Force Needs To Be Held To Account On Health And Safety

SOUTH Yorkshire Police Federation continues to work closely with the force to ensure there are good health and safety practices that protect officers in their working lives.

The Police Federation of England and Wales has highlighted health and safety failings in forces around the country, and is reminding forces of their legal obligations to treat their employees with dignity, consideration and understanding – saying that the buck stops with Chief Constables.

The national Health and Safety Lead said they were “shocked” by the information sent by Federation Reps around the country, detailing the health and safety failings by forces.

They said: “This ranges from not recognising obvious risks leading to a direct threat to life, to the lack of the provision of basic facilities to maintain the dignity of officers seeking toilet breaks or to change sanitary products. This is not good enough.”

Steve Kent, Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said that South Yorkshire Police was generally “constructive and progressive” when it came to health and safety, but that the Federation was working closely with the force to continue to make improvements.

He said: “To be fair, our Head of Health and Safety in our force is really on side. And the Federation is about to appoint a new Health and Safety Lead for the local branch, so this is something we’re looking to improve our coverage on and to hold the force to account.

“There’s a lot of things we can do better, but the force is working with us on that. The big issue is the staffing numbers when it comes to teams. We don’t have enough staff on the teams out there, on the frontline. We know that’s going to improve eventually, but we also need to make sure we’re listened to, because it affects our members’ safety.”