Human Resources priorities 2002/03

Report: 8
Date: 10 January 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report is presented to invite observations from Members of the Human Resources Committee on the emerging human resources priorities for the Metropolitan Police Service for 2002/03. 

The report outlines the development of the HR priorities for the Metropolitan Police Service to support the operational priorities for 2002/03 and for inclusion in the corporate MPS Policing and Performance Plan. The priorities will also form the foundation for the HR Directorate business and performance plan for that year.

A. Recommendations

That

1. Members comment on the emerging priorities and objectives;
2. Members note the presentation of the full draft Policing and Performance Plan to the Metropolitan Police Authority meeting on 24 January; and
3. Members note continuing work on preparation of the HR Directorate business and performance plan.

B. Supporting information

Initial stage

1. The planning process for developing the 2002/03 Policing and Performance Plan is underway. As part of the corporate process, detailed planning has commenced to establish the human resources priorities for the year, both to directly support the operational priorities and objectives and to form the foundation for the HR Directorate business and performance plan for the year.

2. The initial planning stage is to be completed in January 2002. At the time of writing, the Home Office had not yet announced the Ministerial priorities for the police and development work within the MPS was on going. Consequently, the priorities are not available for inclusion in this report. Further information will be provided at the meeting on 10 January.

Budget

3. The budgetary provision for the MPS and the HR Directorate is also unknown at this time. This is of fundamental importance and the final priorities and objectives will need to reflect the budgetary provision when this is known.

Contents

4. The Home Office has yet to release guidance on the statutory contents for policing plans. We are working on the assumption that these will remain the same as last year.

5. The 2002/03 corporate priorities and objectives for the MPS have not yet been fully worked up. For this stage of the planning process, we are working on the latest draft priorities and objectives, as attached at Appendix 1.

6. At this stage, the HR main priorities are expected to be (as set out in paragraphs 9 and 10) in the areas of:

• Recruitment
• Retention
• Diversity
• Sickness management
• Training
• Police Reform agenda.

7. The policing plan will include the mandatory Best Value Performance Indicators. The Home Office have indicated that the number of BVPIs for 2002/03 will be reduced though this has not been confirmed nor do we know which ones might be dropped. In any event, there will be a range of HR-related BVPIs that will form part of the priorities especially where existing performance does not meet the targets.

8. For reference, also attached are extracts from the 2001/02 Policing and Performance Plan:

Appendix 2 - specific HR objectives and targets
Appendix 3 - Staffing Plan (part)
Appendix 4 - HR Best Value Performance Indicators (see Supporting material)

Main issues

9. As well as on-going and longer-term issues, many of the current HR issues will also be pertinent in 2002/03, for example:

• Recruitment – substantial numbers of extra officers, and civil staff
• Retention, to achieve a larger workforce
• Improving the number of ethnic minority and female staff
• Progression of ethnic minority and female staff
• Reduction of sickness absences and ill-health retirements
• Completion of the Community and Race Relations training programme
• Significant stages being reached in the delivery of major projects, such as:
  • competency framework project
  • new computerised HR system (MetHR)
• Training and development initiatives in support of operational objectives.

10. Current major developments and those occurring during 2002/03 are likely to give rise to specific new priorities and objectives. These developments include the Police Reform changes and various inspections and Best Value reviews planned for the year.

HR Directorate business and performance plan

11. The initial focus of the planning exercise is to develop the HR priorities and objectives to support operational priorities for inclusion in the Policing and Performance Plan. Once the policing plan has been finalised the HR Directorate business and performance plan will be completed. This will include more detailed objectives to deliver the high level priorities and will itself be underpinned by departmental/branch plans and objectives for individuals.

12. Continuing development of the HR priorities and targets for the Policing and Performance Plan will be taken forward with the MPA through the process established. When fully drafted, the HR Directorate business and performance plan will be tabled for discussion at a future meeting of the HR Committee.

C. Financial implications

There are no financial implications arising directly from this report. Costs will be incurred in progressing the final priorities and objectives and these will be contained within allocated budgets for 2002/03. The final priorities will need to reflect the budgets allocated.

D. Background papers

Metropolitan Police Service Policing and Performance Plan 2001/02

E. Contact details

Report author: Chris Haselden, Human Resources Directorate, MPS.

For information contact:

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

Appendix 1: 2002/03 draft priorities and objectives [valid as on 30/11/2001]

Appendix 2: Extract from 2001/02 Policing and Performance Plan - HR Objectives and targets

Making the Met great to work for

This will be achieved by:

• responding to staff survey results;
• reducing police, civilian and traffic warden sickness;
• ensuring the MPS is staffed to the desired level;
• increasing the percentage of female and ethnic minority officers to reflect London's communities;
• delivering community and race relations training to staff;
• reducing unnecessary bureaucracy.

People strategy

Objective: To reduce number of working days lost through sickness

• PI: Average number of days sick for police officers pa (2001/02 target 9 days)
• PI: Average number of days sick for civil staff (excluding traffic wardens) pa (2001/02 target 10 days)
• PI: Average number of days sick for traffic wardens pa (2001/02 target 20 days)

Key actions to meet the objective(s) and deliver target(s):

• pilot an early psychiatric intervention scheme in South West London;
• identify and target boroughs/business units that have high levels of sickness;
• analyse causes of sickness, differentiating between short and long term absences;
• review the restrictive duties policy;
• analyse all ill health retirements over the previous 6 month period to identify what interventions could have been made to avoid ill-health retirements.

Recruitment and retention

Objective: To achieve the planned establishment of the MPS

• PI: Number of police officers recruited compared to the target (2001/02 target 2,475 recruits)
• PI: Number of civil staff recruited compared to the target (2001/02 target 2,640 recruits)
• PI: Percentage of voluntary 3 police leavers in the first five years of service (2001/02 target 6.5%)
• PI: Percentage of voluntary police leavers with 5 – 30 years of service (2001/02 target 2.8%)
• PI: Percentage of civil staff turnover (including traffic wardens) (2001/02 target 13%)

Key actions to meet the objective(s) and deliver target(s):

• provide local recruiters with a more flexible recruitment service, so that it can be tailored to meet specific requirements;
• run a series of recruitment campaigns, focusing on underrepresented groups;
• improve the ratio of enquiries: applications received: recruits;
• reduce the time between enquiry and job offer;
• revise the pay and grading structure for civil staff;
• promote and extend family friendly working practices;
• examine further the reasons for people leaving and reflect in a new retention strategy.

Diversity

Objective: To increase the strength of visible ethnic minorities (VEM) and females in the police

• PI: Number of VEM officers as a percentage of police strength (2001/02 target 5%)
• PI: Difference in length of service of VEM officers compared to length of service of other officers (2001/02 target 10% reduction)
• PI: Difference in length of service of female officers compared to length of service of male officers (2001/02 target 6.6% reduction)
• PI: Difference between the percentage of VEM civil staff in grades 10 upwards and percentage of VEM staff throughout all civil staff grades (2001/02 target 10% reduction)
• PI: Difference between the percentage of VEM officers with 5 to 10 years service at sergeant and above and other officers with 5 to 10 years service at sergeant level and above (2001/02 target No difference)

Objective: To deliver Community and Race Relations training to police and front line civil staff

• PI: Percentage of police and front line civil staff trained (2001/02 target 75%)

Key actions to meet the objective(s) and deliver target(s):

• examine the reasons why minority ethnic officers leave the service prematurely and respond accordingly;
• examine the selection procedures for specialist departments and raise the level of awareness of specialist posts among minority ethnic officers;
• develop systems to monitor signs of disproportionality in promotion and specialist selection procedures;
• develop network volunteer programme;
• progress the Active Career Development Scheme for minority ethnic officers of inspector rank and above;
• extend work of the Positive Action Team to civil staff as well as police officers with remit to include gender, lesbian, gay and bisexual and disability issues;
• develop Community and Race Relations training programme to embrace a more inclusive approach to diversity (e.g. issues of gender, disability and sexual orientation);
• introduce diversity training into all core curriculum training (including recruit training, CID foundation training and management training for newly promoted sergeants and inspectors).

Modernising personnel

In 2001/02, we will have completed a strategic review of our personnel department. The results of that review will be used to identify immediate areas for improvement, as well as forming a building block for a best value review of managing people later in the year. Part of the current strategic review is aimed at examining the benefits of devolving more personnel functions to line managers within clear corporate policies. In addition to the actions highlighted under the 2001/02 developmental priority for recruitment and retention, we plan to:

• expand our focus on under-represented groups and market police / civil staff careers in a way that engages the population of London;
• modernise our recruitment infrastructure to ensure sustainable recruitment, including full electronic facilities for applications in line with the 'Modernising Government' agenda;
• create a new recruit selection centre at Hendon;
• introduce a performance management regime incorporating the corporate models for inspection and review and for quality assurance;
• expand benchmarking activity to help identify and share good practice
• introduce a corporate integrated information system;
• structure continuous professional development of personnel managers;
• select, assess and develop staff based on a competency framework being developed as a national project led by the MPS.

Appendix 3: Extract from 2001/02 Policing and Performance Plan - Staffing Plan (part)

Introduction

The annex provides a broad outline of how staff are allocated between operational, operational support and organisational support functions. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) defines these functions as follows [1]

• Operational: Staff, including covert staff, whose primary role (i.e. over 50% of their time) is to deliver directly the overarching aims of the service (e.g. beat officers).
• Operational support: Staff whose primary role is to support the delivery of the overarching aims of the service (e.g. staff employed in Criminal Justice Units).
• Organisational support: Staff whose primary role is to service the internal needs of the organisation (e.g. those employed in the personnel function). The annex also contains details of the major training and development programmes that support our service delivery priorities and sustained activities.

Staffing plans

By the end of 2001/02, we plan to employ 26,650 police officers and 12,000 members of civil staff. Of these:

• 66.6% (87.7% of police) will be used in operational roles;
• 15.5% (9.1% of police) will be used in operational support roles; and
• 17.9% (3.2% of police) will be used in organisational support roles.

A more detailed breakdown of these categories is shown below. A more detailed breakdown of staff into the various categories will be developed by the early part of 2001/02.

Planned recruitment

To achieve the planned levels of staff by the end of 2001/02 we will need to recruit some 2,500 police officers and 2,640 civil staff. The actions we are taking to achieve these levels are outlined in Annex A under the developmental priorities for recruitment and retention.

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