MUTUAL AID
has ensured dog handlers receive an allowance to compensate for the care of police dogs during rest days and public holidays. This allowance, initially set at £2,196 per annum, was increased to £2,697 from 1 September 2023. An additional 25 per cent of the allowance is payable for each extra dog kept and cared for at the handler’s home.” There was also a significant legal victory concerning backdated mileage payments for dog handlers. A High Court ruling granted backpay for handlers in West Mercia who had been required to use their own vehicles to transport police dogs between home and work. This ruling, supported by West Mercia Police Federation, was aimed at providing parity with other forces and addressing the financial burden placed on handlers due to the withdrawal of police vans during austerity measures. “We have also been proactive in offering welfare support,” Mr Kempton continued. “We are in conversation with North Yorkshire Police to offer to deploy our welfare vans to support their operation.” For four years the Police Federation’s
across the border to Scotland to support officers on mutual aid deployments. Officers providing mutual aid can do up to 14-hour shifts in gruelling conditions. There are currently 17 welfare vans with
“Everyone is now singing off the same
hymn sheet which in turn has made mutual aid deployments fairer for our members.”
the aim of growing the fleet.
The cost-effective vehicles are funded through benevolent funds and group insurance trust funds while the local Federations pay for the stock. Some branches, including Cleveland
Police Federation, have made it a joint venture with their cash-strapped forces, with the compromise the force pays for insurance and fuel, whilst the Federation pays for the rest.
welfare vans have been on standby, ready to provide some much-needed respite to officers on the frontline carrying out these duties.
Most vans can come kitted out with
a toilet, facilities for making teas and coffees, water, snacks, a table to do paperwork on and charge phones and laptops as well as Wi-Fi. More recently some Federation branches have invested in welfare pods, which can be towed and dropped off at remote locations and have the same facilities.
Other than crime scenes, the vans have road tripped all around the nation and
Previously police officers have found themselves facing uncertainty when providing mutual aid, unsure how they would be treated and recompensed from operation to operation. Thankfully, PFEW worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to bring standardisation and fairness, through the creation of, and agreement to, a framework of principals. “It’s been much better, and we have
made massive progress,” explained Mr Kempton. “Every single mutual aid deployment, unless it’s massively impossible, because of extenuating circumstances, will meet the same minimum standards around things like allowances, accommodation, shift patterns, where people start to get paid, kit that is available and welfare that is available. “In the past, we saw members who would be deployed to one job, and it would be brilliant, then the next it would be terrible in terms of provisions. This creates a massive blocker on morale and
people’s enthusiasm for the operation. Everyone is now singing off the same hymn sheet which in turn has made mutual aid deployments fairer for our members. “We are seeing the tangible benefits of hundreds of hours of work by PFEW National Board members on the Mutual Aid Working Group, liaising with NPoCC, negotiating and persuading. This has been a massive piece of work, but on the back end of it, it is worth
thousands and thousands of pounds to police officers and just as importantly, they now have better living conditions when staying away from home, less uncertainty and everyone knows where they stand. It has all been worthwhile to benefit our members.”
PFEW IS CONTINUING TO CALL FOR:
• All members to be accommodated in a three-star venue as a minimum, in a single occupancy room, and, if these standards are not met, they should receive a hardship allowance.
• Overnight away from home allowance. PFEW believes the allowance should be amended to include an element for having to stay away from home, a further element for being held in reserve and finally a third to reflect a sub- standard accommodation.
• Any payments should reflect rises in the cost of living and inflation.
• Allowances not to be co- dependent. Currently officers are not entitled to the hardship allowance unless they are awarded the overnight allowance first.
• Personal protective equipment policy regards non carriage while off duty, suitable storage when deployed on mutual aid and suitable refreshment facilities so PPE can be safely removed while resting.
• Suitable laundry facilities when deployed for longer than seven days on mutual aid, or recourse to an allowance akin to incidental allowances when on residential training courses, if not supplied.
31 | POLICE | AUGUST | 2024
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