Frontline review: it’s good to see the Government on side, all be it a little late

THE Government must now ‘look after’ officers after a frontline review revealed that budget cuts and rising demand are driving up mental health issues in the force.

South Yorkshire Police Federation says the report, commissioned by former Home Secretary Sajid Javid, is to be welcomed although he would have liked to have seen it happen earlier.

The Front-Line Review sought the views of frontline officers from across all 43 forces in England and Wales on issues such as wellbeing, professional development, leadership and innovation.

Controversially, pay and resources were not part of the discussions.

Participants told the survey that ‘insufficient staff numbers, equipment and training, because of reductions in funding, had caused problems with capacity to meet demand and had a significant impact on increased workload’.

“It’s good to hear the Government is finally coming on side but, for me, it’s coming a little bit late, although I welcome the fact that it’s finally here,” South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Steve Kent said.

“What they need to do now is fundamentally look at how they treat officers. How they treat officers’ mental health in the face of the cuts.

“We need to address the balance in terms of staffing, and if we look into a crystal ball, five, 10 years in time, might be that resources are back to a level where officers can do the job and they’re not pulling their hair out with stress. But what do we do in the meantime?”

Steve says a culture change in policing with a focus on occupational health could be part of any solution.

“We need a complete and utter culture change within the police to look at how we deal with mental health. It’s had so much focus over the years, in terms of the physical fitness, this, that and the other. We need to look at mental health fitness.

“Something that we’re looking at in our force, between myself and the unions, is that we’re looking at trying to do mental health first aid training as well as the mandatory physical first aid training that officers have to do.

“Give them the tools to look after themselves a little bit better – it’s something that I’m actually looking at now as a piece of work,” he said.

“As soon as officers start going off with stress, who takes up the slack? Slack’s the wrong word. But it fits with the word where there’s officers still there. So, the knock-on effect is massive. And they need to act now to avoid a stress tidal wave.”