Overworked Officers Need Protected Learning Time

OVERWORKED police officers need protected time during their working day for professional learning, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is campaigning for forces to undergo an “organisational culture change” to allow officers to take Protected Learning Time (PLT), which it says is key to professional development and an investment in officers and teams.

PFEW found that many forces were using the negative term “abstracted from duty” when referring to an officer using some of their shift time to undertake vital learning.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent agreed that PLT was a priority, saying: “This is really important. We need to develop the right officers. There are too many officers who have got real ability and real potential who say, ‘I haven’t got the time for training. I’m doing 40, 50, 60 hours a week already’. So we need to give them protected time.

“Also, with the National Police Promotion Framework (NPPF) process, there is a real expectation that officers will do a lot of work at home.

“If people want to get promoted, there’s an expectation that sacrifices have to be made. But when they’re doing their 50-odd hours a week and they’re working overtime that’s forced on them, they’re absolutely knackered. They don’t want to be turning their laptop on when they get home.

“There is some protected time already but it’s very limited. It needs to be much wider, so officers can actually do their job properly. We are concerned that there could be some officers who don’t make the promotion portfolio because they just don’t have time to complete it.”