Force's Gold Award Recognises Healthy Working Lives
Wednesday, 17th September 2008
Central Scotland Police has become the first police force in Scotland to achieve a gold award which recognises efforts to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of its employees.
At an awards ceremony in Dunfermline, Deputy Chief Constable Iain MacLeod and Health and Wellbeing Manager Trish Shields were presented with a gold certificate by Professor Andrew Cubie and television presenter Viv Lumsden.
The Gold Healthy Working Lives award builds on the success of the force in assisting with the improvement in the lifestyles of all staff. In previous year the force's efforts were recognised with bronze and silver awards, when the initiative was known as SHAW (Scottish Health at Work).
Deputy Chief Constable Iain MacLeod, who has strategic responsibility for HR issues, said: "This is a tremendous achieving by all those who have worked so hard towards making Central Scotland Police an organisation which cares for the lifestyles of those who work for it.
"A healthy workforce is a workforce which is ready to meet the constant challenges and demands of modern policing, is able to maintain our high performance record and comprises of individuals who are full of energy and commitment to the organisation, which derives significant benefits along with the individuals themselves."
Trish Shields said a number of measures had been put in place over recent years as the force sought to turn around a poor sickness record and improve attendance at work. These included healthy eating programmes, exercise initiatives and a range of other measures aimed at enhancing healthy lifestyles of staff. These include maintaining and improving mental health in an environment which can be stressful for staff and ensuring employees have access to services quickly.
She added: "This allows staff to remain at work or enable them to return to work in a supported manner more quickly. We also provided evidence of our commitment to work with our communities and reduce the effects on the environment through recycling and the use of low energy equipment."
