Update on diversity within Specialist Operations

Report: 4
Date: 25 November 2010
By: Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This paper provides an update on the approaches being undertaken within Specialist Operations to positively address the recruitment of under-represented groups across the Business Group.

A. Recommendation

That

1. Members note this report and the attached appendices.

B. Supporting information

Analysis and Current Position

1. The current proportion of SO staff (police officers and police staff) who are either female or from a black and minority ethnic background (BME) are highlighted in the tables at Appendices 1-4. The tables include data for the business group as a whole (broken down by OCU) for the period from October 2009 and September 2010. A previous report on this issue was prepared for the sub-committee in November 2009. Where no data is shown this is because the relevant OCUs did not exist at the time i.e. SO20 and SO23 only formally came into being in April 2010.

2. Within the business group as a whole there has been a slight increase in female police officer representation - with most OCUs either increasing the representation or maintaining the levels achieved at the beginning of the reporting period. Significant changes (both increase and decrease) during the relevant period i.e. within SOHQ, are due to structural change in February 2010 (when SOHQ was formed from a restructuring of SO2) and the fact that there are relatively few police officer posts (19) within the department.

3. The proportion of female police staff members within SO has remained fairly static over the past 12 months. Within the business group as a whole, and within most OCUs, the proportions are relatively high and at or near the stated notional target of 50%.

4. BME police officer representation has increased over the past 12 months – both within the business group as a whole and in most OCUs. Whilst the proportion is still slightly short of the MPS target of 10%, the increase is encouraging. During data collection the MPA Race and Faith Inquiry found that in March 2009 6.8% of police officers, within SO as a whole, were from a BME background; this was identified as the highest proportion of BME officers in all specialist MPS business groups (CO, HR, DoI, SO, SCD etc.). Current data also represents an increase on this March 2009 position.

5. Over the last 12 months SO has maintained a relatively high proportion of BME police staff. Whilst there is no MPS target for such representation, the current level of 22.1% compares favourably with the figures included within the MPA Race and Faith Inquiry for both MPS BME police staff average (23.4% as at March 2009), and the London BME population at (29% as at 2001 Census).

6. Female and BME representation across SO as a whole, and within each OCU, is regularly monitored by a business group level Diversity Board chaired by DACSO. Relevant data is included in regular business group performance reports and these are made available to SO Chief Officer Group (SO COG) members and OCU commanders.

7. Each OCU within SO now has a diversity forum/panel. In many cases these are ‘owned’ by the workforce to ensure openness and effective engagement. OCUs have developed diversity work-plans which are aligned to the four stands of the MPS corporate strategy. In most cases the work-plans have named leads for each activity. All OCUs have worked closely with the SO diversity adviser within Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate (DCFD) in developing their plans and assessing themselves against the Equality Standard for the Police Service (ESPS).

8. Central recruitment within Transforming Human Resources (THR), based at Hendon, now leads on recruitment for all OCUs within SO. OCU commanders are responsible for managing their unit’s strengths, of both police officers and police staff, and monitoring recruitment diversity and activities undertaken to encourage diversity is an integral part of this.

9. In general terms the recruitment issues in relation to diversity within SO are similar to those in other specialist units. SO does not directly recruit probationary constables and officers are required to have completed their probationary period prior to specialising.

10. Of the nine OCUs currently within the SO Business Group, four are armed as part of core business and demand additional Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO) skills. This issue is particularly pertinent - recruiting female officers into firearms commands is a service-wide issue and not confined to SO. A similar situation exists in relation to investigator skills - the Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) requires its investigating officers to have completed the national Professionalising Investigation Programme. These requirements mean that SO has to compete with other specialist units to attract officers from a limited number of skilled individuals.

11. In order to attract new recruits, SO has undertaken a number of initiatives aimed at increasing representation of London’s diverse population.

SO Career Management Unit (SOCMU)

12. Probably the key, and most enduring, initiative has been the formation of the SO Career Management Unit (SOCMU) in November 2003. This unit was established following research which identified a general lack of careers information and advice as one of the main barriers to recruitment. Amongst other things, the SOCMU continues to provide a central point of contact to provide unbiased information about career opportunities within SO. The unit’s role also now includes:

• Event organising - the unit can provide advice/support in the organisation of local command open days, road shows or large scale, multi-discipline careers events in order to promote SO
• Presentations - the unit continuously seeks opportunities to speak about the work of SO to any interested group (i.e. Staff Associations, IAG’s, students, new recruits, HPDS members, etc)
• Candidate support - providing a follow-up advisory service to unsuccessful candidates in SO selection processes (both at paper sift and interview stages)

The above list is by no means exhaustive as the unit is continuously seeking new opportunities to raise awareness of SO amongst the widest audience possible.

Careers Fairs

13. SO has held several “careers fairs” for existing MPS officers and staff, and others aimed at recruiting officers from other forces. The events also offer an excellent opportunity to market SO and have included representation from all OCUs within the business group. Details of a number of these events have been submitted to the MPA in earlier reports and were supplied to the MPA Race and Faith Inquiry.

Firearms Awareness Event

14. As previously highlighted the requirement to recruit officers with AFO skills into the business group has proved a difficult issue. SOCMU is about to host an event aimed at MPS colleagues and their partners. The main part of the event will be an informal market place where visitors can speak directly to officers performing the specialist roles. There will also be two presentations - Overview of the role of a firearms officer and Post Incident Procedure (PIP). These events are being supported by all firearms OCUs within SO, CO19 and colleagues in SCD. In addition DACSO and DACCO are working together to review firearms training to determine whether it can be made more ‘female friendly’. Recommendations will be actioned across the business group.

‘Live Forum’

15. A proposal will be presented at the next SO Diversity Forum to hold a live forum where MPS colleagues may ask questions of a panel of SO ‘experts’. This will provide an opportunity for wider engagement.

‘Myth Busting’ campaign

16. Enquiries received by the SOCMU indicate that some common misconceptions still exist about certain roles within SO; e.g. ‘You have to be a substantive detective to work in any part of SO15’. To address these, it is proposed that the campaign will take the form of a single statement (myth?) displayed prominently on the SO intranet homepage with a link to take the reader to a set of Q&As covering a selection of commonly-held beliefs relating to work within SO. The ‘myth’ will be changed regularly and will be supported by a poster campaign.

17. In addition to the work above, which is being undertaken at business group level, individual OCUs are also undertaking a number of specific initiatives. The following paragraphs provide a summary of these specific initiatives.

SO1 - Specialist Protection

18. SO1 holds a diversity working group, chaired by a member of the SMT, on a bi- monthly basis. The meeting covers the four strands of the MPS diversity strategy .i.e. Fair and responsive policing, Enhancing engagement with all communities, Workforce and culture and Governance and performance. Each strand has a named lead and activity is tied into the ESPS. There is also a separate female focus group that is run by officers themselves. This feeds into the diversity working group.

19. The diversity group has led on a number of different initiatives these have included female only ‘insight’ days, promoting initiatives to improve work life balance e.g. job share and flexible working, identified role models for female officers (who give talks at insight days to promote the OCU) and the establishment of ‘Omni competency’ which has removed internal occupational barriers and enhanced career opportunities. The OCU has also reviewed its firearms to ensure carriage and handling is easier for all.

20. On-going work within the OCU includes:

• Scoping who their customers are and reviewing their needs
• Working with partners to ensure effective cultural briefing for officers either working overseas or protecting individuals visiting the UK
• Work with procurement (focus group) so that they understand the needs of female officers within the OCU
• Reviewing staff skills to ensure the ability to give an effective service to customers and support fellow officers ( i.e. language skills)
• Developing the use of EIA's (as required) for all policy and operations
• Monitoring/ analysing female and BME numbers within OCU and identifying barriers

SO6 – Diplomatic Protection

21. SO6 has developed a comprehensive Diversity & Equality Strategy for 2010-13. This reflects the four stands of the MPS strategy and outlines a number of key activities which are owned by SMT members. Governance of the strategy is provided by a diversity board which reports to the OCU commander.

SO14 - Royalty Protection

22. Work within SO14 aims to challenge the existing internal culture to ensure that the OCU is an attractive place to work, and seek ways to address the under representation through positive action in terms of selection and training. The numbers of female and BME staff has doubled over the last two years but the OCU recognises that both groups continue to be under represented.

23. The OCU have created a diversity forum, owned by the workforce, which has direct access to the diversity manager and shares in the resolution of issues. Initiatives include the provision of training for workplace mediators to resolve difficulties at the earliest possible stage, taking positive action taken against those whose behaviour has fallen below the required standard either through discipline or developmental learning and creating exposure opportunities to the work undertaken by the OCU for under-represented groups. SO14 has recently recruited its first black Inspector to a close protection role

24. In addition to the above the OCU had created lateral development opportunities to enable staff to move between the varying disciplines, examined pass/fail rates for students on firearms courses and commissioning research into the wide discrepancy between male and female students.

SO15 - Counter Terrorism Command

25. SO15 has a well-established diversity panel and has developed a revised action plan to reflect the four strands of MPS corporate strategy. The action plan identifies relevant activities and individuals who lead on those activities. Time scales are set for delivery. The work of the SO15 diversity panel has recently been formally recognised by the presentation of an MPS Equality and Diversity award to its diversity champion.

26. SO15 operates a mentoring scheme for all officers and staff. It was originally intended to support female and BME officers, but has proved so successful it has been extended across the command.

SO17 - Palace of Westminster

27. SO17 has developed a diversity action pan which is aligned to the four strands of the MPS corporate strategy. A number of initiatives have been undertaken to ensure the OCU understands and meets the needs of both external customers and staff. These have included a Parliamentary visitor survey and engagement with the SO Diversity Advisor to run focus/improvement forums to address issues such as bullying and culture. The Leadership Academy is also continuing to facilitate workshops for managers to develop leadership skills and managing fairness issues.

SO18 - Aviation Security

28. SO18 has had a robust diversity strategy since February 2009 and a number of initiatives have been undertaken in support of it. Given the environment in which the OCU operates the strategy is both internal and external facing. Initiatives have included attendance at LGBT, gender and faith events hosted by BAA, female specific open days (including addressing issues relevant to firearms training) and work with the chair of the MPS Disabled Staff Association to increase learning around support for disabled staff.

29. The OCU is currently implementing a succession planning policy for police officers. One of the benefits of this is that the profile of officers on the OCU will become more diverse – traditionally SO18 officers have been predominantly male and white and, with no maximum length of posting in place, it has been difficult to change the make-up of the workforce. The maximum length of posting is now 10 years and the first staff due to move under the succession planning policy leave the OCU on 1st April 2011, although a number have already moved to new posts in anticipation of their transfer date. Support is being offered to all those who are due to be transferred but are reluctant to leave. SOCMU are to run workshops covering completion of F7305 and interview technique aimed at supporting the first tranche of officers due to move out of the OCU under local succession planning policy.

30. SO18 is also currently recruiting MSC officers. The MSC team is much more diverse and representative of the community and the OCU are looking to increase its size to 50 (from 12) as well as implementing a volunteer programme in readiness for 2012.

SO20 - Protective Security

31. SO20 has a diversity forum which includes independent membership (from MPS IAG). The OCU has worked with the SO diversity advisor to complete the MPS Diversity and Equalities workbook - a work-plan will be developed to action any gaps identified. A ‘Masterclass’ was recently held for supervisors which dealt with lesbian, gay and transgender issues.

32. To increase opportunity SO20 is to train a number of MSC officers and PCSOs to become licensed search officers. The pilot is due to start in April 2011 (recruiting now) and end in September 2011.

SO23 - Olympic Security

33. SO23 is a new OCU; formed earlier this year as a result of the restructuring of resources from CO12. The OCU is relatively small with only about 60 members of staff - both police officers and police staff.

34. The OCU has developed a diversity profile and examined issues relevant to recruitment through data analysis and interviews. This work was completed in September and the resulting report will be used as a baseline to inform and drive future activity.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. There are no explicit equality and diversity impacts arising from this report. The report outlines how the business group is working towards reducing any impact on operational effectiveness through ensuring a more diverse and representative workforce. In addition, SO are in regular contact with key community groups and use this engagement to assist the monitoring of the impact of counter terrorist policing in London.

Consideration of MET Forward

2. There are no implications for the delivery of MET Forward. Activity described in this report either directly or indirectly contributes to MET Forward key outcomes.

Financial Implications

3. There are no financial implications as a result of this report. The costs of the activity described are covered by CT specific grant and Dedicated Security Post (DSP) funding both of which are subject to a separate regular report to the CT&PS sub-committee.

4. The CSR settlement of CT grants nationally was for a 10% reduction in CT funding over 4 years from 2011/12. Although this is significantly better than many other areas of policing it does mean that CT/DSP activity (including that on diversity) will need to be managed from a reducing budget.

Legal Implications

5. This in an information report, therefore, there are no direct legal implications arising from the report.

6. As a public authority, the MPA is currently required to take action to tackle discrimination, to prevent harassment, and to promote equality of opportunity in all its functions in relation to race, disability and gender.

7. On 8 April 2010, the Equality Act 2010 received Royal Assent. The Act sets out a general duty requiring those subject to the duty to have regard to the need to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
• advance equality of opportunity between different groups; and
• foster good relations between different groups.

8. Some provisions of the Equality Act come into force on 1 October 2010 but the government proposes to bring the general and specific equality duties into force through regulations in April 2011. Public bodies will have an extra year after the regulations have come into force before having to publish their equality objectives and whether they are being met.

9. This report helps to demonstrate the SO business group’s compliance with the MPA’s legal duties to advance equality of opportunity between different groups

Environmental Implications

10. There are no environmental implications arising from this report.

Risk Implications

11. There are no risk implications other than those already discussed within the body of the report.

D. Background papers

None

E. Contact details

Report author(s): Neil Haynes – Strategic Delivery Unit SOHQ, MPS

For information contact:

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

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