Fears over police pay being judged by “clunky” PDRs

PLANS to link pay to performance assessments could pile more stress and pressure on already overworked police officers, Essex Police Federation has warned.

Under the new system, as laid out by the 2011 Winsor Pay Review, police officers with between two and four years’ service will only get pay upgrades if they can prove their skills in certain areas in their professional development review.

The tests will assess officers’ ability to support victims, carry out searches and interview suspects through the professional development review system, which is inherently flawed, Steve Taylor, Federation Chairman has said.

“Yes – it is right that our skills are continually honed and developed – but I believe we do that anyway. My resistance or reluctance to completely get behind this is focused on the mechanism that they’re going to put in place to measure it.

“As a sergeant myself I know that PDRs are a clunky, underused process, which is hit and miss depending on the user, and if done properly need buy in from both the person being appraised and the person doing the appraisal.”

Steve said that when the PDR time of year rolls around, there is a suddenly a “shed load of work to be done by all concerned” on top of all the existing duties officers have.

He added: “By adding a financial incentive to it, might that improve the situation, or might that just create extra stress for already hardworking, if not overworked, supervisors and constables?

“Their inability to adequately catalogue and register their development through the PDR system does not mean that people are not developing and their skills are evolving as they spend more time in the job.

“In order to make this system work, it is going to require quite a large change as a body of people.”