Officer Wellbeing Should Go Back To Basics

The Government says it is committed to improving officer wellbeing, but South Yorkshire Police Federation argued the basics needed to be tackled first – such as officers having time to take meal breaks.

Policing minister Sarah Jones told the Response Policing Conference last month that the Government was working closely with the National Police Wellbeing Service and the Chief Medical Officer to set national mandatory targets in policing wellbeing provision, and delivering an ‘enhanced trauma support package’.

She added: “We will also expand the use of psychological risk assessments to high-risk roles, including response officers, given the frequency and nature of traumatic incidents.”

The Government said it would also continue the rollout and funding of the Mental Health Crisis Line, and introduce training around resilience and mental health for new recruits and supervisors.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent welcomed this investment, but added: “There has to be a return to basics.”

He continued: “There are a lot of great wellbeing ideas out there, including apps, and we also have the Oscar Kilo dogs in our force, which go down very well. But there’s an attitude among most officers that this is tokenism, so it’s never going to land until you start doing the basics.

“For instance, we still hear of officers going for days on end without getting a meal break. You have to have a meal break, according to Regulations, unless there’s an exigency of duty. This is particularly a problem for response officers, but it’s also across the board. There needs to be far more information from the top of forces to say: ‘You are required to take your meal break, it’s not optional, it’s there in the Regulations’.”

Steve added that it must also be easier for officers to take the leave that they are owed, especially as there is a backlog in the force due to the recent leave embargo.

He said: “Officers need to be able to plan their leave, and take their leave off properly. We need to start doing the basics like that. Then we can deal with the bonus stuff like wellbeing apps and initiatives. Because yes, they are very good, but when they’re floating above a really poor basis of wellbeing – people not getting off on time, people not having meal breaks – then that’s not ever going to work.”