PFEW Conference: Surrey Police Federation Chair to reacts to day one

9 June 2021

Chair Mel Warnes reacts to the first day of the Police Federation of England and Wales Conference.

She said: “After a few teething issues at the start today’s virtual conference I settled back in a quiet place to enjoy the sessions.

“Personally, the highlight from today’s conference was “Bravery”. It’s always such a great annual event and I’m looking forward to celebrating Surrey’s nominees for 2020 and 2021 later this year.

“Well done to PFEW National Chairman John Apter for finally being able to take the virtual stage for his keynote speech.

“I am really pleased that Alex Duncan pointed out at the last session the fact that we, police officers/National Federation/Chief officers were not asking for the police to be prioritised above those who were most vulnerable, we wanted vaccinations when the most vulnerable had been vaccinated themselves.

“This is an important point to make and no politician today answered why they did not go above the JVCI (an advisory group) when they could have done.

“Information on pensions is never exciting but is absolutely an important topic to be discussing.

“In Surrey, I have invited PFEW General Secretary Alex Duncan and Vice Chairman Che Donald to give pension inputs along with Q&A’s to all Surrey police officers.

“These sessions have been very well received and an opportunity to ask specific questions around personal circumstances. Every time I hear them speak about pensions I learn something new. I can’t recommend enough other Federations to invite them along to a MS Teams meeting to do an input to their membership too.”

See Priti Patel’s full speech to the PFEW Conference here https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-at-the-police-federation-conference-2021