Police officer sickness

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/24/007453/V

 Version Date: 15/01/2025

The D&C Mental Health Team and HR Operations Department have provided the following information.

1. Can you provide the total number of sick days that were taken by all police officers between 01/01/2023 and 31/12/2023 across the police force.

44,075

Please note that this figure is from the start date to the end date of the absences and may include non-working days.

2. Can you provide the total number of sick days that were taken by all police officers where mental health was cited as a contributing factor.

15,709

 

Please note that this figure is from the start date to the end date of the absences and may include non-working days.

3. Can you provide a breakdown of the previous questions 1 and 2, and categorise them into groups by age, rank and gender of all the police officers within the police force.

All Absences

Constable

26-40

M - 115

F - 106

41-55

M - 240

F - 205

Over 55

M - 10

F - 8

Sergeant

26-40

M - 60

F - 27

41-55

M - 129

F - 60

Over 55

M - 4

F - 2

Inspector

26-40

M - 13

F - 4

41-55

M - 22

F - 20

Chief Inspector & Above

26-40

M - 3

F - 6

41-55

M - 9

F - 12

 

Mental Health

Constable

26-40

M - 3

F - 8

41-55

M - 26

F - 20

Sergeant

26-40

M - 5

F - 4

41-55

M - 10

F - 9

Inspector & Above

41-55

M - 3

F - 2

4. Can you provide a list of the mental health and psychological conditions e.g. anxiety, stress, depression and PTSD, that were a contributing factor towards all police officer's absences across the police force.

• Anxiety
• Dementia
• Depression
• Drug or alcohol problems
• Other mental disorders
• Other stress
• Post-Traumatic Stress

5. If applicable, please provide a list of the services that are provided for all police officers concerning mental health within the police force.

Demand Predictions

We remain committed to supporting our people in the complex work they do and ensuring the best care is available if they become unwell. With increasing demands the Force is focused on ensuring workloads are manageable, supervisors can support their people and there is a good infrastructure in place when needed for more complex cases. A growing workforce, with increasing levels of inexperience need greater support and areas such as financial wellbeing support have grown hugely in recent years.

The force is also experiencing continuing financial challenges requiring additional savings over the next few years and is trying new ideas like introducing the ‘Right Care Right Person Model (RCRP) in 2024 as one of initiatives to manage the current demand and reduce demand pressures on officers which affects mental health and to make sure vulnerable people are dealt with by agencies with the expertise to help them.

Psychological Absence

In October 2023 a ‘Deep dive into Health, Safety & wellbeing’ was presented to the Workforce Demand Group to provide a detailed picture around psychological absence and use of services like Occupational Health Unit, the Employee Assistance Provision programme AP, Health Surveillance, and benchmarking with other forces. Several trends were noted highlighted including the increasing impact that workload/demands are having on staff. In addition to several initiatives in place to provide additional support and try to address this issue.

Mental Health Peer Support scheme

This confidential support service is provided for staff to access and arrange themselves, by requesting a Peer Supporter they feel they can relate to and get support from whether they are still in work, of sick or suspended. It can also be useful for line managers to refer their staff to as a practical support mechanism.

Misconduct Peer Support Scheme

This confidential support service is available for all individuals going through a gross misconduct investigation as it is recognised how impactful the process can be on individuals mental health. This provides and individual who will stand alongside with them meeting regularly and able to signpost on for additional support if needed. This is in addition to support from line mangers and Federation/ Unions.

EAP – Employee Assistance Provider

The force has an EAP provider who provides a range of support including 24/7 helpline with access to counsellors and up to 5 counselling sessions along with a range of other support. Usage of this service is monitored and themes identified.

Wellbeing Passport and HSE Stress Tool

The force has a wellbeing passport which is completed in conjunction with the line manager to look at putting in place support for individuals who are struggling in the workplace. If individuals return to work and work stressors have been identified as part of the issue then the HSE stress tool in completed in conjunction with the line manger to assist in a supportive return to work and to deal with particular stressors.

Trauma Response

Along with the delivery of TRiM (Trauma Risk Management) across the force which assess and provides early signposting to those who have been exposed to significant trauma significant work has gone on this year to deliver a high level of support to those responding to the most traumatic incidents. Ongoing care, health surveillance and research with the National Police Wellbeing Service seek to best support our people but also provide national learning on how to ensure long term wellbeing following trauma. This includes the rolling out Police Traumatic Events Checklist (PTEC) to several departments to increase awareness around incidents being attended and to enable effective conversations with line managers.

The force has also trained control room trainers in Trauma Impact Prevention Techniques (TIPT) which they are currently rolling out to staff.

1-Day Mental Health for Managers Programme

This training programme for all line managers to understand and support staff with different mental health conditions, how to have difficult conversations, and suicide awareness. This roll-out set up and coordinated by the wellbeing team has just finished with over 93% of line mangers having attended across the force by the end of 2023. Moving forward this will be available for all new managers.

Inputs to Teams

Due to the increased pressures being experienced by many teams across the force and the impact on the mental health of individuals a range of inputs have been developed by the wellbeing team to support individuals, managers and improve resilience. Inputs are to a wide range of courses and to department which are struggling. In D&C in 2023 there were 114 inputs to courses and teams from the wellbeing department.

1-day Resilience Training Workshops available to all staff

The wellbeing team oversees the delivery of these courses following a procurement process to ensure the force could continue to offer these to individuals across this force a procurement process has been completed and these are now running monthly, and this 1-day workshop is available to all individuals delivered by an external clinical psychologist.

Psychological Screening programme

Roles identified as being psychologically stressful are provided with additional support. In D&C 984 officers and staff completed a screening questionnaire because of the role they were in. Those identified as struggling had face to face appointments with trained Occupational Health staff and were referred for additional psychological support as appropriate.

Wellfest 2023

This virtual, interactive festival of wellbeing called ‘WellFest 2023’ was expanded this year by the Wellbeing Team and offered nationally to other police forces. This two week event saw 8000 tickets be prebooked before the event which covered a wide range of wellbeing topics with over 50 inputs during the 2 weeks. 95% feedback from attendees identifying their experience as very satisfied or extremely satisfied. This covered a wide range of inputs on different aspects of mental health and wellbeing.

Oskar Kilo Van Tour

The wellbeing team ran the OK Van tour which took place for the fourth time over 3 weeks across D&C. It was well supported and manned by the Wellbeing team, OK9 Dogs, volunteers, Federation, UNISON, Chaplains and other staff. In D&C 11 stations were visited and led to over 850 interactions with staff and over 250 individuals choosing to have ‘Health Lifestyle checks’ using body composition scales. Advice and support were provided to individuals and themes identified.

OK9 Wellbeing Dog Scheme

This pilot was launched in July 2021 and became permanent in 2023 carrying out many visits and engagements as requested across the force. There are now 10 dogs in this permanent provision coordinated by the wellbeing team.

Financial Support and Advice

The force has been providing inputs around finance and pensions over the last few years. In response to the increased pressures individuals and families are facing there has been additional inputs arranged and these have been recorded to make them available to all staff. A review has been carried out to look at additional support etc. An example of a local project was the awarding of a Wellbeing Grant to local policing areas to create food pantries for anyone in need. The force has also procured the services of ‘Finwell’ to provide a range of additional financial services. In D&C the SWPCF also delivers a winter food crisis fund for those experiencing food poverty in force.

The wellbeing team provide inputs and coordinate activity around financial support

Annual Health and Wellbeing Pulse

The force completes an annual Pulse Wellbeing survey to provide updates on how the workforce are doing and look at the impact of interventions. In 2023 this was been replaced by the National Wellbeing Survey. The force paid the additional costs to get a breakdown of their results and be able to compare it to national trends which were extremely similar in most areas.

Menopause & Women’s conferences

Over 2023 we held a virtual women's health conference covering Heart Health/Cancer/Managing Stress and Overwhelm/Breath Workshop, this was a collaboration event with local Councils. We continue to hold monthly Menopause Talk Cafes which have included several guest speakers talking about issues women may face during the menopause and during WellFest we celebrated World Menopause Day with sessions throughout the day online covering all aspects of health during the Menopause. A member of the wellbeing team is the menopause lead and oversee a menopause support scheme across both forces as well as arranging the above conferences.

Mental Health at Work Commitment

In 2023 the force signed the national Mental Health at Work Commitment activity to support mental health is reported to the Occupational Health and Wellbeing Delivery Board which meets regularly.

The Student Officer Wellbeing and Retention Plan

First produced in Autumn 2021 and regularly updated in partnership with L&D, Student Officers, LPAs, USW and Federation and there is a continued focus upon wellbeing, retention and supporting the individual needs of student officers throughout their development period. Recent plans being considered include the possibility of a second wellbeing input for students once they have spent a couple of months on the frontline to reinforce good habits around processing trauma etc.