What we've been up to
Fatigue risk management guidance for policing
Sleepiness and fatigue can be risks for those who work in policing, including both officers and staff. This new guidance and toolkit aims to help manage fatigue and sleepiness in the policing environment, and mitigate workplace risks associated with fatigue, wherever possible.
It has been developed to;
- Assist workers, supervisors, and senior leaders in policing to understand the impact of fatigue.
- Provide guidance on reducing the likelihood of fatigue and minimising the impact of fatigue.
- Ensure health, safety, and welfare, by eliminating or mitigating workplace risks associated with fatigue, wherever possible.
Peer debriefing model course
We have just launched our new peer debriefing model online training course, which is a replacement for our old demobilising and defusing course.
Day-to-day policing can often involve exposure to challenging scenes and incidents. While many of these experiences can be processed naturally, some incidents may affect us more deeply, impacting our emotional and physical wellbeing.
This course is designed to equip you with the tools to help yourself and others process these emotions effectively. By learning a structured, non-clinical debriefing approach, participants will gain the skills to support their teams and colleagues in managing their responses to difficult incidents and returning to the job they enjoy.
This course is available to anyone with an Oscar Kilo account.
Blue Light Mental Health Symposium
We were proud to support the National Fire Chief's Council with the 2025 annual collaborative Blue Light Mental Health Symposium in Birmingham on 14 January.
Building on previous years' events, the NFCC hosted an informed, immersive programme, focusing on three key areas: culture, family support and suicide prevention. There was a mixture of keynote speakers, workshops and interactive sessions. Some key programme highlights are listed below:
- Culture panel sessions on creating the cultural factors for wellbeing and resilience, and the challenges to changing culture in emergency and volunteering services.
- Family support sessions - the first from The Fire Fighters Charity all about their thriving relationships scheme. The second session was from us (Oscar Kilo) focusing on the evidence base, our engagement strategy for reaching families, our impact and the challenges faced. The final session was led by TASC, looking at their resources and crisis line.
- Input from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives on on their approach to suicide prevention, discussing data-enabled change; recent trials and research and how to enact positive change followed by a session on the organisational response to suicide from Nottingham Trent University.
These events take place every year on behalf of the Emergency Responders Senior Leaders Board - You can read more about their work here - Blue Light Together
Northern region roads policing FLO conference
On Thursday 16 January, we attended the first ever northern region roads policing conference for Family Liaison Officers. There were 13 police forces represented at the event that really showcased the passion of dedicated family liaison officers, specialist legal firms, case workers and charities who all work together to provide support to those victims of serious and fatal road traffic collisions.
These officers and staff are in some of the most challenging roles in policing, and they do a phenomenal job of providing support to others - so we were please to have the opportunity to use our time there to make sure they know about the support on offer for them.
Peer support update
Peer support champions
Being a peer supporter can be challenging - the nature of the role means there may be times where they need some support, assistance, and guidance themselves.
For this reason, we are introducing 'peer support champions'. Through peer supervision, peer supporters can gain insight into their decision-making, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. They will also receive emotional and practical support, including referrals and resources.
If you are already a trained peer supporter and you think you would be interested in becoming a 'champion', then you can find out more on the peer support member page.
Peer support new training dates
We have just released the dates of our 'initial peer support' and 'peer support refresher' training courses for 2025. These courses are for people who want to become peer supporters or just wish to refresh their skills.
The 'initial peer support' course is aimed at anyone (officers or staff), who want to become peer supporters and learn how to deliver timely, practical support in their force, or on occasion as part of mutual aid.
The 'peer support refresher' course is for people who have already completed the initial peer support course. It is designed to enhance your knowledge of peer support and to give you extra knowledge to help you build on your self-care and resilience along with escalation procedures.
We've also released dates for our Superintendents Association peer support training.
Dates and details on how to register for these courses can be found on our 'events and training' page
OK9 update
Wiltshire launch OK9 dog scheme
Wiltshire Police have just launched their OK9 scheme. The OK9 wellbeing dogs will also be used to support onsite wellbeing visits across the year in conjunction with the Oscar Kilo wellbeing van. This was trialed last year to great success, with visits to the investigation teams in both Swindon and Melksham.
OK9 shortlisted for national award
We are thrilled to have been shortlisted for an award in Best Wellbeing in the Workplace Strategy: Emergency Service category for the Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards 2025!
This winners will be announced on 20 March at a ceremony in London, we'll let you know the outcome.
Workforce prioritisation guidance
Over the last month, we have focused on developing the workforce prioritisation guidance in response to feedback from colleagues across the country. This guidance will provide clear priorities for delivering a first-class wellbeing offer to officers and staff.
We have spoken with colleagues from every force about the guidance, and have met with representatives from the College, APCC, NPCC, Federation, Police Superintendents Association, and Unison.
We are also currently in discussions with the College and HMICFRS to identify 'innovation' and 'promising practice' to support the local development of policy and practice.
You can read more about the workforce prioritisation guidance using the link below.
Go to workforce prioritisation guidance
Interesting reading
Dr Ian Hesketh has contributed to: How to Be the Line Manager You Never Had: Managing People, Performance & Wellbeing in a Hybrid World | SpringerLink
The subjects are case examples from the National Police Wellbeing Service. This book was largely written by Prof Stephen Bevan, who helped Oscar Kilo in the early years but sadly passed away last year.
Dr Ian Hesketh and Andy Rhodes have contributed chapters to this international books which has contributions from around the world on policing themes: Multi-faceted Approaches to Challenges and Coping in Law Enforcement: Police Badge Is One Badge | SpringerLink
Professor John Harrison, Chief Medical Officer for England and Wales has had an article published in Occupational Health at Work Journal, where he talks about the challenges and opportunities for occupational health in policing.
What's coming soon
Opportunity to shape our families and leavers networks
We're looking for forces across the country to help us and to get involved in the development of two brand new networks.
For those of you who were at our annual conference in early December, you may remember that we talked about our plans to set up networks, one focused on police families, and the other on police leavers.
Our hope is that by creating these networks, forces will be able to come together and freely share their approach both to supporting police families and helping those that are exiting the service. We want to know both the challenges and the successes. Our aim is to improve the experience of police families and lessen disadvantage. We also want to ensure that our leavers have a smooth transition out of the service and are ready for their next chapter. The networks will help us work smarter and fulfil our obligations under the Police Covenant. The networks will meet virtually three times a year.
If you are interested in working with us on this, and collaborating with other forces, then please get in touch and let us know if you're interested in supporting the families network, the leavers network or both.
Sleep, fatigue and recovery programme
Over the past two years, Oscar Kilo has been working with Merseyside Police, Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and international subject matter experts to develop a programme which harnesses the latest in biometric technology, data solutions and online learning.
It is a 120-day programme which helps officers and staff build a unique and personalised view of their sleep, fatigue and recovery levels.
In the next few months, we will be sharing some of the initial findings from LJMU and will be telling you more about the roll out of this work. If you wish to know more, you can access the page using the button below.
Sleep, fatigue and recovery biometrics programme
Member group meetings
Operation Hampshire
The next national Op Hampshire network meeting will take place on 30 January with a particular focus on victim care for police officers and staff brought to life by a guest speaker who will be sharing their experiences and offering suggestions for improvement.
The national Operation Hampshire network brings together the operational leads from each force for an opportunity to seek and share good practice and consider a variety of relevant themes for improvement. Each force has a single point of contact (SPOC) and contact details can be provided through me should anyone wish to add any suggestions or comments for consideration.
Counsellors and psychologists
The next counsellors and psychologists group call is on 21 January. They will be joined by the national investigators wellbeing group lead for a presentation and discussion on the work that the investigators network are doing to improve the psychological health of this group.
Occupational health
The next Chief Medical Officer medical forum is on 23 January, the occupational health managers forum takes place on 11 February and the next virtual meeting for the whole of our OH practitioner network takes place on 20 February.
OK9
The next OK9 meeting is 25 February and will be held on Microsoft Teams.
If you think you should be in any of the above member groups or haven't had an invite for your member group meeting, please get in touch.
Where we will be
- Keynote speech at the Canterbury University Policing Conference - 22-23 January
- The investigators research meeting at Anglia Ruskin, Chelmsford - 28 January
- The Health and Wellbeing at Work Conference at Birmingham NEC - 12 March
- The Senior Police Staff Network Conference at the College of Policing at Ryton - 6 March
- Executive Leaders Programme, College of Policing at Ryton - 26 March
Oscar Kilo conference and awards 2025
After the success of our 2024 conference we are now busy planning this years' event. Further details on how to register your interest will be in our February bulletin.
In March, we will be opening the window for submissions for the 2025 Oscar Kilo Awards. Now is a great time to start thinking about any projects that have been successfully introduced in your force to improve the wellbeing of your officers and staff. Have a look at our previous winners for inspiration.