initiatives – covered topics including suicide prevention, the wellbeing impact of this summer’s disorder across the country, and the difference that compassionate, thorough support can make for women experiencing the menopause. 

Gamal 'G' Turawa, ex-Metropolitan Police Officer and DEI expert 

Speakers included Gamal Tawara, who won a BAFTA for his short film ‘The Black Cop’, and Nigel Levitt, Trauma Lead for the Metropolitan Police Service, whose work has seen him deployed in support of investigations including the London bombings in 2005 and the Salisbury poisonings in 2018.  

The conference also saw a panel session with Sir Andy Marsh, CEO of the College of Policing, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, Chair of the National Police Chief’s Council, and Andy Rhodes OBE, Service Director at Oscar Kilo, which focused on making the wellbeing of police officers and staff a national strategic priority.  

The Oscar Kilo Awards – this year hosted at the conference in Crewe – were created to recognise some of the commendable work that has been done, and continues to be done, to provide wellbeing support across policing in the United Kingdom. 

Award winners included Nottinghamshire Police for their support for people on maternity leave, and Lincolnshire Police for their great outdoors project which combined volunteering and outdoors activity to add value for staff to support their communities whilst improving their own mental health. 

Attendees celebrating the Oscar Kilo 2024 awards  

Oscar Kilo was established in 2016, borne out of a clear need to establish and embed wellbeing into the heart of policing, and has worked with forces and government in the past decade to build and sustain better wellbeing for everyone working in policing. 

The full breakdown of the award winners and runners up, including details of the initiatives and programmes, can be found on the Oscar Kilo website. 

Andy Rhodes, Service Director at Oscar Kilo, said: “The wellbeing of police officers and staff isn’t a nice to have, it’s critical. Without it, we can’t expect our forces to do their job to the best of their ability.   

“It’s been really encouraging and energising to come together to talk about some of the most pioneering and innovative initiatives in wellbeing – including menopause support, suicide prevention, and how we can improve the collection and visualisation of data to create better evidence for change and help us respond to wellbeing issues more effectively.  

“Being able to recognise just some of the amazing work going on in policing wellbeing goes some way to making people feel valued and appreciated, and we hope that they in turn can pass that energy and enthusiasm on to their forces, and, crucially, the public.” 

Chief Constable Sir Andy Marsh, CEO at the College of Policing, said: “Good wellbeing of our officers and staff is a must if we want to deliver the best service possible to the public. If our officers are stressed, undervalued, or burnt out, it follows that their levels of compassion and resilience will be tested, and that ultimately effects the public – and that’s not right.   

“We want officers right across the country to be in a position where they have the mental resilience, compassion, and kindness that they need to support victims and the public in incredibly difficult situations, day in, day out.  

“We’ve made real progress on police wellbeing in recent years – particularly including the enshrining in law of the Police Covenant – but our work doesn’t stop here. We’ll continue to build on the strides we’ve made, including further work on supporting investigators of violence against women and girls, and setting the bar, nationally, for good, supportive leadership in policing.”