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A new report from The Police Foundation, supported by Cityforum and Accenture, captures key messages from a national event on the future of policing held in October 2025. The event involved more than 200 leaders from policing, government and the industry and focused on the operational and structural changes needed to modernise police services in England and Wales.
One of the key messages in the report is that the infrastructure that supports day-to-day policing is inadequate, due to fragmented systems, duplicated effort and uneven service quality. It notes that current arrangements have created “a ‘postcode lottery’ of service quality” and hindered the coordinated adoption of technology.
Many forces are operating without access to consolidated national data, limiting their ability to analyse threats and plan effectively. Work on a new National Centre of Policing (NCoP) is expected to improve consistency in areas like shared services, forensics and national IT, but event attendees stressed that structural change alone will not deliver better outcomes unless it is designed to support what officers and staff are trying to achieve locally. The challenge the report identifies is to settle issues around governance, accountability and decision-making so that national alignment can strengthen local delivery.
Technology and data were widely acknowledged as offering some of the most immediate opportunities to improve effectiveness. Examples shared at the event, including AI-enabled work in Bedfordshire, show how new tools can reduce failure demand, automate routine processes and support faster, more accurate identification of risk.
The report says technology can “significantly” improve capability and free up staff time, but it also warns that innovation is spreading unevenly across forces. Locally built systems, developed without national coordination, risk duplicating cost and creating new challenges with governance. While national guidance such as the AI Playbook is emerging, leaders argue that data should be treated as a shared national asset and supported by a more integrated IT framework. Without this, improvements will continue at different speeds, limiting the overall impact.
The report also focuses on the workforce, with concern that current structures and policies make it difficult to attract, train and retain the skills policing requires. It highlights an “imbalanced workforce” where investment has been heavily directed towards officer numbers, leaving shortages in specialist and non-warranted roles. Training, leadership development and vetting processes have also been affected by previous budget reductions. Speakers said reform “must be done with the workforce, not to it”, calling for a modern workforce strategy that supports digital skills, clearer professional standards and stronger investment in learning. For some roles, particularly those dealing with high-harm and complex crime, delegates suggest that formal accreditation could help raise consistency and confidence.
The report concludes that while the upcoming government White Paper will set the direction for reform, there is already enough consensus across policing to begin making progress. Many improvements, particularly around data, technology, collaboration and internal processes, can be developed now, even if conditions aren’t perfect yet. The emphasis from leaders is on moving at a measured but purposeful pace, showing practical improvements that demonstrate value to both the workforce and the public.
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