Read our latest bulletin: November 2023

Published 8 Nov 2023

Written by

Oscar Kilo

National Police Wellbeing Service

Reading time

10 mins

Welcome to the Oscar Kilo, National Police Wellbeing Service latest bulletin, read on to find out what we have been up to over the last month and what to expect from us in the coming weeks.

What we've been up to

Emergency Responder Mental Health and Wellbeing Symposium

On Wednesday 1 November 2023, we were proud to host the third annual Emergency Responder Mental Health and Wellbeing Symposium in Manchester.

The symposium was held on behalf of the Emergency Responders Senior Leader’s Board which this year, is chaired by current Chair of the NPCC, CC Gavin Stephens. The event brought together senior leaders, practitioners and front-line staff to share best practice across the emergency services sector to support the mental health and wellbeing of its workforces.

We were honoured for our 2023 event to have an opening address via video message from His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and for the event to be hosted by former BBC Breakfast presenter, Dr Sian Williams, who is now a Chartered Psychologist working in the NHS, supporting police officers, firefighters and ambulance staff.

Throughout the day several significant issues were addressed, including suicide prevention, post incident and trauma support, prevention and management of psychological stress and organisational culture, specifically reducing misogyny and improving sexual safety.

In order to properly learn and understand an issue, it is crucial to hear the voices of those directly affected with personal experience. So, in addition to our subject matter expert speakers, there was two lived experience panels during the day. The first made up of family members from three emergency services, who discussed the challenges faced by the families of emergency responders. The second lived experience panel focussed on the very complex and sensitive issue of suicide.

A full round up of all the sessions will be in our next bulletin.

Supporting police families: Brand new resources now available for families of police officers and staff

We are delighted to launch a range of new resources to support the loved ones of police officers and staff.

Working in policing is tough and not just for the person employed to do the job. There’s no doubt it has an impact on families and loved ones. Whether that’s a parent concerned about their daughter out on the beat, a couple missing out on time together, or people trying to manage a young family and shifts.

The ‘Family Life’ programme includes:

Toolkits and education - These resources, now available in our Family Life section, provide invaluable insights and practical advice on navigating the challenges faced by police families in key areas such as mental health, communicating with children, finances and the challenges of living with a shift worker.
Helping families of serving officers and staff ‘feel seen’ and acknowledged for the crucial role that they play. We will be launching our 'Thank you' campaign in December.
Families and force engagement – we’re recruiting a co-ordinators role which will work with forces to support them to implement the tools, education and resources developed by the programme and gather valuable insight from both forces and families.
Bereavement Counselling Support for families of officers and staff who tragically die in the execution of their duties or by suicide – this is already live having been launched earlier in 2023 – more information on that here Bereavement counselling service.
Launch of a children’s book: Authored by a member of police staff, this book aims to help children understand why a parent or carer in policing might miss family meals or bedtime stories. It is set to launch in March 2024, coinciding with World Book Day.

Go to OK family life

Stress and trauma digital course launched

We have worked with Me Learning and the College of Policing to develop this digital learning course to give officers, staff and the wider policing family (such as volunteers) basic information on stress, trauma, and wellbeing.

All officers, staff and the wider policing family should be aware of the incidents or situations that can cause anxiety, depression, burnout and traumatic stress in themselves, their colleagues, and the community members who they interact with.

This course is intended for all police officers and staff particularly those in front-line roles, officer and staff supervisors and all force learning and development personnel.

Access the training

To access the course you must have a College Learn account, available to anyone with a .police.uk email, they can be created on the College of Policing website Once you are logged in just search Stress and Trauma Level 1, the course lasts around 50 minutes.

If you have difficulties accessing College Learn please contact the College Customer Contact Centre at contactcentre@college.police.uk

Have you taken our survey on driver fatigue?

Thank you to everyone who has already taken part in our survey on sleepiness and driving in policing.

The survey involves a series of questions about your wellbeing, experiences of sleep and fatigue, your shiftwork patterns, and your driving behaviours. Your responses will be completely anonymous: All data will be handled by Nottingham Trent University and your colleagues/supervisors cannot know your individual responses.

We want to hear from any employees who work in any capacity for the Police service. Please make sure you submit your responses before the 1st of December. This survey can take up to around an hour to complete, and completing it enters you into a prize draw to win a £100 Amazon voucher. Your data will help us create interventions that limit sleep-related road collisions in police shift-workers.

Take the survey

Prize draw winners so far

The following have won a £100 Amazon voucher by taking part:

1. ER414ST40 2. gh583ap183 3. am466fe40 4. On202Oc233 5. LD681MA59
6. ea921ma92 7. IN563MA336 8. an772Ja71 9. AM948MA85 10. rn279ap670

Is one of these codes yours? If so, please contact Sleepiest@ntu.ac.uk with the unique fact that you created alongside this code in the survey, they will be in touch to send you your £100 Amazon voucher! If you did not win this time, you will still be entered into future prize draws.

Sleep, fatigue and recovery biometrics programme continues to be rolled out

On the 2nd and 3rd November, NPWS Service Director Andy Rhodes visited Cheshire Police and Staffordshire Police to on-board 40 officers and staff, at each force, into the sleep, fatigue and recovery biometrics programme.

The programme is currently expanding out to a further ten forces, following on from Merseyside Police where the initial pilots have been carried out, in partnership with Liverpool John Moore’s University. Officers and staff taking part come from roles where poor sleep and fatigue has been identified as a risk, they include OCIAT, SOMU, RASSO, Response, firearms, collision investigation and contact management.

DCI Zoe Kelsall, Staffordshire Police Specialist Crime Command PPU who is the local lead for the sleep fatigue recovery biometrics programme said:

"As a senior investigator I ask a lot of my people because the pace, pressure and impact of the work affects them in so many different ways. We’ve normalised being exhausted, struggling to switch off from what has happened during the day, and having problems sleeping, so I was intrigued when the ACC asked me to get involved in Oscar Kilo’s sleep fatigue and recovery biometrics programme. The on-boarding session was fascinating and the staff who are taking part really took a lot away from the inputs. We now have 40 staff from frontline investigation roles such as RASSO and PPU wearing the Biostrap sensors and they are all talking about their sleep and recovery data in the office every day – this wasn’t happening before. The educational and coaching support kicks in soon and the feedback so far is that staff feel like we’re doing something tangible and personalised whilst also starting to understand what changes we can make in the workplace to help them recover.

For further information on how to get involved please get in touch using the button below.

Contact Oscar Kilo

Peer support update

October was a very busy month for peer support training with us delivering 15 online courses and one face to face course in Warwickshire, these training courses saw 149 delegates attending from 12 forces.

We have started to run peer support co-ordinator courses and peer support refresher courses and are booking courses for 2024. If you are interested in attending any courses please get in touch.

After delivering the Warwickshire training we received this feedback:

“We have just received Oscar Kilo Peer Supporter training last week led by Lee Taylor and Dr Tony Parnell. The training was excellent; well-planned; informative and very engaging. Colleagues said that they thoroughly enjoyed the training and the support Lee and Tony have given Warwickshire Police and our peer support network has been invaluable to us. As a result, we are facilitating a peer supporter CPD where we will share the College of Policing model, this will inform our ongoing practice and positive move forward. Thanks”

Nutrition for wellbeing, five day shift worker meal planning

Ever wondered how to prioritise your health and nutrition while managing the demands of your unconventional work schedule? Shift work can be challenging when it comes to maintaining a balanced diet.

Do you struggle to cook healthy meals on a regular basis? Particularly on a night shift, do you resort to fast food and ready meals? If these questions resonate with you, you're not alone. The irregular hours, fatigue, and limited food options during night shifts can make it difficult to make nutritious choices. Your health and energy can be impacted as a result.

Video transcript

Welcome to the Five Day Meal Planning and Preparation Solution. Do you find yourself regularly resorting to packaged food, prepared ready meals, and takeaways because you don’t have the time, energy, or supplies to prepare meals from scratch? Do you have great intentions to cook fresh healthy food but find it difficult to sustain? And does cooking feel like a chore and it’s just become easier to shove something frozen into the oven to heat up?

Well listen up for some take-home tips to get you back on track. Eating a healthy diet can seem like an impossible challenge when you’re super busy and tired, yet imagine only having to reach into the fridge, or grab something out of the freezer, and to know that you’ve got it tastily prepared for any meal that works for you.

Planning and preparing some of your meals in advance is a great way to encourage and maintain healthier eating. It doesn’t mean you need to spend hours slaving in the kitchen, but I would go so far as to say that from experience and observation, failing to meal prep if you work nights, in particular, will result in a reliance on convenience foods. And this week you’ll learn why that is not ideal.

The five day programme will show you how a small investment in time one day can reap rewards. So why should you prepare meals from scratch? There are tons of prepared choices out there, why bother with all that planning and shopping and peeling and chopping when someone else has done it for you? Think about those convenience food choices. Are they made of whole foods, fresh and seasonal vegetables and fruit, quality protein, and healthy fats? Do you know? Are they low in salt, additives, ultra processing, and trans fats that can all contribute to poor health and weight issues?

What quality of fuel are you giving yourself? Would you say that on your current diet you’re performing well? Are you spending a large sum of your monthly budget on quality prepared foods? And if so, can you sustain that financially? If you provide meals for family members, are they well nourished? Are they learning essential skills in cooking to thrive, to feed their bodies and brains? The simple truth is that healthy food preparation takes time. There’s no real way around that.

Accepting that fuelling ourselves well is a priority, and sacrificing other things in life to prepare nutritious meals, it may initially seem onerous, perhaps impossible. But start small, just once or twice a week, if your meal prep at the moment is minimal, and see the benefits. It means planning to plan, and preparing some or all of your meals ahead of time depending on your schedule and the time that you have available.

So what are the benefits? Well, it saves you time. You won’t find yourself in a supermarket four to five times per week topping up for individual meals. It saves you money because you plan for a certain number of meals and your shopping list reflects those items for your planned meals and snacks. Reduce your waste using up leftovers and avoiding randomly bought ingredients from going off. It saves you the stress of deciding what to cook every day; that mental energy of constantly having that decision circling in your head and arriving home after work, frazzled, unprepared, and unmotivated, and then reaching for the frozen pizzas.

I’m not judging, it’s just too tempting if you haven’t already planned and prepared something more nutritious. And it helps ensure you make good food choices more often. Plan when and how often to have red meat, fish, plant-based meals, balancing the proper nutrient components and portion sizes that are suited to you and your energy needs instead of relying on processed convenience foods with their set portions.

Investing in meal planning and preparing healthier food choices can positively impact your energy levels, your weight management, your gut health, heart health, your mood, and your immune system. Around mealtimes can your kitchen become a high stress environment filled with people asking you “What’s for dinner?” They may have no idea or understanding as to what you have had to contend with during your working day, and yet the responsibility falls to you to feed yourself and the hungry mouths of your loved ones as quickly as possible because they’re all starving.

If your diet tends to be high in simple carbohydrate foods – so that’s your white bread, white pasta, white rice, pizza, chips, pastries, your boxed breakfast cereals, breadcrumbed and battered goods, cakes, chocolate bars, and fizzy drinks – your energy is impacted by these foods causing your blood sugar to peak and trough regularly throughout the day.

If you’ve already completed the Five Day Sugar Solution Challenge, you’ll have a good understanding of that now. This pattern can increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes and certainly contributes to feelings of fatigue. These foods can increase cravings to manage your energy levels as well as contribute to weight issues. If you can relate to that and you want some direction, give this five day programme your full attention.

Planning what you’re going to eat for five of your weekly meals, and preparing just one in advance, is hugely beneficial in ensuring that you nourish yourself well. Remember, if you’re a shift worker, you are already at increased risk of conditions such as insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity because of that topsy-turvy wake-sleep cycle that you have to negotiate for even more reason to try and prioritise healthy food choices to support your energy now and your long-term health ahead of you.

And at the end of the five days, you’ll know your ideal budget to spend on food and drink if financial savings are a driver to motivate you, you’ll know when you’re most likely to opt for convenience processed foods and/or takeaways due to lack of time to prepare at that mealtime. That could be your priority, to plan and prep at least for that day. You’ll know what level of planning and preparation you’re going to start giving to your meals. You’ll know how to plan the format that works best for you. And you’ll know what recipes you are comfortable cooking right now to start you off. You’ll know where to find nutritious recipe ideas to try over the coming weeks, and you’ll know how to store and reheat your prepared food.

Finally then, who else could benefit from this five day focus? Can you use it to share the task of cooking? If you are regularly feeding others, meal prepping isn’t something you need to necessarily always do on your own, unless of course you want to, or depending on your home situation. But the whole family can take part. Young children can be eager to help out in some capacity. This might fill you with dread, but investing the time to educate them about different foods, encouraging them to try different flavours and textures, and learn the basics in the kitchen is giving them such essential life skills.

Forget cooking multiple meals for different family members where possible unless there are specific dietary requirements otherwise that is just exhausting. Consider that over a third of UK children in Year Six now – that’s the top year in primary school, so just our 10 and 11 year olds – are obese. So if you’re generally the main cook, other adults in the home can also be encouraged to help with prepping the ingredients, whether this is at a mealtime or in advance. So think about how you could recruit members of your household to join you in this challenge, and how could that look if it goes well.

If this is going to be quite a challenge for you, are there colleagues in your team who could take part with you at the same time? Because having that peer support, encouragement, and a little accountability can be very effective. So if you’re ready to have a go, download the attached guide, and I’ll see you ready to start on day one.

In this five day meal planning solution, we will work together to help you develop a meal plan tailored to your unique needs as shift workers. We'll address the common challenges you face and provide practical solutions to ensure that you can enjoy delicious, nourishing meals no matter what time of day or night you're working.

Check out the five day shift worker meal plan

Occupational health update

October has been a busy month for our occupational health team. They have been supporting national recruitment medical standards work which is now in full flow.

The team attended and supported the OHNAPS (OH Nurse Advisors to the Police Service) conference at the College of Policing, Ryton, talk about the work they are doing to support occupational health practitioners. They also hosted the first forum for force medical advisers, which generated lots of positive interest.

Our occupational health practitioner network continues to grow - a review of the network one year after its launch, concluded that the network is successful, therefore we will continue to develop and grow.

We are currently completing our latest review of the OH submissions to the BLWF, where there is definite evidence if improvement.

New sections on our homepage

If you are a regular visitor to the Oscar Kilo website, you may have noticed we've made a few changes to the homepage.

We now have four sections, they are: For individuals; For organisations; For families and; For leavers.

We hope this will make it much easier for you, your family and your organisation to find relevant support and programmes whilst introducing other associated resources and signposting.

What's coming soon

Wellbeing of investigators week of action

Next week, 13-17 November, is the wellbeing of investigators week of action.

Developed and facilitated by the NPCC Recruitment Retention and Wellbeing of Investigators Portfolio, the week of action will involve a variety of daily webinars to share best practice and encourage national debate. Much of this work is included or aligned to the investigator wellbeing toolkit, which is republished with updated guidance and interventions.

You can find a full description of each of the sessions and register for any you are interested in using the link below. Formal Teams invitations will be sent no later than 24 hours before the event and ticket sales close at 12 noon the day before each session, with an exception of those taking place on the 13 November which will close at noon on 10 November to allow invitations to be sent.

Access the wellbeing of investigators toolkit

Breast health and bra support webinar

This webinar takes place on 23 November at 4pm and will be facilitated by Dr Jenny Burbage and Bethany Canty from Portsmouth University’s School of Sport, Health, and Exercise Science.

During the session Jenny and Beth will talk you through the breast health educational resources now available on the Oscar Kilo website. This will include information on breast anatomy, problems with breasts (such as size, pain and damage), breast changes over the life cycle, what is appropriate breast support and how to assess bra fit. They will also give you information about a current research project looking into the effect of operational equipment and bra type interaction on breast motion and perceived comfort in female police officers.

National Police Wellbeing Survey results

In the next few weeks we will be publishing the results of the 2022/23 National Police Wellbeing Survey. We will let you know the main findings and full report through our website and on social media. You can read about our previous surveys.

New 24/7 mental health crisis hotline for policing

At the Police Federation conference the Home Secretary spoke about her support for a number of high profile programmes of work currently in development. She also announced the investment into a 24/7 mental health crisis hotline for police officers and staff which will be launched by the Oscar Kilo the National Police Wellbeing Service next year.

We are currently developing this and will bring you further updates in future bulletins.

Oscar Kilo Leavers programme

In the coming months we will be launching our brand new leavers programme. Its aim is to support a successful transition and give those who are leaving, and those who have left, useful information regarding the help that is available, and encourage them to create their own plan of action. Further details will be in December's bulletin.

Events and training

Don't forget to check out our events and training section for a full list of what's on offer.

Events and training