Have you completed our demand, capacity and welfare survey yet?

3 September 2018

Last month the national Police Federation launched a second demand, capacity and welfare survey, the findings of which will give a full picture of the main challenges officers face across England and Wales' 43 forces. 

Importantly, the survey will allow valuable comparisons to be made from previous results, giving police officers the opportunity to provide their opinion on current welfare, demand and capacity issues.

The 2016 national survey findings painted a damning picture of the service, with results including:

• widespread stress and poorer psychological wellbeing than the general population, with 80% of respondents experiencing feelings of stress, low mood, anxiety, or other mental health and wellbeing difficulties within the previous 12 months
• capacity to meet demand being viewed as insufficient
• four out of five officers indicating that officer numbers in their team/unit were insufficient to manage demand and do the job properly.

The shocking results prompted the Federation to host two workshops looking for solutions to address the demand and capacity imbalance. The development of four recommendations received sign off from key stakeholders including the National Police Chiefs’ Council, College of Policing and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.  The recommendations were also supported and agreed with Policing Minister Nick Hurd.  Additionally, the College of Policing used the survey data in its National Wellbeing Service stakeholder event, the Pay Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) examined the findings and cited the results in its 2017 report and Prince William highlighted the results when he addressed the National Mental Health in Policing Conference last year.

Chris Carter, Chair of Kent Police Federation, said: "This an important survey which I urge all Kent officer to complete please, it should only take 15 minutes. When we last did it in 2016, we received 421 responses representing a response rate of around 13% which I'm sure we can build on this year.

"Our previous report showed 67% of respondents thought their workload was too high - similar to the national average of 66%, 80% indicated their team or unit operated on a minimum officer staffing level, and 77% said they had experienced feelings of stress, anxiety or had other difficulties with their health and wellbeing.

"Completing the survey will help give an updated picture so we can identify where we need to take action and effect positive change."

Check your pnn inbox for the link to the survey or contact us