Complaints against officers

[Fedster + 1,307]

Programmes are not currently living up to claims government has made about their impact.

Supt Paula Light says the College is committed to recruiting candidates from diverse backgrounds

Date - 24th August 2018
By - Ian Weinfass - Police Oracle

10 Comments

 

It has been repeatedly hailed by government as a way in which the police service is increasing diversity, but Police Oracle understands concern about the ability to attract different candidates to direct entry roles has sparked a major review.

The recruitment method – in which those with managerial experience from outside the police service join at either superintendent or inspector rank – has only introduced a handful of black or other ethnic minority recruits into the service since 2014.

The College of Policing board raised the issue recently, where minutes show there was a debate on “whether [direct entry] was delivering value for money since increased recruitment costs had resulted in a less diverse range of applicants”.

Running the scheme costs £4.6 million per year.

A review has now been initiated which includes possible changes to the direct entry inspectors assessment, marketing of both schemes and headhunting black or Asian candidates from other sectors.

Despite fewer than 80 people being hired through the method since 2014, ministers and Home Office officials have repeatedly made statements claiming the programmes are increasing racial diversity in the police service, including Policing Minister Nick Hurd in a parliamentary answer in November last year. It also features on the ‘How diverse are the police?’ page on the Home Office’s Police.uk website.

Tola Munro, president of the Black Police Association said: “The College said it was about diversity but says it has brought in ‘diversity of thought’, but I think most people when they heard about diversity didn’t expect it to just mean diversity of thought – which is a very difficult concept to gauge anyway.

“There’s a lot of work for the College to do on diversity.”

Mr Munro is encouraging the College to revive a scheme called the Realising Potential Programme, which was designed to help existing women and black and minority ethnic (BAME) talent with promotion prospects.

There were two black or Asian recruits in the first cohort of direct entry inspectors last year, the College says.

Dave Bamber, from the Police Federation of England and Wales, said the staff association has always had "grave concerns" about direct entry.

He added: “Our view is that there is already more than enough existing talent within the service which could be nurtured and developed, and that nothing beats the skills and experienced gained on the job.

“If the service is failing to attract more diverse candidates it is just another indicator of the fact that the whole system was flawed from the start.”

Superintendent Paula Light, College of Policing lead for direct entry, said: “The College is committed to ensuring all of its programmes support the attraction of a diverse range of candidates into policing so all forces are representative of communities they serve.

“We are working with forces, stakeholders and the NPCC to review our direct entry programmes and consider any changes needed to improve the representation of diversity.”

Among those changes could be to marketing, positive action initiatives, assessment centre arrangements, diversity of assessors, and the design of the entry tests, she said.

“The College is also writing to all forces to get their views on the current processes around attracting, assessing and selecting high calibre candidates through the programmes.

“We are currently developing a new action plan to attract BAME candidates and we are also considering a number of other measures – including head hunting BAME candidates with the right skills and experience for the DE superintendent programme,” she added.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The government wants to see police ranks opened up with flexible entry and exit paths, to encourage diversity of experience and backgrounds amongst police leaders.

“Direct entry offers the opportunity to widen the talent pool from where we attract our police officers."

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[a-bothan-spy 81]

Surprise, surprise. Nothing to do with getting people with the right skills, only the right skin colour.

[Zulu 22 + 4,571]

Well I will be accused of pointing out that it comes from the COP, again. It is the Diversity and Political Correct brigade once again holding centre  stage. Should anyone point this out and that the proposal's are absolute rubbish they will be accused of being Racist and goodness knows what else. It ism no secret that I deplore the direct entry scheme, but it is there. Whilst it is there the only consideration should be the quality of the candidate, nothing to do with sex or origins. What next, white males may not apply. 

I often wonder if those at the College have not been brain washed and, if they have by who?

[Reasonable Man + 1,231]

Well I will be accused of pointing out that it comes from the COP, again. It is the Diversity and Political Correct brigade once again holding centre  stage. Should anyone point this out and that the proposal's are absolute rubbish they will be accused of being Racist and goodness knows what else. It ism no secret that I deplore the direct entry scheme, but it is there. Whilst it is there the only consideration should be the quality of the candidate, nothing to do with sex or origins. What next, white males may not apply. 
I often wonder if those at the College have not been brain washed and, if they have by who?

Did you read and understand the article? It’s the CoP that is being criticised for not recruiting enough ‘diverse’ people. They say they have got ‘diversity of thought’, which seems what they were after - bringing in new thinking and people with diverse skills. Other bodies are saying the College has failed to recruit people from diverse backgrounds. The CoP has recruited the best candidates, which happens to not include a high level of non-white people.
So it is the CoP that is being ‘accused of being Racist and goodness knows what else’ by the ‘Diversity and Political Correct brigade once again holding centre  stage.’
Seems you should be impressed by the CoP for not bending to pressures not falsely accusing them.

[Zulu 22 + 4,571]

Well it is the COP that raised the issue recently as stated in the article. Quote "The College of Policing board raised the issue recently, where minutes show there was a debate on “whether [direct entry] was delivering value for money since increased recruitment costs had resulted in a less diverse range of applicants”.

Quote "The scheme costs £4.6 million per year".  Now I do not see how anyone could claim that is value for money, far from it.  

There is also a quote from the Black Police Officers association, Quote  "Tola Munro, president of the Black Police Association said: “The College said it was about diversity but says it has brought in ‘diversity of thought’, but I think most people when they heard about diversity didn’t expect it to just mean diversity of thought – which is a very difficult concept to gauge anyway.

“There’s a lot of work for the College to do on diversity.”

Mr Munro is encouraging the College to revive a scheme called the Realising Potential Programme, which was designed to help existing women and black and minority ethnic (BAME) talent with promotion prospects. 

There were two black or Asian recruits in the first cohort of direct entry inspectors last year, the College says.

It would appear that Mr Munro is not satisfied although there have been black and Asian recruits.   Mind you I have heard many officers voice the opinion that, one of the most racist bodies in Policing is the Black Police Officers Association, who would rarely be satisfied with anything. The problem is that if officers should have the temerity of voicing that opinion they area accused, not of being realists but Racists. 

[Mac7 808]

I’m staggered that Chief officers or staff equivalent would “value” the success of something based on the ethnicity or protected characteristic of a person. Surely the best way to evaluate the scheme would be by the COP in conjunction with the forces who have accepted DE officers.

I think this is insulting to officers on the DE scheme and could have the very opposite affect in attracting BAME etc officers into future schemes.

Yet again - we are in danger of creating artificial diversity.

[MajorDisaster + 579]

On ‎24‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 16:41, Zulu 22 said:

Edited August 30, 2018 by MajorDisaster

[Ether + 1,395]

Every single victim of crime says something similar. “If only we had more ethnic, gay, jedi, mutant police officers this crime wouldn’t happen”. 

No decent person cares what colour, race, religion, belief or sexual orientation someone is, they just want to be treated decently and professionally. This is all pointless self imposed nonsense to detract from the actual social issues we face. 

[TheMoo 66]

On 30/08/2018 at 23:07, Funkywingnut said:

Every single victim of crime says something similar. “If only we had more ethnic, gay, jedi, mutant police officers this crime wouldn’t happen”. 

Are you claiming that Wolverine with a lightsaber wouldn't make an excellent addition to any police force?