Annual Report

Human Resources

HUMAN RESOURCES BUSINESS AREA

 

 

This was yet another very busy year for the HR Business Area. Following the Vice-President’s Review of Business Areas being accepted by NEC, we set about establishing a new HR Business Area. Four NEC members were added, namely, Derek Barnett, Irene Curtis, Dilip Amin and Tim Jackson. With Archie Torrance and Jayne Monkhouse (Equality Advisor to PSAEW) this brought the core membership of the HR Business Area up to six and is believed to be a suitable structure for delivering against our wide remit.

 

One of our first tasks was to agree Aims for the HR Business Area and to identify a range of Working Principles that would underpin our work, in support of the overall aims and objectives of our Association. This has now been done and is guiding the work that we do.

 

The Leading Policing Strategy, developed by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), was launched last year. We were grateful to NPIA for allowing our Association an opportunity to participate and to influence the work. NPIA are now leading further work to populate (and give more meaning to) the three leadership domains – executive skills, business skills, policing skills. We have emphasised that these ought to be kept in proper balance and that assumptions must not be made that no further work needs to be done around the policing skills domain. We do not agree that is the case. We all know that there are still some officers passing Senior PNAC who do not have operational credibility and, often by their own admission, some are not ‘ready now’ for ACPO rank. We shall continue to press for urgent improvements in this situation.

 

Towards the end of the year under review we became aware of an intention to bring together Leadership Strategy Board and Workforce Modernisation. This appears to us to make perfect sense given that both are led by Chief Constable Peter Fahy and many of the participants are the same in each body. The new body will be known as Workforce Strategy Board. We have sought to persuade Mr. Fahy that the Police Federation for England & Wales (PFEW) and our Association have a significant role to play and we ought to have a seat at the main Workforce Strategy Board. This has not been accepted, however, we have been invited to participate as members on the new Workforce Council, the consultative arm of the new framework. We shall, of course, continue to represent your views as professionally as we can through those arrangements. Indeed, plans are in place for a presentation to be made by NPIA to NEC during the summer on ‘talent management’ and the new ‘graduate entry scheme’.

 

Our Association has been invited to sit on the National College of Police Leadership Board of Governors.  The Association will be represented by the President and the first meeting of the Board of Governors has already taken place.  The National College of Police Leadership will be officially launched on Monday 16 November 2009 and we look forward to playing a leading role on the Board. We wish the College every success in the future.

 

The ACPO Race & Diversity Business Area, under the leadership of Chief Constable Steve Otter, conducted a review of the business area itself and restructured the way it does business. We are delighted that, following representations being made to Mr. Otter, PFEW and our Association have both been given seats at the main business area level. The business area also began development work on a 3 year Equality, Diversity & Human Rights Strategy for the Police Service, supported by an action plan, which is designed to make real and sustainable progress in this area of work. We are planning a joint session later in 2009 to work through the draft Strategy to ensure that it is balanced and is the right vehicle for taking many important issues forward. Tim Jackson and Archie Torrance continue to represent our interests.

 

A great deal of work has been undertaken this year by the two Ministerial Steering Groups chaired by the Police Minister, Vernon Coaker. The Ministerial Steering Group on Women in Policing has been attended variously by Archie Torrance, Irene Curtis and Jayne Monkhouse. Now that this Group has been reformed, following our lobbying at Annual Conference 2008, it is hoped that real progress can be made. Scoping of the Group’s area of interest has been completed; priorities for action agreed; and an outline produced of the essential data that is required. We are optimistic that the Group will now proceed to delivering against its priorities so as to meet the expectations of the various stakeholders.

 

The Minority Ethnic Ministerial Steering Group was established in November 2008 to assist the Police Minister to undertake an assessment of Minority Ethnic Recruitment, Retention and Progression in the Police Service. Our Association is represented by the President, Ian Johnston. The Steering Group has agreed 19 recommendations and continues to meet regularly under the chairmanship of the Police Minister to monitor progress.

 

The review of the ACPO Joint Advisory Group on Police Health & Safety was concluded during the year. A new structure has been created under the leadership of Joe Stewart (Director HR, PSNI), which include an Annual Planning Forum and a quarterly ACPO Strategic Group on Police Health, Safety & Welfare. The new arrangements will be evaluated later in 2009 and Archie Torrance will represent us at the next Annual Planning Forum in September. Feedback from delegates attending the PSAEW Annual Conference 2008 has been positive regarding the main hall presentation on safety and risk. Our thanks have been extended to Joe Stewart and Nick Kettle (MPS).

 

The Review of SLDP by DCC Adrian Lee has continued throughout the year. We are pleased that progress has been made and a clear route towards the new programme and modules has been set. We have consistently supported the notion that continuous professional development should mean what it says. We have also argued that not all modules of the SLDP 1 & 2 programmes need to be mandatory. We accept that the foundation module (and some other fundamentally important modules) ought to be mandatory. However, additional modules ought to be attended by our members on the basis of personal development need, perhaps following assessment of their particular development needs. This appears to us to be a more mature way to approach our development needs and takes account of the limited resources available in the Service. We have also argued that development opportunities need to be provided for all our members not just those aspiring to higher rank. Irene Curtis has now adopted the lead for us on the SLDP Professional Reference Group.

 

Our business area is a major contributor to a variety of Police Advisory Board sub-groups. For example: National Recruitment Standards’ Sub-Committee, Seconded Officers’ Working Group, Fitness Testing Working Group. Jayne Monkhouse has played a major role in these groups and has presented arguments on behalf of the Association in a consistent and persuasive way.

 

The PNB Working Party on Work-Life Balance and Gender Equality was established during the year and has now met several times. Archie Torrance represents our Association and Jayne Monkhouse attends as an independent advisor to PNB Staff Side. Presentations have been given by Jayne on issues associated with managing maternity/paternity in the Police Service and on flexible/part-time working. Several outstanding claims remain on the table and expectations by members of PNB are high. We shall continue to play a part during the coming year in the hope that several agreements can be reached.

 

Progress around Work-Based Assessment (WBA) for promotion to sergeant and inspector has been an interesting journey over the last few years. It is widely known that, following additional licensing conditions being set in September 2008 by the then Police Minister, WBA was due to roll-out across the Service from April 2009. Our Association and the Police Federation of England & Wales were not satisfied that our concerns had been adequately addressed and were left with no option but to withdraw our support for the roll-out. Our main challenge was around the absence of any satisfactory equality impact assessment but there are also serious concerns about the costs of WBA. As a result of the challenges, the Police Promotion Examination Board decided in March 2009 that the roll-out should be suspended and a new National Police Promotion Framework (NPPF) trial be arranged over the next two years. We shall continue to work with NPIA as additional Forces are added and the trial proceeds.

 

The Special Constabulary National Consultation Group is now well established under the chairmanship of Mick Pepper (NPIA). The Group has regular meetings in place and has a full agenda of work. The relatively new Association of Special Constabulary Chief Officers (ASCCO) has reported on its work and ACPO has presented on an action plan around all aspects of the Special Constabulary, including the major push to recruit large numbers of special constables by 2012. Archie Torrance continues to lead for PSAEW at present.

 

The 2008 Review of the Association recommended that to support and complement the work of the HR Business Area, the Vice President would act as the Associations Diversity Champion.  In that role Derek Barnett has sought to establish close working relationships across the police family. During the year the work undertaken has included:

 

PSAEW corporate membership of BAWP.

Engagement with NAMP re mentoring of Muslim officers.

Membership of the ACPO Tripartite Oversight Group looking at BME progression.

PSAEW BME  Members briefing event January 2008.

Attendance at the Holocaust Memorial Day in London organised jointly by the NPIA and Jewish Police Association.

Stephen Lawrence Ten Years on Conference London.

Judging of the Annual PSAEW Bursary award in conjunction with the Police review.

 

 

 

This Annual Review would not be complete without expressing thanks to those who have assisted the work of the HR Business Area during the year. These include: the members of the business area – Derek Barnett, Irene Curtis, Tim Jackson and Dilip Amin who have all assisted by representing our Association at various meetings and by providing their views on various consultation papers. To the National Secretary, Pat Stayt, who is also the Responsible National Officer for this Business Area, sincere thanks for his wise counsel and support throughout the year.  Also, our thanks to Val Parsons, PA to Chair of the HR Business Area, for arranging our meetings for the year; we all wish Val a very speedy recovery following several illnesses. Finally, my own personal thanks, and those of the HR Business Area, to Jayne Monkhouse, Equality Advisor, who has been a stalwart for many years. She has provided professional equality advice, continuity in many areas of work and quite outstanding support to the Chair of the Business Area. Without Jayne’s contribution the Business Area would not have been able to develop and mature quite so quickly.

 

Archie Torrance

Chief Superintendent