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

Report: 11
Date: 16 November 2006
By: DAC Diversity and Citizen Focus for the Commissioner

Summary

This report details progress on MPS implementation of the Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme published by the Home Office, ACPO, and the 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

Strategy for improving police performance in race and diversity

1. 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 applies to all police staff and the wider police family, including Special Constables and Police Community Support Officers.

2. The Strategy, published in November 2004, sets out the priorities for the tri-partite partners (the Home Office, the Association of Police Authorities (APA) and ACPO) and is aimed primarily at Police Authorities, Chief Officers and other senior managers, HR Directors, Force Training Managers and CENTREX. It applies to all diversity areas, in particular, race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion and belief.

3. An overall aim of the strategy is that, by the end of 2007, priority groups in the MPS will need to have been assessed as competent against the Race and Diversity National Occupational Standards. By the end of 2009, everyone in the police service, including the wider police family, will need to be assessed as competent against the Standards.

4. At the last meeting of the MPS Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme Board, it was recognised that, although the initial priority groups for diversity learning and development have been identified (see para 6 below), further work needed to be undertaken to identify the diversity learning gap (within the priority groups). The Programme Board supported a recommendation from the Directorate of Training and Development that the most effective way to identify the performance gap would be to undertake a Performance Needs Analysis (PNA) of MPS staff (by role) against the National Race and Diversity Occupational Standards.

Performance Needs Analysis (PNA)

5. The PNA is being conducted in two parts. The first part of the PNA will identify the performance gap of MPS priority groups against the Race and Diversity National Occupational Standards and make recommendations to address the performance gap; the second part of the PNA will report on the diversity learning and development performance requirements of all other MPS personnel (non-priority groups). The first part of the PNA will be completed by the end of November 2006, and the full PNA at the end of January 2007.

6. The MPS priority groups reflect national guidelines and are as follows:

Emerging issues from the PNA

7. The developing findings of the PNA acknowledge that, although there is likely to be a diversity performance gap within priority groups of staff, it will be difficult to articulate this until individual assessments have taken place, thus recognising that each person will have differing development needs.

8. The PNA recognises that the requirement for priority groups of staff to be assessed as competent against the Race and Diversity Occupational Standards would need to reflect recently published Home Office guidance which has introduced a new minimum assessor requirement.

9. The new Home Office guidance means that, although assessors (the line managers and supervisors of those included in the priority group) must still be trained to the A1 standard (see Appendix 1), they do not have to be qualified as A1 assessors. Instead, suitably trained and skilled line managers will be expected to undertake the assessment role as part of their responsibility to assess the overall competence of their staff.

Likely recommendations from the PNA

10. The PNA supports a recommendation proposed by MPS Human Resources: Career Management Unit that line managers assess their staff against the relevant Race and Diversity Occupational Standards as part of the Professional Development Review process, with a team of qualified assessors recruited to dip-sample, quality-assure and verify the assessments given. It is recognised that for this process to work effectively a range of measures will be required particularly if assessments of competence are given without sufficient evidence of performance. These measures could range from PDRS being re-done and promotion recommendations (which are to be linked to PDRS) not being accepted.

11. The PNA also recommends that Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate: Diversity Learning and Development Branch develop an intranet resource for managers with guidance and examples of A1 standard assessment of race and diversity performance to support managers in meeting the required standard of A1. This would negate the need for a formal training programme for managers and would need to be in place by the end of February 2007.

12. The PNA identifies that nationally produced (CENTREX) race and diversity learning and development resources (covering the six main diversity areas of age, disability, faith/religion, gender, race and sexual orientation) have been developed to meet the underpinning knowledge requirements, and the MPS will be using these under licence from CENTREX. These resources are already available as e-Learning modules via NCALT, and it is recommended that managers within the priority groups access these where there is a self-identified development need.

13. Building on work currently under way to integrate the national race and diversity learning and development resources into the PCSO training programme and the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (see para 19 below), it is recommended that this approach be applied to training programmes relevant to the priority groups for diversity learning and development (for example, training for Senior Investigation Officers and Family Liaison Officers).

Other programmes of work

14. Two projects co-ordinated by the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate’s Learning and Development Team to support contextualised learning and development [1] are currently being piloted under the theme of ‘key encounters’.

15. These include work with Greenwich Borough to contextualise the Disability e-Learning for police officers and staff and work with Hounslow BOCU and Transport OCU on the development of the stop--and-search/key-encounter programme.

16. The Greenwich Disability Awareness Programme involved a number of facilitated workshops involving police officers and staff and representatives of local disability organisations and the community and is currently being evaluated.

17. The stop-and-search/key-encounter pilots in Hounslow Borough and Transport OCU will be completed by the end of the year and focus on the issues that impact on the effectiveness of stop-and-search. The half-day sessions involve officers and members of the community working together to identify – from a service-user perspective – the behaviours they expect to see from officers conducting stop-and- search/ stop-and-account and behaviours they do not expect to see.

18. The results from the evaluations of the Greenwich Disability programme and the stop-and-search/key-encounter pilots will be used to develop bids for inclusion in the 200720/08 MPS Annual Training Plan which will be considered by Training Management Board at the end of the year.

Integration of national diversity learning resources into MPS training programmes

19. The Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate’s Diversity Learning and Development Branch is currently working with the Extended Police Family School and Recruit School to integrate the national diversity learning resources into their respective programmes. The new PCSO course and the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (which will replace the current Recruit Foundation Course) are due for MPS-wide delivery from April 2007. Both of these programmes will reflect the new diversity learning resources.

MPS Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme Board, Working Group and Challenge Panel

20. The Programme Board has commissioned the Performance Needs Analysis detailed in paras 5 -13 above.

21. A Working Group has been established to help identify issues for consideration by the Programme Board and also to make recommendations to progress key pieces of work. The Working Group is comprised of Senior Training Managers from each Business Area and the next meeting will focus on the findings of the Performance Needs Analysis.

22. The first meeting of the Challenge Panel took place in September at which the Terms of Reference were agreed. The Panel is comprised of representatives of MPS Staff Associations, Trade Unions, the Federation and independent advisory groups and will have a key role to play in providing advice and guidance on the implementation of the diversity learning and development programme.

Race Awareness e-Learning Module (incorporating the RRAA 2000)

23. The Race Awareness e-Learning module and accompanying material was published by CENTREX in April 2006. In May, Diversity Learning and Development Branch met with the Commission for Racial Equality to ascertain whether the CRE felt that the delivery of the programme would meet the requirement to provide training on the RRAA. The CRE’s view was that, subject to some minor amendment including the provision of additional case studies, the package would be an effective learning resource.

24. CENTREX will be updating the race and diversity learning and development resources in November 2006. It has been agreed that the MPS will have the lead for the revision of the race and LGBT learning resources and the CRE will be included in this consultation process.

25. A bid to include the delivery of the programme in the 2006/2007 Annual Training Plan was submitted to Training Management Board in April 2006. At the June TMB, it was felt that more work needed to be undertaken to identify which priority groups in the MPS should receive the package, and this will be progressed as part of the Performance Needs Analysis detailed in paras 5-13 above. It was also agreed that, until CENTREX had incorporated the CRE recommendations, the programme should not be delivered MPS-wide.

Abbreviations

ACPO

Association of Chief Police Officers

APA

Association for Police Authorities

PNA

Performance Needs Analysis

NCALT

National Centre for Applied Learning Technologies

PCSO

Police Community Support Officers

BOCU

Borough Operational Command Unit

OCU

Operational Command Unit

CRE

Commission for Racial Equality

LGBT

Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender

TMB

Training Management Board

C. Race and equality impact

Implementation of the Strategy for Improving Police Performance in Race and Diversity will have major implications for all future MPS learning and development programmes across each of the main diversity strands. The new diversity learning and development resources are currently being integrated into a number of key MPS training programmes, including the PCSO foundation course and Recruit Programme, and the requirement that all MPS staff are assessed as competent against the Race and Diversity National Occupational Standards by the end of 2009 has the potential to make a real impact on improving diversity performance across the MPS.

D. Financial implications

The costs associated with the key-encounter pilots have been met from the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate: Diversity Learning and Development budget.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Shaun Kennedy, MPS

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

The overarching aim of the A1 Standard is that every assessor has the skill, knowledge and understanding to:

• Assess competence in the work place against an agreed standard using a range of assessment methods;
• Give feedback on assessment decisions; and
• Contribute to internal quality assurance processes

The Assessor Training will need to provide individuals with the underpinning knowledge to meet the A1 requirements, covering issues such as assessment planning, judging evidence, giving feedback and making assessment decisions.

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