Better workforce planning. Better decisions.

Strategic workforce planning connects operational demand with the workforce needed to deliver it – giving leaders greater confidence in decisions about people, skills, resourcing and investment.

A stronger approach enables your force to:

  • Understand demand – identify the workforce implications of current and future operational demand and resourcing decisions.
  • Make evidence-based decisions – use workforce data and insight to inform planning, investment and organisational change.
  • Align skills and resources – ensure the right skills, capability and capacity are available to meet operational priorities.
  • Strengthen leadership confidence – embed workforce planning within strategic decision-making and support HMICFRS expectations around workforce and force management.
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A nationally aligned approach, developed and tested with policing

The National Strategic Workforce Planning Pilot brought Skills for Justice, the NPCC and four trailblazer forces together to develop and test a nationally aligned approach to strategic workforce planning.

Working alongside Cumbria, Merseyside, Staffordshire and Warwickshire police forces, the pilot explored the practical challenges forces face and the capabilities needed to strengthen workforce planning locally and nationally.

The result is a practical approach that enables individual forces to respond to their own workforce challenges while benefiting from greater consistency, common methodologies and shared learning across policing.

Put the national approach into practice in your local context

Every force operates in a different local context. The nationally aligned approach provides a consistent foundation, while giving you the flexibility to respond to your own workforce priorities, operational demand, existing capability and available capacity.

Skills for Justice provides flexible support to help you put that approach into practice – bridging national methodology with your local context. Whether you need to understand your current position, develop internal capability or access end-to-end delivery support, we can tailor support to your force.

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How future-ready is your workforce plan?

Understand the maturity of your current workforce planning approach and identify where to focus next.

Our workforce planning self-assessment provides a practical starting point for exploring your current capability and priorities for development.

Complete the workforce planning self-assessment

Talk to our workforce planning team

Whether you’re developing your approach, building internal capability or need additional expertise and capacity to accelerate delivery, we can shape support around your force.