Alumni Impact Awards 2024: DS Gemma Holley's 'Outstanding Leadership'
Monday 7th October 2024
Detective Sergeant Gemma Holley has won a national Police Now award for ‘outstanding leadership’ for significantly improving Sussex Police’s support for victims of sexual offences.
Her proactive work resulted in a 175% increase in Sexual Offences Liaison Officers across the force and improved force-wide training, to provide more inclusive and bespoke care to victims in the community. She exceeded targets by so much that she garnered national attention from the Home Office and Operation Soteria.
The annual ‘Alumni Impact Awards’ celebrate the achievements of officers who have graduated from one of Police Now’s national programmes and have gone above and beyond to reduce or solve crime, problem-solve in their communities, or innovate and lead within policing. Gemma joined Police Now’s one-year Frontline Leadership Programme in 2022 – which supports talented constables to progress to sergeant rank, with a focus on inclusive and innovative frontline leadership.
Eight officers from forces across the country were presented with awards and addressed by Chief Constable Craig Guildford QPM of West Midlands Police at a ceremony in London on Friday (4th October).
Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said: “The impact these inspiring officers have had on our streets shows that through their training and efforts, we can reduce crime and restore confidence in policing. I congratulate all of the winners and nominees for their service and dedication, and I know they will play an important role in our mission to keep our streets safe.”
ACC Dee Perkins, Strategic Programme Director for Operation Soteria, commented on Gemma’s award saying: “The key principles of the Operation Soteria programme are about being victim centred, suspect focused and context led. As a Sexual Offences Liaison Officer (SOLO) and a pillar lead for Op Soteria, Gemma’s focus on training and supporting other SOLO officers in her force to provide more inclusive and bespoke care, demonstrates how fundamental this transformational change is to policing. We welcome the additional guidance Police Now gave to Gemma which ensured she took the learning, evidence and insight Soteria provides from police forces, academics, third sector stakeholders and the College of Policing and put it into practice by approaching interacting with victims differently.”
WINNER: Outstanding Leadership, DS Gemma Holley
Alongside her role as a detective sergeant in Sussex Police’s public protection unit, Gemma is a Sexual Offences Liaison Officer (SOLO) and a pillar lead for Op Soteria – a national operation designed to improve the police’s response to rape, sexual offences and violence against women and girls.
Gemma proactively identified ways to improve the force-wide SOLO role to deliver a better and more consistent service for victims. The force now has a 175% increase in operational SOLOs thanks to Gemma’s work on updating the structure of the SOLO network and working with the force’s Learning and Professional Development team to provide additional training. The new system ensures there are always multiple SOLOs on shift across Sussex at any one time.
She also established additional regular welfare support for SOLOs, ensuring officers have better support to deliver this essential service.
Gemma successfully applied for funding and worked with partners to provide bespoke training for the force’s Sexual Offences Investigation Trained (SOIT) officers, focusing on supporting victims with different protected characteristics – such as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, victims with learning disabilities, individuals from different ethnic backgrounds, and people who are neurodivergent. The SOITs also committed to being SPOCs (Single Points of Contact) for their teams, to share this knowledge and understanding more widely across the force.
When Gemma was tasked with delivering the national rape and serious sexual offences investigative skills development programme in the force, she trained over 330 officers – massively exceeding the assigned target of 51 officers. Having significantly delivered against the national requirement, she garnered national attention for the work from Op Soteria’s joint unit and the Home Office.
Detective Sergeant Gemma Holley said: “I feel incredibly passionate about improving care for victims of crime and identifying ways we can deliver the best possible service. Often this is about approaching things differently, being as proactive as possible, and always ensuring we are authentic and understanding in everything we do.
“Police Now’s Frontline Leadership Programme gave me the confidence to be a leader in the force, put myself forward to propose change, and empower others to do the same. If you do the work to innovate and prove your ideas are good, then you can achieve a lot and improve the support and outcomes for victims in the community.”
To read about all the winners and runner ups in this year’s Alumni Impact Awards, please click here.
