ESSEX Police officers are coping \u2018as best they can\u2019 as they battle the challenges presented to them by COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor said there has been some positive news in amongst the issues thrown up by the pandemic, adding that officers were doing an \u2018amazing\u2019 job.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe\u2019re in as strong a place as we can be and absences away from the workplace are getting better every day, so that\u2019s a positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cChallenges remain around the levels of PPE and consistent advice about its use, but the guidance on how to deal with change in legislation, that\u2019s all gone down well.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssex has got the balance right. I think we\u2019re in as strong a place as we can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Steve acknowledged that there are still issues with having enough PPE but said officers are doing the best they can with what they have.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWe\u2019re doing the best we can. We don\u2019t have enough of everything that we want. There are things that we struggle to get hold of, but this isn\u2019t unique to Essex.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to do the best with what we have. We\u2019re meeting the low standard of PPE that\u2019s been set by Public Health England and we\u2019d like to do more, but resources don\u2019t allow it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers are doing an amazing job \u2013 they have been brilliant and shown great resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Essex Police Federation has produced health and welfare guidance for officers having to self-isolate, while online resources have been made available by the force.<\/p>\n
Steve explained: \u201cThere is a welfare pack and a pack for those that are self-isolating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese have been shared to the members, and the force has got an online hub with a dial-in service for online and telephone counselling. It\u2019s been well received.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Benevolent Fund is available and has been used for officers in financial difficulties, perhaps if their partners have been furloughed or they\u2019re self-employed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the elements are there and appear to be working well together.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfficers should contact work-based Reps who can signpost where they need to go. There are online COVID-19 pages and a virtual human resources hub too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ESSEX Police officers are coping \u2018as best they can\u2019 as they battle the challenges presented to them by COVID-19. Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor said there has been some\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119756"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120372,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119756\/revisions\/120372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/119857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}