Report snapshot
About this report
This report examined whether the NSW Police Force has been efficient and effective in managing and supporting the psychological wellbeing of the police workforce.
Findings
In 2023, the NSW Police Force funded a range of additional wellbeing initiatives to support police. In 2024, a standalone command was established to deliver these initiatives and manage the health and wellbeing of the workforce.
Over the five years from July 2019 to June 2024, the NSW Police Force had increasing numbers of psychological injury claims, escalating compensation costs, and increasing psychological injury medical exits. Since October 2024, there has been a reduction in the number of psychological injury notifications.
The NSW Police Force monitors and reports on psychological injuries to the workforce, but does not monitor, analyse or report on the root causes of these injuries. As a result, the NSW Police Force is not efficiently or effectively preventing future psychological injuries to the police workforce. Work is currently in progress to improve psychological risk reporting.
NSW Police Force wellbeing initiatives provide counselling and support for police after traumatic incidents. The initiatives do not address other psychological risk factors such as fatigue, role overload, or burnout.
Some police commands have higher workload volumes than others, and the NSW Police Force does not have a staffing allocation model to distribute police to locations under the greatest workload pressure.
In the five years from 2020 to 2025, the NSW Police Force invested $34 million on proactive wellbeing services for police, and an additional $60 million on the administrative costs of running the Health Safety and Wellbeing Command.
The cost of compensation for police psychological injuries amounted to approximately $1.75 billion from July 2019 to June 2024.
Recommendations
The NSW Police Force should, by July 2026:
- develop and implement a workforce allocation model that matches police numbers to command-level workload demands and changing workload levels
- fully implement the health and safety incident notification system and regularly report on the causal factors that lead to psychological incidents and injury claims
- investigate and report on the factors that contribute to police role overload and burnout, and adjust policy settings, practices and controls accordingly
- implement a strategy, process, and evaluation framework, that links police wellbeing initiatives and resources to evidence-based psychological risk factors.
Read the PDF report
Parliamentary reference - Report number #407 - released 11 June 2025