Cambridgeshire Police Federation is committed to providing our members with valuable services and being proactive in dealing with common problems. We acknowledge that working shifts is a necessary part of being a police officer. We also know that working shifts gives rise to common problems that affect health, performance as well as personal and professional relationships. We are also aware that working shifts is commonly associated with tiredness and fatigue, regardless of occupation.
As part of our commitment to our members CPF has commissioned a study which will examine the extent, impact and cause of tiredness and fatigue in member officers. We will also be able to understand which job roles and shift schedules give rise to the greatest problems and compare the results in Cambridgeshire with those in other Federations.
This is an area where a great deal of work has been done in North America but in the UK there has been very little research undertaken in this particular field. We have asked Third Pillar of Health Limited – a company which specialises in tiredness and fatigue at a corporate level – to run this particular programme.
What will happen?
Third Pillar of Health has worked with leading sleep research scientists to put together an online assessment. We are asking as many of our members as possible to participate in this particular programme and to undertake the assessment. You can be assured that at no point will any Federation or Force member of staff have access to any of your individual answers. Your answers are strictly confidential.
At the end of the assessment you will instantly be able to download your own personal report, which will highlight areas where you can make (often small) changes to help improve your sleep and personal energy during the day. There will also be an opportunity to download factsheets with more in-depth information on common lifestyle issues which affect sleep and personal energy.
The participating Federations will be able to see the composite results. From the perspective of Cambridgeshire and by comparing against equivalent roles and shift schedules in other Federations we will work with Third Pillar of Health to identify workable solutions to deal with any key issues that arise out of the programme.
What happens next?
We would ask all our members to register your interest in participating in the programme. To do this please send an email to cambridgeshire@polfed.org with the email subject “Fatigue Project – Cambridgeshire PF” and state in the email your first name, surname and job role.
The programme will then launch at the end of the summer. When the programme launches you will receive an email with a link to login and set your password. Once registered you will be able to access the programme from computers, mobiles and tablet devices. This means that, so long as you have internet reception, you will be able to complete it at a time and place which best suits you. If you have to log off in the middle of the assessment the system will automatically save your place meaning you don’t have to re-enter answers.
We would like every one of our members to participate. This will give us the most representative sample of Cambridgeshire police officers. Please encourage your member friends to participate too. If there is a problem with tiredness and fatigue then we want to look at solutions to help alleviate the problem.
PLease view the below information sheet for more information: