Great News for Wellbeing in Hampshire

13 March 2019

It has been announced by Hampshire PCC’s office that he has invested in the wellbeing of Hampshire Police officers totalling nearly 1.5 million pounds over the next three years.

 

The bid to the PCC office was a submission by deputy chief constable Sara Glen supported by Helen Mears Hampshire Constabulary HR business partner and your chair, Alex Charge.

 

It is a substantial investment in the health and wellbeing of Hampshire cops and Hampshire Police Federation is proud to have been involved in supporting this investment in your health and wellbeing.

 

 

Why is this important?

 

The money will be spent on preventing officers becoming unwell and if they do become unwell help return them to fitness as soon as possible, much of this focusing on trauma and mental Health. 

 

Both these areas were identified as issues in the recent PFEW demand and capacity survey for Hampshire Police officers

 

79% of officers indicated they had experienced feelings of anxiety, stress, low mood in the last 12 months and 95% indicating that these feelings were caused or made worse by work.

 

47% of officers having sought help for anxiety, stress, low mood in the last 12 months.

 

Nationally 60% of officers indicated that they had been exposed to one or more traumatic incidents in the last 12 months.

 

Due to the government cuts to policing our officers are being forced to work for longer and being exposed to trauma for longer and more sustained periods. 

 

It is key that the force recognises this and puts in place measures to help officers. 

 

That is the focus of this  investment, Hampshire federation are working with HR, occupational health and others, to see that this money is focussed in the right areas and we invite your feedback and ideas on the service you receive.

 

What will this look like to our Cops?

 

Key areas:

 

• Support for TRIM and peer supporters
• Further specialist training for peer supporters
• Coordination and administration support for TRIM and peer supporters
• Awareness and support around suicide prevention

 

 

Increased Occupational Health Provision

 

• Doubling in the budget for physio treatment
• Achieving and sustaining the 5 day time scale from referral to appointment
• Extra investment in occupational health so that people can get help as soon as they need it

 

 

Expansion of Psychological Screening

 

Recognising that all officers are routinely exposed to traumatic experiences that effect their Health and Wellbeing there will be psychological screening for a much wider range of roles covering the majority of officers.

 

We believe that Hampshire are the first force in the Country to do this.

 

This is a major increase in psychological screening moving from specialist staff to all staff, this is a large amount of work as currently approximately 600 people are screened and this will increase to approximately 4000. 

 

This won’t happen overnight as you might expect but will be done over the next 2 years.  It will be a staged approach based on risk assessment of roles and skills. 

 

We will keep you updated as this rolls out.

 

 

Outreach Health Screening

 

The will be periodic health screening for all officers / staff again like psychological screening for all it is a large amount of work to cover all staff, and it won’t happen overnight,  we will keep you linked in as it is developed and rolls out

 

 

Complex and Long term cases

 

Development of a service to support long term and complex injuries / sickness and to support the individuals and their managers.

 

 

Hampshire Police federation are keen to help the force get wellbeing right for all officers and recognise that it is not a once size fits all, we want to be your voice in supporting this work so please give us feedback and any idea’s you have our wellbeing lead Nicki Bell will be happy to discuss them with you.