Recruitment and retention 1 April 2004–31 May 2004

Report: 10
Date: 22 July 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report summarises the activities undertaken by Recruitment and People Development Directorates within the reporting period.

A. Recommendation

That members note this report.

B. Supporting information

Police strength, wastage and recruitment

1. At the end of May 2004, the police workforce strength had reached 30,217 officers against a year-end budgeted workforce target (BWT) of 30,812. This amounts to growth of 5.65% since May 2003. Nevertheless, the growth in police officer strength has been slowed by the absence of a training school intake during April 2004.

2. In parallel with the growth in overall police strength, have been increases in the strengths of under-represented groups. The visible ethnic minority (VEM) officer strength has reached 1,988 (1,592 VEM male and 396 VEM female) officers against the year-end BWT of 2,157. Consequently, VEM police officers now represent 6.6% of the overall police strength. By comparison, to May 2003, VEM police officer strength has increased by 24% in the last twelve months.

3. There has been a substantial increase in the number of female police officers, which now stands at 5,532 (5,136 non-VEM female and 396 VEM female) officers against a year-end BWT of 5,854. Female police officers now represent 18.4% of the overall police officer strength. By comparison to May 2003, female police officer strength has increased by 15%.

4. Police wastage continues to fall with 243 (of which, 27 are female and 24 are VEM) officers having left since the start of the financial year, compared to 270 (of which, 32 are female and 23 are VEM) in May 2003 and 284 (of which, 38 are female and 17 are VEM) in May 2002. This trend of improved wastage provides an indication of the effectiveness of the retention measures implemented. Further details of wastage can be found in Appendix 1.

5. The recruitment target for this financial year has been set at 2,248 i.e. 1,858 new police recruits and 390 transferees and rejoining officers. This target is lower than in previous years. Since the beginning of the financial year 210 officers have been recruited, of whom 187 have joined training school and 23 have joined boroughs or other specialist units.

6. During the current year targets have been set at 382 VEM and 652 female police officers, amounting to 17% and 29%, respectively, of all police officers recruited. Since April 2004, a total of 34 VEM (21 male and 13 female) and 73 female (60 non-VEM and 13 VEM) police officers have been recruited, amounting to 16% and 35%, respectively, of all recruits, and is in line with projections.

Metropolitan Police Special Constabulary (MPSC) strength, wastage and recruitment

7. The MPSC strength at the end of May 2004 stood at 753 officers, comprising 440 (58%) non-VEM male, 174 (23%) non-VEM female, 113 (15%) VEM male and 26 (3%) VEM female. The target for new recruits to the MPSC for the financial year 2004/2005 has been set at 375 but is likely to increase significantly.

Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) strength, wastage and recruitment

8. PCSO strength is currently 1,688 against a year-end BWT of 1,867. There are currently 570 (434 VEM male and 135 VEM female) from VEM groups and 495 (360 non-VEM and 135 VEM) females. As a proportion of strength, VEM PCSOs represent 33.8% and females 29.4%, compared to the year-end PCSO strength profiles of 654 (35%) VEM and 597 (32%) female PCSOs.

9. 11 PCSOs (6 non-VEM males, 2 VEM male and 3 non-VEM females) have left the MPS during the financial year. A further 3 PCSOs have become police officers and 2 have re-graded to police staff.

10. Since April 2004, a total of 241 (45 VEM male, 16 VEM female, 52 non-VEM female and 128 non-VEM male) PCSOs have joined against a community/security recruitment target of 567. Currently, VEM PCSOs represent 25% of the PCSOs recruited at from VEM groups. There is currently no recruitment of transport PCSOs.

Police staff strength, wastage and recruitment

11. Police staff workforce strength currently stands at 12,445, compared to 11,138 at the end of May 2003, amounting to an 11.7% increase. Within the police staff there are 2,460 members of staff from VEM groups (being 738 VEM male and 1,722 VEM female) and 7,334 females (being 5,612 non-VEM female and 1,722 VEM female). As proportions of police staff strength, VEM staff represents 19.8% and female 59.0%. Following an analysis of borough VEM demographics, the Director of Recruitment has written to Borough Commanders offering Positive Action Team and Police Staff Recruitment Team support. Over the next few months, members of the Recruitment Directorate will visit boroughs and undertake a quality assurance evaluation to identify good practice and assist those who fall short of the present 21% VEM target.

12. 125 members of police staff have left their posts since April 2004 (79 female and 17 VEM). A further 6 police staff have commenced training as police officers. The level of police staff wastage is slightly higher than at the same point last year i.e. 125 against 122; however, this is offset by the 11.7% growth in police staff strength. Consequently, the overall level of wastage is low.

13. During the financial year, 354 members of police staff have been recruited. Of these, 63 were recruited from VEM groups (17.8%) and 199 are female (56.2%). Police staff recruitment has been particularly buoyant during the year with 24% increase on the number recruited during the same period last year.

Career management and retention

14. The Career Management and Retention Unit (CMRU) is leading on various projects, which are key to the retention of police officers and police staff. The MPS Property Zone Intranet site has been launched offering a complete guide to the latest initiatives available to Met staff such as the Key Homebuy Scheme, police accommodation and general mortgage information. One feature on the site is a rooms/properties to rent section. This is designed as a 'marketplace' and anyone who has accommodation to rent can advertise on the Property Zone site. Property Zone also includes details of the new Shared Equity Loan Scheme, launched on Monday 24 May. The loan, offered by the Police Housing Fund, is available to anyone employed by the MPS. This combination of initiatives provided by HR and PSD is proving very popular with a large number of enquires from across the Service.

15. The external service provider, Leadership Research and Development Limited has been contracted to develop the outsourced Exit Survey pilot. The company has a great deal of experience in the diversity field, which is particularly relevant because the loss of women and visible ethnic minorities is the main area of concern at present. The new scheme will cover 50% of the MPS while the remainder will act as a control group for an evaluation by ICG. Workshops are planned with BOCUs and Departments concerned, including the Recruit Training School. The pilot is scheduled to start on 1 July.

16. Progress continues with the development of the Multi-Media Induction Programme. The corporate overview section of the MPS is complete and version one is due to be launched on 1 July 2004 to sit on AWARE. This includes information about Mission, Vision and Values, the organisational structure, health and safety and diversity issues.

17. The work areas on the superintendenting ranks' development programme are being progressed and await the outcome of a series of workshops undertaken with TP and ICG support to identify OCU challenges.

18. An initial briefing paper is being prepared for Management Board in July regarding the streaming of recruits into Response, Investigative and Community pathways. This is a complex issue and. if adopted, would impact on marketing, recruitment, training and development of probationary officers as well as their deployment.

19. The MPS awaits guidance from the Home Office on the application process for the Police National Assessment Centre (PNAC) in July 2005. The PNAC will select candidates for promotion to the ranks of assistant chief constable/commander and above. While waiting for the guidance, development interviews have been held with all those chief superintendents who have expressed an interest in applying for the PNAC and individual development plans have been drawn up.

Actual or potential problems and risk update

20. Due to the large number of candidates who have successfully completed the selection process, there are sufficient recruits to meet the overall police officer recruitment target for the year. Although there is an expectation that a proportion of the recruits will be VEM, the overall growth in VEM police officer strength will be gradual and that VEM recruitment will need to become substantial over the next few years if the 25.9% representation target is to be achieved by March 2009. See paragraphs 22, 34 et seq. for further information on long-term targets.

21. A measure currently being employed to help make a contribution towards the VEM recruitment target has been the introduction of an internal recruitment campaign enabling members from the police staff, including PCSOs, to apply for police officer posts.

22. The strategies of the Marketing and Advertising and Positive Action Teams during the foreseeable future will focus upon raising the profile of the MPS within the community in order to overcome barriers to joining the police service. Strategically, this will include the following:

• Taking recruitment activity into the areas of high visible ethnic minority population, that is, targeting Londoners, using community-centric recruitment and a recruitment bus.
• Working with business and religious groups.
• Focus generic advertising upon target audience.
• Provide support to VEM and female applicants through a structured development programme
• Working with youth through education and direct contact
• Re-branding exercise that introduces MPS career advisors and re-opening the Careers Shop.
• Vigorous engagement with educational institutes e.g. Springboard and universities.
• Further activities include the development of the website with enhanced interactive features.

23. This activity will highlight the range of opportunities within the MPS and alter the perceptions of Londoners about careers within the MPS. It is anticipated that this approach will also substantially increase the MPS share of graduates from the employment market. By developing this awareness and altered perception within the population, particularly amongst under-represented groups, the respondents to campaigns are likely to be more representative of the London population. By implementing our strategy, there will be an increased likelihood that the respondents will possess greater ability and potential. This in turn will result in a higher yield from the selection process, particularly amongst VEM candidates than has, hitherto, been the case. Full details of these activities are contained within the Directorate’s Recruitment Strategy and Business Plan.

24. Nevertheless, by implementing the recruitment strategy, Home Office targets remain extremely challenging in the longer term. The level of VEM recruitment will need to be substantially increased and sustained over a considerable period of time. Taking into account the anticipated recruitment targets associated with ‘step change’ at least 68% of applicants and recruits will need to be VEM. Although adjustments to advertising, marketing and positive action strategies will make a positive contribution towards this goal, the scale of change required for achieving the Home Office and GLA targets can realistically only be met by employing a strategy of positive discrimination. Under current legislation, this is unlawful. Therefore, a change in or temporary dispensation from the law is necessary. To this end, the MPS has lobbied the Home Office within the response to the Green Paper on Community Partnerships, and discussions have also been held with the Commission for Racial Equality.

Additional material

Flexible working and PCSOs

25. 2,470 (1,590.5 full time equivalent) people within the MPS are currently working part-time, amounting to 3.55% of the entire workforce. Table 1 provides a summary of the number of part-time workers – expressed as FTE - for each main group of posts.

Table 1 – Part-time worker comparison

Source: MetHR, 2004

26. Table 1 shows that since May 2003 although the overall workforce strength has increased by 9.28%, the number of part-time workers has increased at a slightly lower rate at 8.15%. However, the table highlights a substantial increase in the number of PCSOs working part-time, which is greater than the increase in strength; a similar trend, although not as significant, is evident for police officers.

27. Table 2 (below) provides a comparison between different posts of the number of part-timers and proportion these workers represent within their respective posts.

Table 2 – Part-timers against strength comparison

Source: MetHR, 2004

28. The greatest number of part-time workers are found within the police staff, followed by police officers, traffic wardens and lastly by PCSOs. However, when the part-time workers are calculated as a percentage of strength, the ranking changes with traffic wardens having the highest proportion, followed by police staff, police officers and lastly PCSOs.

29. The gender split of part-time workers is shown at Table 3 (below). Although the majority of part-time workers are female for all posts, a substantially greater proportion of male PCSOs are working part-time. However, this should be viewed with caution due to the relatively small number of part-time PCSOs.

Table 3 - Gender distribution of part-timers

Source: MetHR, 2004

30. Therefore, from this information, although the number of part-time PCSOs is relatively low when compared to other posts, there has been a substantial increase in the number of part-time PCSOs over the last 12-months. This growth in part-time PCSO workers has also been greater than the percentage growth in overall PCSO strength. Nevertheless, the proportion of PCSOs working part-time is significantly lower than that associated with traffic wardens and police staff. As far as other methods of flexible working are concerned, there was no corporate data available.

MPS view on the success/problems with the National Recruitment Standards

31. The National Recruitment Standards (NRS) were introduced in 2003/04 with the aim of more precisely testing for competencies needed to work effectively as a police constable. The tests used were rigorously assessed by the Home Office to ensure there was no adverse impact on minority groups. This new process tests candidates more comprehensively and is harder to pass. The overall yield of recruits from applications has subsequently dropped from 60% to 24% as expected. Similar falls in yield were observed for non-VEM candidates (61% to 28%) and for those from ethnic minorities (54% to 18%). Analysis of the NRS events show there is strong evidence that performance is associated with the ethnic origin of those applying. In contrast, female process yield has fallen less significantly from 45% to 30%. The issue of proportionately more VEMs failing the assessment process than white candidates has been raised with the home office.

32. Ultimately, the success of the National Recruiting Standards in delivering more capable and prepared recruits can only be measured by evaluating officer performance and retention. To the end of May 2004, insufficient candidates from this new process had passed through training school to be able to draw any conclusions.

33. Additionally, due to the activities being undertaken by PACT and marketing, there is a likelihood that the applicant population will become more representative of the population within London. This will result in a greater proportion of VEM candidates possessing the requisite skills, qualities and potential for a career within the MPS. Therefore, the association between NRS performance and ethnic origin is likely to diminish once the VEM labour market has been widened.

What are the expectations for meeting the Home Secretary’s target in 2009? The current Mayor’s target (Evening Standard 19/5/04)

34. In order to fulfil the commitment of the Met to be ‘truly representative of the community it serves’, it has to achieve the Home Office targets of 25% (8,147) VEM representation and 40% (13,035) female representation by March 2009, of 32,588 serving officers.

35. At the end of April 2004, VEM strength had reached 1,967 police officers; the Home Office target requires there to be at least 8,147 VEM officers by 2009. This would equate to a 6,180 increase in numbers over 5 years. Coupled with a wastage figure of around 1,350 this means 7,530 VEM officers would have to be recruited. Given that (including wastage of around 8,700) we will be recruiting around 11,100 officers, it would mean that over the next five years our intakes would have to comprise of 68% VEM officers. The current VEM recruitment target is 17%. Even with changes to the Race Relations Act to enable the MPS to systematically recruit one VEM to every non-VEM officer, assuming there will be sufficient VEM candidates to fill the spaces, you would see recruitment at around 50%; this would still lead to a shortfall of almost 2000 (6%) officers. At this level of recruitment, the Home Office target will not be achieved until 2014.

36. At the end of April 2004, there were 5,485 female officers serving, the Home Office target requires there to be at least 13,147 by 2009. This equates to an 8,450 increase in numbers over 5 years. Coupled with a wastage figure of around 1,791 this means 10,250 females would have to be recruited. Given that (including wastage of around 8,700) we will be recruiting around 11,100 officers, it would mean that over the next five years our intakes would have to comprise of 92% females. The current female recruitment target is 29%.

37. Clearly none of the targets are realistically achievable within the proposed timescales.

C. Race and equality impact

The long-term achievement of strength targets for under-represented groups is dependent upon changes to the law. Although there are activities in hand to support VEM recruitment, these are unlikely to be sufficient to enable the MPS to achieve the challenging targets set by the Home Office and GLA.

D. Financial implications

The costs associated with CRMU, property zone pilot, benefits of belonging and the Induction video have been met from the 03/04 budget. The costs for the external service provider, to develop the exit survey pilot will need to be met from the 2004/05 budget. As no budget was specifically identified for this expenditure, the budget will need to be monitored to ensure that the costs can be met from the resources available.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Simon Marshall, Director of Recruitment and Gordon Davison, Director of People Development

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1: Police leavers at end March 2004

VEM wastage

Non-VEM wastage

Combined wastage

Appendix 2: Police joiners at end March 2004

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