Women in the Special Constabulary Conference

The Women in the Special Constabulary national conference aims to celebrate the enormous contribution made by female volunteer officers policing in their local communities. The conference will be the largest ever national gathering of female Special Constables, aiming to have female Special Constable attendees from every police service across the UK.

The conference will:

1.  Provide an opportunity for female Special Constables to meet with their colleagues across other police services and to share their experiences and their ambitions for the future.

2.  Be the first to hear the findings from the national study of female Special Constables and will contribute through a series of conference workshops to help shape recommendations for the future.

3.  Debate how to better attract, retain, engage, support, deploy, develop, and empower female Special Constables.

4.  Engage with key issues of diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and equality.

5.  Launch a new leadership network for female leaders in the Special Constabulary.

6.  Provide opportunities to also meet and share experiences with female volunteer police colleagues from several other countries.

7.  Share national work on supporting Special Constable wellbeing.

Over the two days of the conference, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from a range of strategic leaders from the Special Constabulary, policing, and beyond. The conference will be highly interactive and will have lots of opportunities for delegates to contribute, shaping the Special Constabulary for the future. These are challenging times for Special Constabularies. Numbers are down. There is a great deal of inconsistency in practice and experience. There is a need to rethink and reform. Females remain under-represented, and especially so in leadership roles, in specialist roles, and amongst longer-serving Special Constables. This under-representation reflects fundamental gaps in creating an inclusive, accessible, flexible, well-led volunteer experience. The conference represents a big opportunity to start to meet these challenges and to create a positive future.