Butts: It lacks “a vision and direction in its diversity and equalities commitment”
Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is an organisation lacking “a vision and direction in its diversity and equalities commitment,” Ms. Cindy Butts, Metropolitan Police Authority member and chair of the independent Inquiry panel has said.
In a speech to launch the publication of the Race and Faith report, Ms. Butts described MPS as an organisation “compounded in confusion about who was leading at a senior level.”
The Mayor of London commissioned the Race and Faith Inquiry to examine the experiences of officers and staff from BME and Faith groups; focusing on the areas of recruitment, retention, progression and the access to specialist units. The Panel additionally explored the relevant aspects of the MPS’s organisational culture, and analysed the manner in which the organisation both celebrates and manages difference.
Ms. Butts presented the report to the Mayor on 7th July in London.
While progress has been made since the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, Ms. Butts said “the Met is still a work in progress. And having concentrated its efforts on external service delivery the Met now has to look again into the mirror of self reflection; gaze unremittingly at itself and recognise that ‘all is not well at home’.”
The Panel discovered “a lack of confidence in the promotion processes and development opportunities from BME staff and officers,” Ms. Butts said.
Both BME and non BME staff expressed general lack of confidence in promotion processes in the MPS.
The Panel received evidence which points to the fact that specialist units are perceived to operate ‘closed shops,’ rendering some units effectively impenetrable to BME officers and staff.
“We encountered real strength of feeling from the focus groups in particular about the need for officers and staff seeking a lateral move into other posts to obtain approval from their line managers. No comparable public sector organisation of which we are aware operates a veto policy of this nature,” Ms. Butts said.
The current devolved system used in temporary promotion and ‘acting-up’ to a more senior rank, “gives too much power to individual line managers and is not perceived as fair or transparent. The Panel is firmly of the view that the process for deciding who should be given temporary or acting promotion should be managed centrally,” Ms. Butts said.
Many officers of South Asian and Middle-Eastern origin felt unsupported and let down by the organisation’s failure to respond to the anti-Muslim reaction both from the broader society and from elements within the MPS itself.
The consensus from officers and staff members was that they would like to see suitable welfare mechanisms in place to support minority staff in the general post 9/11 context and to communicate, in the clearest and strongest terms, that the MPS will not tolerate prejudice from within its ranks.
One of the recommendations which the Panel believes has the potential to transform the Met is the development of a Multi-Point Entry recruitment process.
The Panel is convinced that multi-point entry could bring a wide range of benefits to the Met, which go far beyond increasing diversity. “In our view the potential benefits could include: enhancing the Met’s ability to attract the brightest and the best individuals; improve the culture of the organisation, by opening-up the Met to a much broader range of skills and experience in specialist and non-specialist areas; and it will also allow the Met to better position itself within an increasingly competitive London Labour market,” Ms. Butts said.
She challenged Met to improve on the way it treats BME and Faith staff saying that it is “pivotal to gaining and retaining the trust of London’s communities. The level of perceived respect given to officers and staff is seen by BME and Faith communities as an indicator of the levels of respect that they should expect to be given. And of course; communities and Met employees are not necessarily separate entities; police officers are people too after all, and as such, often live in the same communities they police.”
Mayor Johnson welcomed the publication of the Race and Faith report, saying that “to deliver successful policing in the capital, we have to get equalities and diversity issues right.”
He urged against complacency and said that the MPA will “consider closely the recommendations of the report.”
