Reflecting on 2025: A year of progress, partnership and purpose

As we step into 2026, Skills for Justice is proud to look back on a year defined by collaboration, sector-shaping research, and projects that continue to support and strengthen the UK’s justice, emergency services and public safety workforces.

Across the justice and wider public sectors, the challenges of increased demand, workforce capacity, and resilience have required new thinking and shared action. In 2025, our work has focused on developing national standards, supporting long-term workforce planning, and providing evidence to help policymakers and leaders make informed decisions.

Below, we revisit three of our most significant projects of the year.

Strengthening national resilience

Launch of the Resilience and Emergencies National Occupational Standards

In April 2025, Skills for Justice – through our parent group The Workforce Development Trust – supported the launch of the new National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Resilience and Emergencies, aligned with the launch of the UK Resilience Academy (UKRA).

These standards define the core skills required across public, private, and voluntary sectors to prepare for, respond to and recover from complex emergencies, such as climate‑related incidents, power outages or public health crises. Developed with input from experts across central and local government, the NHS, civil society, and key infrastructure organisations, the NOS will guide:

• Workforce planning and recruitment
• Training and qualifications
• Performance management across resilience functions.

This launch marked a major milestone in strengthening the UK’s collective preparedness and embedding a shared, employer‑led definition of competence in resilience roles.

Advancing national strategic workforce planning

In October 2025, we announced our pioneering national strategic workforce planning project, delivered in partnership with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC).

We are working closely with four trailblazer forces (Cumbria, Merseyside, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire Police) to address challenges and ensure that police forces can respond to emerging threats, harness digital opportunities, and deliver the highest standards of public service. The programme is already helping shape a national approach that empowers local forces while improving alignment across the UK.

Understanding the impacts of the Prisoner Early Release Schemes

In 2025, we published our Prisoner Early Release Schemes: Addressing the workforce impacts in England and Wales report after conducting a survey of nearly 500 prison and probation staff. The survey and resulting report were produced with the support of the Prison Governors Association, the Prison Officers Association, Community Trade Union, and NAPO.

The report explored frontline perspectives on:

• SDS40, the temporary automatic early‑release scheme introduced to ease prison overcrowding
• Experiences with the earlier End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) scheme
• Workforce pressures, implementation challenges and operational risks.

Survey participants highlighted concerns around workload, risk assessment capacity, and support for managing increased caseloads. Many also reflected on potential future reforms, including proposals for a points‑based system for earned early release.

The findings provide clear recommendations to help policymakers put workforce capacity on sustainable footing and ensure future schemes are delivered safely and effectively.