After the excitement of the Royal Visit written about in the Blog last month, things have settled back down at the PTC and we have now fully recovered from all the stress and drama of that visit turning our attention back to much more routine matters. When I write routine, that doesn’t mean mundane as we have settled back into doing what we do best at both Centres, providing class leading treatment to our police patients for both physical and mental health and wellbeing injuries and issues. The year has started positively in terms of numbers that we have treated to date so far. We are 12% up in terms of the numbers treated compared with this same period last year and we hope to build on that as the year progresses. 

This number includes an ongoing significant uplift in the number of retired officer patients, to match the growing and very welcome number of retired police officer donors that we have to the PTC.  All of you who have read my previous blogs will know what an important part that I believe retired officers have played in the history of the PTC and how much we continue to owe them a duty of care.  This has been reflected in the roll out of the Retired Officers Wellbeing Programme at both our Centres in 2023 plus our ongoing search for doing things better in a way that our retired cohort can directly benefit from our treatment plans.  We have had strong representation from within the retired officer community on our Board of Trustees for some time and this has included Alan Lees who is the CEO of NARPO. I am very pleased to announce that we have now co-opted Matt Hamiliton who is the President of the Retired Police Officers Association Scotland (RPOAS) onto the Board as well.  These two appointments ensure that retirees have a strong voice in setting strategy and policy at the PTC and The Police Children’s Charity playing an important role in the future development of both Charities.

Donor Recruitment Charity Engagement (DRCE) team have been hurtling around the country over the last month attending a variety of events ranging from new student officer briefs to retired officer seminars.  Much of their work continues to be focussed on police staff who are now eligible to sign up to the PTC. The team have therefore been running multiple information sessions to make all of our police staff aware of the opportunity.  It is worthwhile emphasising that this is not like one of those frustrating battles that all of us go through periodically with our insurer or internet and TV suppliers where the best offers are often reserved for “new customers”! 

We anticipate the bulk of our donors and patients will continue to be serving and retired officers and our police staff colleagues will join these groups and have exactly the same opportunities as everyone else to sign up at the same donation rate, but they will do some on a complementary basis adding to the overall ambience and environment at the PTC that we pride ourselves on.  This will then strengthen the workforce of all our constituent police services as I am certain that the overwhelming majority of police staff patients who attend for treatment, will return to their workplace much more swiftly than would otherwise be the case without the treatment intervention by the PTC enhancing the collaborative “one team” approach that I know most of our constituent forces aspire to.

It has not been all one-way visits over the last month as we were very pleased to welcome a newish team from Lancashire Police Federation to a visit PTC Harrogate at the end of February.  We have always historically enjoyed a very close working relationship with Lancashire Federation over the years and the new Chair Zeg Awan, brought his team to PTC Harrogate as part of an away day to take advantage of our conference facilities and also taking the opportunity to learn more about the PTC and The Police Children’s Charity TPCC whilst they were there.  It was familiar ground for some of the Lancashire Federation Team but a first visit for some of the others who were hugely impressed by the facilities and of course the treatment programmes we deliver.  We were very grateful to the Lancashire Federation for coming to visit us to better understand our two Charities, I know that it was time well spent for both them and us. 

We are developing and expanding our Conferencing Facilities at both our Centres also including Wellbeing Breaks at the weekends and during the week. If you are reading this and think that it might be a good opportunity for your team to gather together in a professional and police friendly environment in the same way that Lancashire Federation did, then do please get in touch with our Conferencing Team at the PTC.

Finally, I was very pleased to attend one of our Police Charities UK Conferences recently.  We try and run these gatherings twice each year and on this occasion, we were superbly hosted by our sister charity Flint House in Goring near Reading.  There has been some movements and changeover amongst some of the leadership within the police charities recently so it was an opportunity to welcome the new CEOs of Care of Police Survivors and Police Care UK to the group. We discussed some of the key issues facing all the Charities and listened to and questioned a senior civil servant and member of the Policing Covenant team, emphasising to him the excellent work that Police Charities do with very little government support or recognition. 

We also enjoyed listening to Gary Callier who is the Managing Director of Police UK Disability Sport who gave us an overview of how he is trying to improve opportunities for disabled police officers and staff to access sporting opportunities.  Gary is also one of those inspirational can do individuals who is always looking to improve things for others. He’s one of those people that you like to have around you because you know if you want something done, he will likely be the first to volunteer to drive it forward.  Gary is also pushing very hard to try and persuade the government to allocate some of the hundreds of millions of pounds that police forces secure each year from seized assets and the proceeds of crime, to Police Charities so we can then help treat and support many of those officers and staff who have been injured in the course of this work. This would mean putting some of this funding to good use within our Charities. An online petition has been created which the government will have to respond to if it receives 10,000 signatures.  We still need lots of signatures to reach the target, so if this does mean something to you and you think it is a good idea and you would like to see it happen, I would encourage you to sign this petition through the link below and of course get all your friends and colleagues to sign it as well:

That’s it for this month’s Blog, stay safe all. 

Patrick Cairns

CEO PTC and TPCC

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