Chief and Federation to act together

4 December 2020

Hertfordshire Police Federation has pledged to work with the Force to help improve officer morale, and will be meeting with the Chief Constable next week to discuss a way forward.

It comes after this year’s Police Federation pay and morale survey, the results of which were published on Wednesday, revealed that Hertfordshire officers reported the lowest levels of personal morale of all 43 forces in England and Wales.

Geoff Bardell, chair of Hertfordshire Police Federation, says: “I had a very productive conversation with the Chief Constable yesterday, and I have no doubt we are on the right page to achieve a better response going forward.

“In addition to working with the Force on initiatives to boost officer morale, we will also look at ourselves to see what we, as Federation, could do better and any feedback is gratefully received.

“Policing is a tough job and can take its toll on officers which will, of course, affect their morale.

“In the past 18 months, we have made a commitment to improving officer wellbeing. We have bought a welfare van, a respite holiday home and provided funding towards the cost of officers’ private counselling when NHS or Force funding has been exhausted, but we can still do more.

“Our number one priority is the wellbeing of our members – physically, mentally and financially. We are here to help and should any member require support or just a chat then our door is always open.”