Mutual Aid Planning Should Focus On Officer Welfare

OFFICER welfare should be front and centre of mutual aid operations, the annual Police Federation of England and Wales Conference has heard.

Policing has shown improvement in the way it deals with issues around accommodation, food and welfare of mutual aid operations, but there is always room to improve, according to National Board member Steve Taylor.

He told the conference in Manchester: “With these planning operations, being involved from the early stages will allow lessons learned from previous deployments – around accommodation standards, food provision and the wellbeing of our officers – not to be repeated again.

“We need to understand that many, if not all, of our members are volunteers and the public won’t see that. So, we need to make sure that our volunteers are taken care of while they take care of us.”

PFEW Treasurer Simon Kempton, Essex Police Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington and NPCC Strategic Lead Assistant Chief Constable Owen Weatherill also addressed the meeting. They discussed a new framework, looking at existing rules and regulations and identifying areas that need more work, as the current regulations are not fit for purpose.

CC Harrington said: “There needs to be clarity from the get-go for people who will be going on deployments. If the officers who are deployed are well taken care of, you will see that morale lift.”

Simon Kempton added: “Mutual aid is becoming so prevalent – it is important we get this right for our members and also the public.”