Minutes

Notes of the inquorate meeting of the Equal Opportunity & Diversity Board held on Thursday, 18 January 2007 at 10 Dean Farrar Street, London, SW1H 0NY.

Present

Members

• John Roberts (Deputy Chair in the Chair)
• Aneeta Prem

MPA officers

• Catherine Crawford (Chief Executive and Clerk)
• Annabel Adams (Deputy Treasurer)
• Laurence Gouldbourne (Head of Race and Diversity)
• Hamida Ali (Policy Development Officer, Race and Diversity Unit)
• Julliett Fearon-Knott (Policy Development Officer, Race and Diversity Unit)
• Douglas Lewins (Policy Development Officer, Race and Diversity Unit)
• Bennett Obong (Committee Services)
• John Crompton (Committee Services)

MPS officers

• Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rose Fitzpatrick (Diversity and Citizen Focus)
• Commander Sue Wilkinson
• Stephen Rimmer
• Mick Debens
• Ian Harrison (Citizen Focus)
• Tom Morrell
• Kevin Bowsher

Also present:

• Vicky Kielinger, Senior Criminologist, Metropolitan Police Service
• Susan Paterson, Senior Criminologist, Metropolitan Police Service
• Ibrar Ahmed, Co-ordinator, Association of Muslim Police
• John Azah MPS IAG
• Nathalie Stewart, CEO, Westminster Human Rights, Equalities & Race (Group)
• Ruth Bashall, Co-vice chair, Disability Independent Advisory Group
• Halil Husseyin, DC, Turkish Police Association
• Lyn Daniel, Executive Member, MPS BPA
• Micky Singh, Executive Member, MPS Sikh Association
• Patricia Larrigan, MPS Association of Senior Female Staff

44. Introductions and apologies for absence

(Agenda item 1)

Apologies for absence were received from the Chair, Kirsten Hearn, Cindy Butts, Damian Hockney and Lee Jasper. A number of apologies from members of the invited community organisations were also submitted.

Members referred to the fact that this was the last meeting of the Board, which was the last DAC Rose Fitzpatrick would be attending in her current capacity. They thanked her for her services to the Board and wished her well in her new Command.

45. Declarations of interests

(Agenda item 2)

No interests were declared.

46. Minutes – 16 November 2006

(Agenda item 3)

Resolved - That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2006 be agreed and signed as a correct record.

47. Follow up to the meeting on 16 November 2006

(Agenda item 5)
Follow up to the meeting held on 16 November [PDF document]

A report was submitted which provided a follow up to three points arising from the Board’s consideration of a report on diversity issues within the Child Protection Group.

Members said that the ethnicity classifications used appeared to be outdated. Commander Wilkinson said that she had been advised that this reflected the terminology currently in use.

DAC Fitzpatrick undertook to provide a briefing paper which provided clarification in the light of the concerns which had been raised by members .

Resolved - That the information be noted and a briefing paper be provided concerning the ethnicity descriptors.

48. Chair and Member’s update

(Agenda item 5)

The Chair said that the MPS had received considerable recognition in two categories in a recent poll by readers of the Pink Paper including being named as employer of the year. He asked that the Board’s congratulations be conveyed to the Commissioner.

49. Report on focus item – MPS Equalities Scheme

(Agenda items 6)

A report was submitted which presented the status of the MPS Equalities Scheme, a framework which, when complete, will contain the arrangements for achieving equality across the six diversity strands. The first phase, published on 4 December 2006, contains details of activities that are common to all strands and the specific activity required to meet the Disability Equality Duty. The report sets out to explain how the scheme was developed, the relationship with the MPS Race and Diversity Strategy 2006 – 9 and also discusses key issues and how the Scheme’s progress will be monitored.

Resolved - That

1. the report be noted; and
2. it would be recommend to the Authority that approval be given to the Disability Specification Section of the Scheme and the approach adopted by the MPS in relation to achieving equality in other areas of diversity and the progress made.

50. Concurrent report by MPA on the focus item

(Agenda item 7)

This report provided a response from an equality and diversity perspective to the report by the MPS.

Resolved - That the key points raised by the Board be fed into the report on the Scheme when it is considered by the full Authority.

51. Discussion on focus item

(Agenda item 8)

Standing Orders were suspended for this item to enable contributions to be made from non-members.

Training

In reply to points from several speakers Kevin Bowsher, the project leader, acknowledged that with 50,000 employees this was clearly going to be challenging and there would not be a single delivery method. DAC Fitzpatrick said that the Diversity Board had the ultimate responsibility for training. Members would be aware that there were challenges nationally in providing the full roll out of training programmes and at a determining a national standard. She had written to the Home Office to express concerns on the latter point.

Disability Aspects

Ruth Bashall, Co-vice chair, Disability Independent Advisory Group referred to the constructive relationship with the Directorate and the considerable input which the IAG had made into the Scheme and the detailed discussion with the authors of the Scheme. This had all helped to ensure that specific gaps had been included. .

It was important that publicity for the scheme mentioned specifics such as Minicom numbers

Legislative background

In response to points from Nathalie Stewart, CEO, Westminster Human Rights, Equalities & Race (Group) the Chair said it might be useful if future reports included a reference to the relevant current legislation

Summing up

In summing up, the Chair asked people to contact him after the meeting if there were any specific points that they still wished to pursue.

Resolved – That the discussion be noted.

52. Equality and diversity in specialist crime directorate

(Agenda item 9)

A report was submitted which outlined the work undertaken by Specialist Crime Directorate (SCD), provided details of its relationship with the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate (DCFD) and described equality and diversity initiatives being carried out within SCD and with the communities it serves. The report also provides details of SCD’s demographics and how it monitors diversity activity.

Standing Orders were suspended for this item to enable contributions to be made from non-members

Recruitment to the Directorate

Micky Singh, Executive Member, MPS Sikh Association said that whilst things like recruitment fairs had their place they had not been effective in achieving any increase in recruitment from ethnic groups. There was a perception that if recruited an officer would only be used for particular pieces of operational work concerned with specific ethnic groups and would not be considered for inclusion in the general Directorate career path. Indeed one inhibiting factor that might deter somebody from applying was knowing that there were only a small number of ethnic minority members within the management structure.

Commander Wilkinson confirmed that consideration was being given to more focussed recruitment events .

Resolved – That the report be noted.

53. MPS citizen focus diversity update

(Agenda item 10)

This report was deferred.

54. Progress report on IAG review

(Agenda item 11)

This report detailed progress of the MPS Independent Advisory Group Review. Standing Orders were suspended for this item to enable contributions to be made from non-members.

John Azah said he would urge caution concerning the arrangements around setting up IAGs to deal with specific incidents.

Ruth Bashall, Co-vice chair, Disability Independent Advisory Group said that it was always important that it was made clear that IAG members were volunteers from the community. She felt that the budgetary issues had still not been addressed.

The Board noted that draft recommendation 27 related to a recommendation in the Morris report and not the Nolan report as shown.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

55. MET modernisation programme update

(Agenda item 12)

A report was submitted which provided the Board with an update of progress on the Met Modernisation Programmed

The Director of Strategy, Modernisation and Performance confirmed that a further report would be made to the Board in a year’s time. The Chair said that ways should be found of progressing the Programme at borough level so that –e.g. by it being an agenda item at CDRP meetings so that its impact on partners could also be assessed. This would then filter down to safer neighbourhood level. He hoped that the next report would demonstrate more on this aspect. The Director agreed that this would be useful and he would explore with colleagues in Territorial Policing how this suggestion could be taken forward.

In reply to questions the Director of Strategy, Modernisation and Performance said that there was some limited engagement with front line officers but this was not systematic. However, it was clear from points raised at forums that there was eagerness amongst front line staff to be able to serve the public better. So far engagement with the Staff Associations had been limited to inviting them to the programme of monthly meetings and whilst this would encompass the full range of activities it was true to say that there was currently little feedback on how Staff Associations viewed the totality of the Programme.

Resolved -That the Board note:

1. how the MMP has developed since the last report provided to this committee in December 2005;
2. the measures put in place to asses the MMP in relation to the ‘critical success factors’ outlined by the MPA using the Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) process;
3. how the MPS is measuring the tangible impact of the Together programme; and
4. how the MMP is addressing the eight challenges identified by the MPA in December 2005 including leadership, effective management, handling complaints, representation, active communication, hidden voices of existing, new and emerging communities, key encounters and accountability

56. MPA Disability Equality Scheme 2006-2009

(Agenda item 13)

A report was submitted which provided the Board with an overview of the MPA Disability Scheme 2006-2009. It was considered in conjunction with agenda items 6-8. Standing Orders were suspended for this item to enable contributions to be made from non-members

The Board was advised that as the meeting was not quorate it was not in a position to formally agree the Scheme but could advise the Authority that it supported the recommendations.

Resolved – That

1. the full Authority be asked to
   • agree the MPA 2006 – 2009 DES;
   • agree that the MPA Corporate Equality Plan (CEP) 2004 - 2007is now replaced and is superseded by the MPA Generic Equality Scheme and the MPA Disability Equality Scheme; and
2. an update on progress on the MPA’s Generic Equality Scheme be included in the work programme for reporting at the first meeting in 2008.

57. Reports from EODB sub-groups

(Agenda item 14)

This item was not taken due to time constraints

The meeting closed at 12.15 p.m.

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