MPA Race Equality Scheme

Report: 13
Date: 23 May 2002
By: Clerk

Summary

This report asks members to consider and comment upon the MPA's draft Race Equality Scheme and Action Plan and to receive the MPS Race Equality Scheme.

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act, which came into force on 1 April 2001, has placed a duty on all public authorities, including the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) and the Commissioner, to publish a Race Equality Scheme and Action Plan detailing how the general and specific duty of the Act will be met, by 31 May 2002.

The MPA and MPS have developed their respective schemes in full consultation with each other, and the Authority's scheme and action plan outline a set of race equality priorities for the MPS.

At the time of drafting this report the MPA's draft scheme is still undergoing consultation. In order to meet the statutory publication deadline of 31 May, this report asks Members of the Authority to endorse the draft scheme and action plan, to authorise the Clerk to make any final amendments following consultation, and to receive the appended MPS Race Equality Scheme.

A. Recommendations

Members of the Authority are asked to:

1. Comment upon and endorse the final draft MPA Race Equality Scheme and Action Plan.
2. Authorise the Clerk to make any final amendments to the draft as a result of comments during the consultation period
3. Receive and comment upon the MPS Race Equality Scheme and Action Plan.
4. Agree to publication of the Scheme on the MPA internet site on 31 May 2002, in order to meet the statutory publication timetable.
5. Note the further consultation that will be carried out during the first six months following publication of the scheme, which may lead to amendments and additions.
6. Note the financial implications arising from the Action Plan and endorse the proposal to include appropriate provision in the Authority's draft 2003/04 budget for submission to the Mayor.

B. Supporting information

Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

1. The Race Relations Act 1976 introduced provisions to outlaw race discrimination. Following the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and the finding of institutional racism in the MPS and other public services the Race Relations (Amendment) Act was passed. The Act places a general duty upon public authorities to:

1. promote racial equality.
2. eliminate unlawful racial discrimination.
3. promote better community relations between persons of different races.

2. It also places a specific duty upon public authorities to set out their arrangements for meeting the general duty. Authorities are required to set these arrangements out in a Race Equality Scheme and publish the scheme by 31 May 2002.

3. The Act places an employment duty upon public authorities with at least 150 employees, requiring the monitoring of recruitment, promotion, training and other employment matters by reference to racial groups, and publication of these results annually.

4. The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has long standing powers to take legal action, and to help others take action, against unlawful discrimination. It now has the power to enforce specific duties if it comes to the Commission's attention that an authority is failing to meet its duties. The CRE website at www.cre.gov.uk has full details of the Act and accompanying statutory guidance.

5. The central aim of the legislation is to help ensure that public authorities pay due regard to race equality when carrying out their functions and devising their policies.

6. The MPA is a 'listed' body within a schedule of the Act, bound by the general and specific duties. The Act also makes the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and chief constables in other districts, vicariously responsible under the duties.

The development of the MPA and MPS schemes

7. As the MPA and the Commissioner are separately listed, each is required to produce a Race Equality Scheme. A scheme is a statement of how a listed authority plans to meet both its general and specific duties to promote racial equality. It is a public document, through which an authority will be answerable to the CRE and public for delivering the programme set out in the scheme.

8. The MPA set up a working group to steer the preparation of the scheme, reporting to the Consultation, Diversity and Outreach Committee. The Chairs of the Human Resources and the Professional Standards & Performance Monitoring Committees sat on the working group. External representation included the CRE, Greater London Authority (GLA), the Association of Police Authorities and the MPS.

9. The MPS established its own Steering Group, reporting to the MPS Diversity Board. The MPA and MPS had representative members on each of these steering groups.

10. The preparation of the scheme has been an extremely challenging and complex task for both the MPA and MPS. Much has been done to build upon existing equality strategies, action plans and arrangements. However, the MPA and MPS, like many other authorities, have found the need to look beyond these to ensure fulfilment of the duties.

11. Both the MPA and the MPS have sought to be proactive with respect to the new duties. Preparations commenced well before the statutory guidance from the CRE was published. The MPS has had the added benefit of dealing with and being scrutinised on the core issue of institutional racism from the time of publication of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report. Consequently it has had many processes and structures in place for addressing both the general and specific duties of the Act.

12. It is clearly important, and the CRE has confirmed this, that there is synergy between the MPA's scheme and the Commissioner's.

13. Members have already discussed the revisions to the committee structure of the Authority. The establishment of the proposed Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board will play a significant role in overseeing implementation of the Race Equality Action Plans of both the MPA and MPS.

14. The membership of the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board has yet to be agreed. Representation from the CRE as well as from the community will give the board the kind of public confidence it will require to engender trust and confidence in it and the MPS to promote racial equality, eliminate unlawful racial discrimination and promote better community relations between people of different races.

Status of the MPA Scheme

15. An earlier draft of the MPA Race Equality Scheme was sent to all Members. A briefing meeting for members was also arranged in March but no members attended. The current consultation draft was sent to all members in advance of the agenda. Members are asked to bring their copy with them to the meeting or contact Jude Sequeira, at the MPA, if they require another copy. This consultation draft is publicly available on the MPA's website.

16. The timescale for consultation has proved extremely tight. To date, the current draft has benefited from consultation with directors and representatives from Racial Equality Councils. Further to this, a small programme of consultation with key stakeholders (e.g. GLA, APA) and community organisations (London Civic Forum, Black Londoners Forum, Refugee Council etc.), community and police consultative groups as well as MPS groups (Black Police Association, Independent Advisory Group, staff associations and trades unions, and selected Borough Commanders) is being carried out. The draft scheme has also been made available on the Authority's website inviting comments from users. The consultation period will end on 19 May 2002, just prior to the Authority's meeting.

17. Details of any significant changes to the draft scheme following consultation will be reported to the Authority's meeting. Officers will incorporate further amendments following discussion at the Authority's meeting in time for publication on 31 May. The CRE accepts publication on the website by that date as a minimum standard. The Authority is asked to authorise the Clerk to make any final amendments to the scheme as a result of the consultation or discussion at the Authority meeting.

MPS scheme

18. The MPS scheme will be sent separately to all members and is publicly available on the MPS website. It has been signed off by the Commissioner, through the Diversity Board. The Authority is asked to receive it.

Publication and launch

19. A formal joint MPA and MPS event to launch both schemes is being planned for June. The scheme is, however, a living document, open to revision at any time. Further work can be carried out on the documents, post-publication; to incorporate more detailed amendments, implementation lessons, and MPA restructuring and further consultation should this prove necessary. At a minimum, it is proposed that a further report on the scheme be submitted to the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board (if approved as part of the new committee structure) or the full Authority in six months time for endorsement.

20. Printed copies of the scheme will be available from the time of the launch and a public summary produced as soon as is practical.

21. The Greater London Authority is keen that the schemes produced by the four functional bodies should be complementary and consistent. Work has just begun to achieve this. Officers will co-operate with the steering group's aims while recognising that a major shift in the emphasis of the MPA's scheme is not possible at this late stage.

Outline of the scheme

22. The scheme comprises several parts:

1. Part A outlines the Authority's arrangements for meeting the duties.
2. Part B outlines the Action Plan
3. Part C contains the MPS Scheme and Action Plan.
4. Part D will contain background documents including the methodology used in preparing the scheme and reference documents.

23. Only Parts A and B will be available on general circulation. Part C will be available on request. Part D is largely intended for reference to staff implementing the scheme, and for inspection by the CRE and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

24. The key measures of the scheme are outlined below:

25. Section 1 deals with the Authority's structure and responsibilities for dealing with race equality and diversity generally.

1. The Authority is not identifying specific resources for dealing with race equality. Instead, the arrangements seek to integrate and mainstream equalities and diversity work across all committees and staff roles. At the same time, the measures seek to ensure that the MPA retains a specific focus on race equality and that this work complements the wider equalities and diversity agenda.
2. The Clerk to the Authority will be ultimately accountable for ensuring the Authority complies with the Act at all times.
3. An Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board will be established to co-ordinate and monitor the implementation of the MPA and MPS action plans and schemes. This board will have a strategic function over equal opportunities and diversity work in the MPA and MPS generally.
4. The Authority intends to provide leadership to others in relation to race equality by promoting conditions upon contractors, from whom we purchase services, to support equal opportunities in their work. Similar leadership will be shown in respect of agencies closely related to the MPA such as Community and Police Consultative Groups.

26. Section 2 proposes the measures by which the Authority will assess whether its own and the MPS scheme are successful. The key indicators cover:

1. Perceptions of fairness and equity by staff at both the MPA and MPS.
2. The development of fair and robust management structures and processes to deal effectively with complaints against staff, or address grievances and employment tribunals pursued by staff, particularly ethnic minority staff.
3. The improvement of trust and confidence of ethnic minority communities in policing in London.
4. The label of institutional racism arising from the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry being publicly lifted from the MPS by an appropriate independent source (to be identified).
5. Community perceptions of 'disproportionality' being measured and addressed.

27. Section 3 deals with the Authority's arrangements for monitoring the impact of its policies and functions. Under the specific duties of the Act, the Authority is required to assess all its policies and functions in order to monitor these for any adverse impact upon race equality. The Action Plan in Part B (see below) deals with this further. Section 3 specifies how impact assessment will be carried out.

1. Specific functional and policy impact reviews will be carried out, in the order proposed in the Action Plan (Part B) for all functions and policies deemed relevant to race equality.
2. Arrangements are also outlined to ensure the MPA secretariat maps, assesses and progresses recommendations arising from committee and other member decision-making meetings, where policy may arise.
3. Authors of committee reports will need to complete a section on equality implications as a standard item on all reports.
4. Best value reviews will need to continue to embrace equality issues in arriving at their recommendations.

28. Section 4 specifies how the Authority will publish the results arising from impact assessments and employment monitoring:

1. The scheme and monitoring results will be made available on the MPA website.
2. The Policing and Performance Plan will include a section containing an annual report of progress and findings.
3. The Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board and Human Resources Committee (or its successor) will receive regular monitoring reports.
4. The MPS has developed a monitoring tool to measure the extent of fair practice in its local service delivery. The Authority is requesting that this be rolled out across London and that local scrutiny of these results be promoted.

29. Section 5 outlines arrangements and intentions for improving access to information to MPA services and for developing MPA consultation:

1. An MPA/MPS Consultation Board has been developed to progress implementation of the Best Value Review of Consultation and to co-ordinate the MPA's main consultation activity. This Board will have a remit to develop consultation sensitive to all communities.
2. The MPA will develop collaborative arrangements with the MPS and GLA for promoting work and access to information in community languages.
3. The Authority is introducing a complaints procedure for dealing with complaints from members of the public about the actions of the Authority or its staff.

30. Section 6 deals with training issues:

1. The Authority's performance appraisal system will form the basis upon which equality and diversity objectives are set and training needs of staff members are identified.
2. One of the MPA's priority issues for the MPS is to undertake an evaluation of the diversity training programme (formerly referred to as Community and Race Relations Training).
3. A second issue is to seek to develop the ways training could help ensure a better representation of ethnic minority staff at senior positions within the MPS.

31. Section 7 outlines the Authority's arrangements for meeting the employment duty. This section covers the employment issues that the MPA Secretariat will monitor with reference to race equality, both of its own organisation and the MPS. Key points to make on this section are:

1. Although the MPA falls below the 150 employee threshold, the Authority will seek to comply with the standards and requirements set by the Act to mirror good practice.
2. The Authority has a key role in the selection of ACPO rank officers. The section outlines how the Authority will strive to improve the representation of ethnic minority officers at these ranks. Similarly, the Authority has responsibilities for the investigation into complaints against officers at ACPO ranks. The Authority will develop monitoring around the handling of these.
3. The MPS provides around 100,000 training places a year, with approximately 500,000 applications for these. The Authority will target the monitoring of those courses closely related to advancement and promotion in the service.
4. The reform of the pay and conditions structure has introduced some areas of discretionary payment e.g. special priority payments. The Authority will pursue the monitoring of discretionary payments with reference to race.

32. Part B outlines the MPA's functions and policies that have been identified as relevant to race equality. Members are asked to endorse these as relevant functions and the proposed timetable for reviewing these to assess their impact in terms of race equality as set out in the Action Plan.

A detailed Action Plan will be circulated to Members prior to the meeting.

33. Part B also outlines the relevant issues with relation to race equality that the Authority would seek development in the MPS during the life of the scheme. These include:

1. Employment, recruitment, retention, and progression of police officers and staff.
2. Organisation performance, management and culture.
3. Operational policing, community education, engagement, trust and confidence.
4. Financial and budgetary accountability and decision-making and their impacts upon policing a diverse community.

34. This list represents the policy areas and functions around which the Authority would expect to see the MPS prioritise within its own Action Plan. The prioritisation of these is shown in the MPA Action Plan.

Further work

35. Further additions to the scheme at a later date are expected to include collaboration with the GLA group and other partners and taking on board the GLA Equalities for All Review.

C. Financial implications

There are likely to be both resource and financial implications arising from the action plan of the scheme. This was not available for inclusion in the Authority's equalities budget proposal discussed by the CUC in November 2001. It is therefore proposed that, following the publication of the scheme, a detailed budget proposal is presented to the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board for its consideration, and that subject to the Board's views, an approximate provision to ensure the Authority is enabled fully to meet its duties under the Act is incorporated in the Authority's 2003/04 budget for submission to the Mayor.

D. Background papers

Statutory Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Race Equality

E. Contact details

Report author: Julia Smith and Jude Sequeira, CDO, MPA.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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