What your Federation is doing for you

THE Police Federation in 2018 is changing and as part of that evolution, we here at Northumbria Police Federation want to be in the best shape to support our members in whatever situations they find themselves in, writes Northumbria Police Federation Chairman Jim Gray.

We want your local Federation to be as relevant as it can be to the needs of Northumbrian police officers, especially in our core function of supporting the welfare of officers and the efficiency of the Force.

We also support subscribing members in conduct matters, dealing with health and safety issues, providing local/professional moderation on equality issues or regarding an officer’s professional development, and always providing expert legal advice when appropriate and required.

However, in addition to fulfilling our core functions, we are determined to continue to be proactive and explore ways to add as much value as possible to the service and support which we provide to our members, especially in the context of austerity and the associated very real challenges which both the Service and police officers are facing right now.

Going Over And Above For You

For us, Northumbria Police Federation, a key ongoing focus is looking for opportunities to better serve our members with as many “over and above” services as we can.

For instance, with our Group Insurance Scheme, we have expanded the range of cover at no extra cost to members.

The scheme now offers life insurance, worldwide travel insurance, Europe wide motor breakdown cover, sickness insurance, mobile phone and gadget insurance, legal expenses cover, personal accident cover, hospital cover, and a counselling helpline. Basically, giving more real value to members.

This is also true of the Northern Police Healthcare Scheme, a private healthcare scheme run by us for Police Officers and Police Staff.

The rates have now been reduced for most members and we have included free membership of the Police Treatment Centres for police officers as part of the scheme.

In addition, members have exclusive and affordable access to two outstanding holiday homes in Northumberland.

Keeping You In Touch

Communicating with members is essential, so, we are making improvements in how we communicate the good work that we do with Northumbria Police officers.

We have very recently created a new website, www.norpolfed.org.uk, which we hope is more user friendly and will allow members to navigate to the information they seek quickly.

We continue to use social media – Twitter and Facebook. We also produce a regular Ezine at http://northumbriafedfocus.co.uk/ and we now, of course, have the magazine, Policing Times.

I would encourage members to follow us on social media and to visit our new website. Please give us feedback on it, because we want to make it as relevant and useful as possible to your needs.

Supporting Your Good Work

In addition to all of that, we provide and financially sponsor, from non-subscription funds, a whole host of events which are there to either to support police officers or celebrate their work.

For example, we present large-scale Post-Incident Procedure seminars to police officers in order to prepare our members for the potential eventuality of them being caught up in a police-related death or serious injury.

These seminars will make officers aware of what the process will look like, what they may experience if they are involved in such an incident and the support they would receive from the Police Federation. I view this as proactive support for our members.

We sponsor both the Chief Constable’s Long Service and Commendation events and Student Officer Graduation Ceremonies in order that these can take place at a venue, and are celebrated in a style, befitting of Police Officers achieving long service, bravery, outstanding police work, and key milestones in their careers.

As well as all of that, we continue to work with Northumbria Police Sports and Social Club (NPSSC) and financially subsidise new gyms in the force.

We also sponsor a number of our sporting teams, including the men’s and women’s football teams, the men’s and women’s basketball teams, the women’s netball team, and the men’s cricket team. We are keen to expand sponsorship among our other sporting teams – please let us know if your Force team needs support.

Please note that not one penny of any of this financial sponsorship comes from subscription funds.

We also provide Pre-Retirement Courses to our members and arrange a wide range of specialist advice surgeries at the Federation Office, including family law, financial advice and wills.

What Your Federation Does For You

We will never lose sight of our main function: to effectively deliver an outstanding service to our members in terms of welfare and efficiency.

We need Federation Representatives who are as best prepared, trained and skilled as they can be to support our members. We make sure that your Federation Representatives receive excellent training and support, whether that be in relation to professional standards and conduct, post-incident procedures, health and safety, equality, or on maintaining and improving terms and conditions.

We are trying to be the best that we can be and continually explore ways to add value to the service which we provide, both proactively and reactively, for Northumbrian Police Officers.

As long as I remain as Chairman of Northumbria Police Federation I will pledge to continue to strive to achieve that.