Sam Dobbs sets out priorities as chair following re-election

11 June 2025

Sam Dobbs says it’s ‘a privilege and an honour’ to have returned as Northamptonshire Police Federation chair as he sets his priorities in the role.

He has written an open letter to all Federation members to share his aims and goals during his tenure.

Sam said one of the biggest challenges was informing members about the work that the branch does.

He said: “People who need us and use us invariably talk well of us. Others might say that they are members for the legal protection we provide.

 

Re-elected branch chair, Sam Dobbs.

 

“And while it is true that our conduct and performance work is through the roof, we have a heavy workload with our other portfolios, sitting on most of the Force meetings and forums.”

Sam added: “Communicating what we do is always a challenge.

“We are accused of over-communicating and under-communicating often in the same breath.

Training

“‘Not enough time to read updates’, ‘too much detail’, ‘don’t know what you actually do’ are such comments.

“So we will try harder to make our work available on social media, in the news, and we will look at an intranet facility for those who wish to know.”

The priorities Sam has set out fall into six main categories:

• Our Federation

• Equality

• Crime and justice

• Local policing

• Misconduct and performance

• Workforce and demand

Under the our Federation category, the onboarding and training of the reps and making their faces known with members is a key goal.

Sam said: “Because of the legal and liability implications of the serious work we do, all Fed reps must undergo training to indemnify them and ensure they know their stuff.

“In addition, the specialist reps who advise in equality, misconduct, and health and safety also receive intensive specialist training to allow them to represent you.

Support

“With a number of new members, that takes some programming but is well underway, and I am grateful to the new reps for standing and undergoing their initial training.”

Another key goal is ensuring the branch provides the best support for reps and members. Other priorities include reminding the Force that the Federation is a statutory consultee and reinvigorating the JNCC.

Goals under equality include working with the Superintendents’ Association to challenge and develop the ‘clunky promotion process’.

Sam wants to ensure reasonable adjustments are just that, reasonable. And that Tailored Reasonable Adjustments Agreements (TRAAs) are implemented and meaningful.

He also wants the Branch Council to develop its understanding of how to support people with neurodiversity, to better understand and support under-represented groups, and to continue early intervention when unfairness is perceived and raised.

Understanding demand, particularly in the summer; a review of shift patterns; and the ability to work flexibly are among the local policing priorities.

Others include looking at crime allocation, overtime, finishing on time and the role of supervision; at safe staffing levels; and officer welfare, morale, and attrition.

Under the misconduct and performance category, priorities include servicing the current case load, which runs to more than 100 cases, and ensuring investigations remain timely.

Priorities

Vetting reviews and the new vetting legislation are other priorities, as is support for the growing number of misconduct meetings and gross misconduct hearings.

Sam wants the branch to work to understand the impact of misconduct on victims, especially from minority groups.

In terms of workforce and demand, Sam wants to work with the Force on its staffing and demand so that risk influences key decisions. With this would come an agreement on when and where the Force accepts that all demands placed on officers cannot be met.

Sam wants to identify areas of support for officers where recruitment cannot keep up. He wants to ensure that officers who do not or cannot perform their full range of duties are effectively used.

And he also wants to alert the Force to the dangers of overload and overwhelm on local response teams, domestic abuse investigation unit, child abuse investigation unit, and protecting vulnerable people.

The full list of priorities is set out in the letter Sam has emailed to all Northamptonshire Police Federation members.

READ MORE: Introducing our new Branch Council.