Half
of the support staff employed by the UK Police Service do not feel valued by
and two-thirds say stress levels have increased.
The
findings, from an independent national survey of police support staff by
researchers NOP and released by Unison, show:
•
50 per cent of support staff do not feel valued by the Police Service
•
Female staff are losing out unfairly to men in relation to pay and training
•
Less than half of have a personal training plan
•
63 per cent believe there is still a status divide in the service between
police staff and police officers
•
76 per cent of members say workloads have increased
•
66 per cent say stress levels have grown
•
49 per cent do not feel supported by their manager in relation to workload
pressures
•
37 per cent had been subjected to, or witnessed a colleague being subjected to
racial harassment, homophobia or bullying
•
50 per cent of staff take home less than £300 a week.
Unison,
which represents 30,000 members in the police service, is calling on the Home
Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers and Association of Police
Authorities to improve the status, training, management, and terms and
conditions of police support staff, who make up a third of the police
workforce.
Ben
Priestley, Unison’s national officer for police staff, said: "The most
worrying statistic is that half our members do not feel valued by their police
force. This speaks volumes about the distance the service still needs to cover
before it can claim it has an effective, efficient and integrated workforce.
