World-leading ideas and initiatives to improve the wellbeing of forensic practitioners are being brought to the UK by the FCN.

Wellbeing is a major issue for forensic practitioners, with around four in five CSIs suffering from poor mental health according to a recent Unison study.

This summer, the FCN launched a 37-question survey on ‘Examining the use and value of wellbeing interventions for forensic practitioners’ which received more than 300 responses from forensic practitioners worldwide across all forensic disciplines.

A report based on the wellbeing survey will be available by January 2026, and the findings will be presented at a webinar hosted by FCN’s workforce lead Jo Morrissey on 22nd January 2026 at 14:00. You can register for the webinar here.

The FCN wellbeing survey is only one part of the NPCC’s wide-ranging activities to help improve forensic workforce wellbeing. A forensic wellbeing toolkit was launched by FCN in 2024, sharing innovations from across UK law enforcement to help practitioners and managers understand and access current resources around wellbeing.

Since the toolkit’s launch, FCN’s Jo Morrissey has also been gathering the best ideas and initiatives from law enforcement in other countries. 

Supported and funded by the College of Policing, Jo attended two Operation CYCLOPES meetings this summer in Munich and Berlin, discussing the wellbeing of digital forensic practitioners, learning from leading projects across Europe, and sharing the exciting work from England and Wales policing. 

In October, she was funded by the Australian & New Zealand Forensic Science Society (ANZFSS) to attend their conference in Melbourne to present as a plenary speaker and was invited to attend meetings with emergency services and forensic directors from across Australia and New Zealand, which have similar policing models to England and Wales. They shared examples of their practices and policies, which will be included in FCN's new version of the forensic wellbeing toolkit, to be published in early 2026. 

The FCN has also created a new national forensic wellbeing working group which meets for the first time on 18th December. The group will conduct focus groups and interviews with practitioners to identify from their perspective what needs to be done, as well as bringing together forensic leads to share findings and work at a strategic level to improve wellbeing and retention issues. 

For more information visit the FCN workforce pages.