EXCLUSIVE: South Yorkshire Police spend almost £7 MILLION covering long term sick leave
The body that represent police officers says they're under "unprecedented pressure"
We can exclusively reveal South Yorkshire Police spent nearly £7 million covering long term sick leave last year.
More than 1700 officers needed an extended period of absence in 2019, almost 50 of them because of stress.
It cost the force more than £6.8 million, a rise of 10% from the year before.
Steve Kent from South Yorkshire Police Federation says they're at risk of both physical and mental injuries while on duty:
"We hear daily unfortunately of officers hurting themselves quite badly when they are chasing suspects or having to physically get hold of people, people resisting arrest, there's all those kinds of things. But what seems to be the bigger issue out there is long term stress.
"When you are literally on a daily basis going from incident to incident to incident, there isn't much time to deal with what you're picking up on so it just piles up and up and it can become a little bit of an unmanageable workload when the thin blue line is so thin."
South Yorkshire Police has lost hundreds of officers since 2010 and Steve says that's had a big impact on workload:
"We've been talking with officers in the past who have been dealing with 30 to 40 really serious cases themselves. That's 30 or 40 per officer in some departments. The strain on our detective colleagues, especially in specialist protection units, is unprecedented. And that can take its toll.
"Research has found that 1 in 5 police officers has, or is, suffering from PTSD. That's unbelievable when you think about what other members of the public experience in their day job."
600 South Yorkshire Police officers have been on long term sick leave because of stress since 2015 but the number has steadily decreased in recent years.
After reaching a high of 236 in 2016, last year just 47 were off through stress.
The force is due to get 220 more officers by 2024 as part of a national recruitment drive to add 20,000 to the workforce nationwide.
The force say it "undoubtedly alleviates the pressure on our frontline staff."
Jo Jackson, Head of People and Organisational Development, said:
“We are wholly committed to ensuring the wellbeing of our people working across the force, so any long-term absence is a concern. However, we are pleased that the health of our workforce is improving, as evidenced in the declining absence rates year-on-year.
“Policing is a challenging yet rewarding career, and there can be a greater risk to welfare as a result of the unpredictability of our officers’ work.
"That is why we have a number of initiatives to support a healthy workplace, including a dedicated Occupational Health Unit where our staff can access counselling and regular psychological screening, a 24-hour employee assistance programme, and a dedicated mobile phone app ‘Back Up Buddy’ to support officers.
“We also have over 200 trained Wellbeing Champions across the force, dedicated wellbeing rooms, and are delivering bespoke policing wellbeing training across the force to supervisors and staff."