The Police Federation of England and Wales recognises the pressure faced by its representatives and the vicarious trauma they experience. This has been the catalyst for its wellbeing leads organising CPD events for Fed reps.
Federation wellbeing leads, Sue Honeywill and Belinda Goodwin, along with the Learning and Development department, have organised a number of wellbeing professional development days.
“The wellbeing of our officers and Federation representatives is absolutely paramount,” explained Sue. “That is why the national wellbeing leads along with the Learning & Development department are holding professional development events throughout 2023 for our reps.
“There have already been some deep emotions shared by our reps within these sessions, with morale and wellbeing of officers at an all-time low. This has really highlighted the need for us to do more to continue to support our reps, enabling them to continue to support our members.”
PFEW has taken on board feedback from the sessions and will be working with its research department to set up focus groups to understand what support is needed.
Belinda added: “It is a big ask for officers to undertake a Federation role up and above their day job, so we must make sure we are looking after our reps.
“As wellbeing leads, we act as a conduit between all forces and key stakeholders, so these events are a great opportunity to share the work we are currently engaging in.”
The CPD sessions concentrated on putting officers first and involved group exercises and debriefs to understand best practice.
Sue also highlighted multiple initiatives, and a new upcoming mental health campaign, which are being driven by PFEW wellbeing leads alongside key stakeholders to improve provisions for members, such as Oscar Kilo, the National Police Wellbeing Service.
These include the Blue Light Framework, the Covenant, trauma check lists, a suicide postvention tool kit, CICA, Op Hampshire, and our Caring for the Carers initiative where we are looking to increase support for Federation reps.
So far, positive feedback has been received from these courses, highlighting a real need to keep talking about wellbeing.
Sessions have been held in Wales, Manchester and Merseyside and further events are planned to run throughout the year.
Below are the dates for the upcoming drop-in sessions. More information will be circulated nearer the time of the event by your branch.
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Humberside |
TBA |
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Dorset |
06/06/2023 |
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Derbyshire |
14/06/2023 |
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Lincolnshire |
28/06/2023 |
|
Cumbria |
11/09/2023 |
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North Wales |
13/09/2023 |
|
Cleveland |
14/09/2023 |
|
Devon & Cornwall |
19/09/2023 |
|
Cambridgeshire |
29/9/23 |
|
Gloucestershire |
07/11/2023 |
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Warwickshire |
21/11/2023 |
|
North Yorkshire |
28/11/2023 |
