Two thirds of Leicestershire officers say workload is too high

30 August 2017

Two thirds (66.4 per cent) of Leicestershire officers who took part in a national Police Federation survey on pay and morale reported that their workload was too high, meaning the Force ranks ninth out of 43 forces for this indicator.  Almost three quarters (74.9 per cent) per cent also said their workload had increased over the last 12 months.  But Tiff Lynch, chairman of Leicestershire Police Federation, is concerned about the results since only 25 per cent of the Force's Federated ranks completed the annual survey.  “On one hand, this is really disappointing but on the other I do understand that officers are feeling a little surveyed out right now,” says Tiff, “There is also a certain amount of apathy because they often feel their views are not taken into account anyway.  “However, you only have to look at our own survey on spit guards earlier this year when we were able to use the results to convince the Force to issue this extra protective equipment to officers to see how members can influence decision makers.  “The danger with the pay and morale survey is that if officers don't take part it weakens the impact of our results. But, despite the low return, I think the results are still valid and we would have seen similar results in terms of the percentages if more had completed the questions.” The results showed that 83.9 per cent of Federation members in Leicestershire feel they are not paid fairly for the stresses and strains of their job and also revealed: 

• 62.5 per cent were dissatisfied with their total remuneration, the third highest level of dissatisfaction of the 43 forces for this indicator
• 57.5 per cent were dissatisfied with their pension
• 67 per cent felt they were worse off financially compared to five years ago
• 57 per cent of respondents reported low personal morale, and
• 89 per cent reported low Force morale.

When asked about the reasons for low morale, Leicestershire officers replied: how the police as a whole are treated (85 per cent); work-life balance (63.8 per cent); pay and benefits (61.7 per cent); workload and responsibilities (60.9 per cent); opportunities for development and promotion (56.6 per cent); health and wellbeing (53.7 per cent); treatment by senior managers (44.5 per cent) and day to day job role (42.6 per cent).  A total of 67.1 per cent of respondents said that they would not recommend joining the police to others. Nationally, the proportion of respondents who said that they would not recommend joining the police to others ranges from 78.9 per cent in the top ranking force to 57.5 per cent in the bottom ranking force.  Almost 66 per cent of Leicestershire respondents said that they did not feel valued within the police.  But just 8.3 per cent of Leicestershire officers said they intend to leave the police service within two years, slightly lower than the national figure of 12.3 per cent. The main reason given for their intention to leave was how the police are treated as a whole (80 per cent), their morale (71.4 per cent) and the impact of the job on their health and wellbeing (74.3 per cent).