Annual report 2002/03

Report: 07
Date: 17 July 2003
By: Clerk

Summary

The Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board was established to enable the Metropolitan Police Authority to have a greater overview and monitoring of its own and the police service policy and performance on race, equal opportunities and diversity performance. More specifically, the Board was created to overview the implementation of the Authority and Service Race Equality Schemes. This annual report provides an overview of the achievements and challenges faced by the Board for future developments.

A. Recommendations

That this annual report be agreed subject to any amendments for submission to the meeting of the Authority on 26 July 2003.

B. Supporting information

1. This is the first year that the Authority has required the various committees to produce an annual report. This is the also first year of the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board and the attached report highlights successes of the Board. Sustained improvements will need to be made during the following year in order to enable the Authority to achieve its statutory and best practice requirements.

C. Equality and diversity implications

This report is concerned with the core race, equal opportunities and diversity governance of the MPA.

D. Financial implications

The financial implications highlighted in this report will be progressed.

E. Background papers

• Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
• MPA Race Equality Scheme 2002
• MPS Race Equality Scheme 2002
• MPS Gender Agenda 2002
• Disability Discrimination Act 2000

F. Contact details

Report author: Julia Smith

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1: Annual Report 2002/03

Foreword by the Chair

This first year of the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board has been highly rewarding and at the same time challenging.

The Board has influenced and progressed some significant areas of work that are central to the equalities and diversity governance responsibilities of the Authority.

One of the key functions of the MPA is that of engendering public trust and confidence in the police service in London. For many who are members of London’s rich and diverse communities, their experience of policing has, historically, been marred by a perceived lack of tolerance and a profound lack of understanding of the need to deliver a policing service that is complaint with good race and equal opportunities legislation as well as one that reflects and continuously tries to deliver a policing service that respects and values the diversity of the people that it serves.

I am proud of the accomplishments that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has achieved in the area of diversity over many years. To many looking on, the MPS is considered to be a ‘world leader’ in the field of policing diversity. It has demonstrated this commitment by investing significant resources in all aspects of its diversity agenda. It is continuously striving to achieve excellence in this work. The MPS is to be congratulated for engaging some of the most acclaimed academics and diversity leaders to inform and guide it. It is therefore little wonder that it has achieved the measure of success and acclaim that it has.

Such high acclaim makes the work of the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board one of the most challenging as it seeks to ensure that the MPS maintains continuous improvements in the areas in which it has already made significant advances. The challenge of the board is to ensure that the MPS improves significantly in those areas that continue to present challenges to itself and to the communities that it seeks to ‘police by consent’.

The EODB, and the Authority - having had the opportunity to look more closely at key aspects of the MPS race, equal opportunities and diversity performance - have been made acutely aware that there are indeed a number of areas in which significant and urgent improvements are needed in order to gain the trust and confidence of staff as well as the public. The Board have already begun to influence some of these areas.

Although I remain pleased with the achievements of the EODB during my first year as Chair, I am acutely aware that there remains a great deal to achieve in the coming years. In order to achieve these, many of which the Authority has already signed up to, such as the progression and implementation of the MPA Race Equality Scheme and the recommendations arising from the GLA Group Equalities for All review, decisions will need that will ensure that the staffing resource is available.

It is my vision that the MPA will assert its leadership in ensuring that it achieves excellence in its race, equal opportunities and diversity performance and practice as well as excel in its overview of the MPS to achieve the level of public trust and confidence in policing in London, which is a vision for all communities.

There are a number of individuals who have contributed to the success of the EODB in its first year and I want to take the opportunity to thank them. Within the MPS, the Deputy Commissioner, Ian Blair has lent his personal support to the work of the Board, as has Cressida Dick, the former Head of the Diversity Directorate. Lee Jasper and colleagues of the GLA have provided assistance and challenge where this was needed.

I also want to thank the following MPA staff for enabling me to achieve the standard of performance that I have set for the EODB, Catherine Crawford, the clerk to the Authority, Julia Smith, Head of Consultation and Diversity, John Crompton who has been an excellent and most reliable committee officer. Thanks also to Jude Sequeira, Johanna Gillans, (who has since left the Authority), and Tim Rees for his expertise in setting up the scrutiny on Stop and Search.

Cecile Wright
Chair of the MPA Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board
July 2003

Introduction

The Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board was formed out of the Consultation, Diversity and Outreach Committee in 2002. This was undertaken to address the need to provide more focussed consideration and direction on the MPA’s race and equal opportunities statutory and governance responsibilities as well as in the business processes of the Authority. More specifically, the EODB was established to enable the MPA to give greater scrutiny and guidance to its own responsibilities under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, as well as provide a monitoring and appraisal role of the diversity initiatives of the MPS.

Section 404 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 requires the MPA to promote equality of opportunity for all persons, irrespective of race, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion.

• To eliminate unlawful discrimination; and
• To promote good relations between persons of different groups, religions, beliefs and sexual orientation.

These duties are specific to the MPA and do not currently apply to any other police authority in England and Wales and preceded the specific requirements of the General Duty of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

The are other legal requirements that the Board has to also comply with, including the:

• Race Relations Act, 1976
• Sex Discrimination Act
• Disability Discrimination Act

Additionally, there is a range of employment duties and European directives that the Board will need to ensure that the MPA is implementing.

The Terms of Reference of the Board gives it a prime function to provide direction and guidance to other MPA Committees on the way in which they mainstream race and equal opportunities into their deliberations and activities. The Authority’s own internal structures and processes is an area that requires further development and which the EODB will be making a priority in the coming year.

The remainder of this report documents the achievements of the Board in its first year, and highlights some of the challenges that the Board have yet to achieve.

Year One Achievements

In its first year the Board has progressed the following notable achievements:

Projects and initiatives

• Development and approval of an annual work programme with key targets and outputs
• Initiated the first scrutiny into the Metropolitan Police Service policy and practice on stop and search.
• Overviewed key aspects of the implementation of the MPA Race Equality Scheme including the establishment of an external reference group to give objective and independent consideration to the Authority’s and the MPS progress on key aspects of its schemes.
• Contributed to and participated in the first GLA Group Best Value Review of Equalities resulting in the public ‘signing up’ to the recommendations arising from the ‘Equalities for All’ report which was launched in September 2002.
• launched the London Hate Crimes Forum, a forum that will bring together the key criminal justice, statutory, voluntary and community organisations to coordinate approaches and protocols for dealing with race hate crimes across London.
• Regularly monitored and reviewed the performance of the MPS on key policing policies and operations especially where these impacted on the key equality targets of the MPA
• Established processes for receiving regular reports and briefings on the work of the MPS Diversity Directorate, the Development and Organisational Implementation Team, Diversity Training Directorate and other directorates that have the lead responsibility for progressing equal opportunities and diversity matters in the MPS
• Progressed the independent evaluation of the MPS Community and Race Relations (CRR) Training in order to assess the effectiveness of the training and influence that it has had on the delivery of fair and equitable police services to London diverse communities.
• Successfully engaged with key organisations and communities to ensure that the decision-making and governance of the MPA’s race, equal opportunities and diversity is influenced by their active involvement.

Influencing the MPS

• Successfully negotiated with the MPS to transfer a proportion of the overall MPS Diversity budget to enable the Authority to progress its legitimate work of over-viewing and scrutinising key aspects of the performance and practice of the police service.
• Influenced the development of the policy and framework for the implementation of Recommendation 61 in the borough in Hackney and has influenced the most senior level of the MPS to secure an agreement for the implementation of a second Borough to trial an Information Technology solution to the recording of ‘police stops’.
• In collaboration with the MPA Human Resource Committee initiated the establishment of the Recruitment Task Force with membership from the MPS, GLA, CRE and other stakeholder organisations to look into ways in which the MPS recruitment of Black and Minority ethnic recruits can be improved in order that the MPS can achieve the Dismantling Barriers target set by the Home Office.
• Established regular meetings with the Deputy Commissioner and DCC4 to over view the strategic direction of the MPS diversity policy.

Partnerships and Stakeholders

• Appointed representatives of diverse organisations to become co-opted members of the Board so that its deliberations and decisions take account of the broad range of diversity matters that it has responsibility for directing and guiding.
• Worked collaboratively with the Commission for Racial Equality in progressing and influencing the implementation of key action points in the MPA Race Equality Scheme such as working with and through local race equality councils and other partners to develop performance measures for monitoring the local police implementation of the scheme at borough level.
• Established valuable working relationships with the GLA in developing and promoting equalities in the work undertaken together.
• Contributed to a range of conferences, seminars and working groups at national, London wide and local community levels in order to progress the MPA equal opportunities agenda to engender community trust and confidence of police services.

Internal influences

• Initiated and provided overview to the mainstreaming of equalities in all committee reports by the MPA and the MPS.
• Considered a wide range of committee reports including an excellent presentation on HIV and Aids in the MPS by Reverend Stephen Penrose and PC Andy Hewlett, community liaison officer, North Lambeth. This presentation reflects the diverse and challenging issues which this board will continue to address.

Challenges to be achieved in 2003/04

There are a number of important decisions and actions that the Board need to consider for the next phase of its work. Some of these will require increases in resources if they are to be progressed and achieved. These include:

• Progress against the year one actions published in the MPA race equality scheme.
• MPA Internal Equal Opportunities and Diversity Performance.
• The Development of a comprehensive Equal Opportunities and Diversity Strategy for the MPA.
• Achievement of Level 5 of the Local Government Equality Standard by 2005. In 2002.
• Scrutiny of the MPS Budget expenditure.
• Implementation of the recommendations arising from Scrutiny Panel on Stop and Search Recommendations.
• Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report recommendations.
• Relationship with Home Office.

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback