Update on the MPS Race Equality Scheme

Report: 09
Date: 2 February 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides a six-monthly update on the progress made, the key issues involved and the future development of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Race Equality Scheme.

A. Recommendations

That

• Members note the content of this report; and
• Members endorse the progress made within this report and satisfy themselves that it is being monitored and progressed effectively.

B. Supporting information

1. The MPS Race Equality Scheme (RES) 2005-08 was published on 31 May 2005 and presented to the MPA Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board (EODB) on 7 July 2005. Concerns were raised regarding an insufficiently externally focused scheme, together with ownership and leadership issues, which were addressed in an amended RES presented to, and approved by, the Full Authority on 29 September 2005.

Assessing and Consulting

2. To further meet the above concerns, the RES will be reviewed and progressed further within the discussions concerning the commissioning of an expanded Single Equality Scheme including, as legally defined by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, the six diversity strands of race, age, faith, disability, orientation and gender. Commitment to a single scheme is demonstrated within the MPS Race and Diversity (Confidence and Equality) Strategy 2006-09.

3. Officers from the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate (DCFD) have consulted with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland who have considerable experience and expertise in dealing with multiple-strand issues and equality schemes. The lessons learnt from these consultations, for example, the challenge of carrying out performance monitoring, the need for rewards and sanctions and the need to ensure that promoting good relations between different groups is not overlooked, will feed into the development of the MPS Single Equality Scheme.

4. To ensure that all strands, including race, are sufficiently outward-focused, with clearly stated internal leadership and ownership responsibilities, the DCFD are working closely with the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) Race and Diversity Unit in the development of the Single Equalities Scheme. Arrangements are currently being made to set up workshops and working groups to ensure the fullest internal and external consultation. MPS staff will contribute to MPA groups dealing with their proposed scheme, while MPA staff will play a reciprocal role.

5. The authority levels and terms of reference for all supervisory bodies having oversight for race and diversity delivery are being reviewed. The Diversity Board has been rationalised to provide a more strategic lead, beginning in February 2006, focussing on performance delivery and accountability. Each business group will be called to account for its own diversity performance, which will have a significant impact on progressing race equality across the organisation and down to the service delivery level. A report discussing the terms of reference for other governance tiers is currently being consulted upon.

Training

6. A full report on MPS progress on the implementation of the Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme was submitted to the EODB on 1 December 2005.

7. In July 2003, the Director of the then Diversity Directorate commissioned the MPS Training Standards Unit to undertake a Performance Needs Analysis (PNA) to identify any potential training needs arising from the implementation of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act (RR(A)A). The PNA was completed in October 2003 and presented to the MPS RR(A)A Steering Committee in November 2003 and Training Management Board in December 2003.

8. A key recommendation of the PNA report was that, to meet the RR(A)A specific duty to train staff, new training objectives and supporting learning material addressing the general duty should be developed and delivered to all staff.

9. 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 RR(A)A general and specific duties. The PNA recognised that E-learning had the potential to be a more cost effective way of providing staff with an initial level of knowledge and understanding to meet the general duties of the Act compared to classroom-based training.

10. This work was initially co-ordinated by the DCFD’s Learning and Development Branch in consultation with NCALT, but was superseded by work commissioned nationally by the Central Police Training and Development Authority (CENTREX) to produce E-Learning resources across the six diversity strands.

11. The race E-Learning module and its accompanying resources have been completed and are currently undergoing user testing. The module was produced in consultation with the CENTREX Race and Diversity Reference Group and covers the historical context of race in the UK, multi-ethnic Britain, race relations legislation (including the RR(A)A), responding to a racist incident, understanding the impact of disproportionality in service delivery, and understanding the implications of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report. There is also a linked module for supervisors, which covers tackling racism in a team, managing racist incidents involving members of staff, operational planning issues, race equality schemes, race equality impact assessments and ethnic monitoring. CENTREX asserts that the module meets the requirements of the RR(A)A. A number of the learning objectives explicitly refer to the legislation and its duties.

12. The programme, which has been examined by the DCFD, will be available to MPS staff from the beginning of February 2006 once initial testing by NCALT has been completed. MPS E-Learning usually requires ‘protected learning time’ and up to 4 hours per member of staff has been agreed by Training Management Board. MPS-wide implementation will be co-ordinated by the DCFD and will initially be piloted with directorate staff, with MPA members and staff of the MPA Race and Diversity Unit invited to offer comment during February 2006. The module will be referred to the Directorate of Legal Services for a definitive view on whether it meets the requirements of the RR(A)A.

13. The MPS Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme Board will have responsibility for the development of an evaluation and assessment strategy. This will be informed by an evaluation strategy developed by CENTREX.

14. The MPS has not looked at commissioning another provider to undertake this work, partly on the grounds of cost, but also because NCALT is the main provider of police E-Learning nationally. This allows national benchmarking and consistency in line with Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and Home Office requirements.

15. All CENTREX-developed learning material is issued to the MPS under license. The license agreement acknowledges that CENTREX will design a system to gather data from all participants (in the race and diversity learning and development programme) as part of the quality assurance process. Initial evaluation will focus on how forces are intending to use the race and diversity learning and development resources, feedback from users of the learning resources and feedback about the blended learning approach. It is also anticipated that Human Resources (HR) Directorate of Training and Development’s Training Standards Unit will undertake an MPS-specific evaluation. In the next two to three years the Police Performance Assessment Framework will assess learning against national occupational standards, which will feed into the learning of future courses.

Monitoring

16. The RES 2005-08 action plan consists of 60 separate actions, broadly grouped into the subject areas covered by the RR(A)A specific duties. Currently, the bi-monthly MPS RR(A)A Steering Committee, which includes MPA Race and Diversity Unit, Staff Association and Independent Advisor participation, monitors the implementation of the scheme and scrutinises progress, holding department managers to account for their unit’s progress. The minutes are published on the Internet, while keeping others informed of RES progress will also take place with the development of the DCFD Intranet site. It is acknowledged that the MPS does not have a system measuring who and how many staff and community members are informed via these processes. The RR(A)A Steering Committee is no longer the complete solution to monitoring progress within the RES and its status is being reviewed as part of the new governance arrangements described in paragraph 5.

17. The RES is an integral part of, and a major impetus to, the Race and Diversity (Confidence and Equality) Strategy 2006–9, which is to be launched in February 2006. The specific inclusion of the RES within the strategy helps provide the rationale for the continuing focus on race equality without creating a hierarchy of diversity. This strategy, the implementation of which is key to achieving success in respect of Equality and Diversity, espouses the principles and values of the Met Modernisation Programme. In turn, this programme draws together the priorities of the Corporate Strategy, key recommendations from the Service Review and other major change projects, including C3i and Modernising Operations. The Modernisation Programme has our corporate values and the principle of Together at its core, thereby integrating partners, Londoners and colleagues.

18. The Race and Diversity (Confidence and Equality) Strategy outlines how locally owned and centrally monitored action plans will drive MPS performance and allow the organisation to accurately measure and monitor performance in this area. These action plans will include impact on external service delivery and will be formed around the Equality Standards for Local Government, which encompass four main areas:

• Leadership and Corporate Commitment
• Consultation and Community Development and Scrutiny
• Service Delivery and Customer Care
• Employment and Training

19. The action plans are directed at Operational Command Unit Commander level, but also at all other leaders of corporate directorates, where they, their team and all the people they manage foster an environment where the race and diversity agenda is at the heart of all activities.

20. The RES is outward-focused in terms of impact assessment. All 142 MPS policies have been fully assessed for race and diversity, many of which have a direct external impact, achieving far more than the narrower requirements of the RR(A)A.

21. The RES will become further outward-focused by broadening the impact assessment process, so that the promotion of the RR(A)A general duty will be included not only within corporate policy, but also within external-facing operational policing plans, strategic planning and business risk assessments. A single corporate impact assessment model has been subject to a second round of consultation, to be completed in January 2006. The results of this consultation will be shared with the MPA Race and Diversity Unit during February 2006.

22. It is accepted that progress in race equality, indeed all diversity, will only be achieved through its integration within the Met Modernisation Programme. Conversely, if implementation of the organisation’s approach to equality and diversity is perceived to be distinct and separate from the Met Modernisation Programme, which in turn is being communicated as being so critical, there is a danger that MPS-wide commitment to the Strategy will not be forthcoming.

23. A full report on promoting race and diversity within the Modernisation Programme, together with a MPA Race and Diversity Unit response, was submitted to the EODB on 1 December 2005.

Access to Information and Publishing

24. Some methods for staff and local communities to be kept informed of monitoring progress made within the RES are by the publication of policy and impact assessment data and reports via the MPS Publication Scheme. In addition, employment monitoring is published through:

• The monthly HR Headline Scorecard on the Intranet
• The monthly Workforce Data Report on the Intranet
• The Employment Duty Annual Report on the Internet

As part of the development of the Single Equalities Scheme, the MPS will be looking for new methods of ensuring staff and communities are updated on progress. These will be formulated through a communication strategy for this scheme.

25. All MPS assessments are published on the MPS Publication Scheme. Consultation is an integral part of policy development and a summary of consultation activity and its influence on the policy's development is included in the impact assessment. All policies must include a monitoring plan and the resultant monitoring reports are published under the MPS Publication Scheme. Policies are prioritised according to their impact on race equality - with high impact policies publishing a monitoring report at least every three months. The MPS Management Board receive a quarterly update on MPS policy and has to be satisfied that sufficient control measures are in place to ensure that each policy is, amongst other issues, having a positive impact on race equality.

26. The MPS Strategy Unit (formerly Policy Clearing House) co-ordinates MPS activity around corporate policies. It spreads good practice between policy developers through one-to-one discussions and via its intranet site, which includes a good practice page. It also maintains a 50-page guidance manual and delivers training to policy developers. From January 2006, training courses in consultation are available to policy developers.

Employment: Recruitment

27. Projected performance for the end of the financial year shows the MPS narrowly missing our Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) target. BME officer strength is projected to be 7.4%, with the target being 7.7%.

28. The Positive Action Team (PAT) has and is undertaking many initiatives in this area. This has included developing a series of recruitment adverts suitable for different types of audience, for example one was shown in cinemas which show Bollywood films, with PAT members standing outside handing out leaflets detailing the MPS as an employer of choice. A similar campaign was carried out in November 2005 for Police Community Support Officers and Metropolitan Special Constabulary officers.

29. All HR board members have been individually assigned a link with a university. These universities have been chosen due to their high concentration of potential BME candidates.

Employment: Retention

30. Retention rates have increased since the recruitment of a retention manager. A new exit policy is now in place and two full-time members of staff have been recruited to the Career Management Unit to offer either a telephone or one-to-one meeting with those resigning early.

Recruit retention

31. Positively, both BME and non-BME recruit retention rates continue to rise, at 93.2% (1.2% increase) and 97.1% (0.3% increase) respectively. Success has been attributed to the recent piloting of the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme, with the availability of additional support and smaller intake and class sizes.

Employment: Progression and Promotion

32. Monitoring of police officer promotion takes place following the completion of each process, and learning is incorporated into the next process. The Police Officer Promotion and Selection Policy has recently been updated, following the full impact assessment process, with new promotion proposals being developed in consultation with staff associations. The MPS is working to reduce bureaucracy by strengthening links between promotion and the Performance Development Review process, thereby providing a more consistent flow of the best officers for the rank to the Workforce Planning Unit for deployment.

33. There are a number of general and specific promotion and selection processes in place for police staff. All movement of police staff from one role to another (whether it be on level transfer or to a different pay band) is governed by the Police Staff Recruitment and Internal Selection Processes policy, which has recently been updated in line with the corporate policy review process. Police staff promotion and selection will also link in with the Performance Development Review process. Diversity monitoring arrangements are in place, and are fully compliant with corporate standards and statutory requirements.

C. Race and equality impact

There are significant diversity implications arising from this report, notably in the elimination of discrimination, together with the promotion of equality of opportunity and good relations between different groups. The progress made in promoting race equality can and does lead to positive outcomes within all areas of diversity.

D. Financial implications

There are currently no financial implications arising from this report. However, the Met Modernisation Programme and the changing focus of the DCFD may lead to financial demands or realignments. The future financial implications are as yet unquantifiable. The benefits of delivering race equality in terms of staff and community satisfaction and engagement are significant. Likewise, the implications of not delivering could be financially significant in terms of, for example, employment tribunals, complaints, recruitment opportunities and organisational performance.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Colin White MPS Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate

For more information contact:

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

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