Police officers to be quizzed on health, safety and well-being

OFFICERS are being urged to share their experiences of how cuts to policing budgets have affected their health, safety and wellbeing in an upcoming online survey.

The Police Federation of England and Wales survey – due out in February – aims to investigate factors such as workloads, stress levels, morale and fatigue. Officers who fill it out will also be asked their opinions on the mental health and wellbeing support offered by their forces.

They will also be questions on what kind of protective measures they would like their forces to implement to ensure officer safety.

John Murphy, health and safety lead for the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “We’ve heard anecdotally that single crewing and smaller teams are a problem; there are some who take annual leave just to have a day to catch up on work, and we know that sickness and stress leave is happening far too often for officers just trying to do their jobs.

“But, in order to change minds and budgets, we need evidence of the impact the government’s austerity measures are having on our ability to help our communities.”

The PFEW’s research department is working with the University of Nottingham to undertake this research. Mr Murphy added: “Lower budgets from the Home Office since 2010 mean there are 17,000 fewer police officers on the streets, and 16,000 fewer police staff.

“If we want to keep being able to provide the high-quality policing service we all want to, then we need to know what our staffing levels should be. The best way we can do this is by hearing from the officers on the frontline trying to work under this pressure.

“I’m encouraging all police officers to take part in the survey; the more information the survey records, the better the research will be, and the easier the case to be made will be when talking to the Home Office.”

We will be sharing the survey once launched.