Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) annual learning and development business plan 2008-09

Report: 6
Date: 4 July 2008
By: the Chief Executive

Summary

All Home Office forces are required to prepare an Annual Learning and Development Business Plan in a format that meets the criteria specified in Home Office Circulars 44/2005 and 10/2007. The plan (Appendix 1) is available on the MPA website and a copy has been placed in the MPA’s Members Room. This report provides a summary of the 217-page document. It had previously been agreed that the plan would be considered in-depth by the HR Oversight Group in June and, subject to their views, recommended to Co-ordination and Policing Committee (CoP) for formal approval rather than detailed discussion.

A. Recommendations

That members approve the MPS Annual Learning and Development Business Plan for 2008-09.

B. Supporting information

 1. All Home Office forces are required to prepare an Annual Learning and Development Business Plan in a format that meets the criteria specified in Home Office Circulars 44/2005 and 10/2007. Copies of the plan have been placed in the Members Room and this reports provides a summary of the 300-page document. It has been agreed that the plan would be considered in-depth by the HR Oversight Group in June and, subject to their views, recommended to Co-ordination and Policing Committee (CoP) for formal approval rather than detailed discussion.

2. The report is divided into three parts:

Part One - provides strategic direction to all MPS Business areas and learning and development providers in the disciplines required to effectively identify, design and deliver the MPS training requirement.

Part Two - outlines the clear distinction between the responsibility of the Client / sponsor and those of the provider of formal learning solutions.

Part Three -  presents the Annual Learning and Development Business Plan, including the Annual Costed Training Plan.

3. Of the training carried out, 22% of all student-training days are ‘corporate’ mandatory (231,096 days) and 68% are ‘role’ mandatory (944,933). Therefore, the combined corporate and role mandatory training accounts for 90% of all training days. Training delivery has been planned across 85 training units supported by the full time equivalent of 1,296 trainers and staff (including occasional trainers), 996 of whom are dedicated trainers.

4. Training delivery is planned to utilise 708 classrooms, syndicate rooms, offices and gyms within 88 different locations across the MPS. In addition, there is planned expenditure of £316,700 on the hire of 53 non-MPS premises, primarily for the delivery of Officer Safety Training.

Corporate Strategy

5. The Training Strategy is focused on supporting the Policing London Strategy. The Policing London Strategy provides a clear picture of the direction and performance focus of the MPS.

Recruit training

6. One of the key objectives has been the successful implementation of the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (IPLDP) for new recruits. Whilst students are now trained for the most part at their local training site, all IPLDP students commence their training with a 5-week module delivered at Hendon. The MPS continue to build on this approach to learning, making full use of community involvement and engagement, and recognise that development and improvement is continuing. The challenging 30-week course delivers officers fit for independent patrol.

7. The content of the Post Foundation delivery of training has also been reviewed and complements the initial 30 weeks of the programme. The MPS continues to work progressively towards the national route to qualification by becoming an 'Approved Centre' for the award of levels 3 and 4 NVQ in policing.

Professionalising Investigation Programme

8. The Crime Academy involvement with national detective training and development programmes means that the delivery of training programmes meets national requirements in accordance with the ACPO and NPIA led 'Professionalising Investigation Programme' (PIP).

9. Level 1 PIP training requirements are now embedded in IPLDP. Level 2 training requirements for all newly appointed detectives are met through the Initial Crime Investigators Development Programme (ICIDP) and Level 3 training requirements for Senior Investigating Officers (SIOs) are met through the SIOs Development Programme (SIODP).

Oversight

10. The MPS argues that overall scrutiny of the learning and development function lies with the MPA and this is exercised through the Internal Audit process. The responsibility for learning and development remains with the Commissioner and his Management Board. Management Board is supported in this through Training Management Board (TMB). The strategic direction of MPS training is agreed and maintained by TMB and the Director of Training and Development is a key member of that Board. The HR Policy Officer represents the MPA on TMB.

11. The membership of TMB also includes ACPO level representatives from each of the MPS business groups and serves as the client side body that determines training priorities for the MPS. The main functions of TMB are to:

• agree MPS learning and development policies and strategies
• approve and, monitor delivery of, the MPS Annual Learning and Development Plan
• agree training proposals that make demands across MPS business groups

12. The last of these is a particularly important function since it is the way in which the training aspirations of business groups and specialist units are moderated in relation to the priorities and capacity of the MPS as a whole. All proposals for new training are based on a performance needs analysis and include consideration of both equality and diversity implications and the resource demands of the proposed solution. New legislation and national policing initiatives have resulted in a growing requirement for mandatory training over the years and one of TMB’s functions is to maintain an overview of this to ensure that the impact on frontline policing is contained within reasonable limits.

13. Each MPS business group has a training board that mirrors the functions of TMB at a business group level. The TMB business group representatives chair these boards. B/OCU Commanders are responsible for determining local training priorities, although this is subject to scrutiny by their Business Group Training Board. Generally, Training Boards will be responsible for overseeing all learning and development related issues within their area of responsibility, whether it is for corporate or individual development. Line managers, in conjunction with individuals, are responsible for ensuring that learning and development needs are met. This applies both to corporate mandatory training requirements and individual needs identified through the PDR process.

Performance Needs Analysis

14. The cornerstone of identifying training needs remains Performance Needs Analysis (PNA). This is a structured method for ensuring that solutions to identified performance issues are focused on addressing the performance needs of the Service. The process involves:

• Identifying the performance required
• Identifying current performance
• Identifying the performance gap
• Identifying possible solutions, including non-training solutions along with the associated risks and costs

Prioritisation of training

15. TMB is responsible for prioritising MPS wide training while Business Group Training Boards undertake an equivalent function for their areas of responsibility. In both instances, there is a MPS prioritisation guide that incorporates a risk assessment and scoring methodology and provides a useful tool to aid discussion and decision-making. However, the reality is that the Service faces huge demands for training to meet legislative requirements, technical upgrades and the recommendations resulting from various reports. Accordingly, TMB endeavour to maintain some capacity for discretionary training to meet local and individual needs.

Abstractions

16. An underlying principle is that training will be designed and delivered in such a way as to minimise absence from the workplace. Wherever practicable, training is to be conducted at or near the workplace, using, if available, corporately produced training and learning materials. The MPS strives to bring training to the students rather than the students to training. The benefits of this include significant reductions in the time wasted travelling to and from courses.

17. The MPS continues to develop its use and application of e learning and to exploit the benefits this mode of training delivery offers. Every member of the MPS now has a learning account on the National Centre for Applied Learning Technologies (NCALT), Managed Learning Environment (MLE) that enables access to national and MPS specific e-learning modules. An interface between the MLE and the MetHR system now exists whereby individual learning records and new accounts are automatically updated and created.

18. These groups include part time workers, those with mobility concerns or issues, those on secondment, those on maternity or paternity leave, those with caring responsibilities and those on a career break. In addition, the design standards for e-learning make specific provision for disability. E-learning provides greater flexibility for learners to progress at their own speed, thus enabling learning for those with different levels of ability. This is supported by the MPS protected learning time policy, which aims to provide individuals, and teams with time and resources to address their continuing professional development.

Consideration by the HR Oversight Group

19. The Group considered that the plan included a huge amount of valuable data which would prove extremely valuable both for the MPS and the MPA in terms of scrutinising the training activities and budgets for planning and audit purposes. For example, the report itself produced very useful comparative data between boroughs and demonstrated – amongst other things - the value for money being achieved, the level of accommodation usage etc. At the moment concerns about the quality of data from other forces prevented benchmarking, but the Home Office database will shortly be relaunched when data quality is assured.

20. It was noted that the report did not provide an analysis of the training undertaken by Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) rank staff. The Chair of the HR Oversight Group felt it would be useful for the Authority to carry out some scrutiny work around this issue and to compare with best practice in other parts of the public and/or sector, e.g. Cabinet Office, Army, etc, which cover principles, theories and methodologies as part of a programme of continuous improvement. This was a natural ‘follow on’ from the recent Authority scrutiny into talent management and succession planning within the police service. Martin Tiplady said the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) was doing some work around this area and ‘new’ ACPO officers received a personalised induction programme.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The MPS states that it is committed to valuing diversity and recognises the need to challenge the traditional pattern of training to accommodate the diversity of the workforce and ensure that all staff have opportunities to develop. To facilitate this, the MPS corporate training administration process includes a system for declaring individual special delivery needs and liases with the relevant training provider to see how those needs could be adequately met. For example, part-time staff or those following flexible or different work patterns are not excluded from learning and development opportunities, with training scheduled where possible so that all staff, including those working flexibly, can attend.

2. Training has long been seen as a crucial element in respect of supporting and promoting equality and diversity. Over recent years there has been a systematic move to ensure that equality and diversity are 'designed in', rather than 'added on'. Particular attention has been paid to key areas of learning policy, processes and delivery and Equality Impact Assessments across all six diversity strands.

3. Equalities issues are considered in the selection of the method of training delivery with training materials scrutinised by the Diversity Learning and Development Branch. (This transferred from the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate (DCFD) to the HR Directorate with effect from 1 April 2008). In addition, MPS training standards also include the requirement for ‘differentiation’ within training design and delivery. Differentiation is the process by which differences between learners are accommodated so that all students in a group have the best possible chance of learning.

4. Having completed the MPS wide Community Race Relations (CRR) training programme, MPS efforts now focus on mainstreaming race and diversity training. By this is meant ensuring that equality and diversity issues are not dealt with separately in training but fully integrated into the training itself. Key to this process is the process of equipping all trainers to deal with equality and diversity issues both in their course material and dynamically in the classroom environment.

5. To support the Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme (PRDLDP), a national suite of diversity e-learning modules has also been developed, and is available on the NCALT MLE.

6. Individual competence for promoting equality and diversity is a core responsibility reported on in all annual appraisals (Performance Development Reviews (PDRs)). Additionally, it is a mandatory requirement embedded in all selection and promotion processes. The PRDLDP places targets for incorporating formal assessment against National Occupational Standards.

7. Equality of opportunity is core to the MPS commitment to learning and development. The MPS values will ensure that all staff have opportunities to develop regardless of their gender, race, colour, nationality, ethnic and national origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation or marital status. Learning and development opportunities will be scheduled, as far as possible, so that all staff, including those working flexibly, can attend.

8. The Director of Training and Development has established a Training Independent Advisory Group (IAG) with responsibility for advising on the development and delivery of training. The Training IAG provides an opportunity for community input across a broad spectrum of training issues at a corporate level. In addition, six Diversity and Citizen Focus Advisors have been selected to work within the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate. The new advisors will work with strategic leaders to improve MPS performance in the area of diversity and equality with a specific responsibility to identify and promulgate good practice across units.

9. An integral part of all diversity training is community involvement, with members of the black and minority ethnic (BME) community and others participating in training sessions as associate trainers or lay contributors. This is particularly prominent in the initial training of police officers. IPLDP provides new opportunities for this involvement to be taken forward at a local level.

D. Financial implications

The total cost of MPS planned training for 2008-09 is just over £93m. As will be apparent from Appendix 2 of the Annual Training Plan, costs per student per course run from approximately £30 to £14000. This year the MPS plans to deliver over one million student training days within 11,715 training events and 1,200 different training course titles. The average planned direct cost per student training day is £75.18. This compares with £95.84 in 2006-07 and £87.23 in 2007-08. The average number of student training days for all course types and for all officers and staff in the MPS is 20.92 days. The National Costing Model for Training includes all overheads (including the costs of the trainers) but excludes the opportunity cost of the student. MPS quoted costs can therefore stand scrutiny in direct comparison with course fees from external providers, NPIA and other forces, e.g. NPIA charges appear to be around £170 per day for non-residential training. Commercial providers are charging around £400 per day.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s):  Alan Johnson, HR Policy Officer, MPA

For more information contact:

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

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