Disciplinary cases involving police staff (half yearly report – period 1 April 2006 – 31 March 2007)

Report: 8
Date: 19 July 2007
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 2006 to 31 March 2007. The data and trends from this reporting period are compared to the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006.

A. Recommendations

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

1. The aim of the police staff discipline policy is to promote positive and constructive working relationships amongst the Metropolitan Police Service 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 Human Resources Managers can access the HR Practice Support Team for advice and guidance in this area. The HR Practice Support Team’s responsibilities include monitoring the use of the discipline policy and ensuring consistency and integrity in its application.

Comparator - Discipline activity for the periods under review

1 April 2005 – 31 March 2006

3. As of 31 March 2006 16,478 members of police staff were employed by the MPS. During this period, 207 disciplinary cases were recorded. This figure equates to 1.26% of police staff being subject to disciplinary action.

1 April 2006 – 31 March 2007

4. As of 31 March 2007, 17,974 members of police staff were employed by the MPS. During this period, 245 disciplinary cases were recorded. This figure equates to 1.36% of police staff being subject to disciplinary action.

5. Note - recorded discipline includes formal warnings issued under Stage 1 to 4 of the discipline procedure covering underperformance, conduct and attendance management issues prior to September 2006. From September 2006 onward, the disciplinary procedures were revised and have been reduced to three stages.

Roles of police staff subject to disciplinary action

Police community support officers (PCSOs)

6. Of the 207 cases recorded during the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006, 72 (34.78%) cases were recorded against PCSOs. As of 31 March 2006, PCSOs made up 14% (2,308) of the total police staff workforce.

7. Of the 245 cases recorded during the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007, 69 (28.1%) cases were recorded against PCSOs. As of 31 March 2007, PCSOs made up 20% (3,684) of the total police staff workforce.

8. 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, as a population they remain proportionally over represented in the disciplinary process and this is discussed later in paragraphs 33 to 38 of this report.

Traffic wardens

9. Of the 207 cases recorded during the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006, 20 (9.66%) cases were recorded against Traffic Wardens. As of 31 March 2006, traffic wardens made up 2.5% of the total police staff workforce.

10. Of the 245 cases recorded during the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007, 8 (3.27%) cases were recorded against traffic wardens. As of 31 March 2007, traffic wardens made up 2% of the total police staff workforce.

11. There is a downward trend in relation to traffic warden discipline.

Catering staff

12. Of the 207 cases recorded during the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006, 15 (7.25%) cases were recorded against catering staff. As of 31 March 2006, Catering staff made up 4% of the total police staff workforce.

13. Of the 245 cases recorded during the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007, 8 (3.27%) cases were recorded against catering staff. As of 31 March 2007, catering staff made up 3.7% of the total police staff workforce.

14. There is a downward trend in relation to catering staff discipline.

Administrative staff

15. Of the 245 discipline cases recorded in 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007, 65 of those were recorded against staff employed in administrative roles across the organisation.

16. Therefore as a population, the administrative group are proportionally over represented in the disciplinary process and this is discussed later in paragraphs 33-38 of this report.

Diversity information

Gender

17. In the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006, 108 (52%) cases were recorded against females and 91 for males. As of 31 March 2006, females made up 54% of the total police staff workforce.

18. In the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007, 114 (47%) cases were recorded against females and 131 for males. As of 31 March 2007, females made up 54% of the total police staff workforce.

19. Therefore, females are under represented as a proportion in the discipline process.

Ethnicity

20. In the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006, 73 (36%) cases were recorded against staff classified as being from a black and minority ethnic group. 127 cases were recorded against staff classified as being from a white group. As of 31 March 2006, staff from a black and minority ethnic group made up 23% (3,725) of the total police staff workforce.

21. In the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007, 96 (41%) cases were recorded against staff from a black and minority ethnic group and 141 cases against staff from a white group. As of 31 March 2007, staff from a black and minority ethnic group made up 25% (4,410) of the total police staff workforce.

Ethnicity impact within the PCSO role

22. In the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006, 41 of the 73 black and minority ethnic cases (56%) above were recorded against PCSOs. As of 31 March 2006 35% of PCSOs were from a black and minority ethnic group.

23. In the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007, 31 of the 96 cases (32%) above were recorded against PCSOs. As of 31 March 2007 31% of PCSOs were from a black and minority ethnic group.

24. Therefore, during the course of the past year, there has been a downward trend in discipline cases involving PCSOs from a black and minority ethnic group.

Ethnicity impact within administrative roles

25. Of the 65 cases involving black and minority ethnic staff, 31 are employed within a broad range of administrative roles across the MPS. The remaining 34 cases can be attributed to staff working within the following roles:

• Operational support (10)
• Criminal Justice Unit (8)
• Miscellaneous non-administrative (16)

26. The numbers of staff in the disciplinary process remain statistically insignificant in terms of actual cases against population size as evidenced in paragraphs 3 and 4.

27. Once within the disciplinary process analysis shows consistency of case outcomes across all groups.

Disability

28. All disabilities declared by members of staff are recorded on MetHR. This information has not been declared or collated specifically for disciplinary purposes and relies on voluntary disclosure by individuals.

29. Of the 245 staff involved in disciplinary cases, 2.0% had declared themselves as having one or more disability, compared to 1.4% from the total workforce. The small size of this total precludes robust analysis.

30. Additionally, the police staff discipline procedures make specific reference to disabled members of staff and state “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 local HR Manager, Occupational Health and the appropriate Practice Manager to ensure compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act.

Equality Strands - Age, Faith, Sexual Orientation

31. 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 areas and their representation if any within the disciplinary process. However as part of the transforming HR programme and specifically through MetHR the Practice Support Team are scoping the viability of running reports remotely that would enable the capturing of this broader diversity data.

32. The MPS Equality Policy now includes additional areas of potential discrimination. It now states that it “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 analysis on role

33. 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 proportionally an over-representation of PCSOs and administrative staff within the disciplinary process.

34. The Practice Support Team has a distinct evaluation and intelligence portfolio and their analysis has revealed that a disproportionate number of PCSO discipline cases relate to staff inducted under the pre-2005 recruitment system, a factor in 79.7% of cases. This analysis was used to good effect for intervention practices in recruitment, selection and induction procedures of PCSOs. A pass/fail criterion was introduced in April 2007 within PCSO training at Hendon. Also, the evaluation of the process built greater emphasis around role requirement and MPS values. Local induction programmes are encouraged to manage integration of PCSOs into front line operations with police officer supervisors.

35. The Practice Support Team has also worked with the Leadership Academy to deliver a performance management package for first line managers. This is essential in terms of performance managing the PCSO family and familiarisation especially for police managers with the police staff discipline procedures. It is due to be launched in September 2007.

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

37. 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 police staff being exposed to the disciplinary process. These are described in more detail at paragraphs 56 to 60.

38. Due to the size of the organisation, the wide geographic distribution of administrative staff and the relatively small number involved it is difficult to perform any meaningful analyse but their representation in the disciplinary process may indicate an impact of organisational change such as the integrated prosecution teams.

Disproportionate impact on ethnicity

39. As previously discussed in paragraphs 25 to 27, there are black and minority ethnic staff case clusters in a number of business areas. Additional analysis will be targeted on these areas to determine which common factors (that may or may not include ethnicity) are at work. For PCSOs, the pre-2005 joining date is a more significant factor than ethnicity and intervention on recruitment and induction has impacted on this group/role.

40. Paragraphs 55 to 60 describe further intervention practices by the practice support team to maximise opportunities to influence key stakeholders and minimise the risk of staff being exposed to the disciplinary process. If and when staff are exposed to the disciplinary process, the verification process used by the Practice Team ensures that there is consistency and transparency across all groups in the application and management of the process.

Primary reasons for invoking the disciplinary process

41. The top five causes triggering disciplinary action are:

• Unsatisfactory attendance (sickness absence)
• Misuse of information technology systems
• Criminal acts under investigation
• Unacceptable behaviour
• Misuse of MPS property

42. Unsatisfactory attendance is still the biggest cause of discipline cases. For the second year running, attendance management cases involving PCSOs and traffic wardens have reduced significantly. Attendance management cases involving Communications Officers have increased. This trend can be attributed to the major change programme involving the migration of police staff from local police stations into the three Command and Control Centres at Lambeth, Hendon and Bow. There also has been an increase in attendance cases involving Criminal Justice Unit staff during this year.

Location

43. All discipline cases are recorded against the Operational Command Unit where the subject of discipline is employed. As previously stated data analysis has identified hotspot areas, and the Practice Support Team are working with the relevant units to examine and address (where appropriate) local application of the policy.

Timeliness

44. It is acknowledged that investigations into serious conduct matters have on occasion exceeded the specified three-month guideline. A dedicated team of police staff investigators for serious and complex cases has been selected and is due to take up post during summer 2007. A key performance indicator for this team will be to reduce the overall time taken to complete a discipline case.

Suspensions

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

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

47. The suspension list changes on a daily basis as staff are included or removed from the list dependent on the outcome of discipline investigations. Therefore, end of year figures are provided in this section.

48. As of 31 March 2006, 35 members of police staff had been suspended. 24 were from black and minority ethnic groups.

49. As of 31 March 2007, 54 members of police staff had been suspended. 26 were from black and minority ethnic groups.

50. Although there remains a disproportionate number of black and minority ethnic staff suspended, the above shows a significant decrease of black and ethnic minority police staff as a percentage of total suspensions. As stated in paragraph 46 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 disproportionate management of alleged gross misconduct across black and minority ethnic groups.

PCSO role – impact on suspension cases

51. As of year ending:

• 31 March 2006, 17 PCSOs had been suspended. Of these 11 were from a black and minority ethnic group.
• 31 March 2007 28 PCSOs had been suspended. Of these 14 were from a black and minority ethnic group.

52. 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.

53. Those suspension cases that 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.

54. As discussed later in paragraph 58 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 the suspension period.

Building capability

55. 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 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 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.

56. Workshops were run by the HR Practice Support Team for HR Managers in January and February 2007. The performance management sessions focused on early intervention practices and a risk review of local HR processes to examine ways of minimising risk of staff being exposed to the disciplinary process.

57. Additionally the HR Manager Development Programme has been introduced to enhance the all round skill set of HR Managers. It has been designed in consultation with the Leadership Academy. A particular module focuses on police staff discipline.

58. A selection procedure has recently been conducted for four dedicated police staff investigators who will deal with complex, serious and protracted cases. The dedicated investigator role is key to the aspirations of the Practice Support Team in professionalising discipline investigation, reducing timescales and minimizing the risk of Employment Tribunals.

59. The Practice Support Managers and the specialist Discipline Investigators will work with the Employment Tribunal Performance and Learning Manager. This dialogue will help to identify any trends, manage high-risk cases and seeks to identify any opportunities to build in learning and minimise risk of staff falling into the disciplinary process.

60. The Practice Team work with the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) particularly 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 style. This will be a key cultural shift that will facilitate police officers to better performance manage police staff.

External media communications strategy

61. Police staff discipline cases sometimes attract media attention. External media interest is managed in a number of ways. The Silver Risk Management Committee discuss significant police staff disciplinary cases. The HR Press and Communication Team prepare briefings when necessary to answer press and media enquiries, or to respond to inaccurate press reporting. The HR Communications Team offers a personal media support facility to any employees who are receiving adverse media attention.

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 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 Team, 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 gender, race, religion and belief, creed, ethnic origin, marital status, disability, age, sexual orientation, working hours or working arrangement.

4. In the event that any member of staff feels that the disciplinary process has not been been applied proportionately 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 and, in partnership with the Employee Relations Team, monitors and acts 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 the organisation’s cultural approach to this activity area and identify and minimise the risk of 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): Darren Bird, T/Assistant Director HR Services and Simon Hockley, HR Practice Support Manager, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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