Recruitment task force

Report: 07
Date: 3 October 2002
By: Clerk

Summary

This report reports progress so far on setting up a taskforce to examine ways of increasing visible minority ethnic recruitment to the Metropolitan Police Service. It provides information on the first meeting of the task force.

A. Recommendations

That

1. Members note the information on the first meeting of the task force; and
2. discuss the proposed terms of reference.

B. Supporting information

1. At its meeting on 25 July, the full Authority received a report from the Clerk on the proposal for the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) to set up a Recruitment Task Force. Its ‘core’ membership would be drawn from members of the MPA, representatives from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the Greater London Authority (GLA), and from London’s public and business communities to offer practical ideas, proposals and support to improve the police recruitment from visible ethnic minorities. This will be a ‘can do’ task force, not a talking shop.

Draft terms of reference

2. This initiative is aimed at recruiting more visible ethnic minority police officers to make the Metropolitan Police Service more representative of the communities it serves. The draft terms of reference are:

"The joint MPA/MPS taskforce for the recruitment of visible ethnic minority police officers will:

• develop practical new ideas for police recruitment, specifically from visible ethnic minorities
• make timely proposals for increasing and enhancing opportunities for recruitment as a local activity within London boroughs
• promote these new ideas and proposals in order to make the MPS more representative of the communities it serves
• share London, national and international learning and best practice from the public, private and voluntary sectors including communities within London, educational establishments, faith groups, other major employers and police support organisations
• offer practical support to those working on positive action initiatives"

3. These are draft terms of reference at this stage. It is of course the case that retention is also crucial in terms of achieving an appropriately representative workforce. Nevertheless, the MPS Retention Strategy has only recently been implemented and the impact it will have cannot, at this stage, be ascertained. In the first instance, the priority is recruitment.

4. The Task Force will make its recommendations to the full authority with progress reports to the Human Resources Committee and the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board.

Membership

5. At the full Authority meeting, it was agreed that the MPA members should be R. David Muir (Chair), Jennette Arnold, Cindy Butts, Kirsten Hearn, Peter Herbert, Abdal Ullah and Cecile Wright. Lee Jasper (Mayor’s Adviser on Equalities) will represent the GLA. Other members of the Task Force have yet to be identified, but the expectation is there will be a relatively small core membership, which will be supplemented by co-optees for specific issues.

6. The draft minutes of the first meeting are attached at Appendix 1.

C. Equality and diversity implications

The task force aims to help the MPS achieve its recruitment targets for visible ethnic minority police officers. 

D. Financial implications

Servicing the work of the taskforce can be resourced from existing MPA and MPS budgets. Any recommendations involving new spend will be reported to the Authority.

E. Background papers

• Recruitment Task Force (paper to full Authority on 25 July 2002)

F. Contact details

Report author: Alan Johnson, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1: Note of a meeting of the Recruitment Task Force

Thursday 5 September at 1.00pm
Committee Room 2, MPA. 

Present

R. David Muir (Chair)

Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA)

• Cindy Butts (Independent Member)
• Abdal Ullah (Independent Member)
• Catherine Crawford (Clerk)
• Alan Johnson (Head of Human Resources and Professional Standards)
• Graham Spencer (Senior Human Resources Adviser)

Greater London Authority (GLA)

• Lee Jasper (Mayor’s Adviser)

Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)

• Assistant Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe (Human Resources Directorate)
• Jenny Deere (Director of HR Selection)
• Commander Cressida Dick (Diversity Directorate)
• Chief Superintendent Robert Carr (Head of Recruitment)
• Chief Inspector Rowland Moore (Head of Positive Action Team)
• Debbie Whittaker (Head of Recruit Marketing and Advertising)

1. Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Cecile Wright, Kirsten Hearn, Peter Herbert, Jennette Arnold and Julia Smith from the MPA and Denise Milani (Diversity Directorate) from the MPS.

2. Chair’s opening remarks

R. David Muir said the Recruitment Taskforce would fundamentally change police recruitment in the Metropolitan Police Service. Whilst one must acknowledge the considerable amount of work that was taking place, there was a need to:

• raise awareness of the rewards of a police career in the MPS 
• learn from the experience of others in the field of innovative recruitment
• build bridges with universities and other bodies to recruit the best
• analyse what is happening once recruits start training at Hendon
• make visible the good work being carried out in the MPS

3. Background 

Lee Jasper reminded members of the taskforce that the Mayor had suggested to the Deputy Commissioner the setting up of a taskforce to tackle the issues around police recruitment. In his view, the MPS had failed to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of visible ethnic minority police officers and there was a need to identify what was not working, what needed to change and to make those changes quickly. This would require fresh thinking, not simply rehashing old ideas.

In discussing the potential from learning from experience in the United States, Assistant Commissioner Hogan-Howe suggested that one or two intakes could be ‘reserved’ for visible ethnic minority candidates in order to initiate a ‘critical mass’ upon which to build.

Catherine Crawford agreed, suggesting the taskforce must not be agenda-led or commission many papers. Whilst there was clearly a great deal of good work being carried out in this area, it was not enough. 

4. Terms of reference

The terms of reference were discussed and re-drafted as follows:

"The joint MPA/MPS taskforce for the recruitment of visible ethnic minority police officers will:

• develop practical new ideas for police recruitment, specifically from visible ethnic minorities
• make timely proposals for increasing and enhancing opportunities for recruitment as a local activity within London boroughs
• promote these new ideas and proposals in order to make the MPS more representative of the communities it serves
• share London, national and international learning and best practice from the public, private and voluntary sectors including communities within London, educational establishments, faith groups, other major employers and police support organisations
• offer practical support to those working on positive action initiatives"

Cindy Butts suggested that the terms of reference would need to be re-visited when the membership of the workforce was finalised. Whilst the role of the taskforce must remain strategic, there would, for example, be the need to be more specific and to address what the task force were going to do.

It was agreed R. David Muir and Jenny Deere would develop these terms of reference outside the meeting and bring them back to the next meeting.

Action: MPS/MPA

5. The way forward

Lee Jasper suggested that ‘reporting lines’ would be to the full Authority, the Mayor and the Commissioner. After further discussion it was agreed that the task force would concentrate for the first six months on the issue of recruitment, reviewing what action had been taken, what issues need to be addressed and agreeing a programme of work. For the next three months, there would be an opportunity to look at retention and in the next three months to co-ordinate the approach to recruitment and retention.

David Muir said the next meeting should receive from the MPS:

• some suggestions as to who should be members of the taskforce (an initial list had previously been discussed with Jenny Deere)
• a matrix of recruitment activities compared with costs
• some fortnightly timelines for a suggested programme of work for the taskforce
• some examples of local best practice or initiatives, including costs
• recruitment, retention and wastage figures for the last four years compared against the effect of key policy changes or policing activities
• some suggestions as to what individual initiatives may be available to encourage police officers and civil staff to ‘recruit’

Action: MPS

6. Update on recruitment of visible ethnic minority police officers into the MPS

Jenny Deere introduced this paper and took members through the key points. There was recognition that the level of potential applicants ‘dropping out’ between the point of enquiry and application was an issue. It was intended to shorten the time taken to recruit police officers through changes to the Police Initial recruitment (PIR) test, offering interviews at the point of enquiry at some events, re-directing funds from the advertising budget to other areas, increasing the number of Positive Action Team events, etc.

David Muir suggested that Black History Month provided a perfect opportunity to launch any new initiative and for highlighting the contribution of visible ethnic minority police officers. This could be supported with Sir John Stevens, Toby Harris, Ken Livingstone, Management Board and community leaders throwing their support behind such initiatives. Lee Jasper added that as part of the launch of the GLA’s “One Fine Day” calendar, which would feature many professions, the Mayor would write to invite visible ethnic minority police officers, civil staff, PCSOs and traffic wardens.

Action: GLA

Chief Superintendent Robert Carr then took members through the five strand approach to visible ethnic minority recruitment. Cressida Dick suggested that, whilst ‘broad brush’ visible ethnic minority recruitment was necessary, the specific experiences of black women should not be overlooked in seeking to increase the levels of recruitment.

7. Date of next meeting

It was agreed that the next meeting would take place at Peel Centre, Hendon at 12.30pm on Monday 30 September. It was further agreed that the MPS should provide data on rank/grade, ethnic origin and gender of staff at Hendon. It was also thought it would be useful to provide copies of the application packs to members before the next meeting. 

Action: MPS

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