Gloucestershire Police offers redundancy pay to staff in bid to cut costs
Police bosses said they are disappointed with the need to have to adopt such measures
Gloucestershire Constabulary is understood to be offering £10,000 in redundancy pay to police staff who want to leave the force.
The news comes as the force needs to find cumulative budget savings of £7m next year followed by £10m in 2026/27 and £12m the year after.
Police bosses said they are disappointed with the need to have to adopt such measures but emphasise they are challenging decisions they have to make.
The voluntary redundancies are being offered to reduce the potential of future compulsory redundancies at the force.
A mutually agreed resignation scheme (MARS) is being introduced which will allow constabulary staff and those of the Office for Police and Crime Commissioner to voluntarily resign with a minimum lump sum payment based on years of service and working hours.
However, officers are not eligible to take up the offer.
The Constabulary’s people and business services director Richard Saunders and Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Chris Nelson said in a joint statement they are committed to addressing the force’s current budget gap.
And they want to bring it back into balance before the start of the next financial year in April 2025.
“We are looking at a number of options and have already put in place freezes on recruitment and all non-essential spending, except in exceptional circumstances,” they said.
“We are also introducing a Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS) that will allow Constabulary and OPCC staff to voluntarily resign with a minimum lump sum payment based on years of service and working hours. Police officers are not eligible to take part in the scheme.
“Following an application process, a panel will look to approve or reject staff putting themselves forward for the scheme, based on whether certain criteria are met, including whether applicants are in operationally critical posts or have specialist skills which would be difficult to replace.
“A number of public sector organisations, including other police forces and NHS trusts, have used a similar scheme in the past.
“These are challenging decisions to have to make and we are disappointed that we need to adopt such measures.
“However, we hope the introduction of a MARS arrangement offers a voluntary and mutually agreed solution that reduces the potential for future compulsory redundancy, and will prevent more impactive change in the future.”
UNISON’s Gloucester police branch said it supports introduction of this scheme in the hope that the use of voluntary resignations will reduce any need for compulsory redundancies within the organisation at a later date.
Councillors raised concerns last month over a pause on police community support officer recruitment and a planned increase in debt.
Borrowing at the constabulary is expected to rise by more than £31m from £20m as of March this year to £51.7m by 2027/28. And their reserves look set to drop from just under £5m currently to £827k by 2027/28.