Personnel management information

Report: 9
Date: 15 March 2001
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides a range of personnel related management information to the end of January 2001, with a summary of key points. It supplements the main MPS Performance Report, providing more detailed information in the personnel field.

A. Recommendation

That Authority members note the contents of this report and the management information provided.

B. Supporting information

Management information charts

1. The attached charts show, at Appendix 1, the position against the personnel related Best Value Performance Indicators, and, at Appendix 2, a range of supplementary personnel management information.

2. The charts provide data to the end of January 2001.

Key points

3. The key points to emerge from the reports are set out below:

MPS strength

4. Police strength increased for the fourth consecutive month. The increase in January was 32. Civil staff increased by 23 and traffic warden strength by a further 1.

5. The police, civil staff and traffic warden strengths remain under the budgeted workforce targets (BWT). Using the actual BWT for 2000/01 of 25,600 for police, the deficit for police now stands at 178 (0.7 per cent). The shortfall of civil staff against BWT is 847 (7.6 per cent) and for traffic wardens 250 (26 per cent).

Ethnicity

6. The percentage of visible ethnic minority (VEM) staff as a proportion of police strength, at the end of January 2001, 4.11 per cent. This figure is slightly higher than the previous month's 4.06 per cent and also higher than the respective figure for the beginning of this financial year 3.95 per cent indicating a continuing steady improvement.

7. For civil staff and traffic wardens the percentage of visible ethnic minority (VEM) staff as a proportion of their strength at the end of January 2001, 15.52 per cent (civil staff) and 11.92 per cent (traffic wardens). Both of these are slightly lower than last month's 15.58 per cent (civil staff) and 12.22 per cent (traffic wardens) but are higher than at the start of this financial year 15.16 per cent (civil staff) and 12.16 per cent (traffic wardens).

Gender

8. The percentage of females as a proportion of police strength is 15.7 per cent, which is a marginal increase on December 2000's 15.66 per cent. The respective figure for the beginning of this financial year was 15.51 per cent.

9. The percentage of females as a proportion of civil staff strength at January 2001 is 58.77 per cent, which is a very slight increase from the previous month. The figure at the beginning at this financial year was (58.68 per cent)

10. The bulk of female civil staff are at Grades 12 and 13 (77.61 per cent). The other grades do not provide the proportion of female staff that overall proportion (58.77 per cent) would suggest.

11. The proportion of traffic warden strength that is female is 60.81 per cent, which is marginally lower than last month's 61.16 per cent and at the beginning of this financial year (61.56 per cent).

Command and operational resilience

12. This chart still contains the 'adjustment' BWT for police ranks, which will be cleared to the actual BWT in the next report.

13. The "Others" BWT represents various grades for which a BWT has been included in Business Group figures but which cannot be redistributed across the unified grades as no definitive designation is available. The strength for "Other" refers to the number of college based students currently employed.

14. The difference between the BWT and strength for Grade 11's occurs because the BWT includes a number of catering grades that are not part of the unified grading structure, and are categorised as Grade 11s for workforce records purposes.

Police recruitment

15. Substantial increases in police recruitment have been achieved since October 2000. Monthly recruitment from October to January averaged 160, which is a 60 per cent increase over the average recruitment in earlier months of 97, (discounting August when there was no intake). The target for recruitment is 1355.

16. The nine intakes to data this year have totalled 1129 new officers, including those posted directly to Boroughs. The estimate for the financial intake in March 2001, which would bring the total number recruited for the year to 1330, only 5 short of the target

17. The current female proportion of new recruits is 20.9 per cent, and increase of 0.11 per cent compared to the beginning of this financial year and higher than the Best Value Performance Indicator of 17 per cent.

18. 52 ethnic minority officers have been recruited to December 2000. At this rate, the projected total is 65, a shortfall of 235 against the target of 300 required to meet the 5 per cent target for the overall police workforce proportion.

19. Recruitment of both ethnic minorities and female officers to date this year is currently higher than wastage and the proportion of these groups in the police workforce continues to grow, albeit slowly.

20. The proportion of visible ethnic minorities within intakes at is Hendon is 5.53 per cent (60) of all recruits. 5.71 per cent (2) of those who fail to graduate and 3.92 per cent (17) of all who graduate are visible ethnic minorities.

21. The proportion of females within intakes at Hendon is at 20.65 per cent (224) of all recruits. Only 11.43 per cent (4) of those who fail to graduate are female, and 21.89 per cent (95) of all who graduate are female.

Police wastage

22. Police wastage in January was exceptionally high (177). This pushed the average for the year to date to 122 per month, which is higher than the comparator (115).

23. The number of police medical retirements as a proportion of all retirements in January, 36 per cent, was higher than last month at 29.03 per cent. The number of medical retirements in December (9) was lower than the monthly average in November 16.08. The year to date figure is 30.78 per cent of all retirements, below the BVPI target of 33 per cent. On average to January 33.10 per cent officers each month retire on ordinary pensions and 14.70 per cent per month leave through medical retirements.

24. Wastage to date among visible ethnic minority officers, as a proportion of total wastage is 3.3 per cent, a slight increase when compared to last month's average to date figure of 2.87 per cent. The visible ethnic minority rate, as a proportion of total wastage last year was 3.32 per cent.

25. Wastage of female officers is currently at 31.21 per cent, which is marginally higher than last month's 13.24 per cent of total wastage. January has seen an increase in the number of female resignations when compared to the to the previous month's.

26. Resignations and officers joining other forces continue to form about half of all wastage: 24.6 per cent resign and 24.7 per cent join another force.

Civil staff wastage

27. Civil staff wastage to date for the year remains above the comparator (125) at an average of 128.07 departures each month, although it has fallen significantly below the comparator between October and January. Resignations account for 60.90 per cent of all wastage, running at an average of 78.01 per month. Medical retirements as a proportion of all retirements in January were 44.23 per cent. The year to date figure is 33.07 per cent of all retirements marginally higher than the BVPI target of 33 per cent.

28. Average wastage to date among visible ethnic minority civil staff as a proportion of total wastage is 11.7 per cent, which is virtually the same as last month's 11.73 per cent. This compares to a civil staff workforce proportion of 15.52 per cent.

29. Wastage of female civil staff is currently 56.57 per cent of total wastage, which is very slightly lower than last month's 57.41 per cent. However, since the proportion of females in the civil staff workforce is 58.77 per cent, female civil staff wastage is not disproportionate.

Traffic warden wastage

30. The wastage rate to date this year averages 13.14 per month. This equates to an annual rate of 29.70 per cent of the average strength to date. 48.67 (38 per cent) of traffic wardens have regraded to civil staff grades and 36 (29.70 per cent) have resigned.

Sickness

31. PIB are still working through the backlog following the installation of a new computer system. Sickness figures for the month of November, December and January will be available as soon as the backlog is cleared. October data has been included since the previous report.

Police sickness

32. The police sickness rate to date for the year is 9.69 days i.e. 0.69 days greater than the 9 days target. Year on year the average is 0.11 days less per month than 1999-2000. Recent months have seen a gradual increase in the sickness rate.

Civil staff sickness excluding traffic wardens

33. Civil staff sickness, at 10.8 days, stands at an average rate of 0.8 days per month above the target of 10 days.

34. PIB are experiencing difficulties extracting traffic warden sickness data, consequently the figures for the month of September 99 are unavailable both for civil staff and traffic wardens. As soon as the problem is resolved, backdated data will be included in future reports.

Traffic warden sickness

35. Traffic warden sickness continues at a much higher rate than for other staff. The figures to date this year show an average of 21.67 days lost per traffic warden. The rate is also higher than for the same months last year. There has been a gradual but steady increase over the last four months.

Extended sick pay for police officers (Regulation 46)

36. Over the year to date, an average of 106 officers per month are off on extended sick leave on full pay, 63 officers on half pay and 20 officers are off pay. There has been a slight increase in full pay and half pay cases in January and the general trend is upwards.

37. An analysis of the ethnicity breakdown is being completed and will be reported on separately.

Grievances

38. To date there are an average of 10.4 new grievances each month. This compares with last year's average of 12.89, a reduction of 2.49 per cent. Year on year has seen a decrease of 25 new grievances compared to the same time last year.

Employment tribunals

39. The total to date for this year shows an increase of 16 in the number of new cases over this point last year (96 compared to 80). There would be a slight reduction in the number of ETs when compared to last year if the 4 appeals were excluded from the overall figure

Occupational health

40. The number of new occupational health referrals at 399 is higher than last month's 327. The year to date average is 343.9 a month. The number returning to full duties in January was 156, an increase from last month's 131. Other OH indicators continue to show an upward trend of activity during the year. These are not as yet dramatic and will be closely monitored

C. Financial implications

None.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

The author of this report is Chris Haselden, MPS.

For information contact:

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

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