Restricted duties warning ahead of police fitness tests

ANNUAL fitness tests for tens of thousands of officers are to be introduced next month – with those failing at risk of being placed on restricted duties.

Officers will be donning their gym kit – and not uniform – to take the tests. Those who undertake officer safety training will be required to attain level 5:4 on a 15-metre shuttle run. Jim Lucas, secretary of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said the Federation would be monitoring the impact of the tests.

From 2014, if officers or staff repeatedly fail the fitness tests they will be subject to Unsatisfactory Performance Procedures.

The Police Federation has revealed there will be no such sanction for officers who fail the test or are unable to take the test because of a medical reason in the first year.

However, those failing may risk being placed on restricted duties as those individuals may not be able to take officer safety training.

Mr Lucas added: “We have reservations about whether the fitness tests will discriminate against older in service officers and whether there will be gender issues. We will be keeping an eye on the results in force in the first year of testing.”

The Police Advisory Board (PAB) for England and Wales, which discusses non-negotiable conditions of service such as professional conduct, entry standards, business interests and vetting procedures, agreed to the tests’ full implementation.

The PAB is made up of representatives from organisations including the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association, the Superintendents’ Association, the Police Federation and members nominated by the Home Secretary.

For a year-and-a-half, they have been considering Recommendation 33 of the Winsor II report which stated: “A fitness test should be introduced in September 2013 for all police officers and staff required to undertake personal safety training.

“Participants should be required to attain level 5:4 on a 15-metre shuttle run. From September 2014, those who fail the test three times should be subject to the appropriate disciplinary procedures.”

The PAB agreed the principle of the recommendation in July 2012. However, it proposed that the unsatisfactory performance procedures, rather than the disciplinary procedures, would be appropriate to deal with a failure to meet the standard, subject to support from a force’s occupational health services to remedy the failure.

In January 2013 the Home Secretary accepted the PAB proposals on amending Recommendation 33. Since then, the National Fitness Testing Working Group (NFTWG) has been discussing the implementation of the initiative.

The interim guidance was signed off at the meeting on July 24 and circulated.

According to Steve Smith, Deputy General Secretary of the Police Federation of England and Wales, “forces are encouraged to run familiarisation sessions and provide advice for officers who may be anxious about taking the test”.

Guidance also states that all candidates should complete a medical screening questionnaire prior to undertaking the test and “the test administrator must ensure that all candidates are sufficiently warmed up.”

The warm up “should involve some whole body activity such as jogging followed by appropriate stretching exercises, particularly of the leg muscles”.

The guidance adds: “If an officer cannot pass the [job related fitness test] forces may wish to consider whether the officer should be permitted to go on to undertake Officer Safety Training (OST) and could consider whether they should be placed on restricted duties.

“The aerobic demands in the [job related fitness test] are equivalent to those while undertaking OST. Consequently, it may not be a defensible position to allow participation in OST following a failure which could render the force legally liable if an injury was to occur.”

It is understood that negotiations on introducing a tougher fitness test in England and Wales later in the decade – as recommended by Winsor and utilised by the Police Service of Northern Ireland – are ongoing.