Federation survey on workload, stress, morale and fatigue

HAVE you gone to work feeling you should have taken sick leave? How often are your rest days cancelled? How many paid and unpaid hours of overtime do you do?

Police officers are being quizzed by the Police Federation of England and Wales in a 50 question survey designed to measure the real cost of budget cuts on police officer welfare. The online survey investigates factors such as workload, stress levels, morale and fatigue.

Questions also cover mental health and wellbeing support officers are offered by their forces.

The survey closes on 29 February and the initial findings will be presented at the PFEW conference in May.

Other questions include how often do police officers get to take a rest break? How often is annual leave refused and how long is a police officer’s commute?

You can complete the survey here https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PFEW_Welfare_Survey

PFEW is working with Dr Jonathan Houdmont of the University of Nottingham to carry out the research. Dr Houdmont has conducted numerous wellbeing studies on behalf of Federations and constabularies to date, involving more than 8,000 officers.

These studies have highlighted that officers can experience high levels of psychological distress.

John Murphy, health and safety lead for the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), 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.”