Welcome to the Oscar Kilo, National Police Wellbeing Service bulletin for July 2022.
Read on to find out what we have been up to and what to expect from us in August.
What we’ve done in July
Police Covenant
Chief Constables of all police forces across England and Wales have pledged their support for the Police Covenant which was recently enshrined in law as one of the new measures of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.
Policing is a unique, rewarding, though challenging job, and the Covenant focuses on the health, wellbeing and physical protection of officers and staff, whether in a paid or voluntary capacity, as well as support for their families.
We, the National Police Wellbeing Service, will deliver many of the products and services that result from the Covenant. In the coming months we will let you know about further measures and support that will be made available.
PTSD and police wellbeing blog
Last month we had the pleasure of talking to PC Sean Burridge about how his own experience of suffering PTSD led to the role of Wellbeing Consultant for Surrey and Sussex Police and winning this year's Inspiration in Policing Award at the National Police Bravery Awards.
Wellbeing vans update
It's been another busy month for our wellbeing outreach service, during July wellbeing vans have been deployed to Bedfordshire, Northumbria, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Staffordshire, Gwent and The Met.
We also had six vehicles go to West Midlands Police to support officers and staff working at the Commonwealth Games. We were delighted to see the vans playing such a prominent role at West Midlands – a real statement of intent from the team there.
Deployments are experiencing an additional challenge at the moment due to train disruptions but we are proud to say that we managed to overcome these difficulties which look set to continue.
There's been lots of great feedback and innovative uses of the vans this month, a highlight being during a deployment to Staffordshire Police they had an amazing 1250 visitors – congratulations.
If you want to know more about the vans or book one for your force please visit our Wellbeing Outreach Service page using the button below.
GMP wellbeing on tour
We are always happy to share your stories and best practice on how you are making a difference to the wellbeing of your officers and staff at a local level.
In July staff from Greater Manchester Police Wellbeing Services told us about their held their second annual 'Wellbeing on Tour' campaign. The tour comprised of attending ten districts in ten days using one of our Oscar Kilo wellbeing vans, to promote wellbeing services available to officers and staff both internally and externally.
If you have a story to share please email us at [email protected]
Oscar Kilo Nine update
We have almost 140 OK9 wellbeing and trauma support dogs across the country.
During July these dogs made visits which saw them interacting with 2,362 officers and staff.
Over 78% of their visits were to raise awareness, increase morale or to attend training or team building events in their local forces. Here are a few of the comments from their visits:
Darcy broke the ice, was calming and made you smile. She was a great experience even though I have my own dog she was a welcome addition to the office. The dog and wellbeing info available was of benefit. Darcy was very calming and relaxing. She helped to start conversations and get people to open up and increases the feeling of happiness.
We were requested to attend following a specific incident involving the team. Our visit brought the team together for some stress relief and morale with the interaction with the dog.
People attending the event were much happier to speak with me about current policing issues because I had Dax with me.
Really positive feedback, stressful environment and working under pressure felt the ability to interact with a dog help relieved stress and anxiety. Also, as a mental health first aider I was able to engage with staff and talk through their personal concerns and options for internal and external support.
The sergeant on the team was assaulted five days previous, which severely affected the team. The team spent an hour playing with the dog, both in the briefing and afterwards in the rear yard which helped the team start to talk about the situation.
July's 'OK9 dog of the month, was awarded to Holly from Cambridgeshire Police. Read about what Holly has been up to and about our previous winner here.
Training update
Our training team delivered a full range of courses in July 2022 either face to face or via MS Teams, these included:
- Three demobilising and defusing courses, for two forces which 54 police officers and police staff attended
- Two peer support courses for one force which 29 police officers and police staff attended
- Four supervisor wellbeing course for two forces which 22 police officers and police staff attended
- Two peer support courses for the Police Superintendents Association for 13 forces which 16 Chief Superintendents and Superintendents attended
In total 121 police officers and police staff attended our training in July and we engaged with 18 different forces.
In August 2022 we are scheduled to deliver a full suite of courses, including our brand new peer support course for CPOSA - Chief Police Officers Staff Association.
Please refer to the events section for details of all courses scheduled.
What’s coming up in August
The Oscar Kilo Awards
Each day this week (8 August) we will be announcing the winners of the 2021 Oscar Kilo Awards.
The Oscar Kilo awards have been created to recognise the amazing work that has been done, and continues to be done, to provide wellbeing support across UK policing.
Each year we ask forces to tell us about any work or projects that they feel have made a difference to the wellbeing of their officers and staff.
Read about the winning projects here
Blog: Does having a mental health issue stop your career progression?
ACC Chris Davison of Lincolnshire Police has spoken openly about his personal challenges with mental health in a recent episode of their force webcast. He has allowed us to share his story and a link to the webcast here this week as we begin to extend our Peer Support programme to work with the Chief Police Officers' Staff Association (CPOSA).
Suicide postvention toolkit webinar
On 2nd September we are holding a webinar to support the launch of a brand-new, policing specific, suicide postvention toolkit that we have developed with the Samaritans.
The webinar will be led by our Service Director, Andy Rhodes and Jacqui Morrisey, Assistant Director, Researching and Influencing for the Samaritans. The session will set the scene for the development of this work, touch upon the suicide consensus statement that was agreed earlier this year, and then move onto the toolkit and how it will help focus leaders and provide support.