Health and Safety

Leicestershire Police Federation takes the health, safety and well-being of all its members very seriously.

A group of Federation representatives specialise in this area and each represented section has someone who is able to deal with localised health and safety concerns.

They feed back into our Federation health and safety committee which comprises of elected health and safety reps. This group then discusses the concerns and takes the relevant action required within the health and safety legislation.

We endeavour to work with the Force, its health and safety advisor and other staff associations to improve working practices and procedures and more importantly work to achieve a safe working environment for all.

Locally, if you have concerns about any safety issues, here’s what you should consider:

• Is this something significant or trivial, can I resolve it myself, is it a one-off or will it keep happening?
• If you need to tell someone, this should be a line manager or someone in authority. Steps should be taken to rectify the problem as a priority.
• Records should be kept of what happened and who was informed. The Force has various ways of doing this and these are found on its website under health and safety.

You may also consider contacting the Federation at this stage initially through your divisional rep.

All the Federation reps can act as health and safety advisors.

If they can’t resolve the issue locally then they refer it to the Federation's health and safety lead, David Sommerville, and he in turn takes it to the Force's health and safety executive group. David can be contacted either by email DSommerville@polfed.org or by contacting the Federation office on 0116 218 3131 where a message can be passed to him.

The Federation needs your input to give a heads up to where problems may exist. Tell your workplace representatives your concerns, in confidence if necessary. It’s vital we get input from “the factory floor” because that's where the majority of the risks exist.

Members are also advised to ensure that “near miss” forms are always completed and submitted.