Recruitment & retention – 1 April 2004 to 30 September 2004

Report: 7
Date: 11 November 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 the report.

B. Supporting information

Police strength, wastage and recruitment

1. Table 1 (below) provides a summary of current MPS Strength for each major role along with representation of Visible Ethnic Minority (VEM) and females. The table shows that the highest proportion of VEM staff (33.4%) can be found in the PCSO role and the highest proportion of female staff (59.0%) can be found in the police staff role. Overall, the MPS workforce has 11.8% VEM staff and 30.9% female staff.

2. Table 2 (below) provides a summary of current MPS recruitment for each major role along with representation of VEM and females. The table shows that the highest proportion of VEM staff recruitment (25.5%) can be found in the PCSO role and the highest proportion of female staff recruitment (59.9%) can be found in the police staff role. Overall, the MPS workforce has recruited 20.0% VEM staff and 44.0% female staff.

3. At the end of September 2004, the police workforce strength had reached 30,624 officers against a year-end budgeted workforce target (BWT) of 30,830. This amounts to growth of 3.4% since September 2003.

4. In parallel with the growth in overall police strength, has been an increase in the strengths of under-represented groups. The visible ethnic minority (VEM) officer strength has reached 2,098 (1,663 VEM male and 435 VEM female) officers against the year-end BWT of 2,158. Consequently, VEM police officers now represent 6.9% of the overall police strength. By comparison to September 2003, VEM police officer strength has increased by 21.3% in the last twelve months.

5. There has been a substantial increase in the number of female police officers, which now stands at 5,771 (5,336 non-VEM female and 435 VEM female) officers against a year-end BWT of 5,859. Female police officers now represent 18.8% of the overall police officer strength. By comparison to September 2003, female police officer strength has increased by 13.2%.

6. Police wastage continues to fall with 696 (90 female and 50 VEM) officers having left since the start of the financial year, compared to 829 (109 female and 64 VEM) in September 2003 and 912 (124 female and 49 VEM) in September 2002. This trend of improved wastage provides an indication of the effectiveness of the retention measures implemented. Of the officers leaving this year, to date, 89 were female (12.8%) and 50 were male and female VEM (7.2%). Our recruitment, year to date has been at 18.8% female and 16% male and female VEM, including transfers and rejoinders. Further details of wastage can be found in Appendix 1.

7. The recruitment target for this financial year has been set at 2,248 (subject to change) i.e. 1,858 new police recruits and 390 (240 specialists, 150 generic) transferees and rejoining officers. This target is lower than in previous years.

8. Since the beginning of the financial year, 1,090 officers have been recruited, of whom 903 have joined training school. Of the 187 officers deployed direct to OCU, 66 have entered specialist posts, 34 have taken up generic posts, whilst 87 have joined the MPS as part of the Royal Parks merger. Details are set out in Appendix 2.

9. During the current year targets have been set at 382 VEM and 652 female police officers, amounting to 17% and 29%, correspondingly, of all police officers recruited. Since April 2004, 171 VEM (118 male and 53 female) and 384 female (331 non-VEM and 53 VEM) police officers have been recruited, amounting to 16% and 35%, respectively, of all recruits, and is in line with projections.

10. For the period April to August 2004 65 (8.9% of recruits) recruits resigned from training school of these 24 (17.3% of VEM recruits) were VEM and 15 (5.5% of female recruits) were female. This compares to the financial year 2003/04 in which 284 (8.4% of total recruits) resigned from training school of which 72 (14.0% of VEM recruits) were VEM and 62 (6.3% of female recruits) were female. This shows an increase in overall and VEM leavers this year compared to last, whilst there has been an improvement in the retention of female recruits.

11. Current initiatives to reduce recruit wastage include the introduction of an outsourced pilot exit interview for a more in-depth investigation as to the issues surrounding the recruits' decisions to leave; this is due for implementation in December; with results known in February 2004. A new Student Options and Solutions Team (SOSTS) was established in April 2004. They provide welfare advice and self-empowerment advice in addition to acting as a bridge with staff associations and external agencies. The team are currently expanding the range of support meetings available to recruits. The Student Support Development Unit (SSDU) offers academic support particularly for dyslexia and English as a second language.

Substance misuse testing

12. As of September substance misuse testing was introduced as part of the Day 2 selection process, with candidates being tested ‘in house’ by trained staff with the use of specially purchased equipment. In September 53 people were tested (34 female and 19 VEM), this produced a 100% negative result.

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

13. The MPSC strength at the end of September 2004 stood at 762 officers against a new workforce target of 1,000. This a decrease on previous months workforce numbers, comprising 441 (57.9%) non-VEM males, 180 (24%) non-VEM female, 113 (14.8%) VEM male and 28 (3.7%) VEM female. The target for new recruits to the MPSC for the financial year 2004/2005 has been set at 238. Recruitment Directorate are working with TP around new initiatives to increase numbers such as the ‘Shopwatch’ scheme, which is currently in operation along Oxford Street. This has produced nine recruits currently at training school from a variety of Oxford street retailers. The scheme is due for official launch in November aiming to coincide with the recruit’s graduation.

14. Since April 2004 54 MPSC officers have completed training, comprising 26 non-VEM males, 5 VEM males, 18 non-VEM females and 5 VEM females. Currently, there are a further 56 MPSC applicants who have successfully completed the selection process and are awaiting security clearance prior to being offered a place at training school.

Volunteer Cadet Corps

15. The latest data available (September 2004) shows the MPS currently has 767 volunteer cadets aged between 14 - 21 years, recruited locally on 24 Boroughs. 36% of the cadets are from visible ethnic majority groups and 47% are females. A detailed borough breakdown is attached at Appendix 3. Work is being undertaken by the Directorate of Recruitment and Territorial Policing to provide support for local recruitment from the centre, without diminishing the success of locally recruiting young people to Boroughs. One way this will be achieved is by allowing local recruitment records to be stored centrally, so information and data can be accessed and recruitment managed in a similar ‘campaign style’ to that of the other parts of the extended policing family.

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

16. PCSO strength is currently 1,809 against a recently increased year-end BWT of 2,307. There are currently 605 (461 VEM male and 144 VEM female) from VEM groups and 536 (392 non-VEM and 144 VEM) females. As a proportion of strength, VEM PCSOs represent 33.5% and females 29.7%, compared to the year-end PCSO strength profiles of 807 (35%) VEM and 738 (32%) female PCSOs.

17. 63 PCSOs (35 non-VEM males, 13 VEM Males, 12 non-VEM females, and 3 VEM female) have left the MPS during the financial year. A further 14 PCSOs have become police officers and two have re-graded to police staff.

18. Since September 2004, 448 (86 VEM male, 29 VEM female, 107 non-VEM female and 226 non-VEM male) PCSOs have joined against a community/security recruitment target of 567. Thus satisfying the recruitment need for ward-based teams. Currently, VEM PCSOs represent 25.6% of the PCSOs recruited. There is currently no recruitment of transport PCSOs.

Police staff strength, wastage and recruitment

19. Police staff workforce strength currently stands at 12,855 compared to 11,486 at the end of September 2003, amounting to a 12.2% increase. Within the police staff there are 2,598 members of staff from VEM groups (being 784 VEM male and 1,813 VEM female) and 7,585 females (being 5,772 non-VEM female and 1,813 VEM female). As proportions of police staff strength, VEM staff represents 20.2% 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. Members of the Recruitment Directorate have begun visits to TP to undertake a quality assurance evaluation to identify good practice and assist those who fall short of the present 21% VEM target.

20. 445 members of police staff have left the MPS since April 2004 (281 female and 79 VEM). A further 36 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. 445 against 403; however, this is offset by the 12.2% growth in police staff strength. Consequently, as a proportion, the overall level of wastage is low.

21. During the financial year, 1,128 members of police staff have been recruited. Of these, 248 were recruited from VEM groups (22.0%) and 676 are female (59.9%). Police staff recruitment has been particularly buoyant during the year with 23.4% increase on the number recruited during the same period last year.

Recruitment highlights

22. Improvements to the selection process are contributing to the realization of a professional and effective workforce in all areas of recruitment are being developed, examples include the PCSO selection process pilot which was run at the end of September.

23. The current integration of MetHR into all areas of Police and Police staff recruitment has been successfully completed, with all processes now currently run through the centralized human resources database.

24. Current restructuring and redeployment within the Directorate (e.g. the introduction of a specialist unit to manage the process for posts in the extended policing family) are creating a more dynamic and streamlined workforce to prepare for the increased demand in recruitment to facilitate growth of the MPS.

Career Management and Retention Unit

25. The Pilot Exit Process, designed to give better information on the reasons why officers and staff leave the MPS and, ultimately, to encourage them to stay, is continuing. An interim evaluation report has been completed by ICG and its findings presented to the steering group. ICG concluded that, in the longer term, the new pilot exit process could serve as the model exit process for the future for the whole of the MPS. In the first three months of the pilot, which covers 50% of the MPS, 107 interviews were conducted with police officers and police staff. The most important reasons cited by those who wished to leave, other than those who were retiring, were: "family and other caring issues", "concerns with career development", "desire for change" and "working conditions" (in that order). We will await the final report before reaching definitive conclusions on what initiatives may be needed to improve retention.

26. The Centre For Research Into The Older Workforce (CROW) has now completed its research within the MPS and we are awaiting an interim report and presentation of its findings and recommendations. This is due in November 2004.

27. The Retention Strategy was produced in 2003 with the majority of proposals having been introduced and/or remains as work in progress. The Strategy will be reviewed in early 2005, a status report of outstanding proposals is provided below:

• MPS pilot staff exit process - the pilot runs until 31 December 2004 with final recommendations being made by LRDL and Internal Consultancy Group by February 2005.
• Collation and distribution of staff turnover information - Strategic Management Unit now produce monthly scorecards outlining recruitment and retention rates, and whether retention targets are being met. This information is provided on a monthly basis.
• Improving managers' abilities to retain staff (via management training) - the provision of an inclusive management training programme, for both police officers and police staff, is currently under review in line with the new leadership academy.
• Multi media induction – A presentation of the final draft of phases two and three is scheduled to be made to Martin Tiplady and Gordon Davison in November.

28. The Benefits of Belonging booklet is now on the CMRU intranet site and is updated as and when approval has been received from HR Services.

29. Property Zone currently receives about 30 enquires per week with an average of 50/50 between police officers and staff. There are a large number of enquiries from PCSOs. Presentations and consultations continue at training school, with approximately 40 housing related enquires per session. A link has been made with made with the SOS Unit and additional enquires are beginning to filter through. The initial 20 million pound Police Housing Fund has been allocated, with 14 million allocated to MPS staff. The average loan is 60k. A further 50 million has subsequently been made available. Arrangements have been made to liaise with the current national accommodation Internet site to discuss options for closer integration.

30. The Career Management and Retention Unit’s Intervention Guide is on the intranet site and has been issued to all (B)OCUs. It provides guidance to managers on how to make early intervention where an officer or member of staff is contemplating leaving the MPS and gives details of help that is available centrally from the Unit. The CMRU has also started work on a Best Practice guide to career management and retention.

31. The CMRU is also working with business groups to develop career pathways to support the professional development of officers and staff. At the moment, the most advanced of the pathways are: a pathway for officers and staff specialising in investigation (with the link to the Professionaling Investigation Project or PIP); one for officers and staff specialising in intelligence (with the link to the National Intelligence Model); and one for officers and, particularly, police staff who are involved in analysis, either performance analysis or intelligence analysis. The intention is that each pathway will set out the skills, accreditation and, even, qualifications that individuals will need to obtain as they progress along their chosen pathway. It will be important for each pathway to be integrated into key HR processes - for example, PDRs and promotion assessments - so as to minimise bureaucracy and burdens on managers.

32. The work on career pathways will be assisted by the MetPathways intranet site, which has been developed by the CMRU and which will give guidance on the sorts of postings, qualifications and development opportunities that will be needed to progress along a chosen career pathway. The intranet site already contains the outlines of a number of pathways, that will be developed as more detail is provided by Business Groups.

C. Race and equality impact

As previously reported the achievement of the, Home Office targets remain extremely challenging in the longer term. The recruitment strategy, however, has been designed to develop the environment in which these challenges will be met.

D. Financial implications

There are no financial implications arising from this report.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report authors: 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 September 2004

VEM wastage

Non-VEM wastage

Combined wastage

Appendix 2: Police joiners at end September 2004

Appendix 3: VCC units 2004As at the end of September

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