Psychological surveillance

Officers and police staff in high risk roles are assessed using a reliable and validated online questionnaire in order to protect those at high risk of psychological injury and distress. It also allows for the creation of a benchmark against which it is possible to identify changes in psychological wellbeing.

Psychological surveillance comes in the form of a risk assessment. The key features of the psychological surveillance are:

re-visits of assessments for police officers and police staff
assessments for police officers and police staff in high risk roles

Watch our short animation below that explains what psychological surveillance entails.

Video transcript

As police officers and staff we’re facing increasing challenges. Our working lives may expose us to complex needs and traumatic events that may affect our wellbeing.

We have got to come to work and do what is a very stressful job in itself while dealing with stresses at home.

Some roles in policing are at a higher risk of psychological impacts than others and for these roles a support programme is available.

If you do a good enough act you can convince anybody that everything is OK.

The psychological risk assessment programme can help to identify when you may need support and address problems before they become more serious. You’ll get an email invitation with a secure link to a wellbeing questionnaire when it’s time to do yours, the process is simple, confidential and takes about 50 minutes to complete. If you don’t finish in one sitting you can save your answers and continue when you have more time.

Part of the wellbeing questionnaire asks about your childhood, this is because early life events can affect our physical, psychological and social wellbeing as adults. There are no trick questions, there’s no pass or fail mark or right or wrong answers, we just need to know as much as possible so that we can offer you the right support.

At no point did I acknowledge that there was something wrong with my mental health.

Your results will come back to you in a confidential report from your occupational health team, the details of which will not be shared with your line manager without your permission. The report might recommend that you need a follow up, this may mean speaking to an occupational health professional who will go through your assessment with you in a structured interview. Together you can decide if you’d benefit from extra help and look at what support is available.

It's important to know that such a follow up recommendation doesn’t mean you’re unable to do your job. The aim is to help you develop the coping skills and resilience you need to feel confident and capable in your role. No one should become unwell as a result of their work, the psychological risk assessment programme is just one of the ways we can identify the help you need to carry on doing the job you love.

Because the support is there even though perhaps you think it’s not.

Our psychological surveillance is a way of identifying where someone may be in need of support.

The National Police Wellbeing Service has secured funding to deliver assessments for up to 6,000 officers and staff in roles that have been assessed as holding the highest risk of psychological impact.

The roles below are currently the focus, however in the future, we may also be able to extended to cover other roles:

hostage and crisis negotiators
paedophile online investigation teams (POLIT) and internet child abuse teams (ICAT)
serious collision investigation (SCIU) and force collision investigation units (FCIU)
family liaison officers – traffic
family liaison officers – crime

violent and sex offender register (VISOR) teams
offender management teams
digital forensics teams (DFT)
counter-terrorism units
firearms officers
disaster victim identification teams

More recently we have also added:

COVID-19 related duties
crime scene investigators

The assessments

The assessments are made available via occupational health services in each force and those identified locally will be invited by their occupational health service to take part.

The assessment is in the form of an online questionnaire which has been developed to understand a person’s resilience and ability to deal with the emotional demands of their role.

When someone completes an assessment, it is analysed by a clinician who will then be able to determine what further support, if any, is required for that person.

It will then be determined whether that person either needs no further intervention or if they would benefit from a ‘structured interview’ or further psychological interventions or support.

It is recommended that assessments are carried out annually to identify clinical conditions such as anxiety, depression, PTSD and burnout.

We also provide training for occupational health professionals in how to effectively use the assessment and carry out structured interviews. Guidance is also provided to assist with the identification of need for further assessment and/or treatment and support.

For more information about the assessment process, use the button below to take you to our frequently asked questions to learn more about it.

Frequently asked questions

Here are some of the frequently asked questions we have around psychological surveillance.

Go to FAQs

STRICT

The Stress and trauma-informed care and treatment (STRICT) guidance has been produced in response to the need for police forces to achieve minimum standards when considering the provision of psychological services.

Go to STRICT