MPS Promotion Processes 2009 and 2010

Report: 5
Date: 3 March 2011
By: Director of Human Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report sets out to specifically respond to the three key points contained within the commissioning brief, namely:

• Provide data on how many applications were successful at each police promotion process during the last 12 months
• Provide data on how many applications were not supported by the Business Group level selection panel at each police promotion process in the last 12 months
• Provide data on how many appeals were received and how many were successful for each police promotion process for the last 12 months

For each category the commissioning brief has requested details of the gender, ethnic origin and faith of the candidates.

A. Recommendation

That Members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) plans promotion activity in response to the demands of the Deployment Plan and during the past 2 years, the Career Management Unit (CMU) have managed a total of 6 discrete promotion process for police officers across all ranks up to and including chief superintendent level, thus providing a range of opportunities for officers seeking advancement within the organisation.

2. The rolling programme of promotion activity does not always provide for annual promotion processes as the lists of officers selected may provide sufficient suitably qualified individuals to satisfy requirements for a longer period of time. For the purpose of providing an overview of activity at all ranks, this report will focus on two years’ worth of promotion processes as follows:

• Constable to Sergeant April 2010
• Sergeant to Inspector November 2009
• Inspector to Chief Inspector March 2009
• Chief Inspector to Superintendent June 2009
• Superintendent to Chief Superintendent Oct 2010

3. Whilst the application and assessment process varies according to rank, there are fundamental principles which apply to all promotion processes, which ensure fairness, transparency and equality of opportunity. There is no veto whereby candidates are prevented from submitting applications for consideration, regardless of whether they have line management support or not.

Police Constable to Police Sergeant and Police Sergeant to Inspector

4. The current process for officers seeking promotion to either sergeant or inspector is as follows:

• All candidates who meet the eligibility criteria may prepare and submit an application, whether or not they are supported by line management
• All applications proceed to the Central Review Panel (CRP) for assessment - whether supported by either, both or neither of the recommending managers
• Candidate’s evidence is assessed as primary evidence
• Line manager’s evidence is assessed as secondary evidence
• The CRP members assess candidate’s evidence of suitability
• Where the primary evidence is considered borderline, the Panel will consider the secondary evidence
• Appeals Process

Inspector to Chief Inspector and Chief Inspector to Superintendent

5. As the numbers seeking promotion to the middle ranks reduce, a more bespoke process is introduced to assess candidate’s suitability, as follows:

• Candidates prepare application in response to advertised process
• First line managers make a recommendation - suitable for immediate promotion (recommended) / review at next formal review (not recommended) and provide rationale to support
• All applications, whether supported or not, are assessed by the B/OCU Decision maker and Strategic HR Advisor
• Appeal Process
• Business Group Panel assesses all applications and makes recommendations as to which candidates will proceed to the Central Assessment Centre
• Appeal Process
• Central assessment Centre
• Appeal Process

Superintendent to Chief Superintendent

6. The most recent chief superintendent promotion process moved away from the traditional assessment centre process that had been utilised in the past to a more rigorous strategic interview approach, as follows:

• Candidates prepare application in response to advertised process
• Applications assessed by first and second line managers
• Applications assessed by Business Group Panel
• Appeal process
• Central Strategic Interview - panel comprising Director of HR Operations and two Assistant Commissioners or Deputy Assistant Commissioners
• Central Decision Making Panel
• Appeal Process

Application Data

7. A wide range of data is collated by the Career Management Team at various stages throughout each of promotion processes to assess the potential impact on staff groups.

8. Promotion to sergeant offers the first opportunity for officers seeking a supervisory role and application numbers are significantly higher than all other promotion processes. The process advertised in April 2010 attracted a total of 944 applications, of which 19.6% were female and 8.5% BME, in both cases whilst this is just below the MPS overall average, it must be noted that officers would normally be expected to have approximately three to four years service before applying for promotion and therefore, the success of the more recent recruitment activity will not yet be fully enjoyed. The success rates for females improves slightly with just over 20% selected for promotion whilst for BME candidates, there is small reduction to 7.7% success rate.

For full details please refer to Appendix 1

9. In November 2009, a significant number of officers submitted applications for the Inspector’s promotion process, and of the 883 candidates, a Select List of 156 were selected. The female candidates, made up 14.73% of the application pool, which is lower than the MPS percentage at that rank, but they were proportionately more successful making up 16.66% of the Select List. The BME candidates made up 7.13% of the application pool, with a smaller percentage of 5.12% being selected for promotion.

For full details please refer to Appendix 2

10. The Chief Inspector Promotion Process in March 2009 attracted a total of 356 applications, of which 15.73% were female and 5.89% BME. As in previous processes, the success rate for female officers remains positive at 16.77%, however this was the first process where the Promoting Difference Team worked closely with BME candidates to develop support networks with considerable success as a total of 9 candidates (5.59%) were selected as Chief inspectors.

11. This remains a significant milestone for the MPS in terms of actively supporting the diversity agenda and the successful candidates have themselves worked closely with the Promoting Difference Team and other BME candidates to mentor and encourage a range of support groups.

For full details please refer to Appendix 3

12. The same support network was created for BME and female candidates when the Superintendent Promotion Process was advertised in June 2009 and again the results were extremely encouraging. A total of 172 candidates submitted applications, of whom 11.6% were female and 4.65% were BME. The results clearly demonstrated how the programme has supported candidates in their preparation. The final Select List of 53 officers had 9 successful female candidates (16.98%) and 4 successful BME candidates (7.5%).

For full details please refer to Appendix 4

13. The most recent promotion process for chief superintendents was the first to utilise the new MPS Performance Framework which has been developed in consultation with the staff associations and involved assessment against the three key drivers:

• Operational Effectiveness is the delivery of effective outcomes that meet the needs of customers and communities, and is the demonstrable support of the MPS priorities of safety and confidence. It also includes the recognition of risk to achieving these priorities and managing such risk where possible.
• Organisational Influence is the provision of strong leadership (where relevant), professionalism and the promotion of equality and diversity. This area includes the effective influence of and communication with appropriate stakeholders.
• Resource Management is the effective management of all resources available, which may include financial, staff and equipment, and the on going promotion of efficient practices.

14. This process saw a total of 57 applications submitted, of whom 6 were female and just 1 BME, who was not successful at the Business Group Panel stage. The female candidates performed very well at the strategic interview stage with 4 (17.39%) being selected to the new rank. Significantly, the feedback from both candidates and assessors within this process has been extremely positive and this augers well as the MPS Performance Framework is cascaded throughout the MPS over the next three months.

For full details please refer to Appendix 5

Future activity

15. The review of the previous 2 years promotion activity shows the progress that has been enjoyed at the middle ranks but clearly there remains a significant challenge to ensure that promotion and lateral progression within the MPS are open to all groups.

16. The Promoting Difference Team, in conjunction with the National Police Improvement Agency are currently running a series of development courses entitled Positive Action Leadership Programme (PALP) which are aimed at more junior police officers and police staff (inspector, Band D and below). These courses encompass the six strands of diversity and are designed to encourage staff from under represented groups to stay within the service and to apply for progression laterally to a specialist role or for promotion when the opportunities arise.

17. The Race and Faith Enquiry Action Plan will draw together much of the activity that is already underway and will ensure a cohesive and collaborative approach to supporting candidates from under represented groups in their career plans. This partnership approach will bring together the Staff Associations and HR to work with individuals and line managers across the organisation to create support networks, action learning groups and individual development plans.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. There are two Equality Impact Assessments associated with the promotion activity. The first is the National Police Promotions Framework (NPPF) EIA which assesses the impact of the national stages of the process for selection to sergeant and inspector. A generic EIA has been developed for all MPS promotion processes, as part of the planning and consultation stage. This allows the Career Management Unit to monitor all stages of the process in terms of impact and ensure that interventions can be put in place where ever necessary. The aim being to provide a proper assessment of the promotion process as a change initiative on individuals to ensure that any issues relating to equality and diversity are proactively and properly managed at each stage. This EIA remains a dynamic, living document and as such it is revisited and amended as the processes develop and any impact emerges in relation to staff implications.

2. The MPS Equality Policy supports legislation under The Equality Act 2010 and sets out individual responsibilities to ensure discrimination is eliminated from the working environment. In summary the MPS aims to ensure, that where we introduce change programmes and improvement plans, that the following principles remain at the heart of our strategies:

• The right to be respected and the responsibility to treat others with respect
• The right to be treated fairly and the responsibility to treat others fairly
• The right not to be unlawfully or unjustifiably discriminated against and the responsibility not to unlawfully or unjustifiably discriminate against any other individual.
• The right to equality of opportunity and the responsibility to support equality of opportunity to others
• The responsibility to promote equality and to protect those rights for others.

Consideration of MET Forward

3. The collective impact of all activity underway to develop and maintain operational capacity and capability within the MPS will support the key themes and contribute to the effective delivery of Met Forward by ensuring efficient use of our officers by creating an effective distribution of skill and experience and rank across the MPS.

Financial Implications

4. All promotion activity is fully funded from within the Recruitment Directorate budget and delivers officer resources at the required ranks as per the Deployment Plan, which is compiled as part of the Business Planning and budget setting process.

5. All officer staffing costs are monitored corporately to ensure that all promotion activity within the Service is managed within the approved budget.

6. There are training implications and associated costs both in terms of assessors and interviewers and the within the Leadership and Learning Academy, however all such costs are fully funded and affordable from within Business Group budgets.

Legal Implications

7. It is anticipated that there will be no specific legal implications arising from this report

Environmental Implications

8. It is anticipated that there will be no environmental implications arising from this report.

Risk Implications

9. It is anticipated that there will be no significant risks or health and safety implications arising from this report.

D. Background papers

• Appendix 1 - 5

E. Contact details

Report authors: Gabrielle Nelson (A/Director of Recruitment and Workforce Planning), MPS

For information contact:

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

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback