“Local representatives are elected by you the members”

WHO DOES what in Essex Police Federation?

EssexFedFocus continues its weekly series, put together by chairman Mark Smith, outlining the make-up of the Federation, both locally and nationally.

We continue this week with the role of local Fed reps and Branch Boards. Click here for more.

Local Reps

The local representatives are elected by you the members. The person elected should be the person you think is best for the job. The elected representative should then be your contact with the federation.

Your local representative should be answering every day enquiries for you about the regulations, performance and conduct issues, and they should be addressing local issues at a local level with supervisors and managers.

Separate Branch Boards

The separate branch boards (CBB, SBB and IBB) look after the interests of those members they represent. They will address the issues affecting their rank and have their own plans and goals for the year ahead.

The Chairman and Secretary of each board also attend national meetings about four times a year where they meet up with the other Chairmen and Secretaries from across the country. Here they will discuss the national issues being faced by the rank they represent.

Each board can make decisions and mandates in their own right. Although each board are a decision making group they can only make decisions which relate to their own board. They cannot mandate another board to do something.

This decision would have to be made at the JBB meeting and would then become JBB policy. The JBB can also mandate the JBB Chairman and Secretary to follow or pursue a particular course of action.

If the separate board cannot resolve an issue locally they will bring it to the Executive for it to be addressed at a more strategic level.

The issue in question can then be taken to either the forces JNCC meeting or it can be raised directly with the senior manager or Chief Officer who has responsibility for the area concerned.

JNCC meetings take place about nine times a year and are where the staff associations meet with the Chief Constable and the Chief Officer team which includes HR and support services.

Any issue raised will be looked at by the Chief Constable who will make a decision as to the action required. This may involve either the Chairman or Secretary of the JBB meeting with him or other Chief Officers outside of the meeting to progress the action.

Next week: The Essex Police Federation Full time reps