myAIPM‘Institutionalised’ fatigue to be tackled by National Police Wellbeing Service
Tina Orr Munro | Policing Insight
Tackling fatigue among police officers and staff will be a major focus of work for the National Police Wellbeing Service in 2021, as NPCC Wellbeing Lead Andy Rhodes warned that exhaustion among members of the police service has become ‘institutionalised’.
How to tackle the constant fatigue felt by police officers and staff will be a major focus of work for the National Police Wellbeing Service in 2021 after a survey revealed that nearly half of police employees get less than six hours sleep a night.
More than 34,000 police officers and staff in England and Wales responded to the first ever survey on wellbeing published in June but carried out earlier this year. It found that 44.8% of police officers and 30.2% of police staff received less than six hours per night either ‘very often or all the time’ during the previous three months. In addition, 26.9% of officers and 18.9% staff said they frequently had a disturbed night’s sleep.
Andy Rhodes, Chief Constable of Lancashire Police and NPCC lead on Wellbeing, told online delegates at this year’s virtual Police Superintendents’ Association annual conference that it has become acceptable for everyone in police to be exhausted to the point that feeling fatigued had become ‘institutionalised’.
Cultural acceptance of fatigue
Speaking previously about the survey results, Mr Rhodes has said: “Fatigue leaps off the page, and this has a lot to do with our cultural acceptance in relation to things like disrupted sleep and all the risks it can bring to our health and operational decision making.”
“Do we just shrug our shoulders and accept this as ‘how it is’, or do we refuse to accept it has to be so? We believe we can do more to maintain and even increase wellbeing from day one throughout our careers and the survey findings will help us make the point.”
As a result, the National Wellbeing Service team will now carry out research and work with UK practitioners and staff associations to examine ways to reduce what is seen as a growing problem among officers and staff.
Read more
‘Institutionalised’ fatigue to be tackled by National Police Wellbeing Service, Tina Orr Munro, Policing Insight, 2020
Sign up for our weekly newsletter - helping to keep you abreast of research and findings within the policing and public safety community in Australia and around the world.