Chair's message February 2020

5 February 2020

Monthly Update

January has given us a busy start to the year with the deployment of the new welfare van, finalising plans for our first county bravery awards and reshaping our facebook membership. We also continue to support our colleague with the Benevolent Fund food voucher scheme and are working on seeking external support for a change to the way we deal with Bank Holidays.

Following a request from the Force Duty Officer we deployed your new welfare van to a murder scene in Chelmsford. We spent the night on scene making coffee and chatting to a number of you about a whole range of issues. The toilet was a hit, as was the sporks and choccy bars, so next time you find yourself deploying to a protracted scene, keep your eyes peeled for your welfare van. All budget holders are able to deploy the van via the 24/7 on call Fed Rep, and it can be booked for pre-planned operations.

The Bravery Awards continue at pace with invitations on their way to officers and special guests. With an estimated 130 guests invited for the black tie evening which recognises and celebrates some of the brave actions colleagues have been involved in. We have booked the Radisson at Stansted and will be joined by the Chief, Jonny Apter the Chair of the National Federation, and the Home Secretary has also been invited. Our hope is that as well as recognising some of the brave actions you undertake keeping our communities safe, we help encourage the further recognition for those brave acts you are yet to do. With too much frequency we discover brave acts are not getting recognised, so we hope an evening like this once a year with help encourage recognition.

The food voucher scheme continues to offer a little support and sign posting to those who may find it hard making ends meet and putting food on the table. It’s completely anonymous and could result in more help being provided. Its costs nothing to ask and might just help. Contact me for more information.

We have completed reshaping our Facebook group, moving from 1450 officers down to about 750. This was a painful process, which has been lumpy and along the way we have lost valuable contributors, but we hope to start growing the membership again. If you would like to join our closed Facebook group you can either
            • Ask a friend already in the group to invite you so we can then contact you for the relevant details
            or
            • Send me a friend request so I can contact you for the relevant details then add you as my friend, after which you can delete me once in the group.

After months of discussion the organisation have decided NOT to change the way Bank Holiday entitlements are accrued. This is a disappointing move and one which we are seeking to challenge outside the organisation, having sought legal advice. In short officers CAN end up owing the organisation time for not working a Bank Holiday. Keep your eyes peeled for more comms on the issue, but if you think you can help us bring about change in the way our Bank Holidays are managed, please get in touch.

On the national Fed stage, we continue to work towards the following projects, seeking to improve YOUR lot. I have recently written to all 18 Essex MP’s following their re-election. I have appointments to meet many of them and have already met Giles WATLING MP from Clacton as well as my quarterly meeting with the PFCC.

• PWG- Police Driver Legislation – The Fed are very close, after over 8 years, of bringing about a change to the way police drivers are defended when called to explain their driving at court. For too long officers have been unable to rely on their training, experience and rationale for driving which then goes on to be accused of following below the standard of a careful and competent driver. We hope efforts are going to culminate in a new standard, that of a careful and competent POLICE driver, by which we can be judged should our driving be called into question. 
• Time limits campaign – We are pressuring for a limit to be introduced on the length of time it takes officers to be investigated. The IOPC in particular consistently take too long to investigate officers and we are proposing a 12 month limit, at which point the case must be review by an external agency – CPS/PFCC/Independent legal. This is meeting stiff resistance, but even if we don’t get the limits, it brings the IOPC more into focus as being unregulated and in need of reform.
• Police Covenant – Very similar to the Military Covenant, we are seeking to enshrine in law the forces responsibility to the health and welfare of officers. We seek to tie up a number of police charities working in this area and help secure funding from government to do so.
• Specials – We are lobbing for Specials to be allowed to join the Fed. For too long, while facing the very same risks as regular officers, our specials have been second class when it comes to rights and representation. We want to see them allowed admission to the Fed and what that looks like re subs. Clearly these need to be paid, just the same as a regular officer, and we are pushing for this to be done by the PFCC as specials are volunteers.

And finally, as the month ends we have taken a number of calls and emails in the office following a spate of bounced subs claims. We are working to understand this and are talking with the Head of Finance, Debbie Martin, about the issues. Its been suggest our advice published back in Nov might be misleading, but once we understand the issue we will get back to you with more.

Your Chair