Disciplinary cases involving police staff (half yearly report – period 1 April – 30 November 2006)

Report: 7
Date: 8 February 2006
By: Director of Human Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report provides management information and statistical data in respect of police staff who find themselves subject to disciplinary proceedings. It specifically addresses issues relating to diversity and the matter of proportionality.

The report concentrates on discipline cases from 1 April to 30 November 2006. The data and trends from this reporting period will be compared to the period 1 April 2005 to 30 November 2005.

The commissioning report asked for a response to the Morris Inquiry and specific recommendations implemented in relation to the police staff discipline procedure. This is provided in a separate section later on in this report.

A. Recommendations

That members note the report and ask for bi-annual reports to be completed June and December respectively.

B. Supporting information

1. The aim of the Police Staff Discipline Policy is to promote positive and constructive working relationships amongst its staff. The procedures are intended to help and encourage all employees to achieve and maintain acceptable standards of conduct, performance and attendance, and to provide a fair and effective method of dealing with alleged breaches of these standards.

2. The management of police staff discipline is a devolved function to local line managers. Both Line Managers and HR Managers can access the HR Practice Support team for procedural and practice advice. The HR Practice Team responsibilities include monitoring use of the discipline policy and ensuring consistency and integrity in its application.

Comparator - Discipline activity for the periods under review 

1 April – 30 November 2005

3. As of 30 November 2005 16,226 members of police staff were employed by the MPS. During this period 166 cases were recorded which equates to 0.01% of staff subject to disciplinary action.

1 April – 30 November 2006

4. As of 31 November 2006 17,258 members of police staff were employed by the MPS. During this period 183 cases were recorded which equates to 0.02% of staff subject to disciplinary action.

5. Note: Recorded discipline includes formal warnings issued under Stage 1 to 4 of the discipline procedure for under performance, conduct and attendance management issues.

Roles of police staff subject to disciplinary action

6. Police community support officers (PCSO):

• 1 April to 30 November 2005 – Of the 166 cases recorded during this period, 45 (27.10%) cases were recorded against PCSOs.
• As of 30 November 2005, PCSOs made up 13% (2,048) of the workforce.
• 1 April to 30 November 2006 – of the 183 cases recorded during this period, 43 (23.4%) cases were recorded against PCSOs.
• As of 30 November 2006, PCSOs made up 17% (2,961) of the workforce.
• There has been a reduction in the number of cases recorded against PCSOs, which is significant when coupled with the increase in PCSO numbers.

PCSOs remain the most significant group in terms of level of disciplinary activity.

7. Traffic wardens:

• 1 April to 30 November 2005 – Of the 166 cases recorded during this period, 18 (11%) cases were recorded against Traffic Wardens
• As of 30 November 2005 Traffic Wardens made up 2.5% of the workforce
• 1 April to 30 November 2006 – Of the 183 cases recorded during this period, 4 (4%) cases were recorded against Traffic Wardens
• As of 30 November 2006, Traffic Wardens made up 2.1% of the workforce.
• As can be seen there is a downward trend in relation to TW discipline.

8. Catering officers:

• 1 April to 30 November 2005 – Of the 166 cases recorded during this period, 14 (8.5%) cases were recorded against Catering staff
• As of 30 November 2005, Catering Staff made up 4% of the workforce.
• 1 April to 30 November 2006 – Of the 183 cases recorded during this period, six (3.5%) cases were recorded against Catering staff.
• As of 30 November 2006, Catering Staff made up 3.8% of the workforce.
• As can be seen there is a downward trend in relation to catering staff discipline.

Diversity Information

9. Gender:

• 1 April to 30 November 2005 – 66 (40%) cases were recorded for females and 100 against males
• As of 30 November 2005, females made up 56% of the workforce.
• 1 April to 30 November 2006 – 84 (45%) cases were recorded for females and 97 against males
• As of 30 November 2006, females made up 54% of the workforce, therefore, females continue to be under represented as a proportion in the discipline process.

10. Ethnicity:

• 1 April to 30 November 2005 – 57 (33%) cases were recorded against staff from a black and minority ethnic group and 110 cases against white members of staff. As of 30 November 2005, staff from a black and minority ethnic group made up 24% (3,894) of the workforce.
• 1 April to 30 November 2006 – 70 (38%) cases were recorded against staff from a black and minority ethnic group and 111 cases against white members of staff. As of 30 November 2006, staff from a black and minority ethnic group made up 24% (4,141) of the workforce.

Therefore, the last 2 years show that there remains a disproportionate representation of Black and Minority Ethnic staff exposed to the disciplinary process.

11. Ethnicity impact within the PCSO role:

• 1 April to 30 November 2005 - 32 of the 57 cases (57%) of the cases above were recorded against PCSOs. As of 30 November 2005 37% of PCSOs were from a black and minority ethnic group
• 1 April to 30 November 2006 – 21 of the 70 cases (30%) of the cases above were recorded against PCSOs. As of 30 November 2005 33% of PCSOs were from a black and minority ethnic group.
• Therefore, during the course of the past year, there has been a shift from a disproportionately higher level of discipline amongst PCSOs to a disproportionately lower level of discipline amongst PCSOs.

Ethnicity impact within other roles

12. With regards to the remaining 49 cases involving black and minority ethnic staff, the next significant group are those employed in administrative roles (28), which is a very generic role featuring in very different business groups and geographic areas. The remaining 21 cases feature in very low and isolated numbers in very different roles, across nine different functions within the organisation.

Disability

13. All disabilities declared by members of staff are recorded on MetHR. This information has not been declared or collated specifically for disciplinary purposes so it is not possible at present to provide any meaningful analysis around disabled members of staff who have been subject to the disciplinary procedures. However, the Race Relations (Amendments) Act (RRAA) proforma has been amended to include disability and this information will be recorded from April 2007.

14. Additionally, the revised police staff discipline procedures make specific reference to disabled members of staff and states “consideration must always be given to an individual’s disability when contemplating any disciplinary action and in conducting the disciplinary procedure in relation to a disabled member of staff. Advice must be sought from the HR Manager, Occupational Health and the appropriate practice manager to ensure compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act and organisational response to issues such as reasonable adjustment”.

Equality Strands - Age, Faith, Sexual Orientation

15. This information has not been collated specifically for disciplinary purposes so it is not possible at present to provide any meaningful analysis around the remaining diversity strands and their representation if any in the disciplinary process. However, continued monitoring is undertaken by the HR Practice Support Team who can capture this information if it is available to ensure that the policy is being applied fairly and consistently to all police staff employed by the MPS regardless of diversity background.

16. During the consultation process for the revised procedures, the Equality Policy Advisor, HR Services, suggested amendments to the policy statement to ensure consistency with the MPS Equality Policy and recent changes to legislation. This consisted of adding additional areas of potential discrimination to the scope of the policy as follows: “this procedure will be applied fairly and consistently to all staff employed by the MPS regardless of gender, race, religion and belief, creed, ethnic origin, marital status, disability, age, sexual orientation, working hours or working arrangement”

Disproportionate impact

Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs):

17. There has been a reduction in the number of cases recorded against PCSOs, which is significant when coupled with the increase in PCSO numbers. However there is still a small level of over representation of PCSOs in the disciplinary process.

18. The Practice Support Team have focused their energies on educating line managers to address poor performance and or conduct and to capture and act upon all data from local HR units in relation to this activity area. This focused approach may have contributed to the overall increase in the number of PCSO recorded cases.

19. The Practice Support team have analysed the data in terms of the PCSO family who are in the main, front line operational staff managed by police officers. Intervention practices have been adopted by the Practice team at both a corporate and local level to review HR Processes and examine ways of minimising the risk of this group falling into the disciplinary process. These are described in more detail at paragraphs 40 to 45.

Black and Minority Ethnicity staff in other roles

20. As discussed in Sections 10 and 11, Black and Minority Ethnic Staff remain proportionally over represented in the disciplinary process. Analysis has shown that the next significant role after the PCSOs are those performing administrative roles. However, these members of staff and the remaining black and minority ethnic staff are dispersed in very low numbers across the organisation in very different roles, disciplines and geographic areas.

21. The Practice Support team continue to monitor these trends and later on in this report (paragraphs 40 and 42-45) describe intervention practices adopted to ensure consistency and transparency across all groups in the management of the disciplinary process.

Primary reasons for invoking the disciplinary process

22. The top five causes triggering disciplinary action are:

• Unsatisfactory attendance
• Criminal acts under investigation
• Misuse of Information Technology Systems
• Unacceptable behaviour
• Unsatisfactory performance.

23. Unsatisfactory attendance is still the biggest cause of disciplines cases. Attendance management cases involving PCSOs and Traffic Wardens have reduced significantly whilst attendance management cases involving Communication Officers have increased. This trend has been attributed to the major change programme around the migration of police staff from local police stations to the three command and control centres at Lambeth, Hendon and Bow and the significant training and learning programme around the new technology in these centres.

Location

24. All discipline cases are recorded against the Operational Command Unit where the subject of discipline is employed. This may not in itself however be an accurate indicator of a hotspot, for example, 3 of the 5 cases recorded against a specific command unit related to a single incident of drinking on duty. The Practice Support team however do collate this information for the purpose of hotspot intervention if necessary.

Timeliness

25. It is acknowledged that investigations into serious conduct matters tend to exceed the guideline of 42 days. However, this timescale has been revised in the new procedures to 3 months. With the introduction of the dedicated team of police staff investigators for serious and complex cases, it is anticipated that timescales will be improved.

Suspensions

26. Suspension is most commonly used in cases of alleged gross misconduct where the likely outcome is dismissal.

27. In October 2004, the verification procedure was introduced whereby all suspensions of police staff plus all disciplinary cases that could result in dismissal must be verified by the Practice Support team before any action is taken.

28. The Suspension list changes on a daily basis as people are included or removed from the list dependent on the outcome of the discipline investigation, therefore end of year figures are provided in this section only:

• As of 30 November 2005 - 35 members of police staff were suspended, 17 of which were from black and minority ethnic groups representing one in every 228 FTE and - 12 were female representing 1 in every 751 FTE.
• As of 30 November 2006 - 25 members of police staff were suspended, 11 of which were from black and minority ethnic groups representing one in every 382 FTE and 5 were female representing 1 in every 1,874 FTE.

29. The above shows that there is a downward trend, of Black and Minority Ethnic Staff featuring in the suspension process but that there still remains a disproportional number of suspensions against staff from a black and minority ethnic group. As stated in paragraph 27 above, all suspensions are verified by the HR Practice Support team and most commonly based on alleged gross misconduct. There is no evidence to suggest that there is inconsistent management of alleged gross misconduct across black and minority ethnic groups.

PCSO Role – Impact on Suspension Cases.

30. As at 30 November 2006, 12 of the 25 suspended members of staff were employed in the PCSO role. Within the total of 12 suspended PCSOs, eight of these were black and minority ethnic staff. (Note – Data is not available on the employment roles for 30 November 2005 group as the practice team did not commence until January 2006)

31. Suspension is not a disciplinary sanction and is entirely without prejudice to the outcome or conduct of any subsequent proceedings. The circumstances justifying suspension are recorded and monitored by the Practice Team and weekly updates are sought from investigating officers to encourage timely progress and minimise the risk of lengthy suspension periods.

32. Those suspension cases which feature criminal aspects have to be managed within the constraints of working with internal agencies such as the Director of Professional Standards (DPS) and external agencies such as the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

33. As discussed later in paragraph 43 the formation of a dedicated team of police staff investigators will assist in improving timeliness and establishing protocols with internal and external agencies for those cases which feature criminal aspects to monitor meaningful progress and minimise the length of suspension period.

Case outcomes at Stage 4 gross misconduct

34. This section of the report is particularly significant to the Guardian Article headline around black and minority ethnic staff being more vulnerable to dismissal procedures.

35. As of 30 November 2005, 61 cases were dealt with at stage 4 gross misconduct hearing. The outcomes were as follows:

• Suspension off pay = 1
• Formal reprimand = 10
• Down grading = 1
• Dismissal = 49 (31 White, 14 BME, and 4 ethnicity not stated)

36. As of 30 November 2006, 36 cases were dealt with at stage 4 gross misconduct. The outcomes were as follows:

• Formal reprimand = 14
• Down grading = 1
• Dismissal = 21 (9 White, 9 BME and 3 ethnicity not stated)

37. Analysis of dismissal case outcomes against ethnicity does not reveal any significant disproportionality based on the actual numbers that are insignificant relative to the size of the workforce as a whole.

• As at 30 November 2005, 29% of black and minority ethnic staff were dismissed, as opposed to 63% of white staff and 8% ethnicity not stated.
• As at 30 November 2006, 43% of black and minority ethnic staff were dismissed as opposed to 43% of white staff and 14% ethnicity not stated.

38. Whilst the percentage proportionality for black and minority ethnic staff has increased for dismissals and the percentage proportionality for white staff has decreased, this must take into account the following:

• population pool in question is the staff who were subject to dismissal proceedings.
• as shown at paragraphs 3 and 4, the numbers of staff subject to disciplinary action and those who are dismissed are significantly low in relation to percentage of the total workforce
• as shown at paragraph 37, the percentage gap for dismissals of black and minority ethnic and white staff has moved closer.
• both review periods show that white staff remain a consistently impacted group for dismissal action.

Building capability

39. The core function of the Practice Support Team is to build the capability of local HR Practitioners by providing professional advice and practical support in the practice areas of Performance and Conduct Management. This advice takes into account whether the disciplinary action proposed is fair, reasonable and proportionate and complies with policy. The essence of the police staff discipline policy is to help and encourage all employees achieve and maintain acceptable standards of conduct, performance and attendance, and to provide a fair and effective method of dealing with alleged breaches of these standards.

40. Workshops were run by the HR Practice Support Team for HR Managers in December 2005 and January 2006 and included practical sessions on disciplinary management in relation to discipline procedures. Follow up workshops have been arranged for 19 January and 1 February 2007; this will focus on building and maintaining excellence and sharing learning and good practice.

41. The Practice Support Team has a distinct evaluation and intelligence portfolio. This has been used with regard to the data collected for the PCSO family for intervention practices in recruitment selection and induction procedures. This has manifested in changes to the entry for PCSOs requiring a pass/fail criteria, which commences 2 April 2007. An emphasis was also introduced in the recruitment process around role requirement and an emphasis on MPS values. Local Induction programmes were encouraged to manage integration of PCSOs into front line operations with police supervisors.

42. The Practice Support Team has also worked with the Leadership Academy to deliver a performance management package for first line supervisors which is essential in terms of performance managing the PCSO family and familiarisation with the police staff discipline procedures.

43. A selection procedure is currently underway for four dedicated investigators who will deal with complex, serious and protracted cases. This is key to the aspirations of the practice support team in professionalising discipline investigation, reducing timescales and minimizing the risks of Employment Tribunals.

44. The Practice Support Managers work with the Employment Tribunal Performance and Learning Officer Manager. This dialogue identifies any trends on potential high-risk cases and seeks to identify any opportunities to build in learning and minimise risk of staff falling into the disciplinary process.

45. The Practice Team work with the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) and their Prevention and Organisational Learning Command who are currently embarking on a series of local command visits to promote their commitment to move away from a blame culture towards a more productive de-briefing and learning culture. This will be a key cultural shift that will facilitate in police officers managing police staff and how they approach performance management for police staff.

Morris recommendations

46. This section specifically addresses the activity areas contained within the commissioning report. With regards to Professional Standards and Disciplinary procedures, it is recognised that the Inquiry concentrated mainly on police officers. However, the inquiry did pick up upon a number of areas of good practice, already built into the police staff procedures.

Recommendation 3c - Management information

47. The completion of the Race Relation (Amendment) Act Proforma since 2000, coupled with the introduction of MetHR, has ensured that the HR Directorate is able to produce and analyse the statistics in relation to Police Staff Discipline. Monthly reports are produced for the HR Scorecard and Quarterly analysis is produced for Assistant Director HR Services.

48. Additionally, there is ongoing work, in partnership with the HR Evaluation Team, to ensure such data is consistently and accurately recorded.

Recommendation 3d – Support for suspended officers

49. The Suspension Support Unit was formed in January 2006 and monitors the support that is provided to police officers and police staff that are suspended from duty. An individual contact record (Form 453SM) is kept for each suspended staff member and is sent to local HR Managers on a monthly basis for contact maintenance update. If there is any matter of concern either on the form or from the individual, then the Suspension Unit will intervene to resolve issues.

Recommendation 7 - Eliminate discriminatory investigatory practice, which has led to a disproportionate number of investigations against BME officers.

50. This was specifically related to police officers within the enquiry, however in terms of police staff investigations, the role of the HR Practice team set up in January 2006 is to ensure a consistent corporate overview of breaches of the police staff discipline code to ensure that the proposed action is fair, reasonable and proportionate.

51. Analysis provided earlier reveals that statistically in terms of the overall population of police staff, whilst there may be some disproportionality in roles, the role of the Practice Team provides safeguards in terms of application of the discipline policy (paragraph 39) and there is no evidence of significant disproportionality in terms of case outcomes (paragraph 37).

Recommendation 20f and 20g - Review of existing criteria for authorising suspension – proportionate to risk and allegation.

52. A verification process for police staff has been in place since October 2004, and is managed now by the Practice Support Team (PST). The PST will verify all cases that have the potential to result in dismissal (this includes all gross misconduct cases, all Inefficiency cases that have progressed to Stage 4 and all adverse probationer files).

53. The role of the Practice Support Team is to provide advice and support to HRMs on all aspects the disciplinary procedure to ensure that local management decisions are based on a fair, reasonable and proportionate consideration of each case and that their action comply with the procedure.

Recommendation 20n – Staff receive written record of summary and outcome and investigation.

54. Police staff involved in gross misconduct and facing disciplinary proceedings have always had full disclosure of all documents relating to their discipline case.

C. Race and equality impact

1. As part of the review of the Police Staff Disciplinary procedures, a corporate policy workbook is completed to ensure that adequate consultation takes place in relation to the impact the policy may have on various groups within the MPS.

2. During the consultation process at that time for the current procedures, it was noted that a higher proportion of black and minority ethnic staff were the subject of disciplinary action.

3. A core aim of the police staff discipline policy monitored by the Practice Support is to ensure that the policy is being applied fairly and consistently to all police staff employed by the MPS regardless of personal characteristics such as race, gender, ethnic origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, age, marital status or employment status.

4. In the event that any member of staff feels that the disciplinary process has not been been applied proportionally or fairly, they have full and proper recourse to appeal procedures. Representations may also be made through their line manager or staff support representative. The HR Practice Team has access to intelligence from Fairness at Work (FAW) and works in partnership with the Employee Relations Team to monitor and act on any such concerns.

5. In addition to the policy workbook, six monthly monitoring reports are produced to meet the requirements of the Race Relations Amendment Act.

6. The introduction of the Equalities Scheme will provide the MPS with a framework for monitoring commitment to equality and capturing performance management activity and routines. Such information may help to assist and inform cultural approach to this activity area and identify and minimise risk to staff falling into the disciplinary process.

D. Financial implications

There are no specific financial considerations arising from this report.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Eleanor Ryan, Assistant Director HR Services

For more information contact:

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

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