Federation refers Force to Health and Safety Executive
28 August 2024
West Midlands Police Federation has referred the Force to the Health and Safety Executive following its major concerns around custody blocks regularly being managed by a single sergeant.
The branch’s health and safety lead Patrick McBrearty has told how the Federation has issued an improvement notice after the Force ‘failed to show sufficient improvement in the working conditions within custody’.
“This has become a health and safety issue,” said Patrick, adding: “We feel that the Force is putting custody sergeants at risk due to the poor working environment in custody.
Patrick joined the branch as full-time health and safety lead in October. Since then, he says he has received ‘multiple emails’ and eSafety reports from custody sergeants voicing their concerns and raising issues about being single-crewed.
Mentoring
“We were then told that as many as 44 new sergeants would be joining in March this year, and while that happened, the thing was that they needed to be mentored and trained. Not only is the number of mentors spread thin, but this also meant that there was an even greater demand on those mentoring,” continued Patrick.
He says that he has known single sergeants to oversee very large numbers of prisoners, with an expectation to take more, which, in his opinion, ‘is totally unacceptable’.
As it stands, there are two main custody superblocks, one at Oldbury and the other in Perry Barry, North Birmingham. In addition, there are four additional ‘satellite’ custody suites located around the region.
Patrick explained that working alongside a custody sergeant is usually two detention escort officers. However, only the trained custody sergeant can authorise the detention of a prisoner.
“Our custody sergeants are being put in vulnerable situations,” added Patrick.
His concerns come after reports highlighted a large number of assaults on custody sergeants and other staff that have taken place in custody blocks over the past six months with many more incidents, accidents and near-miss reports included too.
Patrick added: “For me, there are a couple of ways things to make improvements: recruiting and retaining staff, as well as raising the number of custody sergeants currently trained so that there are more people to call on if the support is required.”
Patrick has previously called for all satellite custody blocks in the West Midlands to have two sergeants working a shift together rather than one - which he says ‘sadly appears is a common recurrence’ - or alternatively, to build a more resilient model whereby we have more locally trained sergeants available to assist, when necessary, as was the case pre-Austerity.
He explained: “In late May, the Federation met with senior managers to discuss their concerns. Due to the fact single crewing at satellite stations appeared to be a common and weekly occurrence, a Police Federation improvement notice was served, giving the Force three weeks to make significant positive changes.
Health and Safety Executive
“One senior manager kept referring to a new policing model that had been introduced in April, claiming that it had made working conditions safer for officers.”
But with no significant improvements made following their meeting, Patrick said the Federation had no choice but to refer the Force to the Health and Safety Executive. The referral was made on 14 June.
“This is not only just a staffing issue,” Patrick added. “This is a staffing issue which has now resulted in a health and safety issue.”
Patrick explained that the Health and Safety Executive is a government body. Should they find that the Force is negligent and breaching health and safety, then they could be prosecuted.
“If the Force is found to be negligent, a thorough investigation will take place,” said Patrick.
Since the issuing of the improvement notice, significant efforts have been made, and continue to be made by the Force, to make things better and safer for staff and persons in custody. Federation representatives are working with the Force to remedy these issues.
