Police Parents Face ‘Massive Challenge’

Parents who work in policing face a “massive challenge”, but officers must talk to their managers and push for the support they need, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Chair Steve Kent was talking about the unique issues facing police parents, following Parent Mental Health Day.

He said: “It’s a massive challenge. There’s got to be a big accommodation by parents and by the organisation. My wife’s a police officer too, and when my children were young we had to hand the kids over in the car park on a weekly basis. It wasn’t ideal.

“But the problem is that, even though the force absolutely has  a legal obligation to consider people’s flexible working patterns, our organisation is at the red line so there can be a real challenge to accommodate that.

“Officers can rarely afford the astronomical costs of childcare, so sometimes they have to sacrifice their relationships by providing that handover culture with kids.

“We’re not saying it is the organisation’s role to provide childcare, but there needs to be flexible understanding to help balance it. I was fortunate that I had that when I was with young children, but it was hard. It was hard not seeing your partner and almost doing opposite shifts to maintain that parent cover.

“We’ve got some good parenting networks in this force, some really good support out there, but it is still a challenge for people to strike that balance.”

Steve’s message to members who were struggling with balancing work and parenting was: “Engage with your managers, and work with the force to find the best fit for you and the organisation, because it can be achieved.”