Why work for us
It is our mission to make positive change within the communities we serve; identifying and protecting vulnerable people, preventing and responding to harm and keeping Sussex safe and feeling safe.
From your first day with us, no matter which role you hold, you will start a career which makes a real difference. You will be supported; offered great learning experiences, development opportunities and the chance to progress. When you join Sussex Police, you become part our policing family – we are with you each step of the way.
“I am immensely proud and privileged to lead Sussex Police. Every day I see our teams achieving phenomenal results - preventing crime, leading successful operations and complex investigations, making arrests, and often putting themselves in danger in order to go the extra mile to keep our local communities safe. Together, we work on the following three priorities that underpin everything we do. As a member of our policing family, you will play your part to:
- Protect our communities
- Catch criminals
- Deliver an outstanding service to victims, witnesses and the public
"To protect our diverse communities, we listen and engage. Whether people are in our cities, our towns or in our villages, in person or online, residents or visitors, we work to understand community issues and concerns and demonstrate we are acting on them in both our words and actions. We catch criminals, with prevention and deterrence as the starting point. With additional officers, skills and capacity, and working with our partners, our teams are empowered to put the public first.
"This is underpinned by a professional, healthy, diverse and inclusive workforce that take pride, and are valued, for the work they do.”
Chief Constable Jo Shiner
In all of our roles, we’re looking for people who have enthusiasm, dedication and drive to help others wherever possible and will work with us to have a workplace where we:
- Enjoy coming to work and are committed to, and take pride in, being ourselves; being the best we can be.
- Work effectively with each other and our key partners; holding ourselves and others to account making sure we deliver a high level of policing.
- Value difference and recognise that diverse teams produce better results. This year, we were again recognised by Stonewall for our approach to diversity; featuring in the top 100 Employers.
- Recognise individual and team effort and give everybody the opportunity to maximise their potential.
- Can be honest with our colleagues, irrespective of their rank or role.
Salary – Specific salary information for roles you are interested in can be found on individual adverts. Each role has a linked salary scale meaning your salary could increase up to two times a year, once with any agreed increases to the scale and secondly as you move up the pay scale, in recognition of skills and experience. Aside from the base pay for a role, enhanced pay for working unsocial hours, overtime or on public (bank) holidays may also apply.
Pensions – When you start you’ll automatically join either the police staff or police officer pension scheme*, which are career average revalued earnings schemes. Both your pension contributions and those made by Sussex Police (which are higher than the minimum employers have to make) will build up your pension during your career into a guaranteed pension with an optional lump sum.
(*unless you are a transferring officer where different pension eligibility may apply)
Everyday spend and housing benefits- In addition to a variety of offers available, including the Blue Light discount card and keyworker housing schemes, we offer workforce benefits which include money saving offers on everyday essentials, for example, discounted top-up cards for popular supermarkets, train and bus discounts, and cheaper gym membership and mobile phone rates.
As a fast-moving, dynamic force there is plenty of opportunity to move roles and progress. We offer a range of development opportunities as well as the training, mentoring and coaching support you need for the role you undertake. Additional resources are also in place to support leadership development including the funding and achievement of additional qualifications where required.
Flexible working – Policing is 24/7 however we know you have commitments outside work. We’re invested in supporting people in balancing their life with work.
Leave – annual leave allowance varies according to role; minimum of 30 days for police officers and 32 days for police staff (both figures include the average of eight paid public (bank) holidays per annum). A variety of paid leave types are also available to help with unexpected situations, for example, emergency dependents leave. There are also options for taking extended periods of unpaid leave.
Health and wellbeing –
we have a variety of services in place covering health, financial and mental wellbeing, including guidance and support, an employee assistance programme, financial support for unexpected bills and for reducing borrowing costs, a discounted contributory healthcare scheme and awareness and development days.
We have on-site gyms and a range of sports clubs for you to join, all of which aim to promote health, friendship and fun. We also encourage our people to work together in network groups which challenge and ensure Sussex Police is always be seeking to improve what it offers to people who work here. An example of this is the Parenting portal, created by the Parenting Group, which is accessible from any device and designed to help parents stay in touch whilst away from work on parenting leave types; it can be accessed here.
These networks include:
- Sussex Police Race Equality Network
- Evolve (Gender Equality Network)
- Enable (Disability and Carers Association)
- Sussex Police LGBT Network
- Sussex Police Interfaith Forum
- Sussex Police Christian Fellowship
- Police Federation
- Unison