MPS progress on the implementation of The Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme

Report: 09
Date: 1 December 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report details progress on MPS implementation of the Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme published by the Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), and the Association of Police Authorities (APA) in November 2004. The report also includes an update on MPS progress on the development of training on the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000).

A. Recommendations

That

1. Members note the report and the work in progress.

B. Supporting information

Introduction

1. The national strategy for improving police performance in race and diversity 2004-09 (which incorporates the police race and diversity learning and development programme) was published in November 2004.

2. This report details progress on MPS implementation of the Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme with a particular focus on:

• The structures in place to implement the race and diversity learning and development programme
• Any barriers which may have delayed implementation
• How the programme will deliver equality and diversity training to specialist roles within the organisation
• How the principle of ‘contextualised’ learning will support officers who are regularly posted to different geographical locations
• How ‘blended’ learning – enabling the organisation to move away from classroom-based training – will not result in E-learning being used as a default for the delivery of race and diversity learning and development.

3. The report also includes an update on MPS progress on the development of training on the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000).

Background

Strategy for improving police performance in race and diversity

4. The strategy for improving police performance in race and diversity covers the race and diversity learning and development needs of the police service in England and Wales. As well as officers at all ranks, it also applies to all police staff and the wider police family, including Special Constables and Police Community Support Officers.

5. It sets out the priorities for the tripartite partners (the Home Office, the Association of Police Authorities (APA) and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and is aimed primarily at Police Authorities, Chief Officers and other senior managers, Human Resources Directors, Force Training Managers and CENTREX.

6. It applies to all diversity areas, in particular, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion and belief.

7. The strategy is linked to other CENTREX police learning and development programmes, including the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme, the Core Leadership Development Programme and the Senior Leadership Development Programme.

8. An overall aim of the strategy is that by 2009 everyone in the police service, including the wider police family, will have been assessed as competent against the National Occupational Standards relating to race and diversity (NOS 1A4 and 1A5).

Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme

9. A key element of the strategy is a 5-year race and diversity learning and development programme for the police service.

10. The Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme seeks to help fulfil the aim of the Government’s Police Reform Programme: “to provide a citizen-focused service that responds to the needs of individuals and communities and inspires confidence in the police.”

11. A major feature of the programme is that race and diversity learning and development will be ‘contextualised’ to take into account an individual’s role, rank or grade and the local policing environment.

12. This represents a move away from the ‘one-size-fits-all approach to diversity learning and development to one which meets the specific needs of the individual.

13. As well as improving the provision of training, individuals will also have access to other means of development tailored to their particular needs, and there will be a clear link between all learning and development and improved performance at an individual, team, force and service-wide level.

MPS Progress on Implementation of the Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme

14. Earlier this year a Home Office Circular (4/2005) was issued setting out the immediate actions required by forces and authorities to implement the national Strategy. Key actions include:

• Establishing a Programme Board. It is recommended that the chair of the board be a chief officer or member of the police authority. The board will need to include representatives of staff associations and independent advisory groups and all MPS departments and directorates.
• Appointment of a Race and Diversity Champion. The race and diversity champion will:
  • Promote good practice in race and diversity issues, and promote all race and diversity learning and development throughout the force
  • Ensure that the necessary organisational support and resources are in place to put race and diversity into practice
  • Lead by example and act as a role model in speaking out against inappropriate behaviour relating to race and diversity issues
• The Police Authority to implement a process within each force for Chief Constables to account for the achievement of the goals within the strategy and the steps required to achieve those goals.

15. The Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate’s Learning and Development Branch has lead responsibility for co-ordinating the implementation of the race and diversity learning and development programme within the MPS. The Branch was recently restructured to support this work and now has a team of Policy Officers to provide advice and guidance to the MPS on the implementation of the programme.

MPS Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme Board

16. The first meeting of the Programme Board took place on the 13 June 2005. Chaired by Commander Allen (former Director of the Diversity Directorate) terms of reference for the Board have been drafted although not ratified (see paragraph 17 below) and the next meeting is scheduled for the beginning of December 2005.

17. In future the Board will be chaired by Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) Rose Fitzpatrick and the remit and membership of the Board are being developed as part of work being undertaken within the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate to review the current governance processes that oversee diversity and citizen focus activity.

MPS Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme Board: Draft Terms of Reference

• Develop the MPS Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme (and implementation plan)
• Monitor programme performance and produce an annual review
• Ensure Race and Diversity Learning and Development objectives are incorporated into relevant MPS business plans
• Agree Race and Diversity Learning and Development priorities and allocate resources
• Develop a communication strategy to publicise and promote the Race and Diversity Learning and Development programme
• Appoint a race and diversity ‘champion’ (who will be responsible to the programme board and ensure that Race and Diversity Learning and Development targets are met).
• Assign lead responsibilities to board members
• Regularly liaise with other key strategic boards in particular, Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board (EODB), MPA Human Resources (HR) Committee, MPS Diversity Board, HR Board, and Training Management Board

The role of the Police Authority

18. The MPA was represented at the first meeting of the MPS Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme Board and it is anticipated that this will continue. Current MPA EODB processes should ensure MPS accountability for the achievement of the goals within the race and diversity learning and development programme (once it has been developed) and the steps required to achieve those goals.

Programme implementation plan

19. Although the Programme Implementation Plan will need to be developed in consultation with the new MPS Programme Board it is anticipated that it will include a number of key elements. These include:

• MPS-wide implementation of national race and diversity learning and development resources (to include those provided by CENTREX)
• Development of contextualised learning and development
• Provision of guidance on community involvement in the needs analysis, design, delivery and evaluation of race and diversity learning and development.

Race and Diversity Learning and Development Resources

20. A key theme of the national strategy is that in future race and diversity learning and development interventions should not be restricted solely to classroom-based delivery, and should incorporate a range of appropriate methods, such as:

• Supported individual learning,
• The use of communication and information technologies,
• Text based learning,
• Group learning,
• Community placements.

N.B. This list is not exhaustive, nor prescriptive.

21. In February/March 2006, CENTREX will be launching learning and development resources across the six key diversity areas.

22. Some of the learning and development material will be available as E-Learning Resources accessible via the National Centre for Applied Learning Technology (NCALT) portal. Workbooks, trainer guides and other resources will also be published next year.

23. A Disability Awareness programme has recently been completed (by CENTREX) and the Race E-Learning module will be completed by the end of November 2005 (see paragraphs 44-50 below). How these E-Learning products are accessed and which groups of staff will be targeted will be considered by the Programme Board and MPS Training Management Board. The Race E-Learning module will be mandatory for all police officers and staff because a significant element of the programme addresses the Race Relations Amendment Act (2000).

Lesbian, Gay Bi-Sexual and Transgender (LGBT) Performance Needs Analysis and National Consultation

24. To support the development of new learning materials (on behalf of CENTREX) the Diversity Learning and Development Branch recently completed a national consultation with the LGBT community to identify what police officers and staff need to know and understand (in relation to LGBT issues) – from an employment and service delivery perspective. The LGBT E-Learning module will be available early next year.

Concerns about the use of E-Learning

25. It is important to emphasise that although E-Learning products will be available across the six main diversity areas, these resources will be provided so that police officers and staff attain a level of knowledge and understanding around race and diversity issues to assist in their assessment against the Race and Diversity National Occupational Standards 1A4 and 1A5.

26. Any E-Learning resource will need to be supplemented by additional learning and development, in particular, activities that contextualise the learning so that it is relevant to an individual’s rank/grade; role; environment and area of work.

27. It is recognised that the use of E-Learning methods are more appropriate for certain learning and development areas i.e. knowledge around legislation, basic understanding, but not so effective in assisting development in other areas.

Contextualised Learning and Development

28. The Race and Diversity National Learning Requirement has been prepared and led by the ACPO Race and Diversity Business Area and forms part of the Home Office Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme.

29. At the heart of this learning requirement are two distinct strands, which are to be incorporated into all police service race and diversity learning and development.

30. The first part of the requirement is: Strand 1:generic race and diversity learning and development needs for the service based on the following areas:

• Diversity principles.
• Race (should include issues around Gypsy Traveller, immigrant or asylum seeker communities).
• Gender.
• Disability.
• Age.
• Sexual orientation.
• Religion and beliefs.

31. This first strand seeks to answer:

“What a police officer/police staff member police volunteer needs to satisfy the basic requirements of the role in 21st century Britain”.

32. The second part of the learning requirement is: Strand 2, contextual race and diversity learning and development.

33. For this strand the generic curriculum needs to be embedded in an understanding of the context of the individual’s work environment.

34. For example, an officer in Lambeth Borough, may require different race and diversity learning and development interventions, to that required by an officer in Havering Borough.

35. Within this contextual second strand, there is the opportunity to identify the “key (critical) encounters” an individual has in their role, and create the appropriate race and diversity learning and development interventions.

36. A key (critical) encounter is described as:

"Those individual encounters where the way the police manage the interaction internally or externally (at individual, team and organisational levels), is likely to have an impact upon the trust and confidence of the wider community, especially minority groups (visible and non-visible) and other under-represented groups.”

37. A number of projects to support the development of the contextualised learning and development model are currently being co-ordinated by the Diversity Learning and Development Branch (Strategy and Policy Unit) under the theme of ‘key encounters’. These projects include work with Hounslow Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU) and Transport Operational Command Unit (OCU) on the development of the stop and search/key encounter programme.

38. This work will help identify (through interviews/focus groups with officers/staff and the community) the issues that impact on stop and search and recommend learning and development processes (which can be repeated across the MPS).

39. Concerns have been expressed about how ‘contextualised’ learning will support officers and staff who are regularly posted to different geographical locations. This issue will need to be considered by the MPS Programme Board but it is anticipated that as officers and staff move around the organisation local induction processes will include detailed briefings about local race and diversity issues. In some cases this is already routinely happening, although it is recognised that more work will need to be done in consultation with the Programme Board, to address this issue.

Guidance on community involvement in the needs analysis, design, delivery and evaluation of race and diversity learning and development.

40. Alongside the publication of the race and diversity learning and development programme in November last year, the Association of Police Authorities published guidance on the involvement of communities in police learning and development. The guidance includes case studies and advice on planning the community involvement process; engaging with communities; analysing learning and development needs; training design; and, community involvement in training delivery and evaluation. The MPS Diversity Learning and Development Branch (Policy and Strategy Unit) will be producing MPS guidance on the involvement of the community in race and diversity learning and development, incorporating information from the APA guide, together with MPS-specific case-studies.

Barriers to programme implementation

41. Although some of the initial preparatory work (to establish the MPS Programme Board) and development of learning and development models is now underway, nationally the service is awaiting the publication of a range of guidance and support materials to assist implementation.

42. Embedding race and diversity learning and development programmes is also heavily dependent on other processes being in place, in particular, full implementation of the race and diversity occupational standards (including the supporting assessment framework) and a Personal Development Review (PDR) process that can be used to identify individual race and diversity learning and development needs.

43. The use of PDRs to identify learning and development needs and an assessment of competence against the race and diversity occupational standards are stated objectives within the national strategy. There is an expectation that everyone in the Service will have been assessed as competent against the Race and Diversity National Occupational Standards 1A4 and 1A5 by 2009 but the mechanisms and resources to support these processes are not yet in place. This issue will also need to be addressed by the MPS Programme Board.

Race Relations Amendment Act (2000) training

44. In July 2004, the Director of the Diversity Directorate, commissioned MPS Training Standards Unit to undertake a performance needs analysis to identify any potential training needs arising from the implementation of the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 (RRAA).

45. The Performance Needs Analysis was completed in October 2004 and presented to the MPS Race Relations Amendment Act Steering Group in November and Training Management Board in December 2004.

Performance Needs Analysis (PNA) RRAA (2000) training recommendations

46. The PNA identified various options to provide knowledge of RRAA duties and develop the knowledge, understanding, skills attitudes and behaviours required to meet these duties.

47. A key recommendation of the PNA report was that to meet the RRAA specific duty to train staff, new training objectives and supporting learning material addressing the general duties should be developed and delivered to all staff.
48. The report advised that this work should be progressed by commissioning the National Centre for Applied Learning Technology (NCALT) to develop an e-learning module on the RRAA general and specific duties.

49. The PNA recognised that E-learning had the potential to be a more cost effective way of providing to staff a minimum level of knowledge and understanding to meet the general duties of the Act compared to a classroom-based solution. As indicated in paragraphs 25-27 above, it is also acknowledged that there are limitations to e-learning and that additional learning and development will need to be provided, particularly to diversity managers, equalities coordinators, policy developers, inspection staff and project managers.

50. This work was initially being co-ordinated by the Diversity Learning and Development Branch in consultation with NCALT, but it has now been superseded by work (commissioned by CENTREX) nationally to produce E-Learning resources across the six main diversity areas. The Race E-Learning module (and accompanying resources) will be completed by the end of November 2005 and will include detailed information about the RRAA 2000 (together with a multi-choice Q and A knowledge check). The programme will be available to staff by the end of January 2006 once initial testing by NCALT has been completed. MPS E-Learning usually requires ‘protected learning time’ and up to four hours per member of staff has been agreed by Training Management Board.

C. Race and equality impact

Implementation of the Strategy for Improving Performance in Race and Diversity will have major implications for all MPS future learning and development programmes in the MPS across each of the main diversity strands. The development and implementation of e-learning to support RRAA training will ensure a minimum level of knowledge and understanding of the general duties of the Act and will support additional training for staff who have particular responsibility for implementing the specific duties of the Act.

D. Financial implications

The LGBT Performance Needs Analysis programme (see paragraph 24) cost £50,000 to complete. The costs associated with the implementation of the race and diversity learning and development programme will be identified by the Programme Board.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Shaun Kennedy, Head of Diversity Learning and Development, Diversity Directorate

For more information contact:

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

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