Human resources business plan 2004/05 – objective 2

Report: 6
Date: 3 March 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

The report provides a progress update on the supporting activities for objective two of the Human Resources (HR) Business and Performance Plan 2004/05 ‘Develop a professional and objective workforce with the required numbers and skills to support the delivery of operational priorities’.

A. Recommendation

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. Fifteen activities were identified, as set out in the business plan, to support the delivery of a professional and effective workforce. The position on each is described below.

Progress update

Research, plan and co-ordinate a programme of recruitment activity to target graduates, particularly VEM groups.

2. The graduate recruitment strategy has now been placed in the Members’ library for consideration. During 2004/05 much has been achieved through marketing and advertising activity and events to attract graduates, particularly VEM graduates, to opportunities in the MPS. In 2005/06 work to develop an MPS graduate programme will be progressed, and graduate recruitment is a key aspect of the Recruitment Directorate business plan for the coming year.

Improve compliance on Professional Development Reviews (PDRs) and integrate PDRs with organisational, business group and OCU objectives and into all selection and assessment processes.

3. The Performance Development Review (PDR) process, based on the National Integrated Competency Framework, was introduced into the MPS in 2002. For some time, completion rates were well below the target of 65% of PDRs to be completed on time. This led to the Commissioner issuing a letter to senior managers in November 2003, holding them personally responsible for the completion of PDRs within their area of authority. As a result of this letter the MPS was able to report that 88% of PDRs covering the period 2003 to March 2004 had been completed by June 2004. There are concerns, however, about the variable quality of the completed PDRs.

4. In addition to the Commissioner’s directive, a more user-friendly PDR form was introduced for the reporting year 2004–05 and improvements were made in monitoring and evaluation processes.

Current monitoring arrangements

5. The PDR related target for the current year, shown in the HR Business and Performance Plan, is for 90% of MPS personnel to have work related objectives agreed by 30 June 2004. MPS progress towards this goal has been monitored as part of the HR Evaluation Unit’s schedule of visits to (B)OCUs/Business Groups. They report that the current percentage, averaged over their visits to date, is 59%, with significant disparities in compliance rates between those (B)OCUs/Business Groups visited.

6. To support this and to ensure compliance with the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, a new screen for the recording of agreed work related objectives went live on the MetHR system in late December 2004. All HR Managers were strongly encouraged to populate it by the Acting Director People Development. The Metpeople Team has asked for a report on rates of compliance with this request for the period ending in January 2005 and will continue to request reports at regular intervals until the end of the reporting year. A copy of the screen is at Appendix 1.

Briefing and training initiatives

7. The Metpeople Team has run regular monthly workshops, promulgating good practice, since September 2004. They have proved very popular and they are fully booked up to July 2005. The workshops are set up to take up to 18 people, although average attendance is 12 people per workshop. They are targeted at HR and Training Managers and their staff, with the aim that they become champions of the PDR process within their (B)OCU/Business Group. A significant number of line managers have also been nominated to attend. The Metpeople team may also be approached to provide focused workshops for specific groups of managers where their senior management perceives a serious problem to exist.

8. Three mass briefing events, with places for over 100 people at each one, are targeted specifically at line managers and have been arranged to take place before the end of the reporting year.

9. The Metpeople Team will also attend future corporate Police Staff Induction days and operate a stall to publicise the PDR process and the National Integrated Competency Framework.

10. The Metpeople Team has published a number of documents, available from their intranet site, to assist managers and staff through the PDR completion process. These include:

• Notes for guidance on completion,
• Frequently asked questions,
• A guide to an effective PDR meeting,
• Guide to PDR use for HR managers
• What the process can do for me, and
• PDR meeting preparation form for appraisees.

Recent developments

11. The Metpeople Team also regularly updates the role profiles to ensure they accurately reflect current policing priorities and requirements.

12. A major upgrade of MetHR is taking place, which will support on-line completion of PDRs and the sharing of information among all stakeholders in the process. One major benefit of this upgrade will be the facility to call-off accurate reports at all stages of the process under many different headings.

Advice and support

13. The Metpeople team publicises its willingness to offer advice and support to HR units and line managers on the PDR process and are approached on a daily basis. Line managers’ interest in the timely completion of PDRs has been focussed by the requirement that they are themselves assessed on their PDR completion rates.

PDR support for other processes

14. The PDR process supports the police officer selection process by requiring that all application forms contain a confirmation from the Senior Management Team that the individual has a current PDR that shows them as at least ‘competent’ in their current role.

15. In the case of police officer managers applying for promotion it is mandatory that they be assessed as “competent” in completing PDRs. The introduction of similar provisions for police staff is currently being consulted upon.

16. MPS guidelines on applications for Special Priority Payments (SPPs) state that “meeting the personal objectives set within the PDR is good evidence to support the SPP claim. In regard to Competence Related Threshold Payments, eligibility may be re-assessed if concerns about an officer’s competence are expressed in the PDR.”

Modularise and shorten driver training to achieve more throughput from less resources

17. Standard courses are running at two-week duration instead of three, by utilising greater pre-course assessment and reducing the number of students in a car. The ACPO policy lead has slowed down the move to wholly modular training and we await the new National Occupational Standards, where the MPS has lobbied for training to be related to police driver function rather than the power of the vehicle. Once implemented this approach is expected to enable us to provide 25% more courses at no additional cost. This has been calculated as an efficiency gain worth £385,000 per annum and contact will be made with the Director of Financial Services to assess if the savings can formally be included in the MPS Efficiency Plan.

Implement an e-learning approach on the current foundation-training course for new recruits

18. The Recruit Training School’s E-Learning Team has produced study materials for recruits to use to supplement their foundation training. NCALT is developing a range of E-Learning products, some of which are already available, to support the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (IPLDP) which will replace recruit training during the coming year.

Design and manage in-force assessment procedures for promoting new sergeants and inspectors, ensuring the processes are robust, fair and to the satisfaction of independent external verifiers, and for overseeing and monitoring the probationary period for sergeants

19. The MPS is participating in a national trial to replace the current OSPRE process, which comprises a knowledge exam (Part I) and an assessment centre (Part II). The trial process, known locally as TOWBAR, will assess officers for promotion to sergeant and inspector in the workplace. Candidates must still have a valid OSPRE Part I examination pass in order to qualify and then apply for a place on the TOWBAR scheme. If accepted, they then receive training and are posted to current vacancies to follow a programme of development as temporary sergeant or inspector. Candidates who complete the programme successfully are confirmed in their new rank and the period of development counts as their probationary period.

20. The MPS has been ready to start the trial for some months, but it has been delayed as the Regulations have yet to be passed by the Home Office. This is now due to be achieved by 1 March and an oral update will be provided to the Committee. Until the Regulations have been approved, officers cannot perform the full duties of sergeant, such as Custody Officer. However, subject to this limitation, the MPS took the decision to start assessing the participants on the scheme from 14 February 2005, in order to minimise further delays.

21. In this trial, candidates, with the support of their line managers, gather evidence over a 12 month period to demonstrate their competence against National Occupational Standards. To ensure that the process is robust, qualified assessors of the rank of sergeant and inspector from different B/OCU, meet regularly with the candidates to assess the evidence. Verifiers from the central HR Progression and Selection Unit check the work of the Assessors.

22. Centrex provides quality assurance across the forces participating in the trial and they have engaged the Chartered Management Institute as the external verification body. The trial is also being evaluated by the HMIC and an external consultancy called Symbia that is employed by the Home Office.

23. To date, 92 candidates for uniformed sergeant (81) and detective sergeant (11) ) have commenced their development under TOWBAR. Plans are being made to run another selection process for sergeant around July, to fill the vacancies anticipated by the continuing rollout of Safer Neighbourhoods. In addition, it is likely that the scheme will be extended to uniformed inspectors and detective inspectors later in the year, depending on operational needs.

Develop a medium term pay strategy for police staff

24. A medium term pay strategy was developed and centred on three key principles:

• Introduction of market related skills supplements, coupled with a review of the shadow pay bands, which were introduced to meet the market rates of specialist groups of staff.
• Recognising outstanding performers within the organisation and rewarding them appropriately, especially those at the maximum of their pay bands.
• Ensuring that poor performers did not receive a pay increase until such time as their performance improved to a satisfactory level.

These principles formed part of the management brief for the 2004 pay negotiations.

25. Also part of the medium term pay strategy was the introduction of a range of initiatives aimed at enhancing existing benefit packages. Work on these initiatives is well advanced. MetBenefits, a scheme of voluntary benefits for police officers and police staff, whereby staff will have access to a wide range of discounted goods and services, is due to be launched in March 2005. In addition, we are aiming to implement in April 2005 the Government’s Home Computing Initiative, enabling staff to loan computer packages for home use, free of income tax, National Insurance for both employer and employee and VAT. Implementation of this had been delayed whilst agreement was sought through the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) for it to be applied to police officers at the same time. This agreement was achieved at the February 2005 meeting of PNB.

Deliver the first year of the corporate civilianisation programme.

26. As part of the Efficiency and Effectiveness Reviews jointly financed by the MPS, MPA and the Mayor in 2002, Accenture was commissioned to undertake research into the subject of civilianisation. Accenture based its review around the question “across the MPS, what posts could and should be carried out by police staff so that police officers can be deployed for operational policing.” From a series of workshops and other research, Accenture identified 1,100 posts that could potentially over time be civilianised. These were split into three categories, depending on the perceived ‘difficulty’ in civilianising them. For the purposes of recuperative duties and restricted duties, 250 posts were ring-fenced. A plan was then drawn up to civilianise the remaining 850 posts over a three-year period (excluding category three posts). The plan was to civilianise, on a head-for-head basis, 188 posts within year one, 299 within year two and 363 within year three. Originally, Management Board agreed that the first year of the plan (to end March 2005) would be funded within existing budgets (no decision was made at that stage on years two and three of the plan). Subsequently, it was decided that the civilianisation of 188 posts (first year of the plan) would help support Step Change Growth.

27. However, achieving successful civilianisation is a difficult and complex process, given the apparent emphasis on police officer numbers. Consequently, for the reasons outlined below, a paper was discussed at Management Board in July 2004. The outcome of this paper is summarized in the section entitled ‘New approach and shaping the new plan’. A brief summary follows of the difficulties faced by the MPS with regard to successful civilianisation:

Impact of Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and Recuperative and Restricted Duties

28. The total impact of the DDA is relatively unknown at this stage in terms of potential consequences for further civilianisation. The feeling is that the DDA could impede both the type and number of roles with the potential for civilianisation, if the numbers of police officers that fall under the provisions of DDA are greater than anticipated. The same can be said about recuperative and restricted duties, whereby those officers might again restrict the numbers and types of posts that police staff could perform instead.

Flexible working arrangements

29. Information provided by TP illustrates that a high proportion of those posts identified for civilianisation were occupied by officers with caring responsibilities, who required flexible working arrangements. In addition, some police officers require retraining to enable them to return to operational duty.

Data capture

30. The original data upon which Accenture reported for civilianisation was captured in late 2002, and now needs revisiting to provide an accurate up to date picture. Clearly any data capture can be argued to be purely a snapshot in time.

Reduction in ill-health retirements

31. A way of reducing ill-health retirements is to place those officers who would previously have been ill-health retired into posts that match their capabilities. Some of these posts might hold the potential for civilianisation.

Emphasis on police numbers

32. As long as the emphasis remains on police numbers, the ability to consider alternate ways of working remains. Though anecdotal evidence (e.g. within the recommendations from The HMIC Inspection on Civilianisation etc.) suggests that the political imperative will be moving us away from this focus. The operational policing helps move the debate away from the numbers issue to the consideration of what officers do with their time.

Funding Implications

33. The relationship between Step Change and civilianisation has been widely debated since January 2004. Originally, it was agreed at Management Board that the release of the 850 posts would help fund the Step Change growth. If agreement was eventually made to roll out the full step change programme cumulative additional costs would occur, i.e. if civilianisation of 850 posts were not delivered, the Step Change Programme (SCP) would cost an additional £18.5m in 2007/08.

34. There are obvious financial implications in these areas, e.g. the cost of retraining officers returning to operational duties and the cost of providing child care facilities for officers who require this.

35. Additional savings are also required in the 2005/06 budget, which will further squeeze already tight resources and impinge on police staff pay budgets.

New approach and shaping the new plan

36. For the reasons outlined above, Management Board agreed on 6 July 2004 that:

• Civilianisation be separated from the Step Change programme. This means that the whole Step Change programme has been reviewed in terms of its finance, given that the earlier programme was premised on the basis of linked civilianisation. This is no longer the case; and that
• The MPS recast the civilianisation programme. The MPS is starting from a new premise of creating police staff roles in order to relieve police officers of those functions/activities that do not require attested powers.

Numbers civilianised since the accenture report (2002)

37. Each business group has undertaken further preparatory work and provided the HR Directorate with details pertaining to:

1. New police staff posts previously performed by police officers,
2. Posts identified by Accenture that have already been civilianised (and are in the process of being civilianised) and,
3. Each business group has also been asked to consider functions/activities that do not require a police officer to perform, in terms of percentage of work and types of roles.

Based on the initial findings, it appears that the aggregate of themes (a) and (b) above, totals approximately 413 posts. The breakdown of data for theme (a) and for theme (b) is shown in the tables at Appendix 2.

New plan

39. As mentioned above, Management Board agreed a new definition of civilianisation, which widens the concept from the traditional approach of head-for-head replacement. Whilst this approach has not been disregarded, the new concept is about creating new police staff roles from functions/activities/tasks, hence freeing up police officers’ time. The data is currently being collated from each business group and will then be presented as part of a report to Management Board in March. The MPA will be consulted about the new plan following that meeting.

Bring together under a single command the HR units dealing with Fairness at Work, police staff discipline and police officer Unsatisfactory Performance Procedure (UPP).

40. A single command has been created to deal with Fairness at Work, police staff discipline and police officer UPP. This unit is multi-functional: its staff provide advice and guidance to operational practitioners, review and re-draft existing policy, oversee all police staff suspensions and proactively intervene in complex cases where appropriate. The unit’s staff meet monthly with the Director of HR Services to highlight identifiable trends, discuss pertinent cases, and plan intervention strategies.

Support negotiations and implement the changes arising from the Superintendents and ACPO pay agreements.

41. The changes to basic pay for superintendents and chief superintendents had been implemented in February 2004. During the course of the year, agreement was reached with the Superintendents’ Association on the chief superintendent posts that should attract the post related allowance and the agreement was approved by this Committee at its meeting on 22 July 2004. Changes to the pay for ACPO officers, as agreed at Police Negotiating Board (PNB) in February 2004, were implemented in September 2004. For both groups of officers, bonus schemes formed part of the revised pay package. For superintendents and chief superintendents, the bonus arrangements came into effect from 1 April 2005; for ACPO officers the scheme comes into play from 1 April 2006. Notes for Guidance covering both schemes have been produced by PNB (for ACPO officers the final version was not agreed until the PNB meeting in February 2005) and these notes will be used in association with the Performance Development Review process in assessing entitlement to bonuses in coming years.

Develop and implement a deployment plan covering all police officers, in a way that balances operational with individual needs. Develop and implement, in conjunction with the relevant Heads of Profession, deployment processes for PCSOs and communications officers, in a way that balances operational with individual needs. Develop and implement a redeployment policy covering all police staff.

42. Following consultation with business groups, a draft deployment plan for police officers for 2005/06 has now been produced. This will be submitted to Management Board for approval. A draft deployment plan has been produced for PCSOs and incorporates all growth for 2005/06. The deployment of Communication Officers is being closely monitored.

43. A policy for the redeployment of police staff was produced and published in October 2004. This policy applies to all police staff who are eligible for redeployment.

Implement a career development strategy for senior police officers, including establishing a process for officers to apply to the new-style Police National Assessment Centre and creating a development programme for (B)OCU commanders.

44. A process has been devised by Chief Superintendent Phelps, Career Management and Retention Unit (CMRU), and agreed by Management Board, for applicants to the Senior Police National Assessment Centre (PNAC), which is the gateway to the Strategic Command Course. Applications will be reviewed by a panel of Deputy Assistant Commissioners to ensure that only applications from candidates who are ready to be promoted to the rank of Commander/Assistant Chief Constable will be endorsed. A list of those candidates will then be passed to the Director of HR for final sanction. Approved application forms are due to be returned to the Home Office by 29 April. The CMRU will act as the central point of contact for this process.

45. The CMRU is also working on a framework to support the career development of all officers of superintendent rank. A number of initiatives are being developed, under the umbrella of the Development Programme for the Superintending Rank. One outcome of this will be the production of a guide for officers of superintendent rank which will be a digest of helpful information and advice on career development, for example, secondments, mentors and training courses.

Improve career management of police officers and staff, and address progression difficulties experienced by female and VEM officers and staff by:

Developing career pathways for police officers and staff

46. The ‘MetPathways’ Intranet site will act as a portal of career and development information for all staff. Pathways for Investigation, Intelligence and Analysts have been developed with key stakeholders and will go live on the intranet on 31st March. Work on other specialisms will then commence. Members are also referred to the Recruitment and Retention report to this meeting, paragraphs 16-18. A more detailed report on career pathways was also considered at the 20 January meeting of this Committee.

Designing and introducing an accelerated development scheme for police staff.

47. The selection process for the first intake to the new police staff Intensive Development Programme consists of a paper sift, ability testing and competency based interview. This is complete, with 13 individuals having been successful and due to start the programme on 1 March 2005. It is a three-year programme and will include career coaching, mentoring, developmental opportunities facilitated by the Chartered Management Institute, job placements, attachments, an interactive multi-media management course and an individual training budget. The Internal Consultancy Group will independently evaluate the programme and the selection process.

C. Race and equality impact

The equality and diversity implications are identified and progressed within the detailed work of each supporting activity. In this way, we can ensure that improvements to the quality of HR provision throughout the MPS promote and support the attainment of equality.

D. Financial implications

There are no financial implications arising directly from this report. All activities described in the report are contained within existing budgets. Where any additional expenditure is required, separate reports will be submitted as necessary.

E. Background papers

• Career Pathways, (HR Committee 20 January 2005)

F. Contact details

Report author: Avril Cooper, HR Planning & Performance Unit, MPS

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 2

Numbers civilianised since the Accenture report (2002)

Breakdown of data for theme (a) ‘New police staff posts covering functions previously performed by police officers’

Breakdown of data for theme (b) ‘’ Posts identified by Accenture that have been civilianised”

Clearly, significant progress has been made across the MPS in terms of Civilianisation. Furthermore, the information does not include PCSOs.

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