THE Government must now \u2018look after\u2019 officers after a frontline review revealed that budget cuts and rising demand are driving up mental health issues in the force.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Controversially, pay and resources were not part of the discussions.<\/p>\n
Participants told the survey that \u2018insufficient 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\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to hear the Government is finally coming on side but, for me, it\u2019s coming a little bit late, although I welcome the fact that it\u2019s finally here,\u201d South Yorkshire Police Federation Chairman Steve Kent said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they need to do now is fundamentally look at how they treat officers. How they treat officers\u2019 mental health in the face of the cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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\u2019re not pulling their hair out with stress. But what do we do in the meantime?\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve says a culture change in policing with a focus on occupational health could be part of any solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a complete and utter culture change within the police to look at how we deal with mental health. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething that we\u2019re looking at in our force, between myself and the unions, is that we\u2019re looking at trying to do mental health first aid training as well as the mandatory physical first aid training that officers have to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive them the tools to look after themselves a little bit better \u2013 it\u2019s something that I\u2019m actually looking at now as a piece of work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as officers start going off with stress, who takes up the slack? Slack\u2019s the wrong word. But it fits with the word where there\u2019s officers still there. So, the knock-on effect is massive. And they need to act now to avoid a stress tidal wave.\u201d<\/p>\n