Influx of new officers has left serving Sergeants with greater workloads, demands and stress
THE influx of thousands of new police officers has left serving Sergeants with greater workloads, demands and more stress at work, a new report has found.
The from the Police Federation of England and Wales report, “The Demand Capacity & Welfare Survey 2020 – The Officer Uplift and Sergeant Impacts”, found that more than half of sergeants felt they had insufficient time and resources to support new Constables.
Under the Government’s “Uplift” programme, 20,000 new police officers are to be recruited by March 2023, taking the service back to the numbers of officers it had a decade ago.
This recruitment drive will see many Sergeants having more inexperienced PCs to supervise than ever before, with more than 6,600 officers recruited as part of that 20,000 over the past year.
The new PFEW research lays bare the impact of this flood of rookie recruits.
Steve Kent, Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “This is an area of concern as the demands of the Sergeant has such a broad range. Sergeants are expected to monitor performance and manage some serious risk both in the uniform role and also in the CID world.
“This is coupled with the really important need for them to manage the welfare and wellbeing of their team. We cannot lose sight of how much of a demand this in itself can be – and they need to be supported in this.”
Steve added: “Encouragingly, in early discussions with the force, it seems they share some of our thoughts on what needs to be addressed with respect to better and more thorough training to equip Sergeants to carry out their role and not be thrown in at the deep end.
“There does seem to be things on the horizon that may address this which is encouraging. We also need to ensure that Sergeants numbers are uplifted alongside the large number of recruits we have coming through the door.”
32% of Sergeant respondents to the PFEW research are concerned they will be overseeing a high number of inexperienced recruits.
54% said it was unlikely or extremely unlikely that they will have enough time and resources to manage this increase in their shift management responsibilities.
And 49% said they did not believe their force will have enough Sergeants or line managers to supervise the new recruits.
One sergeant told the survey: “We don’t have the time to train and mentor new officers. Their foundation training is not good enough, even worse now with Covid. Probationers are left to train other probationers. We can’t effectively supervise the officers we already have.”
Another said: “A few years ago, response sergeants were a 1:7 ratio, now they’re 1:10, this will only increase with the uplift. There will need to be more sergeants as 1:10 is already too many.”
Over 1,000 Sergeants responded to the survey. Many comments indicated that inadequate training for the new recruits had led to additional burdens being placed on Sergeants and tutor constables, and some Sergeants highlighted that the sudden influx of inexperienced officers could pose a risk to officer safety.
Others raised issues about limited resources; such as a lack of facilities, equipment and space for the new recruits to use, whilst others raised concerns over the general impact of the officer uplift on sergeant workloads and negative consequences on their wellbeing.
Dave Bamber, PFEW’S Professional Development Lead, said: “All too often the organization is happy to assess sergeants but not develop them. This influx of younger, more inexperienced officers will put pressure on staff to supervise them when they haven’t had the additional training they need to do this. Added to this, the recruits’ lack of experience means that more supervision will be needed.”
To read the survey in full, go to: https://www.polfed.org/media/