Met modernisation programme: promoting equality and diversity

Report: 06a
Date: 1 December 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

The purpose of this report is to meet the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board (EODB) brief dated 24 October 2005. This report is written to facilitate a ‘focus item’ discussion of the EODB on 1 December 2005. This report outlines the current thinking of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in relation to the grounding the Met Modernisation Programme in equality and diversity principles.

This report describes how the Met Modernisation programme will enable significant improvement in key areas of equality and diversity within the MPS. This improvement will be achieved by all strands within the programme undertaking impact assessment and monitoring and evaluation of their ability to achieve improvement. Five specific programme strands are highlighted in this report and as addressing key diversity and equality issues.

The advice and support of the EODB in progressing our thinking is valued by the Met Modernisation Programme, particularly during our current initiation phase.

A. Recommendations

That

1. Members note the contents of this report.
2. Members discuss the following focus questions:
   1. What does success of the Met Modernisation Programme look like in relation to equality and diversity issues?
   2. What equality and diversity outcomes would the MPA EODB recommend we work towards?
   3. What does effective and efficient stakeholder engagement look like from the EODB’s perspective?

B. Supporting information

Background

1. To ensure the Metropolitan Police Service is able to deliver the Metropolitan Police Authority and Metropolitan Police Service Corporate Strategy, Service Review and the Together cultural change approach an overarching programme of change, called the Met Modernisation Programme, has been initiated. The Met Modernisation Programme will coordinate significant organisation-wide improvement of policing delivery in London and will ensure that our organisation moves forward together with a common purpose.

2. The Metropolitan Police Service is committed to providing a service that meets the needs of London’s uniquely diverse citizens. At the heart of achieving this citizen focused approach are the principles of equality and diversity. The Met Modernisation Programme has equality and diversity principles at its core to ensure that we develop to meet the needs of all London’s people. Focus and consideration will be given to the six axes of diversity and include age, disability, gender, faith and belief, sexual orientation, and race.

3. The Met Modernisation Programme is currently developing its stakeholder engagement strategy at a programme level. The programme level engagement will be designed to compliment arrangements made by individual programme strands. To ensure effective engagement three members of the Met Modernisation Programme team have been specifically tasked with communication and consultation coordination and delivery.

Met Modernisation Programme strands

4. The Met Modernisation Programme is formed of 18 strands. Each strand will coordinate a number of programmes and projects. Each strand is the responsibility of a member of Management Board to ensure that the benefits and outcomes are delivered and accounted for at the most senior levels within the MPS. Below is a list of the strands and their named Management Board lead.

5. Equality and diversity principles are woven throughout the Met Modernisation Programme. All strands of the programme will be required to complete a comprehensive equality impact assessment to ensure that the implications of all the changes for the citizens of London, our staff and partners are fully understood. Each strand will be required to demonstrate how their activity is actively supporting increased diversity within the MPS and improved community relations.

6. The change proposals from the Service Review form elements of the Met Modernisation Programme. As part of the Service Review a Community Impact Assessment was conducted on the Service Review proposals at the Partner Event, September 2005. The report detailing the outcomes of the partner event should be considered in conjunction with this report (for a summary see Appendix 1) and provides an initial equality and diversity assessment of the Service Review proposals incorporated in the Met Modernisation Programme.

7. In addition there are specific elements of the Met Modernisation programme that focus on enabling cultural change and facilitating improvement in equality and diversity aspects. These are Together, Citizen Focus, building a Modern and Diverse Workforce, Clear Communication and Enabling People. These programme strands and the key equality and diversity issues they will address are discussed in more detail in paragraphs 8 to 35 of this report.

Together

8. Together is about making the Metropolitan Police Service an organisation where all individuals, regardless of the role they play or their personal background, feel valued as part of the collective team - ‘Team Met’. Together will work to build an organisation where all staff feel well treated, respected and invested in so that they feel able and supported in achieving their full potential. We will seize opportunities to learn and have passion and pride in delivering a quality service, enhancing our ability to prevent and reduce crime and disorder and bring offenders to justice. Enabling leadership and improving communications will be key to achieving these outcomes.

9. Together has developed the new MPS values that are underpinned by a generic set of positive and contra behaviours demonstrating clearly for all staff expected standards of behaviour. A validation exercise is currently being undertaken that will ensure the behaviours are linked to the cultural change outcomes we are aiming to achieve. Representatives from the MPS Diversity Strategy team and Citizen Focus are closely involved in the work of Together to ensure a consistent approach.

Met Modernisation Programme team approach

10. The Met Modernisation programme team has been formed with the principles of Together and the new MPS values at the core. The central team comprises of 37 posts of which 35 are police staff specialists with knowledge and expertise in programme and change management. A flat team structure has been adopted with individuals of all grades utilising their specific skills to contribute towards team and organisational outcomes. The current team has a balance of female and male members, a mix of ethnic backgrounds, ages and experience.

11. The programme strands will be embedded within the current MPS organisational structure. Ensuring that individuals with the right skills are involved throughout the programme strands will be part of the responsibility of the Met Modernisation strand support team who will be guiding and supporting the programme strands to develop a consistent and coordinated programme right across the MPS.

12. The Met Modernisation team have been asked to personally consider the new MPS values and how they will influence their own style of working. The team will be taking part in a session based on the central tenents of Together and Citizen Focus to help develop the teams internalisation of the approach and enable them to act as agents of change within the MPS in line with the values and behaviours.

Leadership and effective management of people

13. Building on the MPS values, a key aspect of Together is the introduction of a Leadership Academy. The Leadership Academy should not be seen as a training institute but rather a bigger, more visionary concept not only raising the profile and importance of management and leadership development but also driving organisational and cultural change in the MPS.

14. In determining the scope of the Leadership Academy, the MPS will generate an accepted definition of leadership and management, where management will refer to the provision of tools and skills to all staff with management responsibility, as well as the need for the MPS to support managers through the processes of work. Leadership will then be seen to cover all community facing roles and the MPS must develop transformational leadership at all levels of leader, with diversity an integral part of this.

15. The Leadership Academy has the following aims:

• To improve and develop leaders throughout the MPS and equip leaders at all levels with the ability to enhance service delivery and standards of policing
• To identify and generate new thinking on leadership and all its component parts, including diversity
• To provide a holistic, unified approach to personal and professional development supporting officers and staff from the start to the end of their careers in the MPS

16. The Together team are using the following key principles as the foundation for the development of the Leadership Academy - Strategy: ensuring all leadership development is linked to strategy, as well as the need to integrate all supporting Human Resources (HR) processes; Research: the development of our partnership working, establishment of networks with key academic bodies and conducting return on investment analysis; People: implementing and having responsibility for all management and leadership development and exploring opportunities for external accreditation; Organisational learning: contributing to cultural change and sharing of organisational learning across the MPS.

17. By training and supporting leaders in their management of people, Together we will improve the way in which individuals manage staff with under performance more effectively addressed and increase the sensitivity and consciousness of our managers in supporting minority staff.

Handling complaints

18. Through changes in leadership and management behaviour improvement in the confidence and capability of our managers in handling complaints against staff will be achieved. In addition specific focus on Police Officer complaints has been considered as part of the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) Review. The central themes of the DPS review are increasing local resolution of issues and increasing prevention by developing an organisational learning ethos in line with the Together approach.

Representation

19. Increasing the diversity of managers and leaders in influential and senior positions within the MPS will be an indirect outcome of improving the way in which all staff respect and value each other through implementation of the MPS values and accompanying behaviours.

Citizen focus

20. Citizen focused policing is about putting what the public want from our police service at the heart of what the Metropolitan Police Service does. We want to improve our understanding of public needs. To do this we need to engage and communicate with all of London’s communities. By listening to feedback we will improve our services and shape the way we do things so that the public feels we are delivering the police service they want and need.

21. London is a uniquely diverse city and it is essential that we continuously build our understanding of the different needs of people who live, work in and visit our city and respond flexibly to meet them. This means that every member of the Metropolitan Police Service must recognise the role they play in delivering high quality policing services; whether they work directly with the public or perform a vital support role. All of our staff must have the confidence and the right training to enable them to use their own initiative to meet the public’s needs.

Service delivery

22. Services will be delivered locally wherever possible, and the ongoing contract with the public is that local accountability is always clear and itself accessible, through named individuals. Where services cannot be delivered locally, through neighbourhood or borough policing, it will be clear how the public can engage with us, and with whom. Individual members of the community and communities will continue to be engaged in developing and shaping such non-local services as, for example, murder investigation and public order policing. Improvements in service users experience will be achieved through ensuring individuals are kept updated as to progress on their specific issues, in ways and to timescales, agreed with them.

Community Engagement

23. Communities are engaged with, confident in and satisfied with our police service is one of the four outcomes the MPS is seeking to achieve through delivery of the Corporate Strategy. As part of the Citizen Focus priority, in conjunction with the MPA, the MPS is currently developing a community engagement strategy. The community engagement strategy will provide a clear approach as to how engagement with the people of London needs to undertaken.

24. Engagement will be a core part of delivering and managing all of our services and through the Met Modernisation programme all business groups and units will be held to account for ensuring community engagement in the services they specifically deliver. Methods of engagement will be tailored to meet the needs of groups and will help to enable the hidden voices in communities to be heard. Community information and intelligence will be used to shape our services and the Met Modernisation Programme through the citizen focus priority will ensure every member of our staff understands their own role in making citizen focus a reality.

Modern and diverse workforce

Developing a modern and diverse workforce is essential to delivering effective policing services. It is important that we have the right people in the right roles at the right time. In particular, it is key that our resources are released to perform front line policing. It is also important that the members of our police service reflect the diversity London’s communities so we have the understanding and ability necessary to meet our communities’ needs. To achieve these goals we have to make sure our workforce is flexible and diverse with the right capabilities to deliver. Our staff have highlighted making best use of our experienced members of staff and the allocation of resources as a priority.

Effective performance management and accountability

26. The key purpose of the Met Modernisation Programme is to coordinate the improvement of performance of the Metropolitan Police Service. Through the corporate strategy the key Public Service Agreements of achieving a reduction in crime, increasing the number of offenders brought to justice and improving public satisfaction have been identified as the key performance measures for the organisation.

27. The Met Modernisation Programme has a performance focus and once implementation begins (March 2006) the Met Modernisation programme team will monitor, evaluate and problem solve performance issues within the programme delivery through a model of working that is similar to the prime ministers delivery unit. Strand leads will be held to account for their performance at Management Board level.

Effective resource management

28. Identifying how the MPS can effectively manage resources was a key objective of the Service Review. Through the Met Modernisation programme the Service Review proposals will be taken forward, with specific focus placed on our organisational architecture and deployment. Managers will be held to account for performance and delivery of organisational outcomes. The Met Modernisation Programme team will carefully evaluate the diversity impact of each strand.

Clear communication

29. Clear, timely and accurate communication with the people of London, with our colleagues and with our partners is vital to developing the police service that London deserves. The public have told us that reassurance is a priority for them and that familiarity and interaction are key to providing the service that they want. The Government and the Mayor see providing a citizen focused police service as a priority, to do this we need open and clear communication.

30. We want our staff to be approachable and receptive. We want the public to feel they have been listened to and that their opinions have been considered as part of our decision making. We want to give clear and consistent messages so people feel confident that they understand what we are doing and why. We will specifically work on proactively providing updates to increase the feeling of reassurance and the public knows what is going on.

31. We want our partners to feel that their opinions and suggestions are listened to. We want them to feel that they get the right answer and that we keep them informed. We want our staff to feel that their views are listened to and that their suggestions are central to improving the Metropolitan Police Service. We want all of staff to think about how the public, their colleagues and our partners might perceive their messages and ask for feedback so we can get communication right.

32. We are currently developing a Corporate Communication Strategy that will bring together our internal and external communication activity and detail how we will make improvements in our ability to communicate clearly at all levels within the MPS.

Staff engagement

33. The Directorate of Public Affairs is currently leading a new approach to “listening to our people”. Effective internal communication and consultation that engages our staff is critical to effective leadership and improving performance. The central tenant of the listening to our people approach is to ensure that there is a clear link between consultation and resulting activity with feedback provided to those engaged. The approach will coordinate and expand existing communication and consultation channels and ensure coordination through a practitioners board and a strategic board that links directly to the Commissioner and Management Board.

Enabling people

34. We know that our people are our most valuable resource. Only through our staff can we deliver a safer London. It is therefore vital that every member of the Metropolitan Police Service feels equipped and able to perform to the maximum of their potential. We need to ensure that every person working in the Metropolitan Police Service understands our mission and their own part in making it happen. Our staff have told us that increasing the professionalism of the service they can provide, through training and development particularly in relation to technology, and delivering a citizen focused police service are priorities for them. The Morris Inquiry highlighted the need for every member of our staff to feel enabled and valued.

Employment practice

35. Developing our employment practices will be addressed through the MPS Human Resources Strategy: Enabling People. Improvements in the MPS employment practice will specifically be made through the intention to become an employer of choice. Examples of work that will be undertaken to achieve outcomes including being reflective of the community we serve are mounting focused recruitment campaigns to appeal to under-represented groups in particular, promote and monitor the take up of flexible working arrangements and creating smarter and more flexible reward packages.

List of abbreviations

MPA

Metropolitan Police Authority

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

EODB

Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board

HR

Human Resources

DPS

Directorate of Professional Standards

C. Race and equality impact

This report considers throughout the race and equality impact approach of the Met Modernisation Programme.

D. Financial implications

Financial impact information is currently under development.

E. Background papers

• Service Review Partner Event 8 September 2005: Preliminary Identification of Community Impact Issues

F. Contact details

Report author: Helen Smith, Met Modernisation Programme

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

MPS Service Review Partner event 8 September 2005

Summary of community impact discussions

The following summarises the main points arising from the community impact discussion groups:

Group A: Staff mix

The following points were made concerning the above proposals:

1. ‘Civilianisation’ will enhance diversity because diverse groups better represented amongst police staff.
2. Predominantly white male police officers returning to front line may have negative impact on minority representation at the point of service delivery.
3. The jury was still out on SR, pending examination of the detail; however, there were likely to be implications for HR policies.

GROUP B: Development of corporate partnerships:

• There are major challenges posed by the need to share relevant, intelligible and unambiguous data with partners and members of the public.
• There needs to be a mechanism that allows the voices of those not belonging to recognised groups to be heard.
• The police service needs to be heard above the media.

Group C: Workforce Modernisation: accelerating the Estate Modernisation Strategy

• One custody facility per borough might be viewed as a ‘mini prison’ that could stigmatise the local area.
• Diversity needs to be effectively catered for at all levels with estates provision.
• Cost effectiveness needs to be demonstrated with estates provision, having taken into account diversity requirements.

Group D: Operational Policing Services: consideration of a Public Protection Directorate.

• No perceived differential community impacts.
• Proposals may lead to unified structures and systems that enhance crime prevention in this arena.
• Concern that all areas of crime in this domain are adequately catered for (e.g. crimes against children, honour killings, etc).
• Important to engage with the right partners in this area, appropriately vetted.

Group E: Process Reviews: New custody model and custody site clusters

1. The proposal; represented a fundamental change to the way volunteers interfaced with the MPS, including distances required to be covered, and this may preclude the ongoing participation of some volunteers (e.g. adult helpers).
2. Attendees at cluster sites might be more disorientated if transported outside their local area (e.g. ethnic minority groups, youth)
3. Concerns about how the management structure for custody clusters would interface with BOCUs.
4. Likelihood of ‘not-in-my-backyard’ (‘NIMBY’) objections when considering the siting of custody clusters.

Group F: Process Reviews: Report to court care for victims and witnesses

• There needed to be consistency of approach for all victims and witnesses – currently a ‘real lack of confidence’ amongst many individuals in society.
• Some differential impacts, particularly in relation to diversity arising from the following: language; sexual orientation; religion; gypsies, travellers, homeless; older people; public transport dependents.
• The effects of change need to be witnessed by communities, not just communicated to them (i.e. communities don’t need to be just told that things have changed/will change).

Group G: Combined effects of service review proposals:

1. Some positive impacts in terms of use of human resources, addressing community-based crime, community engagement, staff working environment and location, treatment of offenders and victims, access to shared services, positive influence on attainment of MPS diversity targets.
2. Transfer of resources away from the centre may undermine strategic capability.
3. Move towards dealing with criminal networks may be perceived as criminalising particular communities.
4. MPS may struggle to retain staff from diverse communities.
5. Will the Public Protection Directorate provide a cohesive and holistic approach to particular groups (e.g. young people)?

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