4 February 2021

The influx of new police officers is leaving serving Sergeants with greater workloads, demands and stress

The influx of thousands of new police officers has left serving Sergeants with greater workloads, demands and more stress at work, a new report has found.

The Police Federation of England and Wales report, “The Demand Capacity & Welfare Survey 2020 - The Officer Uplift and Sergeant Impacts”, found that more than half of sergeants felt they had insufficient time and resources to support new Constables.

Under the Government’s “Uplift” programme, 20,000 new police officers are to be recruited by March 2023, taking the service back to the numbers of officers it had a decade ago.

This recruitment drive will see many Sergeants having more inexperienced PCs to supervise than ever before, with more than 6,600 officers recruited as part of that 20,000 over the past year.

The new PFEW research lays bare the impact of this flood of rookie recruits.

Anna Harvey, Chair of Dorset Police Federation, said: “I welcome the increased recruitment we have seen in Dorset, but I am mindful of the extra pressure and demands this will have on our supervisors especially the rank of Sergeant.

“The Sergeant’s role has changed dramatically over the years however it remains pivotal in developing new inexperienced officers. The Sergeant has responsibilities for the whole team, juggling workloads, reviews, providing case direction to name just a few activities.

“So whilst I welcome the news of the uplift, we have to consider how the organisation can support supervisors. We need to see investment, training and an increase in line management roles to afford the new officers the best training, whilst not breaking our Sergeants.”

Anna added: “A good Sergeant is worth their weight in gold, they are role models, so they need to be supported. I am sure many of us remember how influential our first Sgts were and how they shaped our careers. We will be working with the Force to highlight some of the results from the survey.”

54% of Sergeant respondents to the PFEW research said it was unlikely or extremely unlikely that they will have enough time and resources to manage this increase in their shift management responsibilities.

And 49% said they did not believe their force will have enough Sergeants or line managers to supervise the new recruits.

One sergeant told the survey: “We don't have the time to train and mentor new officers. Their foundation training is not good enough, even worse now with Covid. Probationers are left to train other probationers. We can't effectively supervise the officers we already have.

Another said: “A few years ago, response sergeants were a 1:7 ratio, now they're 1:10, this will only increase with the uplift. There will need to be more sergeants as 1:10 is already too many.”

Over 1,000 Sergeants responded to the survey. Many comments indicated that inadequate training for the new recruits had led to additional burdens being placed on Sergeants and tutor constables, and some Sergeants highlighted that the sudden influx of inexperienced officers could pose a risk to officer safety.

Others raised issues about limited resources; such as a lack of facilities, equipment and space for the new recruits to use, whilst others raised concerns over the general impact of the officer uplift on sergeant workloads and negative consequences on their wellbeing.

Dave Bamber, PFEW’S Professional Development Lead, said: “All too often the organization is happy to assess sergeants but not develop them. This influx of younger, more inexperienced officers will put pressure on staff to supervise them when they haven’t had the additional training they need to do this. Added to this, the recruits’ lack of experience means that more supervision will be needed.”

To read the survey in full, go to: https://www.polfed.org/media/16560/dcw_sergeants-report-20-01-21-v10.pdf