11293 report 19 - CAIN - University of Ulster

management & personnelThe Police Service maintains a comprehensive employee assistance programme consistent withmodern police administration standards, with a communication programme featuring a variety ofpamphlets and posters for the assistance of staff. Preventive health and workplace safety measuresare designed to diminish the impact of days lost to injury and sickness. With a better managementsystem now in place, the Police Service can focus on absence-causing conditions with the object ofunderstanding and isolating root causes that might lend themselves to some resolution. A parallelreview of casual absence practices is ongoing. Policy revisions for implementation 1 April 2007reduce the threshold for management intervention on patterned absence behaviour and introducea formal warning process for individuals with unsatisfactory levels of absence.Recommendation 87: New Police FundPatten Recommendation:87. A substantial fund should be set up to help injured police officers, injured retired officers andtheir families, as well as police widows.Lead Responsibility: NIO/Chief ConstableRecommendation StatusCompliance with this recommendation has been achieved.HistoryThe creation of The Royal Ulster Constabulary GC Foundation and the Northern Ireland PoliceFund was announced on 14 November 2001. The Foundation provides practical and tangiblerecognition of the achievements and sacrifices of the RUC. Administration of the Fund providesadditional assistance to injured and disabled police officers and retired officers and their families,as well as to police widows who have been affected by terrorism in Northern Ireland. Funding isprovided by the Government, although additional sources of revenue may be considered.The Fundand the programme of action are stable.In a March 2001, in a release that presaged the creation of the Foundation, the Secretary of Stateannounced plans for a garden of remembrance and a new police museum.The Garden ofRemembrance was officially opened on the grounds of Police Headquarters on 2 September 2003.Remaining IssuesFunding for the construction of an adjoining museum of policing history awaits review of thebusiness case including the resolution of funding. Although this was not a direct recommendationof the Independent Commission (see also Culture, Ethos and Symbol chapter), the Governmentdid announce its support for a policing museum.107