How the MPS will deliver equality & diversity to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games

Report: 06
Date: 8 March 2007
By: Assistant Commissioner Central Operations on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

On 6 July 2005 London was awarded the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In both preparing for the bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and in the UK’s address to the IOC Committee in Singapore, diversity was a key theme, which was critical in ensuring the award of the Games to the UK.

It is now the responsibility of all partners involved in delivering a safe, secure and successful Games in 2012 to ensure that diversity, community involvement and the needs of the citizen remain a key driving element not just in the planning of the event and the delivery of the Games themselves, but to also ensure that these issues are carried forward into legacy.

This report summarises how the MPS intends to ensure that diversity and citizen focus is ensured within the Olympic Programme and what current activity in these key areas has already taken place.

A. Recommendations

That Members note and support the MPS’ approach to delivering diversity and equal opportunities to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. On 6 July 2005 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to London. In both preparing for the bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and in the UK’s address to the IOC Committee in Singapore, diversity was a key theme, which was critical in ensuring the award of the Games to the UK.

2. In 2012 the Games will host 202 countries and include 26 sports events being played at venues mainly within, but also outside of the London area.

3. The Olympic and Paralympic Games will run over a 60 day period. For policing and security purposes the timetable is as follows:

Olympic Park Lockdown

approx 14 June 2012

Athletes’ Arrival

14 July 2012

Olympics Opening Ceremony

27 July 2012

Olympics Closing Ceremony

12 August 2012

Paralympics Opening Ceremony

29 August 2012

Paralympics Closing Ceremony

9 September 2012

4. Based on previous Olympic Games it is estimated that London 2012 can expect to welcome:

• 10,500 athletes from 202 participating nations
• 24,000 media representatives being present
• 200,000 persons accredited for the event
• 9,000,000 ticket sales
• 6,000 athletic coaches and officials attending

5. The Commissioner has assumed, with the co-operation of partner Chief Constables, overall responsibility for the safety, security and policing of the Games. The Commissioner will be personally accountable to the Home Secretary in this regard.

6. In light of this responsibility, on 28 November 2005 the MPS created the Olympic OCU (CO12) within the Central Operations Command.

7. The MPS Programme Vision for the Olympics is:

• To develop a safe and secure environment for all those who are involved with or are impacted by the 2012 Olympic Games
• To recognise the issues and impact on the population of London and to work in partnership to address / mitigate them
• To develop a world-class security package

8. The MPS Olympic Programme is structured around 15 Programme strands, all of which are led by an identified member of staff at either Commander or Director level. The strands are divided into two areas – enabling and delivery. The programme strands are:

• Diversity
• People
• Information Technology
• Programme Governance
• Policing and Safety
• Consequence Management
• Intelligence
• Crime
• Counter-Terrorism
• Transport
• Buildings and Facilities
• Communication
• Health and Safety
• Command and Control
• Finance

9. Diversity and Citizen Focus has been identified as a key theme of the MPS Olympic Programme. Diversity is an enabling strand within the programme and crosscuts all the other strands to oversee and monitor diversity and equality issues within each. Recognising the importance of diversity within the programme also sends the positive message to communities, partners and colleagues that it matters. It will also ensure compliance within the programme around statutory and legislative requirements. The programme strand lead for this area of work is Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alf Hitchcock, the Director of Diversity and Citizen Focus.

10. The current Diversity project plan within the Diversity strand covers the following areas:

• Delivery of diversity & citizen focus
• Disability Discrimination Act compliance within the Programme
• Internal staff recruitment
• Advice during volunteer recruitment,
• Staff associations engagement
• Identifying, accessing and engaging with communities
• Olympic linkage to the Cultural and Communities Resources Unit (CCRU)
• Identification and engagement with local partnership delivery groups
• Engaging with wider communities (e.g. business and youth)
• Use of existing Independent Advisory Groups (IAGs)
• MPS compliance with Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs)
• Monitoring the impact of the EIAs on the programme planning and delivery
• MPS compliance with other Statutory requirements
• Identification and engagement with community contacts
• Community impact assessments
• Monitoring community tension

Equality Impact Assessments (EIA)

11. The Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate are in the process of recruiting two members of staff to work entirely on the delivery and corporate compliance with EIAs within the Olympics Programme. These officers will work from within the Diversity strand of the programme and will link with all of the projects teams within the fourteen other Olympic Programme strands. They will monitor the planning process and ensure compliance and consistency of EIAs across the entire programme. They will also provide advice and assistance to all project leads on EIAs and will assist them in their work on engaging and consulting with communities.

12. In addition, members of the Olympic Programme Support Team have received training on delivery of EIAs.

13. It is the intention of the Diversity strand to also deliver training on EIAs to staff employed within all of the Olympic Programme strands.

14. The Diversity strand will also be facilitating the inclusion of members of IAGs or other community contacts on to both the Strategic Olympic Programme committees and the individual projects boards within the programme strands. This will ensure that community and customer focus is catered for in the security and policing planning.

15. In 2006 the Programme Manager was asked by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), through the Home Office, for assurance that EIAs have been adopted for all of the Olympic Programme planning. This assurance was provided.

16. Every work-stream within the MPS Olympic programme, including Diversity is also required to theme the delivery of projects and products around five key strategic areas:

• Capacity and capability building
• Legacy
• Operational Readiness
• Target Hardening
• Human Security

For example, within the Capacity and capability building theme the MPS will need to address the following internal issues:

• Skills of the MPS workforce
• Delivery of Olympic specific training
• Work / life balance of staff engaged in policing the Games
• Shift patterns for police officers
• Flexible working issues
• Workforce modernisation
• Use of the extended police family
• Recruitment and training of volunteers

Within the operational readiness theme, the MPS must consider:

• London operating “business as usual”
• Providing a customer and citizen focussed service
• Consequence management and community impact
• Deployment of volunteers
• Interaction with private security
• Resourcing the Games
• Ensuring the safety of the spectators and the public

17. As part of CO12’s commitment to mainstreaming diversity and equalities issues, a Superintendent has been designated as the OCU Diversity Champion and engages fully within the MPS Diversity Forums. In addition, to assist the Diversity programme strand, CO12 also employs a programme support worker who has responsibility around areas of people, diversity and welfare.

18. Central Operations Head Quarters (COHQ) has a full time diversity coordinator who supports CO12's diversity work centrally and COHQ holds 6-weekly Diversity Meetings, which CO12 regularly attend. The Business Manager’s Diversity meetings provide support to diversity representatives, and act as a forum where issues can be raised and good practice can be developed and shared. In addition, these meetings are an opportunity for COHQ to provide an update on the diversity work they are involved in on CO’s behalf, for example corporate diversity projects including development of the Equalities Scheme.

Youth

19. The public face of the 2012 Games is the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG). The MPS has embedded an officer into this critical delivery partner from the outset of the bidding process. This officer has remained embedded since the award of the Games to London and is now key in ensuring that both security and the liaison with the MPS is fundamental in developing its’ functional areas. These areas include:

• The Olympic Cultural programme running in parallel to the sporting events
• Legacy
• Community involvement
• Youth
• Paralympic Games
• Spectator Services
• Volunteers

The LOCOG vision for the games is:

“to stage inspirational Games that capture the imagination of young people around the world and leave a lasting legacy."

In his address to the IOC Committee in Singapore in 2005, 30 children and young persons from the East End of London accompanied Lord Sebastian Coe in delivering his address. In his speech he stated:

“Why are so many here, taking the place of businessmen and politicians? It's because we're serious about inspiring young people. Each of them comes from east London, from the communities who will be touched most directly by our Games. And thanks to London's multi-cultural mix of 200 nations, they also represent the youth of the world. Their families have come from every continent. They practice every religion and every faith. What unites them is London. Their love of sport. And their heartfelt dream of bringing the Olympic Games to our city.”

“Today's children live in a world of conflicting messages and competing distractions. Their landscape is cluttered. Their path to Olympic sport is often obscured. But it's a world we must understand and must respond to.”

The MPS must respond to this challenge and will work both with LOCOG and the other delivery partners, through existing and new routes and channels to realise this vision.

20. One such way that the MPS intends to meet this challenge is by utilising the skills and services of a youth outreach worker, who has been employed by the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate, to concentrate on youth engagement, predominantly within the Olympic affected boroughs. This will be by way of engagement with youth groups, other youth workers, the voluntary sector and the Youth Offending Teams (YOT).

Disability

21. By nature of the fact that London was awarded the Olympic and Paralympic games the MPS must also take every opportunity to engage with disabled communities, including potential spectators, athletes and the local communities. This will ensure that the needs of the disabled can be factored into the planning process and ultimately deliver an accessible, responsive and flexible service required by the both the Olympic and Paralympic events.

22. During the planning and consultation phases of the programme, the MPS will ensure that accessibility needs are catered for within its’ communication methods by adopting different formats in all of it’s publications etc.

Women

23 During the initial planning phases the MPS has wherever possible taken opportunity of the learning derived from other major construction projects and major sporting events, including previous Olympic Games.

24 One such area of this learning that has been captured within the MPS Olympic programme is crime that could potentially impact upon women. These offences include people trafficking, prostitution, domestic violence, and as victims of organised crime.

25 The operational response to these issues will be designed through the Crime programme strand, which is still currently very much in the planning stage.

Delivery

26. One such method that will be at the front-line of engagement with the London communities is through both existing and new Safer Neighbourhood Teams. The staging of the London Games in 2012 will impact the whole of London, but will significantly impact on a number of London Boroughs in particular around the Olympic Park in Stratford.

27. The impact on communities in these boroughs especially during the clearance and build phase of the park is expected to be high. For this reason a new Safer Neighbourhood Team will be established in July 2007 dedicated to the area of the Olympic Park. This team will be responsible for:

• Engagement with existing communities impacted by the Olympic Park, including involvement in existing community facilities and policing teams
• Liaison with existing Safer Neighbourhood Teams in wards surrounding the Olympic Park.
• Liaison with private security employed within the Olympic Park
• Policing the construction workers and employers within the Olympic Park as a distinct community
• Participation and involvement in joined-up community engagement activity with other Olympic delivery partners, e.g. with LOCOG. This may give opportunities to a number of people living in the different communities in London who have other first or second languages than English.

28. Currently, the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate continually monitor community tension, especially from within the Olympic affected boroughs and submits a regular community impact assessment.

29. Other ways that the MPS is already involved in as a means of engaging communities during both the planning and delivery phases of the Games include:

Volunteers

30. To ensure the smooth running of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, the organisers will require the services of over 70,000 volunteers. To date well over 125,000 people have expressed an interest in supporting the Games through the registration of interest on the LOCOG website.

To provide support for the volunteers, LOCOG are establishing an infrastructure and volunteer strategy that includes such things as a pre-volunteering programme, under which people receive up to 120 hours of training to prepare them for the role, through a modular training process to a NVQ level 1 standard, delivered by the Learning and Skills Council. The LOCOG lead for this work is Richard Sumray who, as a member of the MPA, is keen that the MPS should be strategically positioned to take advantage of the opportunities generated by the spirit of volunteering associated with the Olympic games.

31. This clearly evidences the existence of a volunteering culture within society from all ages and backgrounds, and a willingness to assist public organisations. The spirit of volunteering and active citizenship fostered by the Games and the support infrastructure for volunteers being developed by the organising committee, provides a unique opportunity for the MPS to undertake a step change in its approach to volunteering; a new approach that will realise significant organisational, operational and cultural benefit.

32 The database, which currently holds the details of those volunteering for London 2012, belongs to LOCOG. At this time there has been no analysis conducted regarding the backgrounds of the 125,000 people that have registered their interest in volunteering. The MPS will wherever possible support LOCOG to address under representation by communities within the volunteering programme.

33. The MPS is also exploring the possibility of expanding its’ current volunteering programme to assist in both delivering a safe and secure games, but to also derive specific organisational, operational and cultural benefits to the MPS that engagement with volunteers bring.

Languages and Interpreting

34. The MPS has identified that the potential language problems associated with so many millions of people attending the London 2012 Games, either as a spectator or participant will stretch the existing interpreting capacity and capability to the limit. For some time now the issue of language and interpreters has been identified as a contributing factor to providing an effective and customer focussed policing service. As a result, a project team was set up within the Serious Crime Directorate to scope the possibilities of increasing capacity and capability in this critical area.

35. Using the impetus of the 2012 Games and the expected operational need around languages required from the MPS, it has been decided that the Languages project will now be managed from within the MPS Olympic Programme.

36 There are clear benefits to this approach:

• There is a drive and energy attached to the Olympic Programme within the MPS that will ensure sufficient ongoing focus on delivery of the languages programme.
• The Olympic programme has sound programme structures,
• There are clear and defined governance arrangements around the MPS Olympic Programme already in existence.
• There is already a clear strategic direction set for the Olympics Programme with clear objectives set.
• The MPS Olympic Programme is now a distinct programme within the Met Modernisation Programme (MMP). This provides the opportunity for all projects to be subject to MPA oversight scrutiny.

Leadership

37. It is clear that when the Games begin in 2012 that the MPS will require outstanding leadership from the organisation in order to provide a first class policing and safety response to what will be the largest ever security operation in UK peace time. Staff involved in policing the event will expect and deserve to be led in a professional and effective manner by MPS senior managers.

38. It is anticipated that the MPS will identify through the Policing and Safety programme strand all of the MPS Olympic event commanders a fixed number of years out from the opening ceremony of the Games. This will ensure a joined-up approach to the planning of security for the venues with the dedicated venue management teams.

39. The MPS programme will ensure through the People programme strand that leadership and the themes of Together are fully incorporated into the planning of the Games, and that the issues of providing effective and efficient leadership is addressed through the Leadership Academy.

Staff involved in the planning

40. As previously mentioned, on 28 November 2005 the Olympics OCU (CO12) within the MPS Central Operations Command was created. The MPS is now organising and leading on the creation of the Olympic Security Directorate (OSD), which is now accommodated within an MPS building in Stratford. The multi-disciplinary, multi-agency OSD works directly to the Olympic Security Coordinator, Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur.

41. The OSD has responsibility for coordinating the agencies involved in providing safety, security and resilience to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Partner agencies are independent but part of an inter-dependent Olympic security family, working together in a no-blame environment that respects the roles and accountabilities of all its separate constituents. Partner agencies retain their own distinctive roles and lines of accountability, but operate in the closest possible collaboration to ensure maximum coherence, efficiency and effectiveness. The OSD is responsible for strategic and operational planning of security for the Games, and the implementation of this during the event period in order to achieve the Olympic Strategic Security Objectives

42. The CO12 Mission statement in preparing for the Olympic Games and realising the vision is:

“The CO12 Olympic OCU will ensure the Metropolitan Police Service delivers a safe and peaceful celebration of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games maximising its legacy for the benefit of the Capital City by:

• Utilising the knowledge, skills and experience of all MPS police officers and police staff and our colleagues nationally and internationally, and
• Working with all partners, stakeholders and communities”

43. From its’ inception, it very quickly became clear that many MPS staff saw employment within the CO12/OSD as an exciting opportunity. Therefore from the very outset, the senior management of CO12 provided personal assurances to the MPS staff associations that every role within the CO12/OSD would be conducted in an open, fair and transparent manner, in line with all existing MPS policies.

44. In order to attract the best possible people with the right skills to deliver, and in an effort create a Directorate with staff that reflect the diverse communities within London other activities in support of the selection and recruitment processes have also been carried out. Ever effort has also been made to ensure that there is proportionate representation within the Directorate between police officers and police staff.

45. These activities have included:

• Providing internal presentations to key professional groups thus providing an opportunity for staff to fully appreciate the nature of the advertised roles and the work involved.
• Providing open days to interested staff
• Identifying under-representation and taking positive action in addressing these e.g. inviting particular expressions of interest during selection and recruitment processes
• The early development of an Intranet site
• Development of the OSD human resource policies, encouraging flexitime and other areas of flexible working.

46. Recently whilst advertising for 14 roles within the Directorate, CO12 carried out 5 separate open sessions for interested MPS staff. These were attended by in excess of 500 MPS employees.

47. At this time all OSD staff have been selected internally from within the MPS. Thus far, the breadth of available skills from across the MPS and the nature of the work involved in the early stages of planning has meant that the MPS has not engaged in external recruitment. However, it is envisaged that there will come a time when specific technical skills will be required for the OSD, which will require external recruitment processes.

48 All CO12 recruitment and selection processes have and will involve specific questioning on diversity and community & citizen focus.

49. All staff employed within the OSD have specific objectives within their annual Performance Development Reviews (PDRs) focussing on diversity and community & customer focus.

50. CO12 has also complied fully with MPS policy by considering any re-deployment positions for all police staff roles and to date has employed 3 people on re-deployment within the Directorate.

51. CO12 has also wherever possible facilitated attachment and secondment opportunities into the Directorate whenever meaningful opportunities have arisen. This was especially important during the very early days of the Directorate when there was no available funding to staff the unit.

52. CO12 also actively supports the MPS policy of flexible working.

Profile of CO12/OSD Staff

53. The OCU currently employs a total of 23 staff of which 13 are police officers and 10 are Police staff.

54. Currently, 7.7% of the 13 police officers are women officers, whilst 80% of our 10 police staff members are women. Overall, 39% of CO12 staff are female. This will alter in April 2007 when an additional 2 recently selected women Police Inspectors and 2 further female police staff members are employed within the OSD.

55. At present, the number of Black Minority Ethnic (BME) members of the 23 staff in CO12 is 8.7%. Again, this profile will change in April 2007 when the OSD will employ 1 further member of police staff within the Programme Support team who is also BME.

56. The age profile of the staff employed within CO12 shows that 30% of staff are under 35 years of age; 4% are aged between 20-25 years, 13% are aged between 25-30, 13% are aged between 30-35, 26% are aged between 35-40, 13% are aged between 40-45, 18% are aged between 45-50 and 13% are over 50.

57. In line with corporate practice, the sexual orientation of CO12 staff is not currently recorded and faith and disability are not mandatory fields within Met HR. However, work is currently being undertaken to get a clear understanding of the diversity profile of CO12 staff and it is anticipated that the anticipated development of the self-service facility on Met HR will assist in collecting this information. The OSD employs a member of staff who monitors HR and Diversity from within the command and she is assisting in introducing the new self service facility to the staff employed within the OSD through guidance, training and support.

Performance regime

58. In the 2006/7 period the performance measurements for CO12 focussed on the following areas:

• Creation and development of the Operational Command Unit
• Delivery of an intelligence function
• Creation and development of the MPS Olympic Programme
• Specific activity linking with the outline planning process by the Olympic Development Agency.

59. Performance monitoring during this period was in line with delivery of the MPS Corporate Priorities, predominantly focussed on Capital City Policing objectives. These objectives are:

• Policing iconic events
• Policing transport infrastructure
• Enabling infrastructure
• Public Reassurance
• Policing Dangerous Boundaries
• London Resilience

60. Work is currently underway on developing the performance measurements and indicators for the OSD for 2007/8, where the focus will be developed around delivery of a community and customer service. The deployment of the dedicated Safer Neighbourhood Team and proactive policing teams during this period will provide the OSD with the opportunity to deliver on these objectives.

Conclusion

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is a wonderful opportunity for London, London’s communities and the MPS. The police officers and police staff employed within the OSD are very proud to have the responsibility of delivering safety and security to what is described as “the Greatest Show on Earth”.

Delivery of the security operation provides a unique and one-off opportunity to deliver an accessible, responsive and flexible service to the millions of people who will visit, participate, work or just live in the London during Games time, and the MPS relishes the challenge that this provides.

Abbreviations

LOCOG

London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games

OCU 

Operational Command Unit

IOC 

International Olympic Committee

MPS 

Metropolitan Police Service

CCRU

Cultural and Communities Resource Unit

IAG

Independent Advisory Group

EIA 

Equality Impact Assessment

CRE

Commission for Racial Equality

COHQ

Central Operations Head Quarters

CO

Central Operations

ODA

Olympic Delivery Authority

OSD

Olympic Security Directorate

PDRs

Performance Development Reviews

BME

 Black Ethnic Minority

C. Race and equality impact

1. This report has detailed how the MPS intends to deliver diversity and community focus to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Diversity and the needs of the community will be addressed through every stage of the planning and delivery phases of the programme through a clearly defined and deliverable programme plan where Diversity stands as a critical enabling strand. Diversity will be driven through the Olympic Programme at various levels:

• At an organisational level through involvement in the corporate Diversity and Citizen focus forums
• At a programme level through engagement, monitoring and involvement by the Diversity programme strand
• At project level by the Programme Support Team
• At OCU level through an identified and dedicated Diversity champion
• At an operational level, through the Safer Neighbourhoods Team.

2. The OSD and Programme Management Team will also ensure that there is full compliance with EIAs throughout the Olympic planning process.

3. The OSD will ensure that consultation on the Olympic Security Planning within the MPS is also addressed through –

• Regular tabled meetings with MPS staff associations and staff support groups
• Planned communication methods such as publications, bulletins and use of the Intranet
• Face to face meetings with staff
• Participation in BCU meetings (both internal and external)

4. The OSD will take every opportunity to grow and develop the OCU over the forthcoming years approaching the Games by continuing to adopt fair, open and transparent selection and recruitment processes to select staff. The OSD will take positive action to address any issues of under-representation in any individual equality strand within its’ workforce and will continue to address recruitment from a position of need and desire to have the OSD reflect the diverse background of London’s communities.

D. Financial implications

1. The MPS has received additional funding from the Home Office to support the planning and operational delivery during 2007/8. The MPS is currently engaged in assessing the estimated planning and delivery costs for 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11. These costs will be submitted through a business case to the Home Office on 28 February 2007. All MPS business groups have been engaged in this costing process.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Superintendent Wayne Chance, CO12 Olympic OCU

For more information contact:

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

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback