The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Pride and Prejudice: A Review of police Race Relations in Scotland

Chapter 2 Police Staff

Introduction

2.1 A separation is often made in police race relations between the responsibilities of delivering a high quality police service (e.g. responding to racist incidents, investigating and reporting racist crime, working with the community) and the responsibilities of police organisations as employers (e.g. recruitment, retention, career development, support networks, respecting diversity, a positive working environment). From an administrative perspective this can be sensible, as these differing responsibilities align themselves with different components of traditional police organisational structures.

2.2 However, for positive race relations to develop in respect of an organisation, it is crucial that the separate functions carrying out these responsibilities are able to merge and interact effectively. Sound race relations policies in police service delivery are extremely influential on the success of race relations in employment. So too are sound employment policies on race relations critical to service delivery. In simple terms, one cannot operate successfully without the other. HMIC was particularly keen during its inspection to examine how well police forces were able to combine these two elements productively.

Recruitment

2.3 Minority ethnic recruitment for the police in Scotland is rising steadily and the indication is that this upward trend is set to continue. However, this will not happen without continued diligence and commitment on the part of the prospective employers. The composition of the Scottish Police Service is still far from representative in terms of ethnicity.

2.4 Figure One illustrates the number of regular minority ethnic police officers employed within the Scottish Police Service. From 31 March 1999 (one month after the publication of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report) to 31 March 2003, minority ethnic employment in the Scottish Police Service rose by 82%. Clearly this is a positive trend and reflects the targeted recruitment activity undertaken by police forces in recent years.

Figure One: Number of minority ethnic police officers in Scotland

2.5 Figure Two below shows the number of minority ethnic police officers as a percentage of the total number of police officers, as of 31 March 2003. This is set alongside data on the local minority ethnic population, obtained from the 2001 census information. Forces will wish to use the recently published 2001 census information to make further and deeper analysis of their recruitment and employment profile in addition to wider race relations needs.

Figure Two: Minority ethnic police officers as a percentage of total police officers (as of 31 March 2003), set alongside local minority ethnic population as a percentage of total local population (taken from 2001 census data)

2.6 The vast majority of these police officers hold the rank of police constable. Whilst this clearly has implications for the need for effective career progression, this must be set against the fact that a high proportion of minority ethnic staff have joined the service in recent years and therefore can only realistically be expected to hold the rank of constable. The future career development of minority ethnic staff (by rank held) is now a performance indicator for the Scottish Police Service and will be monitored closely in the years ahead ( see para. 4.6). On 31 March 2002, of the 94 minority ethnic police officers in Scotland, 88 held the rank of constable, with the remainder comprising four sergeants, one inspector and one chief inspector.

2.7 HMIC notes the positive initiative recently undertaken by the Scottish Police College, with the agreement of ACPOS, to undertake an analysis of the existing labour market, to assist the police service in making informed decisions on the issues of recruiting and training.

Positive Action

2.8 The concept of positive action by employers in the context of minority ethnic employment is well established as good practice. It consists of:

• lawful action to assist under represented staff, for example additional training or short-term secondments
• systems solely based on merit not ethnicity
• the creation of a level playing field for under represented staff rather than tilting the field in their favour.

2.9 It needs to be understood that positive action is not the same as positive discrimination, the latter being both unlawful and unethical. Positive discrimination would be to implement a staff selection policy based simply on historical disadvantage.

2.10 HMIC found the difference between positive action and positive discrimination to be generally well understood within human resource functions, as well as at senior executive levels.

2.11 However, a significant degree of confusion was found across forces amongst less senior officers and operational staff including minority ethnic staff. A sound understanding of the rationale and benefits of positive action was appreciated by some, but there was sufficient confusion and negativity in this area to generate concern. Negativity on this subject has the potential to compromise status, welfare and morale.

2.12 HMIC found most force recruitment departments to be engaging in programmes of positive action. It was disappointing to find that one force had not progressed positive action, while other forces had allowed the momentum of their programmes to slow. Amongst the initiatives that had been undertaken were targeted advertising in specialist publications, presentations and networking within minority ethnic groups, plus having willing and appropriate minority ethnic staff interact with potential recruits.

A National Approach

2.13 The debate on common police services has received much attention recently. It is not the purpose of this report to look at that topic as it is well detailed elsewhere. However, it is clear that recruitment, and by association minority ethnic recruitment, is one of those issues which has potential benefits to be gained from national co-ordination. The relatively small market place becomes shared as opposed to divided. There are financial benefits in terms of advertising opportunities. Staff, expertise and specialist resources can be combined.

2.14 It is equally apparent that local networking by police forces for the purposes of recruitment contributes significantly to recruitment success as well as to positive police race relations.

2.15 HMIC suggests that in the context of minority ethnic recruitment, the respective benefits to be accrued from both national co-ordination and local action are capable of being brought together. The possibility of a stronger and more coherent national approach on minority ethnic recruitment is very real.

2.16 During 2001 and 2002, ACPOS developed a national policy ¹³ on minority ethnic recruitment. This was done under the auspices of its personnel sub committee and was put to wide consultation, including the various elements of the Scottish Executive's Steering Group on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. This extensive consultation gives the policy document added strength and credibility. It places robust expectations upon forces to deliver effective positive action and create a supportive working environment.

2.17 Upon the policy document being finalised in mid 2002, its implementation was referred to individual forces for action. From a national perspective there would appear to be considerable scope to monitor its implementation and review the policy at an appropriate time. HMIC found no sign of this being the case and would urge chief constables to pursue collectively their agenda on minority ethnic recruitment.

Special Constables

2.18 The special constabulary in the Scottish Police Service is an invaluable resource, with its members highly appreciated and regarded in the community and by the service across Scotland.

2.19 It is clear that for regular police employment, the special constabulary offers a means for many people to consider further a career as a police officer. Some people wish to find out more about an organisation of which they know little, others may wish to explore their own aptitude and liking for police work, while others still may want to try to enhance their application to the regular police service. The special constabulary offers a real opportunity for people to explore these areas initially without the major commitment brought of changing jobs. In short, it can be an attractive way into the police for those who may be cautious and still have questions to ask. The potential for minority ethnic recruitment in this regard is obvious.

2.20 The level of minority ethnic special constables within the Scottish Police Service has followed a less consistent trend than that of regular officers over the past few years, as can be seen from Figure Three below.

Figure Three: Number of minority ethnic special constables in Scotland

2.21 The reasons for this low and erratic trend in minority ethnic special constables are worthy of further exploration. It may be recruiting energies in minority ethnic recruitment have been directed towards regular full-time police officers. It may be there are retention issues for special constables, particularly minority ethnic special constables, which need further study and possible redress. As of 31 March 2003, following a trend of general decline in numbers, there were 1,137 special constables in Scotland, with a minority ethnic proportion of 1.2%.

2.22 One positive aspect to wastage in minority ethnic special constables is that seven of them have moved on to become regular police officers over the past five years.

2.23 The subject of special constables in general is looked at in the recent HMIC report on police visibility, ¹⁴ which as well as commenting on the overall decline in special constabulary numbers, makes three recommendations on improving their use.

Police Support Staff

2.24 The range of employment activities for support staff in the Scottish Police Service is now considerable. The conditions and requirements associated with such employment vary substantially and therefore have the potential to provide an attractive career option to a wide span of society - far wider in fact than that those who might consider a career as a regular police officer.

2.25 This range of employment will expand further as the role of policing develops. For example, Strathclyde Police is embarking upon a cadet and apprenticeship scheme and the deployment of police community wardens is being implemented in parts of England, with a pilot scheme also underway in the Strathclyde Police area.

2.26 Minority ethnic recruitment for police support staff has also risen, but not as consistently as regular police officers. This is illustrated at Figure Four below. During inspection, HMIC found very few forces actively engaged in positive action for support staff and this may be a factor in the low increase. For the year 2002/03, there were 31 minority ethnic police support staff, amounting to 0.5% of total support staff.

Figure Four: Number of minority ethnic police support staff in Scotland

2.27 Within the context of minority ethnic support staff employment, it is useful to differentiate by job type as illustrated at Figure Five below. Clearly, most employment of minority ethnic support staff takes place within the clerical sphere, raising the suggestion that barriers or disincentives to employment may exist in other areas.

Figure Five: Minority ethnic support staff in Scotland as percentage within job type, as of 31 March 2003

2.28 Given the unimpressive rate of progress in minority ethnic support staff recruitment, HMIC considers this an area worthy of far greater attention.

Training

2.29 Training on race relations in the Scottish Police Service takes several different forms including:

• Diversity Training
• As part of training for a specific police role
• Information on ethnic customs and traditions

Diversity Training

2.30 This comprises anti-discrimination training which challenges prejudice and personal attitudes, either by looking at racism in its own right or as part of a wider programme looking at prejudice and different forms of discrimination. By far the largest proportion of this training has been delivered through the National Equal Opportunity Training Strategy (NEOTS) programme.

2.31 The development of a national equal opportunity training strategy for the Scottish Police Service began in 1998. This was influenced heavily by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report. ¹⁵ In 2000 specific training packages and lesson plans were drawn up and in 2001, delivery of the training, now commonly referred to as 'diversity awareness', began.

Figure Six: Percentage of staff to have received diversity training by 28 February 2003 (staff includes regular officers, special constables and support staff combined)

2.32 HMIC was particularly concerned at the apparent absence of a long-term plan for diversity awareness at a local level. Without it, such training runs the risk of becoming a worthy but forgotten initiative, perceived by some in hindsight to have been undertaken as a quick reaction to satisfy political demands.

2.33 The strategy should set out how training in this area contributes towards enhanced police race relations, how police staff can sustain knowledge and skills gained from initial diversity training and also how further knowledge can be gained as new issues emerge and develop (e.g. asylum seekers). Clearly the development of this strategy will need to be informed by the diversity trainers and the feedback received from participants.

2.34 HMIC in England and Wales has recently published a report entitled 'Diversity Matters', ¹⁶ following a thematic inspection of diversity awareness training. Tayside Police was involved in this inspection as part of a benchmarking process and is cited in the report as providing several examples of best practice. HMIC Scotland liaised closely with its counterpart during their respective studies and practitioners will find this report a useful additional point of reference.

As part of training for a specific police role

2.35 Examples of this include training for Family Liaison Officers, Custody Officers and Police Managers. In this regard, HMIC found race relations inputs on role specific training programmes to have been reviewed and updated where relevant. This had occurred at both a national and local level. Custody officer training is a good example of this as issues of ethnicity and culture can be particularly relevant when people come into police custody. HMIC was pleased to find this type of training well adjusted to reflect issues of race and diversity.

Information on ethnic customs and traditions

2.36 This includes educational inputs and reference materials on policing a multi-racial society, looking at the customs and traditions of differing ethnic groups. This can be classroom based but commonly takes the form of distance learning or reference manuals and databases. HMIC found that each force now has in place a modern and up to date source of information on its local minority ethnic groups. HMIC found this to be available to all staff, either in paper form or via force computer systems. The information covers issues such as customs, names, diet, death and local contact points. The provision of such information is intended to be dynamic in nature, capable of being amended and developed as circumstances change. Usually, these reference materials had been developed in consultation with, or by, representatives from local minority ethnic groups.

Minority ethnic staff

2.37 The experiences of minority ethnic staff in the Scottish Police Service are of course critical to any assessment of the status of police race relations.

2.38 As part of its inspection, HMIC instigated a national event on 3 December 2002, to which all minority ethnic staff in Scotland were invited. This included regular officers, special constabulary and support staff.

2.39 The day itself comprised workshops to ascertain the views and experiences of those present. Over half of Scotland's minority ethnic police staff attended. A broad summary of the points emerging from the discussions was as follows:

2.40Support for staff

• Minority issues should be formalised within the Scottish Police Federation framework - they need a far better profile and understanding
• Widely disparate views on the Black Police Association or equivalent
• Network for social/support activities a popular idea
• There should be no specific mentoring for minority ethnic staff
• Strong and informed leadership is critical
• Selection and promotion must be more open
• Lack of confidence in Scottish Police Federation on race issues

2.41Recruitment and career development

• Community misconception of policing as a career
• Police need to manage public expectation of its services
• Access courses and tokenism are damaging
• More than one (recruitment) solution for more than one ethnic group
• Personalise the recruitment process - engage with public
• More numbers = positive image = more numbers
• Everyone needs to understand the process takes time
• Promotion selection should be independent and anonymous where possible
• Feelings of exclusion from the establishment can have a big impact on progression
• Attitudinal test on race issues in recruitment and promotion
• More monitoring of progression

2.42Removing racism in the police

• Chief officers must show sustained leadership on the issues
• Chief officers must understand and believe
• Education/children are the key - takes time
• Clear grades of punitive measures and sanctions
• There should be a clear victim input to complaint and grievance processes
• Training must be consistent, have a lay input and be lasting
• Managers must create the culture of challenge
• Race issues must feature in appraisal
• Specialist external body for police complaints

2.43 The full analysis of the consultation with minority ethnic staff may be obtained in hard copy from HMIC or at www.scotland.gov.uk/hmic

2.44 To run this event successfully, it was necessary to have the support of individual chief constables in allowing staff to attend. HMIC wishes to record its gratitude and appreciation for the support shown.

2.45 A clear message from the event was that there is a strong desire for a framework to take forward views, interaction and representation for minority ethnic police staff in Scotland.

2.46 As well as the potential support benefit to the participants of such a framework, there is considerable potential benefit to the Scottish Police Service as a whole. Police training, police recruitment, community relations and personnel issues are all spheres which may gain from the development of a minority ethnic police framework in Scotland.

2.47 HMIC consulted with UNISON, the trade union representing the largest number of police support staff in Scotland, who have a well established framework of self-help groups for women members, black members, disabled members and lesbian and gay members. There was a positive approach taken to these groups within UNISON at a national level. Those groups in which a sustained momentum of progress had been achieved were felt to be of most benefit, having a real impact on both policy development and support to staff.

Staff appraisal

2.48 A recommendation in Without Prejudice?¹⁷ was for chief constables to act to implement the undertaking given in the ACPOS Racial Diversity Strategy in respect of performance appraisal. This was to 'ensure supervisors make direct reference to appraisee's handling of diversity issues within the appraisal system'. HMIC pursued this point with each police force, and also dip sampled a number of staff appraisals. A varied picture emerged with a general finding that diversity was still not being addressed adequately, if at all, within the scope of most staff appraisals.

2.49 HMIC recognises the existing national staff appraisal system does not use the word 'diversity' specifically in its guidance on the appraisal competencies. However, HMIC contends there is still scope for addressing diversity issues within the staff appraisal system as it stands, particularly under the competencies of 'Relationships with Colleagues' and 'Relationships with the Public' where the guidance notes place an emphasis on fairness.

2.50 HMIC noted that not all forces were continuing with the national appraisal system, and were instead developing systems to better suit local conditions and circumstances. The lack of focus on diversity and related issues in the existing national system was cited as one of the reasons why this divergence had occurred.

2.51 It is clear that currently, at a national level, police officer appraisal does not properly illustrate officer performance on diversity. This is at odds with the importance of such issues in modern day policing. It also does not reflect the importance of, and huge investment in, training of staff in diversity. Long-term evaluation and management of diversity within the service will be weakened without a robust appraisal system to take account of it.

2.52 There is a link between this recommendation and the recommendation on reconsidering the appraisal process to all chief constables contained within the recent HMIC primary inspection report of Tayside Police. ¹⁸

« Previous | Contents | Next »