MPS Equalities Scheme

Report: 5
Date: 22 October 2009
By: on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an overview of the ongoing development of the MPS Equalities Scheme, including annual reporting, governance, engagement and inclusion within the broader MPS equalities agenda.

A. Recommendation

That members:

1. Note the content of this report and appendices, and make any comments; and
2. Endorse the contents of the attached annual reports.

B. Supporting information

1. This report builds on the update provided to the then MPA Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board on 3 April 2008, committee report 11, and available at www.mpa.gov.uk/committees/x-eodb/2008/080403/11

Annual reporting

2. The initial MPS Equalities Scheme (ES) was published in December 2006, with statutorily-required annual reports for disability to be published each December thereafter. In addition, following publication of the gender section (that is, an incorporated Gender Equality Scheme) in April 2007, annual reports for gender were required each April thereafter. To coincide with the second of these gender reports, the MPS decided it would use the opportunity to include an annual report on all equality strands, including Common actions, and not just the gender strand. The Scheme and all the aforementioned annual reports can be found at http://www.met.police.uk/dcf/equality_stm.htm As requested within the MPA Commissioning Brief, the 2008 Disability Annual Report is attached as Appendix 1 and the 2009 ES Annual Report as Appendix 2.

3. The successes of the action plan can be seen within the attached annual reports. Highlights include activity within the following areas:

• Mental Health issues (Objective D2)
• Communication Strategies (Objective D8)
• Hate Crime (Objectives D9 and C21)
• Recruitment and retention (Objectives D13 and C20)
• Monitoring processes (Objective C5)
• Custody issues (Objective G7)

Scheme ownership and governance

4. In terms of governance, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Equalities Scheme Programme Board (ESPB) has strategic oversight for the delivery of the action plan work programme. This is chaired by the Director, Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate (DCFD) and is sited directly below the governance provided by the Diversity Board. The Programme Board is supported by the DCFD Diversity Strategy and Coordination Unit, in terms of agenda-setting, report submission (for DCFD reports) or scrutiny (for other business groups’ reports).

5. Management Board agreed in early 2009 that the Deputy Commissioner should chair Diversity Board to enhance the Board's impact and its delivery of improvements in diversity and equality issues across the MPS. To sharpen the focus of the Board, the Deputy Commissioner required each Business Group to identify five diversity priorities for 2009/10, for which they are now being held to account.

6. Board members should be members of their Business Group's Senior Management Team and therefore be able to act on behalf of their business area and talk about the breadth of work being undertaken within their business group.

7. Six-monthly updates on the Equalities Scheme (ES) have been timetabled into the Diversity Board's work programme and the Board provides an escalation route for issues that cannot be resolved through the ESPB.

8. The ES was produced in consultation with many internal and external stakeholders and authorised by Management Board. From the outset, identified senior business group leads were responsible for ongoing progress. It is a corporate-level document with most, but not all, business groups owning actions.

9. The annual reports provide details of the progress and change that has resulted from the ES.

10. The Diversity Learning and Development Branch, now part of Human Resources, continues to be responsible for the implementation of the Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme (PRDLDP). The ES contains many references directing different parts of the organisation to their responsibilities around PRDLDP within the objectives to be delivered. Completion of the learning sets within the programme are mandatory for all staff, ensuring the Scheme’s aims, as part of the overall equalities and diversity agenda, are disseminated to all staff.

Impact on BOCUs

11. The ES, in line with its intended objective, has had a direct impact on those working on (B)OCUs. For example, the Equality Impact Assessment process (Objective C3), one of the fundamental aspects of the ES, has ensured that corporate policies (and other activities), which between them affect every OCU and every member of staff, take into account the equalities agenda. In this way ES activity is mainstreamed across the MPS and down to the local level. Engagement on the impact of policies at this local level is a key part of the process.

12. The Diversity and Citizen Focus Advisors (DCFAs) have ensured that all business groups and (B)OCUs have developed plans and structures, for example, local diversity strategies, local action plans and targets that reflect those set out in the ES, and in the setting up of local monitoring and review processes. The DCFAs provide a direct link to (B)OCUs to assist them in delivering on the objectives within the Scheme with the support of strand-specific expertise. In addition, as part of the communication aspect of the MPS Diversity and Equality Strategy 2009-13, a range of briefing materials and events to share good practice with and between equality coordinators are to be held across the organisation. Despite ongoing concerns regarding the positioning of the DCFD, through the presence of the DCFAs, no BOCU has been unduly affected.

Links with MPS Diversity and Equality Strategy

13. During 2008/9 a review of the whole action plan has been underway.

14. The MPS Diversity and Equality Strategy 2009-12, which has been approved by the MPS Diversity Board and awaits sign-off by the MPS Management Board and the MPA, has four strategic themes: Fair and Responsive Services; Community Engagement; Workforce and Culture; and Governance and Performance. Each theme has a senior strategic lead within the organisation. Delivering this strategy is critical to the Commissioner’s priorities of giving communities the confidence that we are on their side and increasing safety. The ES will support this by becoming the delivery or action plan for the new strategy.

15. Until now, the action plan has reflected a gap analysis, that is, it concentrates only on those issues which stakeholders told us were important to them. Therefore, it is not and was not designed to be, a document covering all the diversity and equality progress and ambitions that the MPS has or seeks to make. However, the refined action plan, under the broad strategy, will include additional equalities activity.

16. Linked to the ES and in full support of the strategy will be a performance measurement and improvement tool - the Equality Standard for the Police Service. It is the Standard that provides us with a means of measuring and monitoring how effectively we have addressed the objectives and activities set out in our equality and diversity action plan (the MPS Equalities Scheme); and how far we have met or progressed beyond meeting our legal duties. This will build on the work to mainstream equality and diversity throughout the MPS with, amongst other factors, the focus on how the outcome has made a difference to people and communities.

17. This composite approach (Strategy, Scheme and Standard) will support the organisation in the delivery of our primary Policing Pledge commitment: to always treat people fairly, with dignity and respect, making sure that everyone has access to our services.

Engagement

18. Ongoing engagement on the ES at the corporate level takes place through the ES Programme Board, which includes internal and external members. Specific areas are discussed with particular stakeholders, for example the Disability Annual Report 2008 was the subject of discussion between DCFD and the Co-Chairs of the Disability Independent Advisory Group and amended as a result prior to publication.

19. Considerable engagement activity related to the ES is described within the 2009 ES Annual Report under Objective C18 at Appendix 2. The report includes engagement activity across all the strands, both in terms of what structures or forums are in place and what work or progress has resulted - the latter include projects which are taking place to advance ES objectives at business group and (B)OCU level.

20. The existence of diversity forums across the MPS at the business group and OCU level are a means of ensuring that local communities are engaged in equalities issues. The application of the Equality Standard for the Police Service will enable the MPS to accurately monitor the results of engagement activity, for example, the considerable level of engagement carried out by Safer Neighbourhood Teams. The Standard is fundamentally a performance enhancement tool which relies upon business groups and BOCUs to cite evidence of achievements, including evidence of engagement. Engagement and the involvement of communities is a theme throughout the Standard and communities also included within the final validation process.

Challenges

21. The following challenges have been identified:

• Ownership of actions has on occasion been disputed, leading to some updates not being readily forthcoming. This has weakened the governance of the Scheme. However, with the Deputy Commissioner now the chair of Diversity Board, it is anticipated that governance and scrutiny will be enhanced.
• Rigour and clarity with regards to a sign-off procedure, not unique to the ES, has resulted in the situation where many actions are being progressed, but without a defined completion. Few, if any, actions are therefore considered ‘complete’. It has been recognised from the experience of reporting on the Morris Inquiry, the CRE Formal Investigation and other reports, that this is an area which requires improvement. With the Director of DCFD now being the lead for the Strategy theme Governance and Performance, this issue will be resolved via a corporate body chaired by the Director.

C. Race and equality impact

Equality and diversity are the very subjects of this report. There are significant diversity benefits to be derived from the implementation of the ES, notably in the elimination of discrimination, together with the promotion of equality of opportunity, good relations between different groups, positive attitudes towards others and the participation of all in public life. The scheme will enable the MPS to deliver an ever-higher quality service to all Londoners in line with the Policing Pledge.

The approach taken by the Scheme dovetails the government’s aims as seen through the proposed Equality Bill. In fact the Scheme, with its ambitious activity across all the strands, pre-dated the direction of the Bill.

D. Financial implications

It is acknowledged that this is a difficult area to assess and coordinate. Individual action owners need to ensure that the required financial and people resources are identified. It is accepted that resource levels will need to change over time as action plan objectives are further developed, and this will need to be managed through the normal MPS business planning process.

E. Legal implications

1. This report sets out the MPA and MPS’s general duties to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and promote good relations when exercising their functions.

2. The specific duty to publish a Race, Disability and Gender Equalities scheme and the duty to monitor the police forces equalities scheme is set out in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000; the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and the Equalities Act 2006, as amended.

3. The Equality Bill is now going through parliament and it contains provision for a new single equalities duty. This will bring together the existing race, disability and gender duties and will also cover areas such as sexual orientation, age, religion and belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment. The general equality duty will require all public bodies to eliminate discrimination across all these protected characteristics and advance equality of opportunity.

4. Secondary legislation will set out specific duties for public bodies, which will aid them to fulfil their general duties. It is expected that this will include the requirement of producing a combined equality scheme with progress against objectives set under the scheme to be reported to the Authority on an annual basis. In addition, it is expected that there will be a duty to review objectives set at least every three years. The Government are current consulting on specific public sector duties proposed under the Bill, in their paper titled “Equality Bill: Make it work- Policy proposals for specific duties”, which ends on 30 September 2009. Consultation on draft regulations is expected to take place thereafter.

5. The MPA are also under a general statutory duty under s6ZA of the Police Act 1996, as inserted by the Police & Justice Act 2006 and the Police Authorities (Particular Functions and Transitional provisions) Order 2008, to promote equality and diversity within the police force maintained for the its area and within the authority.

6. The MPA clearly have a critical role in ensuring that the obligations under the various legislative provisions are discharged, and this report demonstrates compliance with the requirements referred to above.

F. Environment impact

None

G. Background papers

None

H. Contact details

Report author(s): Colin White, Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate, MPS.

For information contact:

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

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