The Difficulties Of An Inexperienced Workforce

There is “massive imbalance of experience” in many policing shifts, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Steve Kent was speaking as a new HMICFRS report found that there were increasing attrition rates in the police and that, despite the Police Uplift Programme, forces were still operating with inadequate levels of officers.

Steve said: “This is a massive concern. All the new officers are very welcome, but it’s obviously been rushed, which causes logistical problems in terms of training and experience. I aim to go out to a briefing a week, and it’s increasingly rare that I recognise people.

“So it is a concern and I think this goes back to the attractiveness of the job and the finances. We’re not seeing people leaving in their droves, but we are seeing a steady trickle of people who are possibly retiring as early as they can rather than staying on.

“It’s also an issue where you’ve got a massive imbalance of experience now on certain shifts. That’s a national problem, not just ours. But there’s got to be continued investment so we don’t have this cliff-edge of experience.”

Steve said response policing was a particular issue and that officers with just a few years’ experience were leading student officers, whereas there used to be people in charge who had decades of experience.

He continued: “The proportion of officers in the student period can sometimes be equal, if not outweigh officers who are not in their student period. Don’t get me wrong, there are enthusiastic officers out there, doing their best. But there’s got to be a recognition that this is a really difficult period until those officers bed in and become experienced.

“We need continued investment and a constant stream of recruits and uplift into policing going forwards.”