Work/life balance issues

Report: 07
Date: 3 April 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides details about the range of work/life balance opportunities currently available to MPS staff, the barriers which will need to be overcome in order to derive maximum benefit for both individuals and management and the way in which flexible working opportunities will be promoted.

A. Recommendations

That Members note the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. In support of the People Strategy, Gender Agenda, Police Reform and good employment practice, the MPS is committed to promoting work/life balance opportunities throughout the Service.

2. Changes under Police Reform allow for a more flexible deployment of officers and more flexible working patterns. The use of work/life balance policies will be an important aid in ensuring that the reduction of overtime is properly managed. It is apparent that the wide range of flexible working practices available within the MPS are not being utilised to their full potential, either through ignorance of what is available, or reluctance to fully embrace these principles. Research has shown that a good work/life balance benefits both individuals and the employer.

3. This paper provides details of the current policies; the take up of these options; and barriers preventing greater take up of these options. This paper also sets out how these barriers will be addressed through forthcoming initiatives.

Current provision

4. The MPS currently offers a wide range of work/life balance provisions in accordance with good employment practice. Details of these are available to all staff via the intranet and in a booklet entitled ‘The Guide to Flexible Working’. The format of this information and the means of communicating it are currently being reformatted as a part of the HR Policy Review. Details of the full range of flexible working options are set out at Appendix 1.

Statutory changes

5. Statutory changes to maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave and flexible working requests are being implemented as follows:

• Civil Staff
  5.1 Details of the forthcoming statutory charges were published in Notice 5/03. This stated that full pay would be paid for the increased statutory periods of maternity leave (26 weeks), paternity leave (2 weeks) and adoptive leave (26 weeks) coming into effect on 1 April 2003. Staff who start maternity, paternity or adoption leave on 1 April 2003 or are already on such leave on that date will qualify for the increased entitlement.
• Police officers
  5.2 Police Officers are not employees and are therefore not covered by the Act. There is no change to their entitlement. The Home office is negotiating with the Federation but this is in the early stages. It is likely to be at least 2 months until this is resolved.

Flexible working

6. The Employment Act 2002, gives employees who have children under the age of six years the right to request flexible working for childcare reasons. The new refreshed version of the MPS Flexible Working Policy goes wider than the Act. It allows any member of the MPS Police or Civil staff to request flexible working regardless of whether they have children.

7. Also, within the MPS Flexible Working Policy, adoption leave is being enhanced to 26 weeks full pay for civil staff.

Take up

8. As at 17 March 2003, the MPS had the following numbers of staff utilising work/life balance options:

Staff working part-time

Staff on career breaks

9. Details of staff on maternity leave and paternity leave is not currently collated centrally, but will be available when MetHR has been rolled out to all sites and is fully operational.

Barriers

10. Although flexible working opportunities are available within the MPS, it is apparent that they are not always viewed by managers as practical or in support of operational objectives. This is due primarily to cultural barriers and a lack of awareness of both manager and staff.

11. In deploying officers and managing demand, there is a general perception that staff are required to work full and long hours to meet operational commitments. There is also anecdotal evidence that deployment of part-time officers is generally within administrative posts rather than on operational teams. There is also a belief that flexible working options are not as widely available to police officers as they are for civil staff. Whilst some further work will need to be completed in respect of shift patterns and compressed hours the full range of other flexibilities are available to police officers. These issues will be verified and resolved as a result of the forthcoming initiatives set out at paragraph 13.

12. Whilst corporate policies exist for enabling staff to apply for flexible working, these do not appear to be fully utilised and many staff and line managers appear unaware of the opportunities that are available. This will be addressed through the re-launch of the Flexible Working Policy and the pro-active promotion of these by personnel managers.

Forthcoming Work life balance initiatives

13. In order to raise awareness and to deal with cultural issues preventing the promotion of flexible working a number of initiatives will be progressed over the next six months. These include the following:

• HR Policy Development will be providing advice and guidance to managers on agreeing viable flexible working shift patterns. This will be an integral part of the reduction of overtime initiatives and will be pro-actively progressed through OCU commanders and the MPS’s network of personnel managers.
• The flexible working policy has been reviewed and refreshed. It now strongly encourages managers to meet the needs of their staff by accommodating flexible working. A communication strategy is being prepared to re-launch this policy.
• A policy has been developed in order to raise the awareness to managers of the needs of staff who have caring responsibilities. Under the new policy, carers are refined as a person who looks after a relative, friend or neighbour who cannot manage without that help because of sickness, age or disability. Carers may or may not live with the person for whom they care and may share the care within the family, and/or others.
• OCU Commanders are developing local plans and objectives about work/life balance as an integral strand of the Corporate Gender Agenda and People Strategy.
• The HR Evaluation Team will ensure boroughs are meeting their work/life balance as part of their linked borough inspection process.
• The HR Directorate’s approach to progressing the Gender Agenda at a strategic level includes the objectives of reviewing the deployment of staff working flexibly in order to ensure all posts can accommodate flexible working requests. Therefore, the Competency Framework will be used to ensure staff working part-time hours have a manageable workload.
• The MPS will be launching a Care Voucher scheme, which will assist staff in paying for child and elderly care provision.
• Proposals are being prepared to develop a crèche provision at Hendon Training School.
• Within the Workforce Planning Unit an individual will be appointed to co-ordinate job share opportunities across the service, identifying and deploying staff to fill full time posts on a part-time basis.
• A Training Co-ordinator has been appointed at Peel Centre so that the needs of staff who adopt flexible working practices are not disadvantaged and that they have access to all relevant training, tailored to their needs and working hours.

14. A future report will be provided to the HR Committee in six months time in order to update Members about the current position and the progress of the initiatives outlined above.

C. Equality and diversity implications

The adoption and take up of flexible working practices will inevitable result is equality and diversity issues. These will need to be addressed as they arise as an integral part of the Diversity and Gender Agenda Strategies. The introduction of Met HR will in future enable these to be monitored regularly and tends to be identified at a much earlier stage.

D. Financial implications

There are no specific financial implications arising from this report other than opportunity costs, which will be contained within existing resources.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Michael Shurety, Director of HR Services, MPS

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

Flexible working options

Flexible working options are available and encouraged for both police and support staff; these include:

1. Part time work

There is no universal definition of part-time working. Government statistics define it as less than 30 hours per week, but in practice it means anything less that the normal full-time hours.

Part-time workers have equal rights to full-time workers and are given the same access to training and promotion.

2. Term time working

Term time working allows employees to reduce hours or take unpaid time off work during the school holidays.

Most staff have between four and six weeks holiday a year but their children have around thirteen weeks which leaves seven to nine weeks over during which individuals have to find care for their children. Term-time workers are able to take unpaid leave during this time.

The opposite of this are individuals working in holiday periods and taking time off during the term. Those who are on a full time course of study may find this type of work suitable.

3. Annualised hours

Annualised hours are where an individual works longer during certain periods of the year and less at others under this system the period of time agreed is defined over a whole year as opposed to a week or a month. The hours worked are not spread evenly throughout the year.

Managers usually give plenty of notice of when they wish someone to work some of their reserve hours. Usually, staff must have worked all their committed and reserve hours by the end of the agreed period.

4. Job sharing

Job-sharing involves two or more people sharing responsibility for a full-time job. Each person shares a job-description with pro rata pay and benefits. As communication and handover are key in this type of working arrangement, some arrangements include an overlap time where both partners are working.

Job-sharing can be a way of introducing part-time hours into jobs, which have always been seen as full-time.

5. Teleworking / home working

Teleworking, telecommunicating or home working are all arrangements where a person spends some or all of their time working from home.

Teleworkers have computer or telecommunication links with their workplace. Jobs usually judged to be suitable for teleworking are those that have a high level of IT or telephone work and involve minimal face-to-face contact with the public.

Line managers of teleworkers must be able to manage ‘remotely’ and senior management need to ensure that managers are given training in how to motivate, communicate with and appraise non-workplace based staff.

6. Compressed hours

Compressed hours is a system of working in which employees work a slightly longer day in return for an agreed period of time off.

The most common arrangements are the four and a half day week (i.e. staff work slightly longer on Monday to Thursday and in return take Friday afternoon off) and the nine-day fortnight (i.e. individuals work slightly longer for nine days and take alternate Fridays off).

In the case of police officers, there also needs to be an agreement with the Joint Executive Council of the Federation as per variable shift regulations.

In order to comply with Working Time Regulations 1998, those individuals who wish to work more than 8 hours on a night duty need to have an agreement with the unions in case of civil staff. Police officers will be covered if they have an agreement as above with the Federation.

7. Flexi-time

Flexi-time allows staff to vary their actual working hours outside certain core times each day. Usually this means staff can vary their start and finish times to suit domestic responsibilities, travel arrangements or for work reasons.

Staff can build up a debit or credit of hours worked within each period but must not exceed a debit of 2 days.

Most schemes allow staff to consolidate extra hours worked into a day or half-day off. Limits are set for how many debit or credit hours can be accrued.

8. Varied shift or roster

Individuals may find that they are unable to comply with the shift or roster of the team or department they are working with. A request could be made to work a different shift pattern or different hours to the rest of the team or department.

9. Team-based self-rostering

Team-based self-rostering is a ‘bottom up’ approach to scheduling work, giving people more control over the pattern of their working week. Parameters are set by agreeing in advance the levels of staff and skill mix required hour-by-hour throughout the working day.

Staff can put forward the times they would like to work and times they would like to protect away from work.

This information is then used to compile shift patterns that match individual preferences as closely as possible, whilst maintaining agreed levels of cover at all times.

10. Other flexible working practices available

10.1 Special leave

Special leave is a period of time taken away from work. It can be paid or unpaid depending on the circumstances, and cannot exceed 12 months. Special leave is granted for staff who have welfare and domestic commitments. Special leave may be granted under the following circumstances; compassionate leave, paternity leave, study leave, sporting activities, auxiliary forces, Special Constabulary training, adoption leave –(in line with statutory requirements, with effect from April 2003, parental leave (unpaid)).

10.2 Career break

A career break is a period of time taken away from work. It is unpaid and cannot exceed 5 years.

The criteria for a career break include; following maternity leave; to care for children or invalid dependants; to study for a relevant degree or similar qualification; for worthwhile voluntary service overseas; to accompany a partner when they work temporarily overseas.

11. Childcare – holiday play schemes

We currently co-ordinate two child play schemes at Westminster and Croydon during school holidays at a discounted rate.

Managers and staff are encouraged to be proactive and think creatively on what working patterns best suit the needs of the individual, whilst meeting the needs of the service. All requests must be considered within 28 days. Communication and negotiation are the key drives to the service accommodating flexible working a refusal may only be justified up there is a valid business reason.

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