The Metropolitan Police has launched a fitness campaign, where roving
vehicles will give out health advice to officers and police staff throughout
the Met’s district.
The two vehicles will consist of a display vehicle, containing literature
and videos on fitness, and an interview vehicle, with consultation booths
staffed by occupational health practitioners.
A timetable has been produced of the locations and dates when the vehicles
and occupational health staff will be visiting.
The initiative is the third stage of a health drive organised by the Met’s
HR department, which has already run two campaigns on healthy eating and
stress.
Met HR director Martin Tiplady told Personnel Today the health drive was a
key factor in lowering absenteeism.
"This is not about telling people they are unfit, but putting people
through individual fitness tests, so they themselves can say: ‘Gosh, I thought
that I could do more than that’," Tiplady explained.
More than 5,000 of the Met’s 42,000 employees have visited the vehicles
during the healthy eating campaign; one in 10 of those were then referred to
GPs for further examination.
Each campaign runs for three months and the final part, cancer awareness,
will begin following the fitness drive.
The four different focus areas were identified after analysis of reasons for
staff absence.
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