What we've been up to
Mental health crisis line
In alignment with the objectives of the Police Covenant and our ongoing commitment to support the wellbeing of our officers and staff, we are proud to introduce a proof of concept for a new 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Line. This service is specifically tailored to address the unique pressures faced by individuals in policing, offering immediate, confidential, and expert support.
This mental health crisis line has now gone live and is currently available to all police officers and staff within the North East Region only —covering forces in Northumbria, Cleveland, Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and Durham.
This phased approach ensures that we can maintain the highest standards of service, gather essential data, refine processes and ensure sustainable funding before extending the program nationally.
Operation Hampshire update
Op Hampshire was created to improve our response to police officer and staff assaults. As service providers to the public it is essential that we have processes in place to ensure that we support our colleagues who are subjected to violence in the course of their duties. For many in policing confrontation and assault are a reality but we cannot be complacent. There is a big difference between expecting something and accepting it. Being assaulted is not part of your job and you deserve the best levels of victim care and support.
Victim personal statements
If you have been the victim of an assault it is essential that you demonstrate the impact this has had on you as an individual through a victim personal statement, as it can influence the sentencing outcome at court. Impact does not necessarily mean injury, there are many things that can affect us as victims of crime. Please read the victim personal statements guidance in the top tips section on the Op Hampshire web page.
Police assaults data
Working in partnership with the NPCC, we are currently in the process of collecting a detailed range of police assaults data from forces to gain a greater understanding of the risks our officers and staff face. This information is important and we are committed to getting the most from it as evidence to identify areas for improvement in safety and wellbeing.
Op Hampshire awareness and training
Since its launch in June 2023 around 27,500 officers and staff have completed the Operation Hampshire online training package. The course is designed to raise awareness of Op Hampshire. It explains why Op Hampshire was introduced, what officers and staff should expect when they report an assault and how supervisors and colleagues can play a valuable part in that response. The course is available through College Learn or the Operation Hampshire | Oscar Kilo web page where you will find a link. If forces or groups would like a more detailed understanding of the Op Hampshire approach then please contact us to discuss options for inputs and presentations.
Champions and networks
Every force has an Op Hampshire lead, if you aren't sure who your force lead is just get in touch. Anyone can play a part in supporting Op Hampshire locally, simply by raising awareness of the principles and sharing the web page with colleagues. Don't forget we also have a range of Op Hampshire campaign resources that you can use locally.
Sleep, fatigue and recovery biometrics programme update
Last month we told you about our sleep, fatigue and recovery biometrics programme, which helps officers and staff build a unique and personalised view of their sleep, fatigue and recovery levels, and we've been awarded a Police STAR funding grant to conduct a comparative study of this programme with Liverpool John Moores University.
We have since kick started our STAR grant research with Liverpool John Moore’s University and Merseyside Police, and the force are running a highly effective campaign to recruit the 120 participants needed.
Within an hour of the recruitment messaging going out 109 people had registered their interest, this signals real optimism for the study. We will be continuing onboarding volunteers from 8 July using one of our Oscar Kilo wellbeing vans which will be based at Liverpool John Moores University. All volunteers will be offered a full health check to thank them for their time, and will receive a wearable device and online coaching support to help them during the course of the study.
Sleep, fatigue and recovery biometrics programme
Psychological and trauma risk management update
The counsellors and psychologists working group is growing with over 50 members from 30 forces. Attendees are finding this a positive and supportive network and we’ve had lots of positive feedback.
For anyone from this group attending our conference in December, have lined up a number of interesting speakers who be discussing projects and research that they have been running in their forces.
Training courses
New dates for the Structured Interview and Supervisor Wellbeing courses will be available towards the end of summer and will be advertised on our events and training page.
Home Affairs Select Committee
On 22 May, our Service Director, Andy Rhodes was invited to attend a Home Affairs Select Committee alongside the Police Federation of England and Wales Welfare Lead Paul Williams and Dr Jess Miller. The Committee asked questions about the effectiveness of mental health support for policing and wanted to know what more could be done by the Government. The three speakers felt they were able to get across the challenges facing people who work in policing in areas such as trauma exposure, assaults and sleep disruption whilst setting out what more could be done.
OK9 update
During May our OK9 wellbeing and trauma support dogs and their handlers engaged with over 3500 individuals from around the country. Here's a few examples of the feedback they received:
This was the first time we had taken an OK9 dog to a TRiM visit and it worked quite well as having the dog acted as an ice breaker.
We attended a presentation to a new intake of PC students, they were able to interact with the dog whilst finding out all about Thames Valley Police and our OK9 wellbeing dogs. The students had received an input on suicide that morning and our visit lightened the mood and was well received by all. The trainer was also pleased with how the visit went and is looking to book a dog for the next intake.
I took Bonnie to a morning patrol briefing before they were deployed out to shift. I had previously spoken to their sergeant who said morale was low and they would benefit from having a dog come in. I let Bonnie walk freely during the briefing and officers said they enjoyed this and felt happier for seeing her. I spoke to some of the officers who felt able to share any issues and concerns, they were pleased Bonnie had come in and felt it was a good start to the day.
One of our OK9 handlers from Thames Valley Police, Izzy Denis and her dog Jodie kindly agreed to represent Oscar Kilo at the Police Now current detective cohort.
Izzy said: "As a detective myself, as well as an OK9 handler, it was lovely meeting Police Now students who are just about to move on from foundation training to their home stations for their operational rotation.
"OK9 dog Jodie was very popular and the students enjoyed meeting her after a stressful morning of suspect interview practice. Jodie loved the attention and was even treated to an ice cream!
"I used the opportunity to talk to students about Oscar Kilo, gave out leaflets and signposted them to the Oscar Kilo website to see the range of resources and find out about their own force’s wellbeing dogs."
Forensic wellbeing toolkit launched
The Forensic Capability Network (FCN) has developed a new forensic wellbeing toolkit to ensure individuals working in forensics have access to the support, resources and tools required to secure their long-term health and wellbeing.
The FCN want to pro-actively encourage and grow a positive culture across the forensic community, socialising wellbeing as a subject, and encouraging everyone to understand and take personal responsibility for securing and enhancing their own wellbeing. The toolkit also equips line managers so they understand and can support the wellbeing needs of their team, creating an inclusive environment that enables everyone to flourish and feel they belong.
This toolkit brings together existing resources, wellbeing techniques, interventions, and signpostings. It shares good practice, emerging wellbeing approaches and will be updated regularly.
It has been designed to complement the Investigator Wellbeing Toolkit, which is already widely used across UK policing.
Over the next 12 months we will working with the FCN to build this toolkit as an online resource on this website.
You can currently download a pdf the toolkit from the link below.
Oscar Kilo awards are open
Don't forget the 2024 Oscar Kilo awards are now open for submissions. If your force has created a project or programme that is making a difference to the wellbeing of your officers and staff, then why not enter it for one of our awards.
Find out about the categories and how to enter below.
Closing date for submissions will be Friday 2 August 2024
If you submit an award entry, you will be invited to join us for our awards ceremony - see below.
Welfare support officer guidance
Working with experts from South Wales police and the Met we have pulled together some generic guidance around the role of a welfare support officer and how to implement and develop the scheme locally.
We are not aiming to replace any local provision or procedures and will not be offering training, but what we have done is pulled together some useful advice, aimed at forces who are looking to implement the scheme and the individuals who are interested in the role.
For forces who don’t have a welfare support officer program in place, or need additional support with their programme, this online resource will assist with the setting up your scheme, getting the correct paperwork in place and developing your local training. We can also put you in touch with forces who have already got successful schemes in place.
If you are in the role or thinking about volunteering as a welfare support officer in your force, there’s a great section on what is expected of you, your force, and more about the departments you may have to deal with. You can use this guidance to learn more about the role or to refresh your knowledge if you’re already in the role.
This is not a training course, it is an online resource which can be used alongside the support, information and training you will receive locally.
Children's gift packs update
All the gift packs have now been sent out. We would like to thank all of you who took the time to enter our giveaway - an astounding 4,500 people from policing families right across the country entered the giveaway, and we were blown away by the response, here are a couple of nice quotes.
Red Robber Raid e-book
We will be uploading an online version of the Red Robber Raid book to our website in July so more of you can share the stories with your families.
Don’t forget there are lots of other resources for policing families on our families' hub that you can access whenever you need them.
What's coming soon
Response policing week of action
Monday 24 June, marks the beginning of the fourth national response policing ‘Week of Action’, which in addition to celebrating the professionalism and courage of response officers, is also an opportunity to recognise the challenges facing response policing and consider the future development of a key role that sits at the heart of policing.
We are working with the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing throughout the week to deliver a range of initiatives, co-ordinated specifically to support, develop and recognise the role of response officers.
Our wellbeing vans and dogs will be deployed across the UK, and we will be assisting with some of the College of Policing webinars.
Online sessions
We will be hosting three of the sessions for the College, they are:
Wearable tech to improve sleep, fatigue and recovery, Monday 24 June at 2pm with Andy Rhodes
Wellbeing - resilience and self-care, Thursday 27 June at 12 noon with Lee Taylor
Operation Hampshire - the response to police assaults starts with us, Thursday 27 June at 2pm with Dave Brewster
To see a list of the other live sessions available and to book your places, visit the College of Policing website here:
SAFER study survey to be rolled out with occupational health teams
Following up on previous work with sleep experts at the University of Surrey, we have teamed up to launch the SAFER 'Sleep Disorders Screening Survey', a short self-paced survey to help you assess your risk of having an undiagnosed sleep disorder. We are initially introducing the survey to occupational health practitioners to use with their clients, we will be opening to anyone working within UK policing soon.
Events
Over the next few months we will be at the following events, if you are attending, please come and say hello.
- National Police Chaplains conference, 24-26 June.
- Emergency Services Health and Wellbeing Conference - 26 June London
- Police Resettlement Expo - 24 July, Manchester.
- Police Superintendents Conference - September
- Emergency Services Show - 18-19 September, Birmingham
Oscar Kilo conference and awards ceremony
Our 2024 Oscar Kilo Conference and awards ceremony has been planned for 2-4 December at Crewe Hall Hotel and Spa, Crewe, Cheshire.
This year we will be combining the conference with announcement of our Oscar Kilo awards at a gala dinner which will be held in the evening of the second day on the 3 December 2024.
Invitations have gone out to all our member groups to register for the conference. If you have not received an invite and think you should be on the list please get in touch.