Developing leadership and management skills - people strategy update

Report: 06
Date: 4 September 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

The following report provides an update on the work of the Leadership Strand, co-ordinated by the Development and Organisational Improvement Team (DOIT).

A. Recommendation

That Members are asked to note the active working partnership of DOIT and HR in ensuring the Leadership Development objectives are achieved, as outlined in the People Strategy.

B. Supporting information

1. The programme of work outlined here is informed by an organisational context within which ‘leadership’ is viewed as critical to the MPS’s long-term ability to deliver sustainable and meaningful service delivery improvements and transformation of the internal culture. The concept of leadership in this respect goes beyond equipping individuals with the requisite know-how and behaviour, and is more about a wholesale shift in organisational attitude and belief, particularly in relationship to stakeholders in society at large.

2. It is important to note that in support of the aims and objectives of paragraph one above, the MPS has located its Leadership team within the Development and Organisation Improvement Team (DOIT) portfolio of the Diversity Directorate. The development of management skills for Senior Leaders/Managers falls within the HR Management Development remit.

3. The DOIT remain actively committed to the MPS value of ‘working in partnership’ with HR to ensure that the activities within the People Strategy that deal with issues of the development of Leadership Strategy and Development are progressed as outlined.

4. The key products of the Leadership Strand are set out below.

Commissioner’s Leadership Programme (CLP)

5. The Leadership Strand continues to successfully deliver CLPs for police and civil staff senior managers. The CLP is the primary MPS mechanism for imparting key strategic messages regarding leadership of the MPS and the requirements, profile, of officers to deliver its strategic agenda. In full support of the MPS Leadership Principles, the CLP is designed to be a developmental as opposed to training intervention and is integral to the culture change that the organisation is committed to achieving. The first CLP was held in September 2001, since then four further programmes have been completed, details of which are provided in appendix 1. CLPs are five-day residential events held at a location outside London. To date over 300 senior managers have attended a CLP. Each programme aims for an even split of civil staff and police managers. Each CLP is aimed at a specific grade and rank – CLP 5, for example, was held this June and catered for Band C grades and chief inspectors.

6. CLP delegates work in mixed teams of about eight people. Each team is facilitated for the week by a team advisor who is normally a professional in the field of personnel consultancy. Teams meet in plenary sessions where key speakers present on leadership topics – many of these sessions are inter-active. Teams will return to syndicate rooms after each input to debate the learning points and issues around leadership and self-development. Other features of the week are 360-degree feedback whereby each delegate will receive a profile of their leadership style. Discussions are also held on values, diversity and cultural change. Each delegate is required to create a personal work/development plan by the end of the week.

7. CLPs are advertised internally and senior managers are invited to apply. The Leadership Strand have now aligned, as far as possible, to the police promotion rounds so that newly promoted officers can benefit from a CLP shortly after being promoted. A CLP has been held for every grade and rank from Band C up to Head of Business Group and from chief inspector to ACPO.

8. The CLP provides a platform from which the organisation seeks to move itself into delivering an appropriate, efficient and effective service for London. The MPS Internal Consultancy Service has conducted an evaluation of the product and minor changes have been made based on delegate feedback.

9. The CLP cuts across the structures, boundaries and processes of the service, works towards enabling the Service to have the confidence to redefine, redevelop and in some cases, dismantle some of the behavioural and institutional barriers and blockages within the system.

10. It places value on role and accountability rather than rank and grade, enables individuals and teams to see themselves and each other in new and different ways, values different perspectives, seeks to feed these perspectives into practice and actively encourages participants to learn from them. It is known that some teams who have completed a CLP meet informally and act as a support group and discuss where new leadership methods have been tried. Numerous anecdotal examples have been supplied during the evaluation which indicates that staff are motivate by CLP and prepared to change ways and try new methods of leading and managing people. A quote from a delegate on the June CLP reads “It is only after I left that I really felt ‘valued’ – the venue and delivery team were excellent. I have returned to borough and fully recommended this course to my colleagues as worthwhile and relevant.”

11. In order to impact on the new culture requirements as determined by the Mission, Vision and Values and the MPS Leadership principles, the CLP’s messages actively encourages a holistic approach to the delivery of the service. Recognising that the balance to be struck between the quantitative aspects of the service are as valid as the qualitative experiences of service recipients, existing and potential employees.

12. Dates have now been set for six further programmes between September 2003 and November 2004. These include programmes for B/OCU Commanders & Heads of Business as well as top managers.

Commissioner’s Leadership Programme for Territorial Policing

13. The Assistant Commissioner Territorial Policing (TP) has commissioned a series of pilot programmes for the ranks and tiers of TP officers supporting those from TP who have attended the CLP. The content and delivery of this programme is broadly similar to the CLP. Clearly for the shorter pilot less opportunity for team-based work was available.

14. The Leadership Strand is in the process of delivering two pilot programmes for TP police and civil staff, first line managers. Staff were sought on a voluntary basis from about five boroughs. The first pilot was a two-day programme and the second pilot is five days. The second pilot is due to finish in early September. The pilot is only for staff employed by TP and is being jointly funded by TP and DOIT. The initial feedback has been extremely positive. A more detailed evaluation is currently being carried out by MPS Consultancy Group and will be completed in September 2003

Coaching

15. Work is in progress to consider and progress the introduction of an “executive” coaching model into the Leadership portfolio of the MPS. A workshop was held in early August to investigate possible ways forward. Ideas of whom best to receive this are still being collated and considered.

16. The workshop was held at the Campaign for Leadership School of Coaching and was attended by MPS staff from various disciplines. This work is in the very early stages but it hopes to build on the support offered to staff by the various mentoring programmes currently in existence.

Action learning & mentoring

17. Action learning sets are progressing in partnership with the Centre of Excellence for the Governance of London, (CEGOL) and work is currently being progressed on the evaluation of this project.

18. The Leadership Strand continues to work in partnership with London First on the joint mentoring scheme. This scheme provides external mentors from private industry for senior managers within the MPS. There are currently 37 senior managers taking part in the scheme.

19. The Leadership Strand is supporting Forensic Services in setting up a mentoring scheme for their Borough Forensic Manager’s and Crime Scene Managers.

High Potential Development Scheme (HPDS)

20. The HPDS is a national development programme, administered by the Home Office designed to attract and identify the highest calibre of future leaders of the police service.

21. The Leadership Strand co-ordinates the scheme on behalf of the MPS

22. Extensive work has been carried within the MPS to market the scheme, particularly to officers from groups traditionally under represented on former accelerated development programmes. The Leadership Strand attends events such as MPS Intromet days, the Market Place at Hendon and Universities. They link in with any work the Positive Action Team are involved with and market the scheme at many of these events. Full information on the scheme is on the MPS Internet Site.

23. The new Home Office scheme has been running since April 2002. Some analysis of how the MPS has achieved compared with the national picture is supplied as at appendix 2. There is a clear under-representation of VEM officers which is being pursued with the Home Office.

HR Directorate

24. Existing police training provides the mechanisms for delivering the HR training elements of the leadership development objective of the People Strategy for police officers. To better enable deliver to civil staff a new dedicated unit has been established for co-ordinating civil staff training and development across the MPS. Another new unit have been established to provide dedicated attention for career development for police and civil staff.

Civil staff training and development

25. The new Civil Staff Training and Development Co-ordination Unit was created earlier in the year, following a number of scrutinies including the Best Value review of Training and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) Inspection into Training and Development The MPS Civil Staff Development Strategy which includes the terms of reference for the unit, has been made available separately to Members and is available upon request.

26. Civil staff training and development has largely been devolved to local units. Whilst this will continue, the Co-ordination Unit will exercise an overview of all civil staff training across the organisation, maximising the opportunities for the benefit of all. A list of locally delivered training planned for 2003/04 is attached at appendix 3.

27. Although the various activities of the Civil Staff Training and Development Co-ordination Unit are aimed at both managerial and non-managerial grades, the overall thrust is to promote organisational learning for civil staff through active/participant Management and Leadership, by way of focused learning styles in a variety of different learning formats e.g.

• E-Learning
• Classroom (Chalk and talk)
• Coaching
• Work shadowing

28 The unit is preparing to provide the following during the current financial year:

• Multi Media Induction Programme for all staff
• Launch of HR Standard Codes of Practice for Managers
• Creation of Junior Admin Development Programme
• Corporate Induction day for all new civil staff - managerial and non-managerial
• Programme of Knowledge Exchange Days for all training & development managers, personnel managers and business managers across the Service
• Police Foundation Degree for Support Staff.

29. Additionally, the unit is working on a 'Benefits of Belonging' product for all staff. This work is directly linked to the Retention project as is related work on the MPS 'Exit Strategy' being taken forward by the Career Development and Retention Unit (see below).

30. The Management Training School will deliver a series of training modules for civil staff managers commencing in October of this year. These modules include Selection Interview Training, Managing Meetings and Effective Interviewing; Management School trainers will deliver these. In addition, a Performance Management module is being developed and this will be piloted in November.

Career Development and Retention Unit

31. A new Career Management and Retention Unit (CMRU) has been established by the HR Directorate and it is currently preparing its terms of reference, together with a prioritised work plan. The team is exploring the vision of developing a structured career management framework utilising the concept of career pathways, linked to MetPeople competencies and workforce and succession planning processes, to identify challenging developmental opportunities. It is envisaged that this framework will initially focus on key roles at various levels, but early work will examine the development of senior police officers and civil staff.

32. The CMRU has submitted an 'expression of interest' to secure Home Office funding of up to £300K under the Police Reform Delivery Programme to design, implement and run a high potential scheme to support the development of high calibre members of civil staff, over a 30 month period. The Home Office is running this programme in partnership with the Association of Police Authorities. The result will be announced in August, as to whether or not the MPS will be invited to participate in the next stage of the application process. In the meantime, a meeting has been held with the Policing Skills and Standards Organisation to discuss the work being conducted nationally on career pathways and informal consultation is taking place with various stakeholders.

C. Equality and diversity implications

1. Commissioner’s Leadership Programmes are open for anyone to attend of the appropriate rank or banding. The programmes are advertised in corporate publications. All programmes have an even number of police and civil staff delegates along with a number of external delegates. The gender profile of attendees is monitored – to date 20% of delegates are female, which is line with the female workforce proportion. The ethnicity of staff has not been fully recorded but this will now be a feature of future programmes

2. Work is being progressed on how to increase the accessibility of the programme, to those who are unable or would prefer not to attend a fully residential programme.

3. The programmes for TP are subject to the same considerations as above.

4. A coaching programme would be designed to be fully accessible to all eligible officers, both police and civil, within the organisation.

5. There are continuing concerns around the under-representation of VEM officers on the HPDS. Discussions are underway with the Home Office regrading the content and impact of the selection processes. Currently only four VEM officers have applied from the MPS, none have been fully successful in gaining a place on the scheme.

6. The Leadership Strand of DOIT is concentrating on marketing the scheme to all MPS officers. A PC has recently joined the DOIT and will progress a number of activities to encourage and support applications to the HPDS from under-represented groups.

7. Leadership and diversity issues is at the forefront of the projects managed by the HR Directorate and close working is being established with DOIT and key stakeholders, including the Superintendents Association, Police Federation, Trade Unions, and Staff Support Associations.

D. Financial implications

1. The Leadership Strand spends approx £160,000 on each CLP for Senior Managers.

2. The Leadership Strand is currently preparing a business case in conjunction with Territorial Policing for a full programme. This programme will cover approximately 7000 employees over the next 2 years and will aim to run up to eight programmes per year at an estimated cost of £1.28 million per year. This will be met from existing budgets.

3. Resources from existing DOIT budgets will support the rollout of activities as outlined under the Leadership Programme.

4. The new initiatives being undertaken by HR Directorate are expected, to be contained within the department’s existing budgetary allocation.

E. Background papers

• None

F. Contact details

Report author: Denise Milani, Director, DOIT, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

Commissioner’s leadership programmes

Appendix 2

HPDS – as at July 2003

Summary

2002/03

Summary

2003/04

Appendix 3

Locally delivered training plan for 2003/04

Course/Output Description

• Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) - 1 Day
• Achieving Best Evidence - 5 Day
• Achieving Best Evidence - Conversion Course
• Achieving Best Evidence - Initial Course
• Basic Driving Theory
• Bombs-Catch-up
• Borough Induction Days
• Borough Training Days
• Camera Competency
• Case Paper Development Day
• CID Training
• CIO Training
• Civil Staff - Disability Discrimination Act
• Civil Staff - Emergency Life Support
• Civil Staff - Health & Safety
• Civil Staff - Induction
• Civil Staff - Leadership Day
• Civil Staff - Met People
• College NE London
• Communications Officer - Training Day
• Community Policing - (Street Duties)
• Control Room Staff - (Football)
• Core Borough Days
• Course Catch-up
• Court Training - (Street Duties)
• Critical Incident Training
• Community Race Relations (CRR1)
• Custody Computer Training
• Custody Training - (Street Duties)
• Diversity (CRR 2)
• Early Evidence Kits
• Emergency Life Support (ELS)
• Exhibits
• Fire Training - Civil Staff
• First Line Managers
• Forensic Awareness
• Giving Evidence Training
• Health & Safety - Policing Safely
• Health & Safety - Risk Assessment
• Health &Safety - Supervisors
• Health & Safety - (Support staff)
• Human Rights Act - Catch-up
• Induction Course - Civil Staff
• Informant Handling
• Inspector Training Day
• IT Training
• Livescan Days
• Mandatory Training - (Street Duties)
• Manual Handling - (New Starters)
• Manual Handling - Catch-up
• Mentor Training
• Minute Taking
• Metropolitan Special Constabulary (MSC) – Officer Safety Training
• MSS CAD Browse
• Neighbourhood Wardens
• Network Volunteers
• Occasional Trainers
• On Scene and Dealing - Catch-up
• Officer Safety Training (OST)
• Officer Safety Training - 2
• OTIS
• PC/PS - Policing Safely
• Police Community Safety Officer (PCSO) - Safety Training
• PCSO - Induction Week
• PCSO - Refresher
• PCSO - Misconduct Briefing
• Personal Development Reviews (PDRs) - Police Managers
• PDR - Supervisors
• PDR Training - Civil Staff
• Personal Effectiveness
• Personal Safety Training
• PNC on AWARE
• PNC on OTIS
• Policing Safely - (Supervisors)
• Policing Safely - Catch-up
• Positive Action Training
• Presentation Skills Training
• Risk Assessment
• RT Operator
• Search Awareness (Street Duties)
• Sector Team Training
• Specials Training
• Station Reception Officer (SRO) - Development Day
• SRO - Safety Training
• Staying Healthy in the Workplace
• Stop & Search - Crime & Disorder
• Stop and Search - Catch-up
• Street Duties - Instructors Course
• Street Duties - Tutors Course
• Street Warden Training
• Supervising Safely - Catch-up
• Supervisors - Development Days
• Supervisors - General Training
• Supervisors – Health & Safety Training
• Team Training Days
• Volunteers

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