It’s been a real privilege to attend the Annual Joint Meeting of Executives this week, hosted by our colleagues at the Superintendents’ Association of Northern Ireland (SANI).
 
This yearly meeting gives us the opportunity to come together with staff associations representing England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, to hear the key issues impacting on members and to further opportunities for joint working.

The theme of this year’s event was ‘courageous leadership’ and we heard from speakers who each gave unique and interesting insights into this topic.

What struck me more than anything else, was the fact that despite us working in a very different political context to our colleagues in Northern Ireland, the many challenges and issues they face are directly aligned with ours.

Policing today is complex, difficult and under strain for a great many reason, and this is being felt right across the United Kingdom.

President of SANI, Norman Haslett, began conference by describing the policing landscape, saying that within PSNI, their officer numbers are “dangerously low” and that they have “fewer police officers than ever before”. He described pressures on their neighbourhood policing teams, crime prevention and safeguarding as a result of “years of under-funding.”

He spoke about the “long discretionary hours” being put in by superintendents and their colleagues which has become “the rule rather than the exception” and the fact that since 2010, with regards to pay, we have fallen behind other professions we have previously been benchmarked against.

Chief Constable of PSNI, Jon Boutcher spoke of the need for long-term, sustainable funding, the significant funding gap and the need to keep an organisation properly resourced.

These are our challenges too.

Just this week, I commented on the critical need for government to significantly increase investment in policing as part of the forthcoming spending review. This followed a direct call from Met Commissioner Mark Rowley and a number of chief constables who have made it very clear, with no uncertainty, that government pledges around community safety cannot be delivered without appropriate funding into the service.

Sir Hugh Orde, former chair of ACPO and former Chief Constable of PSNI said at our AJME, that we are operating today in “a world where you have no money” and “I cannot at the moment see a light at the end of that particular tunnel.”

We therefore have a shared, passionate and clear voice on this topic from the most senior levels, right across the UK. The borders between us mean nothing when it comes to this problem. We are struggling, we cannot deliver everything the public deserve and the government expects within the current financial restraints. When will this voice be heard?
 
There are a number of work areas on which we collaborate with our staff association colleagues, not least our submission to the PRRB, which is developed in collaboration with SANI. I’m keen for us to further our shared activities to strengthen our voice as the representative bodies for the most senior operational leaders in policing.
 
CC Jon Boutcher described supers as having “an important job, one that not many others can do” and referred to policing as being “more accountable, more politicised and more complex than it has ever been”.
 
I completely agree. 
 
We are routinely thanked and applauded by government for the sacrifices we make as part of this job. At AJME, Justice Minister Naomi Lang said that we don’t do this job for applause, but that she wants to “take the time to recognise the significant difference you make.”
 
At our own conference each year, we are rightly applauded and thanked by government ministers.
 
These words begin to lose their meaning when the joint voices of policing are consistently ignored. I know that superintendents’ staff association colleagues right across the UK will continue to use the evidence, data and direct feedback from our members to push for positive change and I hope that our combined voice will continue to grow stronger.