To:Business Coordination Board

From:Chief Constable

Date:11 May 2017

CAMBRIDGESHIRE CONSTABULARY – BLACK AND MINORITY ETHNIC RECRUITMENT ACTIVITY

  1. Purpose

1.1The purpose of this paper is to provide an update to theBusiness Coordination Board (the “Board”) on Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) recruitment between 2014 and the current date, and an overview of positive action recruitment activity currently being undertaken by Cambridgeshire Constabulary (the “Constabulary”).

  1. Recommendation

2.1The Board is invited to note the contents of this report.

  1. National and Regional Population Landscape

3.1Figure 1-3 below place the Cambridgeshire BME profile against the national and county landscape and illustrate BME officer statistics between 2014 and 2016. Recent statistics produced by Resourcing & Workforce Planning BCH HR shows our most recent BME police officer posts to have risen again to 2.6% showing a small but steady increase of BME officers since 2014.

Figure 1: National, regional and county landscape

Figure 2: District population landscape

Figure 3: Cambridgeshire BME police officers in post[1]

  1. Cambridgeshire Police Officer Recruitment[2]

4.1Between 2014 and 2016, 11% of police recruitment applicants were from BME communities. BME applicants have been increasing slowly over that time period. Figure 4 and Figure 5 show the applicant profile.

Figure 4: Applicant profile

Figure 5: BME applicant profile

  1. Recent and Current Positive Action Attraction and Recruitment Activity

5.1Throughout the time period discussed above, the Constabulary has undertaken a number of positive action recruitment initiatives and adopted a number of practices to address issues that had been found to disproportionately disadvantage BME candidates. This has included:

  • The removal of the requirement to have less than ten spelling and grammatical errors in an application form.
  • The removal of an additional locally hosted assessment centre from the recruitment process.
  • A buddy scheme (predominantly focused on BME candidates but not exclusively) to provide candidates with a point of contact in the organisation to assist throughout the recruitment process.
  • Positive action recruitment events hosted and marketed by districts on a rotational basis timed around recruitment openings.
  • Activities co-ordinated by the Force Positive Action Lead, in line with the BME 2018 Strategy and action plan, supported by District Positive Action Single Point of Contacts (SPoCs).
  • Design and roll out of an eight week Access Course in January 2015. This is an introductory course presenting different police functions and departments, e.g., Major Crime Unit, Force Control Room and Special Constabulary, and designed to provide an understanding of policing and a forum for potential BME candidates to ask questions.
  • ‘Operation Insight’ patrols with an officer to gain a genuine understanding of the role of a police officer.

5.2In April 2016, district-led recruitment events were discontinued and an events calendar set up, which details community events that are believed to provide an opportunity to host a recruitment stand. This calendar has been made accessible to Positive Action SPoCs, Police Support Volunteer SPoCs, the Special Constabulary and Safer Schools Officers. This combined recruitment and marketing efforts, joining up information previously held in isolation, making recruitment information more accessible to diverse communities. It also exploits the audiences that community events inevitably attract and the marketing that these communities have undertaken within their respective groups.

5.3In readiness for the October 2016 recruitment opening, recruitment events targeted at our BME communities were held in Cambridge and Peterborough at the Regional Colleges. Presentations from a number of officers were given to illustrate that the Constabulary was an employer for all communities and included presentations from Sikh, Muslim, female, Polish and Czech officers and Specials. A pre-meet was held for community and youth leaders prior to these events to gain their support and engage all communities in actively seeking and encouraging potential police officers to attend our event and increase the transparency of our recruitment processes.

5.4All BME candidates who had previously applied and had failed or had withdrawn were re-contacted to advise them of these events and were encouraged to attend to learn of the additional assistance they would receive. Approximately 140 potential candidates and community leaders attended the Peterborough Event and approximately 40 attended the Cambridge Event.

5.5Support sessions were diarised around the October opening and sessions were run at Headquarters and Peterborough in advance of the application, interview and assessment centre stages of the process and were well attended.

5.6284 candidates applied during the October 2016 recruitment opening. Figure 6 shows the outcome so far of the October cohort of BME applicants. The numbers illustrate the total number applicants who passed each stage of the process.

Figure 6: BME Applicants – October 2016

5.7It is important to note that some applicants are still going through the process, so it is not known at this time the final numbers of BME applicants that have successfully been recruited. One applicant was rejected at the initial vetting stage (this is not illustrated). Based on vetting, medical and physical checks being in order, 3% of our October applicants will be successfully recruited BME officers. This represents 15% of all BME applicants.

5.8In order to comprehensively measure the effectiveness of this recruitment and assistance campaign, information has been recorded by the Positive Action Lead. The following statistics have been produced:

  • 18.6% of the October cohort were BME candidates, in comparison to 10-12% during 2014-2016.
  • 79% of BME candidates successfully passed the initial application and went through to interview.
  • 41.5% of BME candidates successfully passed the interview and went through to SEARCH[3] assessment.
  • So far 8 candidates (15% of the BME cohort) have successfully passed SEARCH assessment and, subject to vetting, medical and physical checks will have passed police recruitment. Five BME candidates are yet to undertake their SEARCH Assessment.

5.9Table 1 illustrates the outcomes of each Access Course since January 2015. Since April 2017, there has been a drive to not only increase the attractiveness to the PC role but also to volunteer roles and the Special Constabulary.

Table 1. Outcomes of Access Course since January 2015

Access Course / BME / Protected / Non BME / Not Known / No Shows / Grand Total / Applied / Applying / Failed / Different roles applying/applied for
Jan 2015 / 2 / 6 / 0 / 8 / 2 / 2 / 1 x PSV
Nov 2015 / 7 / 1 / 3 / 2 / 13 / 7 / 6 / 1 x PSV
1 x Police Staff
March 2016 / 6 / 5 / 3 / 14 / 5 / 5 / 1 x Special
June 2016 / 9 / 1 / 1 / 7 / 18 / 8 / 5 / 3 x Special
Sept 2016 / 11 / 1 / 3 / 15 / 5 / 4 / 1 x FCR
1 x PSV
1 x Special
Jan 2017 / 6 / 2 / 11 / 19 / 4 / 1 / 1 x PSV
3 x Specials
April 2017 / 3 / 2 / 6 / 11
  1. Future activity

6.1Based on the initial success evidenced by the statistics gathered from the October positive action activity, this model has being adopted for future recruitment openings. However, due to delays in the recruitment process, the next positive action activity has been postponed until the summer recruitment opening and will be hosted in Fenland District.

6.2A positive action Police Support Volunteer has been tasked with contacting all candidates who failed at a recruitment stage during the October recruitment to establish how many candidates wish to re-apply. This analysis of candidate feedback will enable a review of assistance sessions so commonly encountered issues can be addressed.

6.3The buddy scheme will shortly be refreshed to establish the ongoing commitment of existing buddies and attract new ones, together with delivery of an updated awareness input about the current recruitment process.

6.4A survey has been introduced to immediately follow up on Operation Insight patrols. Historically, no contact was made with people undertaking an Operation Insight patrol. A survey is now sent by Operation Insight SPoCs to establish what each potential candidate’s next step is to ensure that people are effectively signposted onto officer, Special Constabulary or volunteer recruitment pathways.

6.5At the BCH Workforce Representation Group, a recommendation was adopted that all candidates should be allowed to re-enter the recruitment process at the point they failed as opposed to having to start the process from the beginning. Candidates will still have to wait six months before re-applying.

6.6At the BCH Workforce Representation Group, it was agreed that the SEARCH Assessment pass mark should be aligned with the Nnational level of 50% rather than 60%.

6.7Fast Track processes have recently been adopted for Special Constabulary to Regular Officer recruitment and Cadet to Special Constabulary recruitment. This process encourages continued commitment from all members of the policing family and provides an incentive by either:

  1. allowing Special Constabulary applicants to skip the requirement to evidence competencies at the initial application phase, effectively securing an interview for all Specials applying to become a regular officer;
  2. recruitment into the Special Constabulary being based on the completion of the NVPC curriculum, with the approval of a Cadet Leader.

6.8A ‘Near Miss’ Panel has been implemented in Cambridgeshire which involves a panel re-assessing all application forms that scored a 5, 6 or 7, i.e., those narrowly missing the required score of 8. During this process, the competency based questions are not re-assessed, but the candidate’s other skills, such as languages and motivation for wanting to join the police, are re-assessed and candidates that reach the required score under this process are invited for interview. No analysis has been conducted to date of the effectiveness of this process, as the life cycle of sufficient candidates passing through the recruitment process had concluded at the time of this report.

7.College of Policing Review of Police Initial Recruitment

7.1The College of Policing undertook a review of police initial recruitment between September 2015 and June 2016 in response to concerns that current recruitment processes may not be designed for current and future needs.

7.2 A new process is being developed in partnership with the College and will be piloted by the Metropolitan Police Service and selected other pilot forces in 2017. This may result in changes to the national recruitment assessment centre if there is clear evidence to show the changes will produce an assessment that is more fit for purpose.

7.3 60% of review respondents felt that the College would be the best host for a national e-recruitment platform and were in favour of a national strategy for recruitment technology.

7.4 The Positive Action Lead will continue to monitor national developments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Source Documents / N/A
Contact Officer / Inspector Louise Angel, Partnerships and Operational Support, Cambridgeshire Constabulary

Business Coordination Board

Agenda Item: 9.0

11 May 2017Page 1 of 8

[1] Source: Employment Monitoring Form - Cambs 2016 v2

[2]Source:WCN January 2014 to June 2016

[3]The Police SEARCH® Recruit Assessment Centre is a rigorous and standardised process involving observation of a candidate's performance across a variety of exercises, to assess their potential to perform the role of a police constable effectively.