New Support Hub For Policing Retirees And Leavers

A new online hub for policing retirees and leavers is a positive step to supporting those people and keeping them within the police family, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

The Oscar Kilo hub can be found at www.oscarkilo.org.uk/leaving-the-police. It offers advice and support through every stage of an officer’s journey, from initial thinking about next steps, to creating a CV, networking, interviews and wellbeing.

Providing support to those who are leaving or who have left policing is a key pillar of the Police Covenant. The Covenant recognises the unique contribution and sacrifices that both police officers and police staff make as a result of their service.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “We absolutely need to look after our retired officers and people who have left the force, because it’s not a door that gets closed.

“As we see with high-profile cases in this force area, such as Hillsborough, support from the Federation continues to look after those people. Things that have happened in their service will continue to affect them, whether that’s the stresses of the job or incidents that they’ve been to that they may or may not be investigated for.

“That is one of the reasons why we encourage people to try to stay with our Group Insurance Scheme if they can, because of the support that is provided by them which includes online counselling – that’s really important.”

He added: “There’s no way we should be switching the tap off for people who have left the organisation, and we need to continue to work with the National Association of Retired Police Officers (NARPO) to provide as much support as we can to our retired colleagues.”