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Examples
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The following schedules are examples devised by different UK Police Forces. If you have read the previous page Shift Schedules you should be able to evaluate these schedules, based on ergonomic recommendations, and be in position to make an informed decision as to which schedule, if any, is better at minimising the risks to your health and safety. You should then be able to look at your own shift schedule and assess it in the same way. All the shift schedules are based on working the equivalent of 40 hours per week in line with Police Regulations. The starting times depend on how the 'Force day' is defined - 0600hrs to 0600hrs or 0700hrs to 0700hrs, which in itself would be a factor to take into account. Further schedules will be added as they become known, to highlight the development of police shift schedules away from the traditional Regulation Shift Pattern. Traditional Police Regulation shift pattern
The problem with the 'traditional' shift pattern is that over the 4 week cycle 168 hours are worked, which equates to an average of 42 hours per week. This is in excess of the average working week for police officers in the UK of 40 hours per week. This means that for each cycle of the shift pattern each officer is owed 8 hours. 'Ottawa'shift pattern (Early 1990's)
The 'Ottawa' shift pattern involves working extended shift lengths in order to increase the numberof days off, but still includes 7 night shifts in a row. Variable Shift Arrangement(Late 1990's) - Merseyside Police
Variable Shift Arrangement(Late 1990's) - Thames Valley Police
Variable Shift Arrangement (Early 2000's) - Grampian Police
Variable Shift Arrangements with Sub Groups (2000 onwards) Traditionally, police officers have been organised into teams or Units comprising fixed numbers of officers. Officers within the same Unit commence and finish a tour of duty together. Being 'part of a team' encouraged comradeship, loyalty and trust. In striving to better match limited resources to peaks and troughs in demand, however, Police managers (in the UK) are now challenging the rigidity of those Units. As a result they now talk about having a 'Core Shift Pattern' around which sub-groups of each Unit work. Any of the above shift schedules can be used as a 'Core Shift Pattern'. The core Units are then sub-divided into 2 or 3 (or more)sub-groups. Each Sub-group is then scheduled around the 'Core shift'times to better match resources to demand:
In Week 1, sub-group 1A works nightshift Monday to Thursday. However, as analysis of local demand shows a greater need for officers in the early evening, sub-group 1B falls back to augment the Late shift. In Week 4, sub-group 4A works the extended Early shift on Friday and Saturday. However, as analysis shows that a whole Unit is required for Night shift on those days,it is necessary for sub-group 4B to move forward from the Early shift to augment the Late shift. On all other days (in this example) sub-group B works the same Core shift as sub- group A, to form a whole Unit. After 5 weeks the sub-groups swap roles. Thus over a 10 week period a subgroup would follow the shift pattern sequence: 1A,2A,3A,4A,5A,1B,2B,3B,4B,5B Obviously, the more subgroups a core Unit is divided into, the closer police managers believe they can 'fit' resources to demand. Sub-Groups themselves do not have to be rigid, or even of equal size; in the example above, subgroup 1B might be 1/3, 1/4 etc of the Unit size. The Unit is seen as a 'pool' from which officers are drawn to create the required sub-group. Over the period of a year proper resource management is meant to ensure that officers are drawn from the 'pool' equally. In Scotland, Strathclyde Police work a variation of a 4 Unit / 3 Sub Group shift schedule, whilst Grampian Police works a variation of a 5 Unit / 3 Sub Group shift schedule. The logical projection of continually sub-dividing the core Units into sub-groups, in order to fit resources to demand, is to eventually arrive at individualised shift patterns for each police officer. This has already been done in Finland for some industrial workers. There must, however, be a downside to this managerial trend away from the traditional Units; firstly, in terms of the esprit de corp which Units cultivate within themselves and within the police service as a whole and, secondly, in terms of the possible increase in stress on officers associated with working irregular and unpredictable rosters and the effects that has on an officer's family and social life. 2x2x2 or '6 on, 4 off' Shift Pattern This shift pattern is also known as the Leicestershire 2x2x2 shift pattern and can be interpreted in two different ways: Firstly, it can be operated as a Five Unit shift system with a shift cycle of 10 weeks. Over the 10 week cycle there will always be an Early, Late and Night shift on duty each day. Alternatively, it could be operated by dividing the 5 Units each into 2 sub groups. However the sub groups of the same Unit would not share the same days off, so the sub groups would effectively become smaller Units. This shift pattern meets all the criteria for the design of a good shift pattern. However, over a 6 day block officers can work up to 58 hours which can cause problems with Working Time compliance if officers are already at the 48 maximum average weekly limit.
E = 0700hrs to 1700hrs E1 =
0700hrs to 1600hrs Variable Shift Arrangement ( 2002 ) - Bedfordshire As more and more Forces realise that they have a duty of care to minimise the risks of shiftwork on their staff, they are rightly beginning to consult experts on shiftwork. The following shift pattern was devised in consultation with Shiftwork experts to reduce the adverse effects of shiftwork on staff. It may not meet individual officer's personal preferences, but its design seeks to fulfill the employer's obligation under Health and Safety Legislation. It is Working Time compliant unless night work is identified as involving special hazards by a risk assessment conducted by the employer or by a Workforce Agreement between the Employer and staff association.
E = 0700hrs to 1500hrs E+
= 0700hrs to 1700hrs Although this is a backward rotating shift pattern, the social and domestic advantages to staff were considered to outweigh the medical advantages of the forward rotating version. The pattern ensures that no more than 3 or 4 Nights are worked in a row and that there are 3 rest days after each blocks of nightshift to recuperate. The extended Early shift and overlappping Late shift on Mondays is to facilitate 4 hours of training for the Late shift before change over. However those overlapping hours can be dispersed elsewhere in the shift pattern according to need. Developments 2003 - 2007 As more and more Forces have accepted that the Working Time Regulations 1998 apply to the Police Service they have also realised that the choice of viable shift patterns that fully comply with the WTR, with Police Regulations and with Health and Safety Recommendations for the design of a good shift pattern are very limited. If Forces have conducted proper risk assessments, and have identified particular police activities as involving significant risk, then the choice of shift patterns for those officers who are classed as night workers, when engaged in those activities, is further reduced by the restriction on the length of the night shift to 8 hours. In order to monitor the working hours of officers in every department or post, and to assist with managing resources, two Forces to my knowledge, Sussex and Grampian Police, introduced a 'Core' shift pattern for the entire Force. The core shift pattern determines the common or 'corporate' rest days. The hours worked within the shift pattern are then varied to suit the individual needs of departments or posts, whilst maintaining the same shift lengths and the same 'corporate' rest days. Grampian Police has a core Variable Shift Arrangement for the response function, with about 27 different variations to meet the needs of other departments or posts. One of the difficulties found with this approach is that smaller departments may not have enough officers to be distributed evenly across the same number of Teams as needed to operate the 'core' shift pattern of the response function. Even if they do, there is often little resilience when training, re-rostered rest days and annual leave are taken into account. What I believe Forces should do is develop a 'suite' of Working Time and Police Regulation compliant shift patterns based on different numbers of Teams, and allow individual departments to initially select the pattern which they think best meets their requirements. This suite of shift patterns should be strictly monitored and no deviation from it permitted unless it can be justified. Each shift pattern should have in place a mechanism which monitors actual hours worked and identifies breaches in the Working Time Regulations. In developing this "suite" of Working Time and Police Regulation compliant shift patterns, Forces should pay due regard to the recommendations of shift work experts, in order to fulfill their 'duty of care' to staff by minimising the risks associated with shiftwork. It may well be that not ALL the recommendations can be fulfilled. In which case, Forces should consult with their Force Medical Advisor and Force Safety Advisor in order to prioritise those recommendations. In that way an informed decision can be made as to which recommendations are considered essential to observe and which are less important. Full Steam backwards ! At the time of writing it appears that a number of Forces are contemplating going back to 8 hour shift patterns! The reasoning behind this is that VSA's are perceived (by bosses) as giving officers too many rest days compared with 8 hour shift patterns and this affects continuity of enquiries which in turn affects 'customer' satisfaction. This is really rich coming from the very people who campaigned for Variable Shift Arrangements in the first place! (see "Effective Shift Systems For the Police Service", Page 2 'Impetus for Change'). If you know of any other developments or schedules, and wish to forward them to me, please email me at bjlogie@ukonline.co.uk. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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