Challenges Of An Inexperienced Workforce

THE recent police uplift has been a positive development, but there are challenges to having a young-in-service workforce, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Federation Chair Steve Kent was speaking as new figures showed that, nationally, over 2,000 new police recruits left during their probation period, either because they were dismissed or chose to leave.

He said that retention of new officers wasn’t a big problem in South Yorkshire, but that rookie cops were taking some time to bed in.

Steve said: “When we’ve got that number of students coming through the door, it can be a challenge for the organisation. There are risks with having a very young-in-service workforce, as they’ll be inexperienced and are going to need time to bed in, be trained, gain experience.

“And what you’ve got with the university system is that new officers are in and out. So, they might be on a shift for a month or two, then they’re back in university for a month or two, and that really doesn’t help when it comes to the resourcing crisis that we’ve had in South Yorkshire in recent years.”

He continued: “I do welcome the new cops. We go out and see them and encourage them as much as possible. But the numbers need to continue to rise, because we’re still not at the numbers that we were pre-2010. At one point we were at a peak of 3,500, and ultimately we need to see continued investment going forward.

“Our retention rates in South Yorkshire are quite good, which is encouraging. Some new officers see the reality of policing, the difficulties, the working conditions, the hours, and they sadly don’t see it through. But that is the minority.

“We need to make sure that South Yorkshire Police is a really good place to work, and make sure the training is there, which we’re trying to do.”