EMERGENCY SERVICES SHOW


officers and the wider emergency services just to be able to hydrate and try to take some practical steps to deal with the excess heat,” he commented.


PFEW believes if a non-essential, physically demanding activity or an activity that would lead to prolonged exposure to the heat is planned during a period of high temperatures, forces must seriously consider postponing the activity, or, if an officer shows signs of heat illness, the activity must be paused and assessed. “Our new national policy on working in


adverse heat is designed to encourage and support our 43 police forces. The experiences of our members are shared throughout the organisation and we can listen to their voices and look into these things on their behalf,” he concluded. On day two, Federation


“You could go to a horrendous sudden death, and then on the same day you might go to a suicide and then you might attend a fatal road traffic accident - that’s three traumatic jobs in a short space of time. That officer is going to finish that shift and may feel emotionally broken.” A Police Traumatic Event Checklist is currently being developed by PFEW and Police Care UK, in conjunction with Cambridge University. More than 1500 officers’ and staff’s worst reported incidents on the job were coded to create a system to identify and


some have told me they don’t see their supervisors for two or even three months. That is shocking,” commented Belinda. “Prevention intervention is so important. When an officer is getting stressed, supervisors shouldn’t be frightened to sit down and have a one-to-one to ask if they are OK,” Sue added.


Wellbeing Leads Belinda Goodwin and Sue Honeywill focused on the importance of forces proactively supporting their workforce before they reach breaking point. PFEW believes forces should monitor the number of traumatic incidents individual officers have attended to make informed operational decisions on where to deploy them.


“Officer numbers are vital. It really helps if you have got your colleagues to bounce off and debrief after going to a horrific job, but it doesn’t happen often enough. We must have a better understanding of what officers are going through on a shift,” explained Sue.


“You could go to a horrendous sudden death, and then on the same day you might go to a suicide and then you might attend a fatal road traffic accident - that’s three traumatic jobs in a short space of time”


manage trauma. “We are continually exposed to trauma on a day-to-day basis, as are the other bluelight services,” Belinda added. “During covid we saw some officers attending 15 sudden deaths in one shift. Where does that trauma go and who is monitoring that?”


Both stressed the importance of having support from a supervisor, with casual chats to check in on how officers are feeling and meaningful performance development reviews which tie in with mental health and wellbeing. “I have been listening to members and


Provisions have improved across forces and there is some positive work taking place around mental health and wellbeing, they acknowledged, stating that all forces currently have telephone counselling in place. However, there is no consistency across the 43 forces with some officers receiving better care than others. “Officer care and welfare is the responsibility of forces, but what we have found is that there are gaps in the service in terms of mental health support


so what we have done as a Federation is to invest in the Welfare Support Programme,” continued Belinda.


Hundreds of members have been provided with life-changing mental health support from specialists funded by the Federation. Our Welfare Support Programme (WSP) is continuing to offer a wide range of confidential and independent services from clinical assessments, to counselling with fully trained and accredited professionals.


See page 24 for more information about the WSP.


Belinda Goodwin and Sue Honeywill


Deputy National Chair Tiff Lynch and North Wales Police Federation Secretary Mark Jones


National Chair Steve Hartshorn speaks with an attendee


41 | POLICE | OCTOBER 2022


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