The structure of a programme that aims to tackle racial discrimination in policing ‘closely follows the structures that exist within policing itself’, which evidence has shown ‘manifests racism and other forms of discrimination’.
This is according to an independent body appointed to scrutinise the Police Race Action Plan, which was developed by the College of Policing and the National Police Chief’s Council to improve outcomes for black people who work within or interact with policing.
The plan was introduced following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in the US and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed. The next iteration of the plan is set to be published later this year.
In its annual report, the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board (ISOB) said the structure of the race action plan is “cumbersome… hierarchical and closely follows structures that exist within policing”.
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“This matters because, at its core, the plan is an anti-racism programme, not an operational policing programme. Report after report has highlighted that the structure of policing itself manifests racism and other forms of discrimination,” the report says.
The ISOB said it is crucial that those responsible for the delivery of the plan are genuinely dedicated to anti-racism work and are adequately resourced and supported.
It also has concerns about the level of burden carried by workstream coordinators and frequent changes in personnel.
“The plan acknowledges that retention and promotion practices in policing manifest racism, meaning that talented officers and staff of colour are often overlooked, and undervalued by the institution of policing. Therefore, it is important that the Race Action Programme itself is not subject to the same unfairness,” the report said.
“The programme must flatten its structure to both reduce the number of levels between those in leadership and those tasked with execution, and to better reward talent, dedication, and delivery.”
Officers are seconded from police forces to work on the programme. ISOB says the advantages of this included the ability for a range of people to move in and out of the role, bringing with them a variety of perspectives, however, disadvantages included job insecurity because secondments are only offered for one or two-year stretches due to the way the plan is financed.
“We have seen staff and officers involved in the programme called back into force by their chief constable. Secondees have raised concerns that they return to the same positions they occupied before participation in the programme. The plan is not valued or seen as ‘operational’ and therefore not worthy of contributing to career progression.
“Local work is prioritised over their work in the national programme. This calls into question the true value given to the work of the programme by those police chiefs.”
It added that vacancies in the programme create gaps that lead to work being deprioritised.
There is also no administrative support, so secondees spend a lot of their time on tasks such as diary or inbox management, and there is no one to assist with team welfare to ensure workloads are regularly reviewed and managed.
The report says: “The culmination of the above is that there are people in the programme who are under immense pressure to deliver on their substantive work but are unable to do so without working unsociable hours due to not being given the space and resource to prioritise the right work. Once work is done, they then need to compete for time with decision-makers to obtain sign-off on work before it can move forward, or find themselves outside of decision-making conversations due to their positions in the programme.
“This is against the background of knowing that in many cases, their work on the programme can be viewed by their home forces as a ‘backward step’ in progression. Unsurprisingly, therefore, feelings of being undervalued have been reported in the programme.”
There have been positive outcomes from the programme, including a “marked improvement” in addressing bias in recruitment campaigns. However, recruitment of officers from black backgrounds is still below population figures and there are still fewer than 1,800 full-time equivalent black officers across 43 police forces in England.
“Questions have been raised regarding what will be done to reach the supervisors who manage frontline officers and can therefore directly influence implementation of the plan. For the plan to deliver, it needs to be felt in the interactions between officers, staff and community members,” ISOB’s report says.
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