SOUTH Yorkshire Police Federation hopes the PFEW\u2019s \u2018brilliant\u2019 Welfare Support Programme will one day not be needed because local force welfare provision will be sufficient.<\/p>\n
The PFEW has announced it\u2019s doubling the WSP budget to help officers deal with the stresses of the job after new data revealed it has helped 20,000 officers and prevented five suicides since it began in 2012.<\/p>\n
Officers are referred to the WSP programme through the Federation when facing the \u201cmost serious consequences of policing\u201d \u2013 being suspended from duty, facing gross misconduct and considered to be at risk or vulnerable.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Federation Chairman Steve Kent said the service was \u2018brilliant\u2019 but hopes that the infrastructure in forces will one day catch all officers who need assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government needs to invest billions into police welfare management, and if each force had 15 people for example to help officers then this [the WSP] wouldn\u2019t be needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully in the future, this kind of programme, even though it\u2019s brilliant, won\u2019t be needed because the infrastructure within our own police forces could hopefully deal with it [officer welfare].<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a local Federation branch board have our own counselling services for the more emergency side of things. If officers come to us with serious problems or serious concerns, we can actually make those arrangements locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is still important, and I wouldn\u2019t want that to be replaced by the Welfare Support Programme. But the WSP is also something we can use, and Reps can refer people when appropriate to those kind of services.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good news and it works; it complements the systems we\u2019ve already got in South Yorkshire.\u201d<\/p>\n