Trust Statement
Independent analysis of published workforce survey data.
Not affiliated with any police force, staff association, or government body.
This content explains findings and trends only.
The Our Black Workforce Survey has been conducted across three waves between 2022 and 2026. Each wave captures the lived experience of Black officers and police staff across UK policing at a specific point in time.
While individual wave reports provide valuable snapshots, understanding whether experience is genuinely improving requires examining how findings change across waves.
This guide synthesises Wave 1, Wave 2 and Wave 3 to explain what has improved, what has remained static, and what has changed in form rather than substance.
Strategic Summary
Longitudinal analysis across Waves 1–3 reveals that while retention intent has improved (falling from 66% to 56%), core workplace experiences remain stagnant. Discrimination has mutated from overt acts to subtle microaggressions, and identity concealment has become an entrenched survival strategy. Structural breakthroughs in progression fairness remain elusive as of 2026.
Executive
Summary
Across three waves of the Our Black Workforce Survey, headline indicators show modest improvement in retention intent and a reduction in reported overt racist incidents. However, deeper analysis reveals that core experiences of exclusion, identity concealment, and lack of confidence in internal systems have remained largely unchanged. The data suggests that while some surface measures have shifted, the underlying cultural experience for many respondents has not fundamentally improved. In several areas, risk has evolved rather than reduced.
How to Read
Change Across Waves
Reporting Bias
Changes in reporting do not always indicate improvement. Increased confidence can lead to higher reported figures, while decreased trust can lead to a drop in reporting despite incidents continuing.
Retention Logic
Intent to leave can reduce without experience improving. Financial constraints or the 'Uplift' service commitments can anchor staff who remain dissatisfied with the culture.
Qualitative Depth
Numbers only tell half the story. Qualitative experiences (how a microaggression feels) are often more accurate predictors of cultural health than headline percentages.
Retention:
What Has Changed
The direction of travel for retention intent is improving. Between 2022 and 2026, the percentage of respondents expressing an intent to leave the service fell from 66% to 56%.
While this represents a significant shift in headline data, levels remain exceptionally high compared to wider workforce norms.
It is critical to note that a reduction in 'intent to leave' does not automatically equate to a more positive workplace experience.
Longitudinal analysis suggests that several non-cultural factors anchor staff to their roles despite ongoing dissatisfaction.
Drivers for Staying
- Financial constraints and pension maturity
- Sense of responsibility to communities
- Reduced mobility in established careers
Drivers for Leaving
- Cumulative impact on mental wellbeing 51%
- Frustration with progression fairness 47%
- Lack of workplace recognition
Discrimination:
What Has Morphed
Mutation rather
than Resolution
Reporting of overt racist incidents has reduced modestly across the three waves. However, this headline improvement is countered by two emerging trends: public-facing discrimination remains high, and internal discrimination has undergone a process of mutation.
Instead of overt hostility reaching a point of confrontation, experience has shifted toward microaggressions, social exclusion, and increased identity concealment. This adaptation makes discrimination harder to identify through formal systems but does not reduce its impact on the individual.
The Mutation of Risk
Behavioural Adaptation
Heightened awareness of conduct standards has led to a reduction in overt acts, replaced by 'below the line' micro-exclusions.
Public Hostility
45% of respondents still report regular discrimination from the public, with no significant longitudinal decline noted.
Social Exclusion
Social exclusion in the workplace has become a more prominent indicator of cultural friction than explicit hostility.
Manager Influence
Across waves, line managers remain a critical risk point, with 56% citing them as contributors to discriminatory experiences.
Culture &
Identity Tracker
Identity Concealment (Longitudinal View)
This entrenched concealment represents a significant psychological burden. The fact that many Black staff feel they must 'perform' a version of themselves to belong is a barrier to genuine organisational health.
The Belonging Gap Tracker
The survey consistently identifies a ‘Belonging Gap’.
While pride in the vocation remains relatively high, it has declined gradually across waves.
Crucially, belonging—the daily team experience of being valued—does not improve.
Role Pride
Referred to the public service and the badge. Officers remain proud to serve but are increasingly weary of the institution.
Organisational Belonging
Relates to internal team dynamics. There is no evidence across three waves that policy changes have translated into a felt sense of belonging.
The Emergence of
Training Risks
A key longitudinal finding is the emergence of ‘Training Environment Risk’ as a specific systemic issue.
Not prominent in Wave 1, it was identified clearly in Wave 2 and reinforced by the findings in Wave 3.
Training environments are uniquely critical because they represent the initial point of professional vulnerability.
The power imbalance between a recruit and an instructor, combined with a 'closed' environment, can have long-term impacts on an officer's confidence and career trajectory.
Reporting &
Confidence
What Has Changed
There has been a slight but measurable improvement in awareness of reporting processes and support networks across the waves. More staff know how to report, even if they choose not to.
What Has Not
The belief that "nothing will happen" remains the dominant reason for not reporting incidents. Trust in the fairness of Professional Standards (PSD) remains persistently low.
Across all three waves, informal resolution—often the 'quiet word' or simply absorbing the incident—continues to be preferred over formal accountability, frequently due to a fear of professional repercussions.
Progression:
Stability of Perception
Structural Reality Check
Perhaps the most static area of the entire survey is the perception of career progression.
Across all waves, there has been minimal change in promotion confidence among Black staff.
The belief in meritocracy disconnect remains consistent across all three waves.
Respondents report feeling they must work harder or achieve more than their white peers to receive equal consideration.
The Wave 3 figures remain strikingly close to those from Wave 2, suggesting no evidence of a structural breakthrough in progression fairness.
Support &
Positive Action
Increasing Trend
Knowledge of internal and external support networks has increased steadily between 2022 and 2026.
Static Trend
Despite higher awareness, active usage of formal positive action schemes remains low, often due to a trust gap or 'box-ticking' perception.
What These
Changes Mean
The Our Black Workforce Survey series proves that culture change lags significantly behind structural reform. While the Police Race Action Plan has increased awareness and visibility, it has not yet fundamentally altered the daily lived experience for the majority of Black personnel.
Surface indicators—like the modest fall in 'intent to leave'—can be misleading if not read alongside the qualitative evidence of social exclusion and identity concealment.
The 'Evolution of Risk' is the most critical takeaway. As overt hostility becomes less socially acceptable, failure to belong or advance is increasingly attributed to subtle, systemic biases that are harder to fight through traditional policy updates.
Progress is not an absence of problems, but a change in their nature. The survey transition shows a workforce moving from 'overt hostility' to 'systemic friction'.
What Has
Not Been Answered Yet
Significant gaps remain in our understanding of the longitudinal data. Headline improvements often mask deeper complexities that current survey methodologies cannot yet fully isolate.
Intersectionality
The specific experience of Black women or LGBTQ+ staff remains under-explored in aggregate snapshots.
Force Variation
Detailed force-level variation is often limited by participation rates, preventing localized accountability.
Individual Trajectories
The ability to track individual career paths over years, rather than anonymous group snapshots.
Future waves must focus on these structural blind spots to bridge the 'outcome void'.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 'What’s Changed' actually mean in the context of the survey?
It refers to the longitudinal analysis of data across three waves (2022-2026). It distinguishes between numerical shifts (like retention intent) and qualitative shifts (like the mutation of discrimination from overt to subtle).
Has policing improved for Black officers since 2022?
The data shows mixed results. While overt racism has reduced and fewer officers intend to leave immediately, core experiences of belonging and trust in internal systems like Professional Standards have remained stagnant.
Why does intent to leave fall if the daily experience does not improve?
Analysis suggests factors beyond workplace culture drive retention, including financial necessity, career-stage maturity, and a sense of duty to represent communities despite organizational friction.
Why is identity concealment important to track over time?
Identity concealment (code-switching) has shifted from an identified behavior to an entrenched survival strategy. This represents a significant long-term risk to workforce wellbeing and authentic inclusion.
Can this data be used to judge individual forces?
While the data captures national trends, individual force participation varies. It is better used to identify systemic industry-wide risks rather than as a league table for specific police forces.
How should police leaders interpret these longitudinal findings?
Leaders should look past surface indicators of progress. The persistence of the 'Belonging Gap' and the 'Outcome Void' in reporting suggests that policy changes have not yet fundamentally altered frontline culture.