Evaluation of the police supervisor perinatal mental health support toolkit

Through realist evaluation, this project will develop a policy and process map that police services can use to support the introduction and use of the New and Expectant Parent Mental Health Supervisor Toolkit.

A woman looking worriedly at a laptop at a dining room table, overlooked by a man holding a baby

This work seeks to improve the lived experience of new and expectant parents working in policing. Our initial stage empirical data collection identified organisational behaviours as well as operational experiences impacted parents' mental wellness during the parental journey. Through this understanding, we collaborated with policing and perinatal experts to develop the New and Expectant Parent Mental Health Supervisor Toolkit to help supervisors support officers and staff with their parental journey in policing. This evaluation will ask three police forces to identify and commit to a plan of action that supports the implementation of the toolkit.

This project began in 2021 as a collaborative piece of work between CEEUPS' Dr Sarah-Jane Lennie and colleagues Dr Krystal Wilkinson at Manchester Metropolitan University and Dr Keely Duddin from the Open University. This was a national study, with Greater Manchester Police committing to be the lead force. In the first phase of the study, the research team interviewed 18 men and women with lived experience of perinatal mental illness (either themselves or their partner) whilst employed in UK policing.

For the second phase of the study, the research team presented the initial findings of the interviews to a multi-stakeholder focus group, including representatives from Greater Manchester Police such as Human Resources, senior leadership, and the Women’s Network, local perinatal mental health services, and a perinatal mental health academic. This session aimed to consider what the key themes from the interview phase meant in terms of needs in the workplace, and what might be feasible in terms of policy and practice. We developed the toolkit as a result of this consultation. Read more about the findings from the first and second phases of the project.

This final phase of the project is the evaluation of the toolkit. Anticipating that the creation of a toolkit is not enough to change the lived experience of new and expectant parents, we are committed to understanding what policy and process needs to be in place to have the desired impact on the parental journey in policing.

Working with Greater Manchester Police, Cheshire Police, and Avon and Somerset Constabulary, we will run evidence cafés, where the three organisations will develop and commit to a plan of action that they will implement over a year, throughout which the research team will collect data to understand the impact of the actions taken, as well as the toolkit itself.

Project team