Page 4 - Here For You: Our Work in 2014

Secretary’s Summary As we started the new year, we were looking back on all that happened in policing during 2014 when three separate reports seemed to sum it up perfectly. The Home Office revealed that police officer numbers had fallen to their lowest level since 2001; the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s latest figures showed a 15 per cent national increase in complaints against the police; and Baroness Newlove, the victims’ commissioner, announced that victims of crime were feeling let down by the criminal justice system. For me, these were just three examples of how the Government’s ongoing programme of cuts are affecting the police service. Cuts have consequences for the police service, individual officers and for the communities we serve. There are other statistics to support our view that something has to give and sadly in many cases it is officers’ health and well-being. Last year, it was reported there had been a 20 per cent rise in officers suffering mental health illness between 2011/2012 and 2012/13. For the last few years, West Midlands Police Federation has been at the forefront of studies into officer stress working with an academic specialist to identify how our members are suffering due to ‘workplace modernisation’ and cuts. We are collating the evidence to present to the Force so that changes can be made to working practices to relieve officer stress. If we do not see improvements, we will gather information to support a claim through the court. Change does seem to have been the theme for 2014. I worked closely with the Force on the consultation programme for the implementation of the latest reforms under Tom Winsor’s review. One was the introduction of compulsory fitness testing; an issue that has needed much negotiation and consultation to ensure that it does not discriminate against any particular groups. I have also had a key part to play in driving forward the reform of the Police Federation of England and Wales. It was a West Midlands Police Federation emergency motion to the annual conference in 2014 that set us on the way to putting the 36 recommendations for reform into action so it seems fitting that I am a member of the Police Federation Change Board which is driving through the change necessary so that the organisation can be truly fit for purpose. At the heart of the review recommendations was a call for more openness and transparency and better communication. So we have taken the lead. We launched a Fed App which allows members to communicate directly with their workplace representative. We have also improved the members’ database so we hold accurate and up to date information about what schemes members’ belong to and also about claims history. We are putting members at the heart of everything we do. Steve Grange Secretary West Midlands Police Federation 4 47905 WMPF Annual Report 2014.indd 4 30/04/2015 12:06