PCD 1823 ‘A New Met For London For Everyone’ Training

Executive Summary: 

A New Met for London (NMfL) is a cultural reform plan. Successful delivery of a New Met for London has notable dependencies on the capability of our workforce. As such, it makes a number of commitments in relation to giving our officers and staff the training and development needed to equip them with the capabilities to deliver for London.  

Complementing significant work delivered over the last two years to mobilise new leadership development programmes at all levels of the organisation, in September last year, ExCo approved that a consolidated NMfL training package (‘A NMfL For Everyone’) would be rolled out for the wider organisation. It was agreed that this would be delivered in two phases - Phase 1 focusing on embedding the values and principles within a range of operational contexts and Phase 2 themed on Public Protection. 

‘A NMfL For Everyone’ Phase 1 training launched on 30th September with a deliberately ambitious six month delivery window underlining the importance placed on this training as part of the Met’s overall cultural reform programme. As at 28th February, over 22,500 officers and staff have completed the 2.5 days of face to face training under Phase 1 and we remain on-track for c95% of the 34,300 in-scope group to have completed the training by the end of April. 

Phase 2 of ‘A NMfL For Everyone’ training will launch on 7th April and run through until August. This training centres on Public Protection and will consist of a further 2.5 days of face to face training plus 0.5 day of protected learning time for linked digital training. The target audience for Phase 2 training will focus on those officers and staff performing frontline practitioner roles. This group is sized at c23,000. 

Recommendation: 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, via the Investment Advisory and Monitoring meeting (IAM), is asked to: 

• Approve a £4.59m investment in the delivery of ‘A New Met for London for Everyone’ Phase 2 training. This will be met from within existing MPS budgets.  

• Approve the reallocation of £1.25m of the total funding from a repositioning of the 2025/26 budget for Domestic Abuse Training, recognising that ‘A New Met for London for Everyone’ Phase 2 training now forms part of the wider MPS training programme.  

• Note the status update provided in relation to delivery of ‘A New Met for London for Everyone’ Phase 1 Training. 

• Note the delivery plans in place for Phase 2 of ‘A New Met For London for Everyone’ Training. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background 

1. In 2023, L&D undertook a NMfL-focused Learning Needs Analysis (LNA), which was centred around identifying the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed to successfully deliver NMfL outcomes of More Trust, Less Crime and High Standards.  

2. A key driver in undertaking a single New Met for London LNA was to ensure that arising training needs were looked at in a holistic way. It was clear from the LNA findings that many of the learning requirements of NMfL priorities are cross-cutting. Approaching the design of the arising training in an integrated way helps to ensure that the impact of the training is maximised, while demonstrating to the workforce that the training has been designed with them in mind. It will also enable the MPS to take the smartest approach to managing training attendance alongside other operational demands.  

3. The findings of the NMfL LNA have already been fed into the new leadership development programmes (First Line Leaders, Mid-Level Leaders & Senior Leaders) that have been incrementally rolling out since April 2023. The LNA findings have also been reflected in the new Recruit Training programmes. However, there are over 33,000 officers and staff across the Met who have not been in scope for this training. The plan has always been to ensure that these officers and staff have bespoke training developed that relates to the critical roles that are required of them in support of delivering NMfL objectives.  

2. Issues for consideration 

1. ‘A New Met For London For Everyone’ Phase 1 is running behind schedule, which could impact on the delivery of Phase 2. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. The overall costs for Phase 2 of ‘A NMfL for Everyone Training’ are projected to be £4.59m across 2024/25 (£0.44m) and 2025/26 (£4.15m).  

2. Phase 2 work required in 2024/25, predominantly Design and Rostering, will be funded from a combination of unused contingency from the Phase 1 budget, along with an element of underspend from the L&D Base Revenue Budget. 

3. Full financial details are provided in Part 2 of the paper. 

4. Legal Comments 

1. Any contract awards will comply with applicable MPS policy and relevant procurement law being compliant contracts. They can therefore be lawfully approved. 

2. The MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (“DMPC”) has delegated authority to approve: 

1. Business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 and above (paragraph 4.8); and  

2. All requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above, or where there is a particular public interest (paragraph 4.13). Paragraph 7.23 of the Scheme provides that the Director of Strategic Procurement has consent for the approval of the award of all contracts, with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure.  Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides the DMPC reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract for £500,000 or above. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. While Phase 2 will be delivered utilising internal resources where possible, it is evident that delivery will require commercial support in terms of both external trainers and external training venues & estate.  

2. Existing commercially compliant supply chains are in place in order to meet these requirements via utilisation of existing delivery partners or other pre-existing commercially compliant vehicles and associated costs have been factored into the costings of the proposal. One of the existing delivery partners is, along with the MPS, a fellow member of the London Anchor Institutions’ Charter. 

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals. 

2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects. 

7. Equality Comments   

1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. 

2. A full Equality Impact Assessment was undertaken for Phase 1 of the ‘A NMfL For Everyone Training’. This is in the process of being updated for Phase 2 of the training programme and involves engagement with the Police Federation, TUS and Staff Support Associations. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

None.