Police are spending more than £6,300 sending officers on stress-management courses, it was revealed today. Eighty-two staff have signed up for the £77-per-head programme, new figures show.

It is one of a number of more than 200 packages on offer by West Midlands Police.

They include training in assertiveness, for which 104 people are set to take part at a cost of £76-per-head, and “working at heights and ladder safety”. Twenty five people wanted to go on that course, which was said to have cost nothing.

Caroline Schubert, from the West Midlands Police Authority, which revealed the figures in a new report, said staff underwent a personal development review every year, which identified workers who should be sent on courses.

The stress course was one of the cheaper courses offered by the force, which has some 13,000 staff and a budget of around £500 million.

A general dog training course cost £5,200-per-head, and 25 people took part.

Writing in the report, Chief Constable Sir Paul Scott Lee said: “To ensure that the force is able to deliver an adequate and effective police service, the force reviews the skills mix it needs and then ensures this is met.”

Pc Paul Tonks, chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, said: “There’s stress in every job, it’s an issue that everybody has to deal with.”

Yesterday, the force said a hypnotherapy scheme to help workers quit smoking had proved a success.