Funding for MPS Career Development Service

This decision seeks a total expenditure of £1.2m (£400,00 for three years, 2021/22 to 2023/24) from the MOPAC General Reserve in support of police officer career development. The programme aims to increase the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) applicants for promotions to the Sergeant and Inspector ranks.

This is a key commitment of the Mayor’s Action Plan for Transparency, Accountability and Trust in policing and underpins the drive to build a police service that better represents and understands the communities it serves.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve the total investment of £1.2m (£400,000 per annum for three years, 2021/22 to 2023/24) for the development of a career development service for Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) officers.

1. Introduction and background

1.1 The Mayor’s Action Plan for Transparency, Accountability and Trust in policing commits to building a police service that better represents and understands Black communities.

1.2 Increasing the number of police officer recruits from London’s Black communities is a key part of delivering this Action Plan. The MPS is aiming for 3.8% of its officers to be from a Black background by 2022, 4.5% by 2024 and 7.2% by 2030. To achieve this the MPS aims to see as many as 8% of new recruits from Black background by April 21.

1.3 Furthermore, the Action Plan commits to supporting more Black officers to progress through the ranks to more senior positions. This includes aspiring to have 3% Black Sergeants and Inspectors by 23/24 and 7% by 29/30.

1.4 To support this endeavour this decision seeks the commitment of funds from MOPAC reserves to finance £1.2m for a Career Development Service (CDS). The CDS aims to increase the proportion of Black officers recruited and promoted to the ranks of sergeant and inspector.

1.5 This funding sits within a broader £5.1m ( £1.7m per annum for 3 years) programme of work to support the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in the delivery of the Action Plan. The three specific elements are:

• £1.2m (£0.4m per annum) for the CDS;

• £0.9m (£0.3m per annum) for community outreach; and

• £3.0m (£1.0m per annum) for the development and implementation of community led training.



1.6 Separate decisions will follow in due course for the community outreach and community led training.

2. Issues for consideration

2.3 In order to achieve the progression aspirations listed above, the MPS are proposing a new career development infrastructure which will include:

• Embedded Career Development Officers (Chief Inspectors) in each Basic Command Unit (BCU) and other business groups whose role will be to oversee and support career development for all employees, and provide particular support to individuals in underrepresented groups

• Inspiring Leadership Programme: a structured career and development pathway for Black constables to support their progression to Sergeant.

• Lead On: A leadership programme for underrepresented leaders at Sergeant and Inspector to support their progression.

2.4 The £1.2m of funding will support the set up and delivery of the ‘Inspiring Leadership Programme’ specifically. This programme aims to achieve the following benefits:

• Increased retention of Black officers

• Increased volume of Black officers entering the promotion process to Sgt

• Increased volume of Black officers successful in promotion to the Sgt rank

2.5 Outcomes for programme participants include:

• Individuals have a clear plan to progress development goals that will help them to succeed through promotion

• Individuals are rotated through key roles/opportunities that are known to be critical to enabling progression and success at Sgt ranks

• Individuals have a range of modules and resources to select from, to support more targeted learning around topics that we know typically hold back our underrepresented groups

• Individuals will receive coaching and oversight from their Career Development Officer, so that they are appropriately supported throughout their time on the programme

2.6 The funding would specifically contribute towards:

Year one only:

• The design of the ‘programme architecture’ including project scoping and planning

• Mapping of the specific attachments that individuals would be supported to undertake

• Design of core modules to support learning

• Development of core resources, such as toolkits and comms

Duration of funding

• Continuous improvement of programme and module design

• Training the Career Development Officers in supporting development planning and coaching of programme participants

• Delivery of core modules, and training of Met co-facilitators

2.7 The programme will be designed in full consultation with our Staff Support Associations and Networks including the MPS Black Police Association who are a key stakeholder.



2.8 The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime will have oversight of the MPS governance of this programme through regular engagement with MPS Senior leaders and data will be published within the quarterly oversight report.

3. Financial Comments

3.1 MOPAC will commit a total of £1.2m, (£0.4m per annum for three years, 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24) to sustain the MPS development and delivery of promotional support.

3.2 The scheme will run for three years from 2021/22 to 2023/24 and will be funded from drawdowns from the MOPAC General Reserve which has sufficient funds to cover this activity. This usage is consistent with the November 2020 draft budget submission which covers the first two years of this three-year decision timeframe.

4. Legal Comments

4.1 Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 or above.

4.2 The commitment of these resources is also relevant to the Equality Act 2010 as it seeks to make the MPS more representative and provide positive action to support the advancement of underrepresented groups.

5. GDPR and Data Privacy

5.1. 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.

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

5.3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights unit will be consulted at all stages of the work arising from these proposals to ensure that all compliance requirements in respect of GDPR and Privacy are met.

5.4. It is anticipated that the Met’s current delivery partner, SSCL, will continue to be accountable for candidate management and information processing. The programme is unlikely to use personally identifiable data of members of the public in a different way than it does currently, and therefore it is not considered a DPIA is required. If, however the data required to be collected varies from the existing list, or the new partner is required to receive public data rather than this being managed in the current way through SSCL, then a DPIA will be carried out.

6. Equality Comments

6.1. 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.

6.2. As noted above this decision seeks to improve the representation and promotion of BAME officers. This is done in support of the aims of the Mayor’s published Action Plan, which in turn is supported by a dedicated Equality Impact Assessment (EIA).

7. Background/supporting papers

7.1. N/A