Mark develops role in ensuring the Welsh voice is heard

29 June 2020

From the coronavirus crisis to mental health and influencing new legislation, the Welsh affairs lead for the Police Federation of England and Wales has a wide-ranging remit.

Mark Bleasdale only began in the role in November but has already had some considerable successes.

Now he wants to build on those to establish the Federation as the country’s professional voice on policing in the eyes of the Welsh Assembly.

“Whenever the Federation responds to anything with the Government, my role is to check this doesn’t have a different effect in Wales or may not apply in Wales,” said Mark, who leads the Federation’s Welsh Affairs Sub-Committee (WASC).

“The advantage to the role is sometimes it’s easier to get legislation through in Wales than it is in England. One example is the Assaults on Emergency Workers' legislation. The Welsh Government was ready to go with fast-track legislation that could potentially have embarrassed the Home Office and it would, in effect, have had to copy it.

“There’s no doubt this pressure was in part responsible for the legislation going through as quickly as it did. So now I’m monitoring what the Welsh Parliament is looking at around mental health legislation. There may be parallels when the Federation wants to feed back to Government regarding police powers relating to the Mental Health Act and any new mental health legislation.

“I’ll also be liaising with the Welsh Parliament as the Police Covenant develops. It will have a different process of implementation as health is devolved to the Welsh Parliament.”

One of his first tasks on becoming only the second holder of the Welsh affairs lead post, succeeding Steve Trigg of South Wales, was to represent members when the report of the Commission on Justice in Wales was published at the end of October last year. Effectively a public inquiry, the commission involved eminent lawyers and academics who, alongside the former South Wales Chief Constable Peter Vaughan, considered a wide range of justice issues. Police Federation officials gave oral evidence to the commission.

For policing, the commission recommended: “With legislative devolution, the governance arrangements for the police should be re-examined.”

Mark explains: “In effect, this recommendation and the commentary in the report say that if justice and law-making were completely devolved to Wales then consideration should be given to devolving policing to Wales.

“So, in essence, it still seems to be some time away that this would get discussed meaningfully and many things would need to happen politically first. Having said that, the WASC has taken the policy position that policing could be devolved to Wales, but the question of whether it should be devolved is one for politicians, not the Federation.”

Following publication of the report and subsequent media interest, an engagement event was held in the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff with members of the WASC getting the chance to speak to elected Assembly Members.

Since then, he has been working his way around the Senedd speaking to politicians and examining their views on issues affecting police officers in Wales - including mental health, the ambulance service and arrival times and the use of Naloxone by police officers.

Mark admits that when first taking on the role he had to spend some time relationship-building just because people did not know him or were simply unaware of the role. But the coronavirus epidemic forced the way in which both governments have had to operate and this has included the relationship with unions and staff associations.

This led to a significant success for Mark. He explained: “In the early days I was putting pressure on Welsh Government officials on the issue of testing. It resulted in the health minister in Wales agreeing that police officers and staff were front-line workers and needed to be included in the testing regime.

“This was a fortnight before it was agreed in England, which means officers in Wales who were isolating were able to go into the testing process to provide them with some reassurance that they were either fit to go back into work or their families knew whether COVID-19 was affecting them.”

Mark is a former chair of the Dyfed Powys Federation branch and the first officer from Dyfed Powys Police to be elected to the National Board. He says the role of the Federation in supporting members has evolved considerably during his five-year tenure.

“The Federation has to continually expand its remit to support members and that the perception we are only there for you if were in ‘trouble’ has changed,” Mark adds.

But now, he sees a wider understanding of the fact that the Federation supports members on a wide range of issues. This has also changed the way the Federation is perceived by the Force.

“Things have certainly moved on now and members are seeing the developments in other important areas such as health and safety in the workplace, equality, wellbeing, injury on duty, pensions,” said Mark.

“Conduct is still often the most serious and stressful thing an officer is likely to see in their service, but now there’s a much wider range of issues that Federation reps have to be skilled at to effectively represent members.

“When I started, I found being a full-time rep was challenging as I had to lead the branch and deal with detailed issues representing individual officers.

“This was not fair to the individuals or to the branch. We were fortunate to be able to get the Branch Council to agree to a business case to recruit a part-time rep in the office. We appointed someone with significant experience in dealing with pension issues, equality and wellbeing in the Force.

“This has meant a better service for members and this benefits the Force with the sickness rate significantly reduced as officers off work regularly have contact from the Federation. This seems to get officers back to work earlier.

“I was then able to look at the broader issues for the branch and engage with leaders and chief officers. This, in turn, will allow future chairs to lead the organisation and the service to members is better.

“I think this has changed the relationship that the Force leadership has had with the Federation for the better for our members. They now consider the Federation part of the solution and actively engaged in consultation rather than being part of the problem.”

Mark has been a Federation member since he joined the Force in 1990.

“I first became a rep some years ago when my Force was going through a reorganisation and I felt the voice of chief inspectors in that programme was not being heard,” he said. “Being on the Federation gave the chief inspectors a voice in the process.

“Having the broad range of experience in the Force, I felt I was well suited to representing officers of all ranks and a wide range of issues.”

Mark’s first job was as a trainee solicitor, but he wanted a career dealing with people. “I applied to join the police when I saw a friend from university on the cover a police recruitment magazine,” he said. “On joining I could see I would never leave as it gives you so many diverse opportunities to show and develop skills, and I really feel that I have had 15 or so jobs within a career.”

And it is that experience across a range of posts that Mark believes equips him for his current Welsh Affairs lead role.

“I think I have a broad experience through ranks and front-line services in the police service to know how to influence policy-makers and police leaders on the issues that matter to members,” he said.