CHAIR ASKS
REFLECTIONS ON OFFICER WELLBEING
Acting National Chair Tiff Lynch sits down with Oscar Kilo Service Director Andy Rhodes to put to him questions including what the organisation is
doing to help improve the wellbeing of police officers and his views on what he believes are the three biggest challenges faced by the workforce
Tiff Lynch (TL): With the development of the Police Covenant in progress, what fundamental areas do you think the Covenant needs to deliver on to support police officers and their families? Andy Rhodes (AR): It is still very early days for the Police Covenant and we are starting to make progress at a national level developing resources and guidance in new areas like support for families and those leaving the job for forces to put into place locally.
In the first two years, we’ve focused on improving consistency in areas like Occupational Health and Op Hampshire (the national approach to police assaults) because there’s no point in creating lots of new support if these vitally important basics aren’t in place. These are now
26 | POLICE | DECEMBER | 2024
embedded into PEEL inspections which is a big step forward. Now, we need to step up our efforts which will require both accountability and investment. We’re seeing a lot of time and
- and we have to find a way to get these up and running in 2025.
“I was always the first to accept criticism
when we messed up, but let’s never forget how often we get it right as well. Our officers and staff are out keeping us all safe 24/7 - and they deserve the recognition.”
effort being invested by several forces and they are making really good use of the national resources - but there is so much more we can do. We have a well evidenced list of projects which, I believe, would start to bring the Covenant to life - some of which need funding some of which don’t
TL: Latest statistics revealing a troubling increase in assaults on police officers in England and Wales. Why do you think there has been an increase and what is your advice to police officers on the steps they should take after being assaulted? AR: I would hope that some of the increase actually reflects a greater
confidence to report, in part because of the national and local efforts being made to build trust with our officers and staff through Operation Hampshire. Our national lead for Operation Hampshire, Dave Brewster, will always say that there are far too many assaults happening, and
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