Creating a Blue Light Card-type scheme for childcare could help police officers mitigate \u201cextraordinary\u201d costs they are facing, South Yorkshire Police Federation suggested.<\/p>\n
Federation Chair Steve Kent said there needed to be more flexibility with police officers\u2019 shifts so they could better manage their family.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cSome officers are spending a third of their wages on childcare alone, which is just unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
His comments came after an Oscar Kilo report determined \u201cserious consideration\u201d should be given to childcare provision for police.<\/p>\n
Steve said favouring common sense over a hardline approach by empowering local managers would act as an immediate improvement.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cSometimes we see that two officers have children together and the force will say, \u2018No, you can\u2019t adjust your shifts\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat that means is those cops have got to pay extraordinary amounts of money for childcare, when probably all it needs is a supervisor or manager to say, \u2018No, let\u2019s be flexible\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat, for me, needs to be instilled in supervisors and managers more, to have those common sense solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said there should be a discount or extra Government support that helps officers to cover childcare costs.<\/p>\n
He suggested a Blue Light Card scheme for childcare could go some way in mitigating the problem.<\/p>\n
The Federation Chair added: \u201cThe working hours of cops are not the same where you can just solve the problem with a breakfast club and an after-school activities club\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, he said forces had to be \u201crealistic\u201d about the issue as, at the moment, they were \u201cstruggling to even provide counselling assistance and physio to support officers\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s a trouble to see where we\u2019re necessarily going to start looking at this.\u201d<\/p>\n