The next Government needs to commit to long-term improvements in police pay and conditions in order to retain the most experienced officers, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
During election campaigning, political candidates from all parties were vocal about needing more police officers, but retention was in crisis, Federation Chair Steve Kent warned.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe know that officers are actively looking at leaving. I spoke to an experienced officer the other day who had left the organisation to go work on the railways. Good luck to that officer, but we are now hearing more officers saying, \u2018I want to get out\u2019. That\u2019s really worrying. Especially when it\u2019s from the more experienced officers, who hold the organisation together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose in charge need to open their eyes to this and they need to do something quickly before they start losing people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe police relies on experience so heavily \u2013 the spine of the organisation is people who have worked here for a while. But if it starts being a conveyor belt, it\u2019s so damaging to the service and the public. It\u2019s never going to breed good practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added that it cost tens of thousands of pounds to pay for a policing degree, but if officers were leaving the service after a couple of years it was \u201cnonsense\u201d. He said he hoped the new Government would re-examine police pay and make a long-term commitment.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe said last year we needed a 20% pay rise and we got 7%, which still wasn\u2019t enough. I\u2019d like to see us get a 13% rise this year, but realistically I don\u2019t think that will happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo instead I would like to see the new Government make a commitment to engage with us and commit to a sustained increased growth in police pay, looking at the next three to five years. The research I did showed that, on average, UK officers are the poorest-paid police officers in the whole G7. That\u2019s just not acceptable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is another reason why industrial rights and binding arbitration is so important, because then we would be able to go into this from a position of strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added: \u201cPay awards are usually announced in July, but we haven\u2019t heard anything yet. I just ask that the Government that comes in revisits the figures and really considers them. And if that takes longer, maybe it\u2019s worth it, as long as any payments get backdated to September.\u201d<\/p>\n