ADHD, a useful guide for police leaders: What can police leaders do to remove practical barriers and create a work environment where everyone can thrive?

I have ADHD. Some of the barriers I encounter in policing are quite ordinary: a noisy open-plan office, trying to find uninterrupted time to write a report, or having to work without the screens that help me manage information.

Others are harder to explain. I struggle with changes made at short notice, particularly when nobody explains why. I can work with a reason; being given no reason is difficult. Expressing that frustration within an organisation can be difficult too.

These are my experiences, rather than a description of everyone with ADHD. They are also why I want police leaders to look beyond the diagnosis and ask a more useful question: what would help this person do their job well?

The answer can involve treatment, but it also involves the conditions in which we ask people to work. A prescription does not provide a quiet room, a usable workstation or an explanation for a sudden change.

More diagnoses do not mean everyone has ADHD

The suggestion that “everyone’s got ADHD now” does not survive a look at the figures. In England’s 2023/24 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 1.8% of adults reported that a professional had diagnosed them. That measures reported diagnosis, rather than everyone who meets clinical criteria. NHS England, APMS chapter 9, published 2025.

The NHS England ADHD Taskforce uses around 2–3% of adults as a population estimate, including people who have never been diagnosed. The same adult survey found 13.9% screened positive on six symptom questions. A positive screen is a reason for further assessment, not a clinical diagnosis. These percentages answer different questions and cannot be used interchangeably. ADHD Taskforce, 2025; APMS 2023/24.

Recorded diagnoses have increased. The government’s independent review, published in October 2026, identifies improved recognition alongside changing help-seeking and concerns about diagnostic practice. It also says that the rise alone does not establish widespread overdiagnosis. Some people have been missed; some assessments can be wrong. Taking ADHD seriously means supporting careful diagnosis, including assessment for other explanations. Independent review of mental health conditions, ADHD and autism, 2026.

Nor is the condition a recent invention. Scottish physician Alexander Crichton described difficulties sustaining attention in 1798, and George Frederic Still described attention and behavioural difficulties in children in 1902. Those are historical descriptions, rather than diagnoses we can confidently apply retrospectively. Lange and colleagues, 2010.

Attention can be difficult to direct

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition involving persistent difficulties with inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity. Assessment considers impairment across settings, developmental history and alternative explanations. An exhausting week or occasional forgetfulness does not establish ADHD. NICE NG87, diagnosis.

Someone can become deeply absorbed in an interesting task while finding it difficult to direct attention towards another necessary one. Adults may also experience internal restlessness without looking visibly hyperactive. Being able to concentrate sometimes does not establish that concentration is always available on demand. Royal College of Psychiatrists, ADHD in adults.

For me, noisy offices and interruptions create barriers when I need to write reports. Finding clear, undistracted time is difficult. The work still needs doing, and understanding that obligation does not remove the difficulty of finding the conditions to do it.

Multiple screens help me with short-term memory. Keeping information visible helps me manage it; working without that setup is harder. That is a specific example of something useful to me, rather than a rule that every colleague with ADHD needs the same equipment.

It gives a supervisor something practical to discuss. Which information does the person need in front of them? Which tasks require uninterrupted attention? What equipment or working arrangement has already helped? Those questions can produce a clearer answer than a general instruction to be more organised.

Medication and shift work need an individual conversation

Medication has evidence behind it. A 2025 review of 113 randomised trials involving 14,887 adults found that stimulants and atomoxetine reduced ADHD symptoms at around 12 weeks on clinician and self-rated measures. Confidence varied, and longer-term outcomes were less well studied. Symptom improvement did not establish equivalent gains in every quality-of-life outcome. Ostinelli and colleagues, 2025.

The explanation is more complicated than everyone having a simple dopamine shortage. ADHD is biologically varied, and there is no routine chemical test that settles an individual diagnosis. Treatment can help without proving that everybody has the same underlying deficit. Faraone and colleagues, 2024.

My own difficulty is medication timing around night shifts. I take it regularly during the day, but the change to nights is difficult to manage and I feel tired overnight. That is my experience of the working pattern; it does not establish why another person feels tired or how their medication should be timed.

For supervisors, this needs a private conversation and access to the right advice. Prescribing decisions belong to the employee and their treating clinician. Occupational health can advise on work and individual duties. NICE recommends reviewing benefits, side effects and monitoring during treatment; a supervisor should not improvise a medication schedule. NICE NG87, managing ADHD.

A diagnosis or prescription does not settle fitness for every duty. Driving and other safety-critical work need individual consideration of functioning, treatment effects and applicable force procedures. Support with the working environment remains relevant whether somebody takes medication or not.

Policing may suit people who struggle elsewhere

My view is that policing may appeal to a higher proportion of neurodivergent people than some other occupations. The variety, practical problem-solving, human contact and drive to help others can make it an attractive career. That remains a view to investigate, rather than an established workforce statistic.

A 2023 UK survey of 117 police employees gives some support to the idea of occupational fit. Participants with ADHD described appreciating the energy and fast pace of the work. Variety and helping others also featured in their accounts. Among ADHD-group respondents answering the relevant questions, 35 of 45 reported benefits associated with ADHD, while 49 of 50 reported difficulties. Both can exist in the same working life. Tromans and colleagues, 2023.

Participants volunteered, recruitment included a neurodiversity network, and the ADHD group included clinical and self-identified diagnoses. The study cannot tell us how common ADHD is in policing or whether it is more common than in other occupations. No representative comparison was identified in the original evidence review for this guide.

Nor should a possible strength become another expectation to meet. A colleague does not have to be unusually creative, energetic or good in a crisis to deserve appropriate support. Leaders need to recognise the abilities and difficulties of the person in front of them.

Explain the change, as well as giving the instruction

One of my barriers is an organisational change arriving at short notice with no explanation. I struggle when I cannot understand the reason, and with feeling unable to express my frustration about it.

A reason helps. It gives me something to understand and work with. Without it, I am left trying to make sense of the change as well as respond to it.

This is a personal observation, not evidence that everyone with ADHD responds in the same way. The practical application is straightforward: explain what is changing, why it is changing and what it means for the work already allocated. Where a decision arrives urgently, give whatever explanation is available and follow up when more is known.

Make room for questions too. Asking why does not, by itself, tell a supervisor whether somebody is unwilling to adapt or trying to understand what is expected. A private conversation gives both people a better chance of identifying the actual difficulty.

Make the support specific enough to happen

NICE includes changes to lighting, noise and seating, fewer distractions, movement breaks and written reinforcement of verbal instructions among possible environmental modifications. The choice should follow the person’s needs and the work being done. NICE NG87, environmental modifications.

Provide somewhere to concentrate. A quieter desk or room, with agreed periods for report writing, can offer an alternative to an open office. Agree how urgent messages will reach the person. Quiet space should be an option that helps them work, rather than isolating them from the team.

Check the workstation. Ask what setup helps and whether it is reliably available. In my case, multiple screens help with short-term memory. Another person may need a different arrangement. Treat the equipment as part of how the work gets done, rather than assuming the same desk works equally well for everybody.

Make priorities and changes clear. Put important instructions in writing. When something urgent arrives, explain what should wait. Give the reason for changes where possible, and check that the person understands the next action. Short check-ins can help without turning support into constant monitoring.

Include shifts, treatment and development. Make it possible to discuss medication timing and fatigue privately, with clinical and occupational-health input where appropriate. Include training, examinations and promotion in adjustment conversations, so support extends beyond getting through the next shift.

These are practical applications of guidance and experience, not a package already proven in a police trial. In the 2023 police survey, only eight of the 23 ADHD-group participants who requested adjustments said they had been made. Agree who will arrange a change, check that it happens and review whether it helps. Tromans and colleagues, 2023.

Essential standards still apply. If work falls short, explain the specific issue and agree how to address it. An adjustment should help someone meet the requirements of their role. In Great Britain, ADHD can meet the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability where its effects meet the statutory test, with duties concerning reasonable adjustments in employment. Northern Ireland has a separate framework. Equality Act 2010, sections 6, 20, 39 and 42.

Better support could help retain experienced colleagues, although this particular set of changes has not been shown to improve long-term police retention. Review whether the support improves the person’s work, wellbeing and opportunities to develop.

My diagnosis helps explain why I notice these barriers. The useful response starts with the details: somewhere I can write without constant distraction, the screens that help me manage information, and an explanation when things change. Ask the person what gets in the way, agree what can change, and follow through.

Evidence and further reading

This shorter guide retains selected sources from the targeted evidence review completed on 30 October 2026. It is not a systematic review. The original review inspected full-text methods for the police survey; several other papers were assessed from published abstracts and official summaries. Personal passages reflect my own experiences and do not establish how common those experiences are.

For assessment and treatment information, see NHS: ADHD in adults and NICE NG87. For TAP’s approach to accessible reading, see why this website is designed this way.

Hero: AI-generated editorial illustration created for Thinking About Policing. It does not depict real employees or demonstrate a brain mechanism.