PERFORMANCE related pay would devastate already-low levels of morale within the service and drive a wedge between police officers, South Yorkshire Police Federation has warned.<\/p>\n
Steve Kent, Federation Chairman, was speaking after Mike Cunningham, head of the College of Policing, proposed a change to the way pay is administered.<\/p>\n
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Mr Cunningham told The Telegraph: <\/em>\u201cI am very supportive of a model that looks at having effective individual performance arrangements in policing which is currently not the case\u2026Officers would be accredited for the training and skills they have and the whole area of professional development would be taken far more seriously than it has been to date.\u201d<\/p>\n But Steve said he had concerns about the proposal: \u201cI\u2019m opposed to the prospect of performance related pay and I raised this at the National Council meeting. I\u2019m worried that this could be a bomb to already low morale. I think it\u2019s going to be divisive and it\u2019s going to create resentment in the ranks.\u201d<\/p>\n Such changes would primarily affect constables and frontline officers, Steve warned.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cHow are they going to offer training out fairly when it comes to courses that could result in increased pay? You\u2019re going to have in-fighting left, right and centre.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s going to be people sitting there next to cops with the same length of service but because they carry a Taser they get paid more. I think it\u2019s going to be a massive morale bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve also warned that such a change could be costly to manage. He added: \u201cI\u2019m really worried about the logistics of administering flexible pay arrangements. Who is going to pay for the masses of admin staff that are clearly going to be required to administer essentially every officer in the force potentially being paid a different amount based on qualifications and experience and performance?\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Cunningham told the paper that it was time for a \u201csignificant review\u201d of the traditional model of policing where pay has been based on length of service. To see the interview in full, go to: https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2018\/11\/18\/performance-related-pay-short-term-contracts-cyber-experts-should\/<\/p>\n <\/p>\n