MPS Corporate Volunteer Programme

Report: 9
Date: 26 April 2007
By: Deputy Commissioner on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

To ensure the smooth running of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, the organisers will require the services of over 70,000 volunteers. To date well over 115,000 people have expressed an interest in supporting the Games.

This clearly evidences the existence of a volunteering culture within society and a willingness to assist public organisations. The spirit of volunteering and active citizenship fostered by the Games and the support infrastructure for volunteers being developed by the organising committee, provides a unique opportunity for the MPS to undertake a step change in its approach to volunteering; a new approach that will realise significant organisational, operational and cultural benefit.

This report provides an indication of the benefits that can accrue to the MPS should it invest in a corporate programme to tap the spirit of volunteering and introduce it into all aspects of its work.

A. Recommendation

That members support the principle of a Corporate Volunteer Programme and endorse the approach agreed by MPS Management Board.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. In planning for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) has identified the need to engage the services of 70,000 volunteers. To date over 115,000 people have registered an interest.

2. To provide support for the volunteers, LOCOG are establishing an infrastructure and volunteer strategy that includes such things as a pre-volunteering programme, under which people receive up to 30 hours of training to prepare them for the role, through a modular training process organised by the Work and Skills Council. The LOCOG lead for this work is Richard Sumray who, as a member of the MPA, is keen that the MPS should be strategically positioned to take advantage of the opportunities generated by the spirit of volunteering associated with the Olympic games.

Business benefits

Organisational benefits

3. Key to the delivery of MPS Corporate Strategy is the involvement of citizens in developing and shaping policing in London. To do this, the MPS can and should continue to develop a range of approaches to engage effectively with communities. These traditional approaches to corporate development can be significantly enhanced by the involvement of citizen volunteers in all of the major corporate cultural and organisational change programmes.

4. For example, the current MPS Volunteer Programme within TP has approximately 700 volunteers contributing 150,000 hours of service annually. The indication from TP is that there is an appetite for volunteering that has the capacity to not only support service delivery but also to contribute to the ongoing development of the programme. This style of engagement has the potential to be more productive than relying solely upon the set piece engagement that currently informs the development of corporate priorities.

5. The involvement of volunteers in all aspects of the work of the MPS has the added benefit of creating a pool of potential officers and staff who have an insight into what it means to be part of a dynamic organisation that is working with and for Londoner’s. Volunteering provides an alternative route into policing that compliments the MPS drive to broaden its skills base through workforce modernisation.

Operational benefits

6. The involvement of volunteers in the delivery of policing services brings with it significant operational benefit. At the most practical level many volunteers will bring with them expertise gained through a lifetime of experience in other fields of work. These skilled volunteers will provide additional resource to support officers and staff across the MPS. The full integration of volunteers into all aspect of the work of the MPS will also enhance our readiness and ability to respond to major incidents by ensuring that we have their support to either step in and undertake the business as usual activities (releasing officers and staff to focus on managing the incident and its aftermath), or by directly supporting the officers and staff dealing the incident.

7. The engagement of volunteers in policing has been shown to improve the understanding of the police and policing activity through greater involvement and contact. Volunteering promotes active citizenship and generates local ambassadors for policing within communities; advocates who have an understanding of policing issues and who can provide a trusted source of information. The provision of local and trusted information has the potential to increase police performance assessment framework confidence in policing measures. A rise in public confidence and increased accessibility to the police contributes significantly to improving the flow of the local intelligence that underpins a great deal of operational performance.

8. Volunteering in policing also has the potential to make a significant contribution to improving service delivery across a range of core tasks by constantly and routinely providing first hand feedback on the user experience. Through this engagement, services will be designed with user input at all stages complimenting more formal engagement and consultation processes.

Cultural benefits

9. The wider involvement of volunteers in policing will support the cultural transition currently underway within the MPS through initiatives such as Together and Citizen Focus. Volunteers, drawn from communities across London, working with us in planning, developing and delivering services will provide a new and fresh perspective on policing and the MPS.

10. The establishment of a Corporate Volunteering Programme provides opportunities for the MPS that will increase the involvement of individuals from the culturally diverse communities of London giving them a greater say in policing. This represents a real opportunity to broaden the range of our engagement. The evidence from the TP volunteering programme is that age range of volunteers is 16 – 89 of which 40% are people of black and minority ethnic origin. This figure rises to 90% on boroughs with a higher level of black and ethnic minority residents.

Next steps

11. The key to taking advantage of this unique opportunity is to abandon preconceptions about volunteering and its perceived limitations, replacing them with a dynamic new approach in which the opportunities for integrating volunteering into all aspects of policing are recognised and seized upon.

12. The MPS has engaged in volunteering in policing within TP successfully for some years now. It is therefore vital that any extension to the volunteering programme throughout the organisation should not negatively impact upon the success of the TP operation.

13. Whilst London prepares for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games the MPS should use this powerful driver to deliver the Corporate Volunteering Programme. The MPS must engage with LOCOG and the GLA to take full advantage of the opportunities that their Olympic volunteering work will deliver. Whilst benefiting from having volunteers originating from this work supporting MPS ‘business as normal’ in the run up to 2012, the MPS will need to make full use of it’s volunteers in assisting the policing and security operations to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, and beyond as a legacy of the Games.

14. Volunteering has already been identified within the MPS Olympic Programme as a distinct project. Management Board signed off the Olympic Programme scope on 8 March 2006.

15. The MPS Management Board have agreed that the TP Corporate Volunteering Programme becomes an integral part of the MPS Olympic Programme Board. The benefits of doing this include:

• There is a drive and energy attached to the Olympic Programme within the MPS that will ensure sufficient ongoing focus on delivery of the volunteers programme
• The Olympic programme has sound programme structures
• There are clear and defined governance arrangements around the MPS Olympic Programme already in existence
• There is already a clear strategic direction set for the Olympics Programme with clear objectives set
• The MPS Olympic Programme is now a distinct programme within the Met Modernisation Programme (MMP). This provides the opportunity for all projects to be subject to MPA oversight scrutiny
• The Olympics programme already has an excellent working relationship with both LOCOG and the GLA on all Olympic related matters
• Diversity and Citizen Focus is a key ‘enabling/risk’ strand within the Olympics Programme and will ensure sufficient input into the corporate volunteering programme

16 The MPS Management Board have agreed that the Corporate Volunteer Programme will be led by TP and become the responsibility of the current Volunteers in Policing team. The advantages of this approach are that:

• The MPS through TP already possesses valuable experience and knowledge on introducing volunteers into the organisation
• The Corporate Volunteer programme needs to build upon the successful foundation already created within TP
• It will ensure that the valuable work already conducted throughout TP is not negatively impacted by the development of a corporate approach.

Abbreviations

LOCOG

London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games

OCU

Operational Command Unit

MMP

Met Modernisation Programme

GLA

Greater London Authority

TP

Territorial Policing

C. Race and equality impact

It is clear that a corporate volunteering programme has the potential for increasing the involvement of people from all areas of London’s Diverse communities and society, including youth and persons retired from full-time employment. The programme will be subject to a full formal equality impact assessment will be produced as the programme develops.

D. Financial implications

The MPS has received additional funding from the Home Office to support the planning being conducted during 2007/8. The MPS is currently engaged in assessing the estimated planning and delivery costs for 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11. These costs were submitted through a business case to the Home Office on 28 February 2007. TP have been included in this process and have submitted their anticipated costs to this business case.

Report authors:

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Chief Superintendent Ian Harrison (Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate), Chief Superintendent Stephen Bloomfield, (TP safer Neighbourhoods Superintendent) Wayne Chance (CO12 Olympic OCU), MPS

For more information contact:

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

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