I am pleased to say that not only are both our Centres now open and back to work after the Christmas closure, we have also had a busy start to the year and have already treated hundreds of Police Patients.  We are still managing and dealing with some of the COVID restrictions which feel like they have been in place for what seems like an eternity, but we are getting more used to all of these now and just accept they are something we have to live with and deal with. I do not think any of us really enjoy wearing masks but we have decided to keep these as a requirement for both employees and Patients for a few more months, as it does give us an edge that provides us with some measure of protection and will reduce transmissibility of the virus. If that gives us more protection and allows us to function in a largely normal fashion at the Centres, then we will embrace it. 

We have, like much of the population and other work environments, had to deal with the higher transmissibility of the Omicron Variant and the impact on our staff teams.  We have a weekly internal COVID tracker which tells us how many of our team are off work that week with COVID and fortunately the numbers of cases and indeed the severity for those individuals has been low. Nevertheless, it has required us to employ some creativity with our staffing levels and shift patterns to plug a couple of gaps to ensure our Police Patients continue to get the quality and standard of treatment they expect and deserve whilst they are with us.  I genuinely remain confident that the situation will ease over time and in turn we hope that, assuming that the situation continues to improve, we will be able to significantly ease the safety measure we currently have in place at both Centres, in the Spring.  I think it fair to say that if you have been to the PTC before then you will notice some differences as to how we do business, but if you visit for the first time, you will just slot into the new approach both benefitting from and enjoying your stay with us.

Since the beginning of the year, it has been great to see a number of visitors at our Centres and these have included Chief Constable Rachel Swann from Derbyshire, PCC Emily Spurrell from Merseyside, Andrew Jones MP and a variety of teams from our Constituency Federations and Occupational Health Departments.  As many visitors as we have had, we have also had a number of cancellations where planned visitors have had to withdraw at the last moment due to COVID infections.  This again is just part of the new operating environment that all of us have had to get used to. As there is always plenty of work for us to do at the Centres, it does not unduly disrupt much of our activity.

Many of the visitors open up opportunities for us to seek our grants and donations.  I think I am at the stage where I can say that the majority of the PTC Constituency Forces do make grants to the PTC every year, and some are very generous.  However, I do find it incredibly frustrating and disappointing, that there are a small number of our Forces that have never given us a single penny during the whole of my almost eight years as CEO PTC.  I can assure you all that the Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners (in England and Wales) of all Forces (and indeed Visitors) do get asked for a grant/donation and then get chased up afterwards and we will continue to do so.  However, if I am honest, I consider this to be a failure of leadership in those Forces who just simply do not give grants to the PTC and instead rely on the other Forces who do give, to provide a vital financial lifeline for their Officers to the PTC to support our work, and by extension, support all those Police Patients who come to us for treatment.  If you are reading this and meet the Senior Leadership Team from your Force either routinely or occasionally, I would encourage you to ask them if they do make regular grants to the PTC, and if not why not? There is a lot of talk within some Forces about how important it is to support their Police Officers’ welfare and mental health, however, talk is easy but giving regular grants to the PTC is more difficult and calls for moral leadership at the highest level.  I am clear that a grant to the PTC would fit easily within the budget of every single Force if they chose to do so. Deciding not to make a grant to the PTC tells me that despite whatever protestations they might make to the contrary, it means that your Force does not really care about your welfare or health.  If that does sound a hard-hitting message, then so be it as it is one that I stand by and needs to be owned by those Chief Constables who fail to make a grant to the PTC. If necessary, I would be delighted to debate the issue with them personally.

On a less contentious note, our wonderful Leonberger Therapy Dogs accompanied by Ann Burrell, have now upped their appearance at our Harrogate Centre to twice a week and remain hugely popular with all our Patients and staff.  They also made it on to BBC Breakfast News in December last year, and Ann gave a big pitch for the PTC during her five minutes of fame and helped to fill the airwaves with some positive and much needed uplifting news for a change.

I will finish this Blog with a bit of a trailer. Some of you will hopefully be familiar with St George’s Police Children’s Trust, our Charity which supports the children of Police Officers who have died or taken early medical retirement.  We are just in the process of changing the name of the Charity to The Police Children’s Charity. Although there will be a formal launch of the new name and much other work in due course, please take this as a prompt to have a look at what the The Police Children’s Charity does and offers to beneficiaries, and if you are not a donor, consider signing up to become one.  It is a brilliant Charity that we hope you will never have to call on, but I can assure you that on the sad occasions when it is needed, the children and families of all those who donate are truly grateful that their Police Parent had the foresight and dedication to their family to sign up as a donor.

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

 

Patrick Cairns, CEO PTC

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