Page 20 - WMPF Federation June-July 2018-flip_Neat

Federation seeks national

policy on fatigue to tackle

‘burnt out’ officers

such as shift work and interrupted sleep Jayne described a trip back to her home
patterns.” force of West Mercia to see for herself the
In addition to shifts, extended work days, effects of fatigue on officers.
working at times of the day when you “They are telling me how frequently they
should be sleeping, and then sleeping at are called in early and off late, and how
times when we are naturally most alert, many rest days they are having cancelled.
contrary to the Circadian sleep pattern They were saying quite openly ‘we are
rhythm, working on rest days when you knackered’, ‘we are burnt out’ and they feel
should be recovering and preparing for your that they can’t provide the service to the
next shift, would all take their toll. public they want to,” says Jayne.
Under the current doing more with less She added: “This is unacceptable. It is no
reality of policing, there were staffing issues wonder that people are off sick because they
such as single crewing, the pressure to do know when they come back, they will be in
longer hours, unrealistic time pressures, exactly the same position they were before
unachievable deadlines and leave requests they went off.”
being refused, all of which led to higher The panel, which also included Adrian
workloads and police officer fatigue and Smiles from the Police Federation’s health
stress. and safety sub-committee, agreed that
This, in turn, lowered morale, had an management needed to provide officers
effect on wellbeing and created more with the tools to help them get good levels
sickness and absenteeism, creating a vicious of sleep and rest.
circle. Issues were raised around officers taking
The long-term effects, he explained, work home with them and working on
could include injury and serious illness with annual leave just to catch up with their
Jayne Willetts, the Police Federation’s roads higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol workload. They were booking leave off work
policing lead.
leading to obesity, cardiovascular conditions instead of admitting occupational health
he detrimental effects of fatigue on and diabetes. problems.
the performance of police officers Jayne Willetts, the Police Federation’s Jayne and Adrian said the Federation was
Twere laid bare during conference. roads policing lead, said fatigue levels now planning to promote awareness around
The Federation set out plans to push for among officers were getting so bad that the causes of fatigue and around the legal
a national policy on fatigue and make forces action needed to be taken immediately. requirements for forces. They said there
across the country aware of their “People are shattered before they go out should be a shared responsibility from both
responsibility towards trying to alleviate the for work,” she said, “We need to ask senior individuals and organisations to tackle the
problem of ‘burnt out’ officers. officers: ‘what are you doing to support your situation.
With the police service stretched to the officers out there’? Members are being encouraged to look
limit and recent media reports of thousands “This is the elephant in the room and we out for the Federation’s demand, capacity
of rest days being cancelled across all forces, need to be aware of it. We can’t carry on the and welfare survey which will be issued in
guest speaker Dr Paul Jackson from the way we are because we will have a burnt out the summer in a bid to get an accurate
Transport Research Laboratory, a police force. Other industries have assessment of officers’ views on these issues.
psychologist specialising in fatigue risk recognised the importance of addressing The results of this year’s survey will be
management, said officer fatigue was ‘too this issue and it must be mirrored in analysed and compared to a similar survey
important an issue to ignore’. policing. Something has to be done, and it two years ago.
Addressing the conference floor during has to be done now.”
the ‘Fatigue in our Forces’ session, Dr Jackson We are not talking about police officers
said: “Fatigue can result in reduced alertness,
procedural errors and impairment in risk “
perception. feeling a bit tired, what we are dealing
“We are not talking about police officers
feeling a bit tired, what we are dealing with with is officers reaching the point that
is officers reaching the point that their
decision-making could be impaired. their decision-making could be
“Fatigued people don’t follow the rules
but they do have their judgement affected impaired.
and a fatigued person is more likely to make “
mistakes. All of this can be exacerbated by
operational demands placed upon officers
20 federation June/July 2018 www.westmidspolfed.com