‘Business As Usual’ For Local Federation Amid National Reforms

Police Federation reforms are needed, but more power should go to local branches so they are able to provide the best service to their members, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Last month, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) agreed to the most significant transformation of the organisation in its 107-year history.

A new General Secretary will be directly elected by members, replacing the current split leadership model of National Chair and National Secretary. The National Board will become smaller and more strategic, reducing from 24 members to around 15 and including two independent non-executive directors. Meanwhile the National Council will become stronger and provide the principal route for branch and member voice, scrutiny and accountability.

The PFEW said that branches will remain “at the heart of the Federation” and will continue to represent members locally, maintain relationships with members and forces, make local decisions within the Federation’s overall framework, and retain their branch reserves.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: “Reform is needed, and there are some aspects of the reform programme that we support as a branch. What we don’t support, and what our region has held the national PFEW to account for, is that we cannot lose the Council’s voice in decision-making for the national Federation.

“The Council still needs to have a role in that – it needs to be there to hold the board and leadership to account, because the proposals would weaken the position of National Council, which is made up of local branch Secretaries and Chairs.”

Steve said that he felt the Federation needed to devolve, because “there’s some great work that happens at national level, but the vast majority of the great work happens at local level, and it’s where our stock is the highest and our members receive the best service from us because we’re approachable and we know what we’re doing”.

He added that he believed the PFEW should be based in a more central location and move away from its current HQ at Leatherhead.

Steve reassured South Yorkshire Police officers that it was still “business as usual” if they needed support from their local Federation: “The Federation that you have locally is still your primary Federation, and we will support you and hold national PFEW appropriately to account and support them in change.

“In light of the recent issues with PFEW, people need to understand that, locally, it’s business as usual, and if you find yourself needing support, you find yourself at the receiving end of a complaint, the service to you will not be altered because it will be managed by us locally, and we will do what we’ve always done.

“Our view remains that more power should go to locals to decide what we do. There always needs to be a national entity to do collective negotiating on pay, and potentially the administration behind criminal claims, civil claims. But really, we need to be a bottom-up organisation, not a top-down one.”