“We are working hard to create a culture where everyone actively listens and has the confidence to talk about their mental health”

In recent years, Humberside Police has pivoted itself into a people-oriented organisation, focusing on the mental wellbeing of its officers, creating a Health and Wellbeing team as well as adhering to an extensive plan of prioritising the psychological health of the force in general.

Due to their efforts and commitments to better the mental and physical wellbeing of the Humberside police force, Humberside Police were celebrated at this year’s Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards, being awarded the Best Mental Initiative award.

We caught up with the Humberside Police after their success at the awards show, to discuss their journey with workplace wellbeing, plans for the future, and what wellbeing truly means to them.

Discussing why Humberside Police believe their workplace initiatives stand out against other businesses, health and wellbeing manager Sandy Powdrell said, “We are working hard to create a culture where everyone actively listens and has the confidence to talk about their mental health. We recognise that our people have different needs at different times, and we have introduced a wide range of wellbeing initiatives to enable them to access both internal and external support services.”

We wanted to find out a bit more about their journey with workplace wellbeing, and why it’s so important to them. Sandy explained how their journey truly started after the appointment of their Chief Constable, as he came in with a clear vision that their success would be determined by the people - therefore he was very passionate about increasing the wellbeing of all staff.  

“Policing is a challenging yet rewarding job and it is important to us that the resilience and wellbeing of all our colleagues are supported and developed. We encourage our people to take responsibility for their health and wellbeing, and also signpost and facilitate access to services and support.” 

Sandy went on to tell us about how their commitments to workplace wellbeing aren’t stopping here, and they will be introducing new initiatives to support staff even further. “The next 12 months will see us focusing on developing the support for staff who have experienced trauma and working to embed wellbeing as a key part of our leadership development programme – amongst other things!” 

As we can see from their achievements, and their passion for supporting workplace wellbeing, Humberside Police seems like a great place to work. So, we asked Sandy, “why is Humberside Police is a great place to work?”. “The people, the culture, the amazing relationships we have with our staff associations and the drive from the top to look after our people during demanding and traumatic experiences when they’re just doing their job. The fact that it’s ok to ask for help when your resilience is low and for that help to be readily available in different shapes and sizes,” she said.