Advice For Officers On Coping With Coronavirus

30 March 2020

Officers in Essex have received further help and resources on how to combat COVID-19.

Advice and guidance on dealing with anxiety, stress and the financial worries caused by the virus outbreak should now be in police officers’ inboxes.

The toolkit provides help for those at work and who are having to self-isolate.

Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor said: “The force is signposting people to the Government’s advice, which is voluminous and covers a whole host of scenarios, not all of which are relevant to us.

“It’s been left to local managers to make local decisions, the majority of which are sensible and are precisely what you’d expect.

“However, we are seeing anomalies of people not getting the kind of support we’d hope they would get in terms of being supported to work remotely or adjust their hours or other creative solutions to enable them to both contribute in the workplace and look after their responsibilities at home.”

The sheer scale of the problem continues to be challenging, Steve said.

He added: “It’s an ongoing piece of work and the reasons for that challenge is not purely the organisation’s fault. There are a lot of moving parts.

“We haven’t got things perfect, but I think it’s fair to say we all understand the scale of the challenge and are trying to work towards finding solutions that fit for everyone.

“I would urge members to check their inboxes as there is some self-help available now.”