A Christmas message from Surrey Police Federation Chair Mel Warnes

21 December 2018

"If you’re working over Christmas, please stay safe and make sure that on days off you spend some valuable time with family and friends! Thank you for all that you do."

Surrey Police Federation Chair Mel Warnes has a Christmas message for members;

Looking back over 2018 it’s been a really busy one for Surrey Police Federation.

We’ve been working to ensure people stay on full pay with the pay review panels, and we’ve dealt with multiple misconducts by way of meetings and hearings and employment tribunals.

We’ve been able to support members through ill-health retirement processes, put people through respite care with Police Mutual and we have carried out welfare support for officers.

We also had to deal with one of the longest running inquests for a single death and we have been supporting people through both criminal and motoring offence investigations.

I’m proud, too, of the fact that we have been one of the most successful Federations to go through an audit assessment and I’m pleased to report that our finances are in a much more solid state of affairs.

In 2018, we also went through the election process and the changes through National Federation, and we’ve been able to continue to support our staff with financial matrimonial clinics and we’ve re-tendered successfully for our group insurance.

In fact, we have now more staff and officers signed up to that than ever before and we’ve arranged for hampers to be delivered to several officers that have been seriously injured.

Of course, all that is in addition to the wonderful work our local Reps are doing every day to support their colleagues.

Looking forward to 2019, the same challenges are going to be there for us.

In particular for misconduct, we’re looking forward to the changes, which will focus more on learning and offer a much more positive outlook.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and healthy Christmas. If you’re working over Christmas, please stay safe and make sure that on days off you spend some valuable time with family and friends! Thank you for all that you do.