Two staff members IWF

Caring for our staff

IWF may operate in a highly advanced technological world, but it’s the expertise and experience of our analysts that sets us apart. Our analysts see more distressing images in a day than most see in their lifetime. We give all our staff the support, flexibility and reassurance they need to manage their home and work life.

Our gold-standard welfare system

Just 14 analysts assessed more than 375,200 reports in 2022.

They’re highly trained to identify criminal imagery, but they’re also exposed to other content they don’t expect to see.

Our analysts are incredibly resilient and compassionate individuals doing an extraordinary job. A much larger team is there to support them along the way and to make sure their welfare needs are met, so they can continue doing this unique task.

All new analysts go through a specially developed induction training programme to help them mentally process and cope with exposure to disturbing images. This was described in an independent audit as “outstanding”.

Our analysts’ working hours are restricted; they take regular timetabled breaks and are encouraged to take more breaks as and when they need. All our staff work shorter days to ensure their personal lives don’t suffer, and we don’t allow analysts to work overtime.

Each month they have individual mandatory counselling sessions and all employees who see criminal imagery have an annual full psychological assessment. In fact, everyone who works for us is offered counselling support.

Interested in working with our team at the IWF? Please take a look at our career opportunities. 

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Our podcast

Hear more about the work of our analysts in our behind-the-scenes podcast - Pixels From a Crime Scene.

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