Cost of cuts on individuals ‘not acceptable or fair’
The Home Secretary will be challenged to recognise the human cost of her party’s cuts to funding when she addresses the Police Superintendents’ Association’s (PSA) annual conference today (September 9).
PSA President Chief Superintendent Paul Griffiths will also question why the staff association has not been invited to sit on the new National Policing Board.
Mr Griffiths will challenge Priti Patel to ‘care and value’ the police and heal the relationship between the Government and service, which has suffered as severe funding cuts and reforms to pay and conditions were introduced since 2010.
As part of his President’s Address on day 1 of the conference today in Stratford-Upon-Avon, he will detail the ‘human cost of the cuts’.
He is expected to say: “The cost of running the service has been shifting from the organisation to the individual and this is not acceptable or fair.”
Superintending ranks have been cut by more than any other, losing 25 per cent since 2010, with workloads on those that remain continuing to increase.
Latest PSA statistics reveal the average superintendent works 53 hours per week – almost 50 per cent more than the UK average for full-time workers.
Mr Griffiths will call on the Home Secretary to include the superintending ranks in the Government’s plan to increase officer numbers by 20,000. He will say: “The recognition of the necessity to include our rank in this major resourcing plan is crucial. We have to come together as a service, with realistic, tangible solutions for making the absolute most of this generational opportunity.
“Whilst the public would be forgiven for believing that all the additional officers will be ‘walking their local beats’, we should be honest and strategic about how we rebuild our fine service.”
Despite representing almost 1,300 of the service’s senior operational leaders, the PSA has not been invited to sit on the Government’s newly formed National Policing Board, which is overseeing the recruitment drive launched last week.
Mr Griffiths will question this decision and urge the Home Secretary to “take the workforce with you on this journey of police reform”, involving officers in the resourcing drive, which he describes as on a scale ‘never seen before’.
He will join the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Police Federations in calling for improvements to officer safety, saying that “officers are constantly abused, harassed, assaulted and attacked in increasing numbers………suffering as victims of their own dedication. These are the people we need to support, and we owe them the promise of a commitment to change, support and value.”
Following the recent death of Police Constable Andrew Harper, Mr Griffiths will also seek a major change to one of the country’s revered commemorative awards – asking for an extension to the use of the Elizabeth Cross to cover families of police officers killed in the line of their duty.
The emblem was created in 2009 and given to the next of kin of Armed Forces personnel killed in action or as a result of terrorism since the Second World War.
