Employer Supported Policing (ESP)

About Employer Supported Policing

Employer Supported Policing (ESP) is a scheme where your organisation allows employees allocated days or hours, per month or year, out of their job to volunteer in policing.

It’s a structured partnership that supports staff development at little cost and aids with staff retention. It will not only support the police and our communities, but it also will help bring different skills and knowledge to policing.

Employee volunteering programs such as ESP provides opportunities for experiential learning and self-reflection; these programs can challenge existing beliefs and biases and lead to a shift in perspective and a greater understanding of diversity.

How ESP works

As a supporting employer, you allow your staff allocated paid time off to volunteer in our unique volunteer roles.

These are our current volunteer roles:

• Special Constables: volunteer police officers with full police powers
• Volunteer Police Community Support Officers (VPSO): aids with community engagement and building safer communities
• Police Support Volunteers: support our police officers staff in many varied roles from fleet services to volunteer grooms, and archivists to Cyber & fraud champions
• Cadet Leaders: running our nationally recognised youth group, improving our engagement with young people, and learning about issues affecting them.

By businesses supporting employees with their additional volunteering commitments, it supports both the employer and employee in gaining news skills, connecting with their community, and also provides an opportunity for personal development.

Employees continue in their usual role within their workplace, but will also have the added benefit of police training and experience, and ultimately volunteer to help keep the county safe and make a real difference to the lives of people in Gloucestershire.

The scheme is simple but very powerful and is completely bespoke in order to suit a business’s individual requirements and importantly, there is no contractual obligation on businesses who register, so please talk to us about how much you can support the programme.

Upcoming ESP Events

There are currently no scheduled ESP events

How to register a company with the ESP scheme

To register, employers need to complete a registration form. This will ensure that company details are entered onto our employee volunteering database to show all police forces that you are a company that supports policing. 

We will also issue you with a Certificate of Participation which you can display and share our partnership log for your use. We share yearly statistics with registered employers that aids with measuring the impact of the scheme.

Contact us about ESP

For more information on Employer Supported Policing and to request a registration form, please use our online contact form.

Current Employer Supported Policing Partners

There are over 430 companies signed up nationwide. The following companies are directly supporting policing in Gloucestershire by allowing their staff who are Special Constables and Police Support Volunteers additional paid leave to complete to their volunteer duties:

• NMITE
• The Publica Group
• EDF Energy
• Tesco
• Lloyds Banking Group
• BAE Systems
• Barclays
• Ministry of Defence
• Gloucestershire Constabulary
• Sage
• Severn Trent Water
• South Gloucestershire Council
• Spirax Sarco
• Eurolinks Security Installations
• Asda
• GWAS Independent Ambulance Service Ltd