Gender Equality | UK Policing in UK Policing · 2019-12-04 · addressing gender inequality as a...

Gender Equality | UK Policing

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Gender Equality in UK Policing

First Annual Report

www.heforshe.org/en/commit/ukpolice

HeForShe | Annual Report

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Contents

A note from the Chief Constable Sussex Police 05

Global Head of HeForShe 06

Executive Summary 07

Police staff 09

Next steps 10

Data 11

Avon & Somerset Constabulary 13

Bedfordshire Police 14

British Transport Police 15

Cambridgeshire Constabulary 16

Cheshire Constabulary 17

City of London Police 18

Civil Nuclear Constabulary 19

Cleveland Police 20

College of Policing 21

Cumbria Police 22

Derbyshire Constabulary 23

Devon & Cornwall Police 26

Dorset Police 27

Durham Constabulary 28

Dyfed-Powys Police 29

Essex Police 30

Gloucestershire Constabulary 31

Greater Manchester Police 32

Gwent Police 33

Hampshire Constabulary 34

Hertfordshire Constabulary 35

Humberside Police 38


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Kent Police 39

Lancashire Constabulary 40

Leicestershire Police 41

Lincolnshire Police 42

Merseyside Police 43

Metropolitan Police 44

Norfolk Constabulary 45

Northamptonshire 46

Northumbria Police 47

North Wales Police 50

North Yorkshire Police 51

Nottinghamshire Police 52

Police Federation of England and Wales 53

Police Scotland 54

Police Service of Northern Ireland 55

Police Superintendents’ Association 56

South Wales Police 57

South Yorkshire Police 58

Staffordshire Police 59

Suffolk Constabulary 62

Surrey Police 63

Sussex Police 64

Thames Valley Police 65

Warwickshire Police 66

West Mercia Police 67

West Midlands Police 68

West Yorkshire Police 69

Wiltshire Police 70


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A note from the Chief Constable Sussex Police

Giles York QPM

HeForShe has emphasised diversity and inclusion as an operational policing imperative. Police forces recognise how gender inequalities in society affect crimes such as domestic and sexual abuse.

The data presented in this report shows that we are still male-dominated organisations and cultural change needs to be a key area of focus. We must continue to challenge ourselves, testing our attitudes and behaviour to ensure we under-stand and deliver the best service for gender- based crime.

We are at a point in history where we have more women police officers than at any other time in the UK and this presents an unprecedented opportunity to push towards a true reflection of the communities we serve. We must be organisations that are welcoming to women and provide the flexibility to adapt to gender-related issues which impact on our officers and staff.

As UN Women Thematic Champion for HeForShe, I represent UK Policing on the global stage and can proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with our global partners because of the support and commitment made by every police force in the country. I am delighted with the drive and commitment shown so far and, although there is much work to be done, we can be confident in saying that we are global leaders in addressing gender inequality within law enforcement.

Giles York Sussex Police

I am delighted to introduce the Gender Equality in UK Policing: First Annual Report because it highlights the significant commitment and progress that has been made by all UK police forces. This report recognises how the most senior male officer in every police force across the country is committed to addressing gender inequality as a key policing issue. Through HeForShe we have shared best practice, supporting each other in our endeavour to achieve gender equality in our organisations.

There remains a significant amount of work for us despite the huge strides that have been made in promoting gender equality in policing over many years. HeForShe has provided a great catalyst with shared values of fairness and justice, to develop a better understanding of all genders and inequalities.


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As the only police force in the HeForShe Champion cohort, Sussex Police plays a critical role in not only raising awareness of gender equality in policing but leading a new path for others. As such we are proud that all UK police forces have equally committed to the HeForShe movement. This report is evidence of their commitment and provides a toolkit for change. Police forces are often at the frontlines of violence and abuse and in having a workforce that represents the communities being served, they will be able to better address the issues faced. A long journey is ahead but we are confident that with these partners HeForShe will continue to create the gender-equal world we want to live in: a world where parity is normality.

Edward WageniGlobal Head of HeForShe

The HeForShe Champions initiative is a unique ecosystem that engages global leaders across the public and private sector to address some of today’s most pressing gender issues. Each HeForShe Champion has made specific, measurable and transformative commitments towards achieving gender equality. What global leaders say influences the activities and priorities of millions; what they do accelerates and propagates change. When they are consistent in word and deed, they make the permanence of change more likely. The unwavering commitment of the HeForShe Champions is providing the leadership we need to reach the goal of gender equality in society. We are proud to partner with Sussex Police as one of our HeForShe Thematic champions.

Global Head of HeForShe Edward Wageni


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Miles Ockwell Superintendent Sussex Police

Introduction

Women have been policing in the UK for more than 100 years and great progress has been made over that time. This first annual report is written at a time when a number of the highest ranking officers in the UK including the most senior, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, are women. There is also the highest number of women police officers than there has ever been, although this remains well below the 50% that would more accurately reflect the societies we serve. However, the progress that has been made masks an underlying reality which is that male police officers continue to progress at a disproportionately higher rate than women. Looking more broadly at lateral progression, there is also a continuing issue of certain police specialist roles which remain heavily dominated by men.

The challenges faced by women within policing are not new and the focus of a number of bodies such as the British Association of Women in Policing (through their Gender Agenda) should be given great credit for the work they have done to empower women within policing, and to address issues of gender inequality. It is argued, however, that this excellent work tended to be carried out by women seeking to support other women. When Surrey Police and Sussex Police became Thematic HeForShe Champions for the Law Enforcement Sector in 2017 they did so because it presented an opportunity to engage men as well as women in seeking to address gender inequality within policing, and to relate this to their operational policing responsibilities to address gender-based violence within the communities they serve. It is hoped that engaging men will be the key to accelerating the positive rate of change and ultimately benefit all police employees regard-less of where they are on the gender spectrum. In agreeing to contribute to this annual report, police forces across the country are publicly recog-nising the need to address gender inequality within their organisations and are sharing initiatives in the hope that they can learn best practice from each other and also that it might highlight gaps that may be addressed going forward.

Executive Summary

Best practice

This report represents a significant amount of on-going work within forces across the UK and also within organisa-tions that support the delivery of policing.

Many forces are focusing on development for women within their organisations, both in terms of progression through promotion and specialisation. There is evidence of a range of innovative development programmes aimed at empowering and encouraging women and other under- represented groups to seek promotion, and many forces are working with partners such as their local fire and rescue services and armed services to support each other in this area.

In terms of specialism, a number of police forces are undertaking work to address the significant lack of women choosing to become specialist firearms officers.

Some forces have been working with academic partners to develop research


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Other areas of gender-based violence which forces are investing time and resources in include honour-based violence and modern slavery.

In line with the ethos of HeForShe, a number of forces are addressing male engagement, through male HeForShe champion programmes and cultural change workshops.

Conclusion

This report gives an insight into the huge amount of work that is happening within police forces across the UK to address gender inequality, and it is striking to see how diverse the best practice examples are. There is clearly a lot of innovative practice going on and it is hoped that this report will act as a reference point for forces to share and develop ideas across the country.

However, the report also highlights some potential gaps and areas for development which forces are asked to focus on going forward, specifically in the areas of male engagement, parental leave and the wider impact of gender inequality in operation-al policing issues such as gang-related violence.


which will help all forces to understand issues and develop effective solutions.

It is clear from the examples given in the report that many forces are focusing on the menopause as a significant issue for their female employees, in terms of the impact it has on them at work. It is encouraging that a key focus of many forces in this area seems to be engaging line managers in developing their understanding of their staff’s experience. Parental leave is an area which clearly impacts on women but is increasingly also becoming an issue for men too and there are a number of examples focusing on improving experiences of those on maternity leave and improving engagement and re-introduction on return to work. Part-Time and Flexible Working is another area which has disproportionately affected women who have positive and negative experiences, and is also increasingly affecting men too. This is an area which is often cited as being the most significant issue for people when considering promotion or lateral development and there are some significant innovative practices in this area evidenced within the report.

A key focus of all forces through their HeForShe commitments is the need to re-double their efforts to combat domestic abuse and sexual violence within the communities they serve, and many examples of best practice are showcased within the report; most notably the use of Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVAs) to deploy live-time as incidents are reported to police in a number of areas. There is recognition that police officers and staff are also victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse; how forces manage this is being addressed.

An implication of focusing on work-based inequality is that forces recognise that they have victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse working for them. It is positive to see forces focusing on the impact of domestic abuse on their own officers and staff.


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Police staff provide an essential part of UK Policing and undertake a wide range of roles from contact handlers to analysts, to roles within HR and finance.

The Home Office annually produces national data, looking at the gender breakdown of police staff. This data includes all police staff roles, Police Community Support Officers, designated officers, Special Constables and police support volunteers.

When compared to police officers, police staff data provides a more positive picture in gender break-down, with the gender imbalance in favour of

grade and pay scales are taken into consideration, shows that although there is an over-representa-tion of women as police staff, the highest number of women are still in the lowest paid roles. It is believed that this is likely to be replicated across the majority of forces and goes some way to explaining the gender pay gap within policing.

For the purpose of this report the representation of police officers per force has been the main focus, as the gender balance of officers by rank is more readily available then the equivalent police staff data. There is also less structure around police staff

women in police staff roles, with a ratio of 62% to 38%. Police Community Support Officers and designated officers are almost gender balanced, with police support volunteers actually achieving this. The data for Special Constables is more consistent with that of police officers.

However, national figures are unable to reflect how the gender balance varies according to grades and pay scales for police staff roles. The staff gender data for Surrey Police and Sussex Police, where

recruitment and promotion processes. All forces are encouraged to review their police staff data, focusing on areas of gender imbalances and to look to identify the reasons for this.

The under-representation of men within particular teams may require action.

Police Staff

Figures at 31 March 2019.

0

20

40

60

80

100

Female

Male

Police SupportVolunteers

SpecialConstables

DesignatedO�cers

PCSOsPolice sta�

62%

46%49%

29%

50%

38%

54%51%

71%

50%


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An important feature of this annual report is to highlight potential areas for development for UK Policing. There are three areas which would benefit from greater focus over the next year:

Male engagement A key element of HeForShe is seeking the engagement of men to see gender equality as an issue that everyone benefits from and should therefore be striving to achieve. There is very little in the report about how police forces are seeking to do this and it is felt that doing so successfully is key to accelerating the rate of positive change in this area. Parental Leave

There appears to be a clear focus on improving the experience of women on maternity leave which is to be welcomed, but there is little evidence within the report to suggest that forces are making efforts to improve the experiences of all of their employees in relation to taking parental leave. Despite shared parental leave being available, a tiny proportion of men are taking it up. Addressing the cultural barriers and stereotypes which prevent men from taking parental leave and/or working part-time or flexible hours is a key inhibitor to women’s career progression and it is also detrimental to the wellbeing of the significant growing number of men who want to fully participate in their family life.

Considering Gender Equality and the link to opera-tional policing in a wider context

One criticism of police forces when they publicly raise diversity issues is that they ‘should focus on policing and not political correctness’.

In committing to HeForShe police forces across the UK have recognised the link between gender inequality and their role to protect society in the context of violence against women and girls.

The challenge going forward is to broaden their thinking around how society’s gender inequalities and the stereotypes in which boys and girls are

Next Steps

expected to conform, manifests them-selves in the criminality they are faced with addressing on the streets today.

Forces may want to consider some of the following questions:

Why are the vast majority of those involved in county line drug dealing or gang violence male?

What are the stereotypes that boys feel the need to adhere to which influence their behaviour and does this make them more susceptible to becoming involved in (and become victims of) street violence?

What role does gender inequality play within gangs and their culture and how does this affect the way we police them?

Why are girls used by young men to carry drugs and weapons to evade police attention and why is sexual violence used as a means of gang-initiation?


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The data presented in this report summarised above, shows that, although positive progress is being made, the vast majority of police forces still have a disproportionately higher number of men in senior positions than women. We believe that this is the first time that this publicly available data has been presented in this way and it is hoped that it will focus the minds of all police officers who hold the view that there is no longer an issue with the progression of women within policing.

The focus on representation of women at senior levels1 was chosen because it is the most obvious means of showing the imbalance of power between men and women in police forces across the UK.

Police forces have been committing to HeForShe over the last two years and by March 2019 every UK force had committed to achieve a proportionate representation2 of men and women in senior leadership positions by 2022.

The tables below show the national picture3 in terms of the disparity in the proportionate representation of men and women at senior levels of the 43 police forces in England and Wales at the time Surrey Police and Sussex Police were made Thematic Champions in March 2017 compared to two years later in March 20194.

Data

Notes1 Taken to be at the rank of Chief Inspector and above.2 Proportionate to the number of women police officers

overall in their organisation.3 This excludes Police Scotland and the Police Service

of Northern Ireland because the 2017 benchmarking data was unavailable at the time of publication.

4 Each square represents a police force and they are not weighted by the size of each force.


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“We are at a point in history where we have more women police officers than at any other time in the UK and this presents an

unprecedented opportunity to push towards a true reflection of the

communities we serve.”

Giles York QPM Chief Constable, Sussex Police


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Avon & Somerset Constabulary

% difference in senior leadership

-4.27%Best practice example

We have an established Gender Group chaired by our Force Lead, Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Watson, where relevant topics are raised. A key focus for this group is under-representation in specialist roles.

This group has:

• Held recruitment drives.

• Established a programme to encourage women to apply for specialist posts where women are under-represented.

• Worked with their communications team to develop communications and information on specialist roles.

Actions to date include

• An Operational Support Team (OST) Awareness Day with a forcewide blog advertising the day. This had good attendance with the day designed to showcase the job and dispel myths surrounding concerns that they might have. There was a follow-up survey and a point of contact identified for interested officers.

• Wilfred Fuller Focus Day, an aware-ness day relating to different roles within their operations department.

• Prior to further recruitment this autumn all attendees to previous awareness days were contacted making them aware of the advert and re-emphasising support and advice available.

• A working group has been established consisting of a core group of female officers in specialist roles (from Police Constable to Detective Chief Inspector). Their work includes developing a blog titled ‘Operations need you’ by firearms Sergeant Annette Colman, who will follow-up with an online chat on this topic. The group has also used results from a survey developed to review any block-ers that were identified and to see how these can be overcome.

30.94%

69.06% 73.33%

26.67%


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33.39%

66.61%

30.77%

69.23%

Best practice example

We are currently running an internal piece of work called `The Gender, Equality and Respect Re-search` in conjunction with Durham University. The first phase is a workplace survey of staff across the force which aims to identify the fre-quency that female staff experience demeaning behaviour towards them and how this impacts on their wellbeing and performance.

Furthermore the research project will explore male attitudes towards gender equality and also wider organisational factors that influence gender bias and prejudice.


Survey one has now closed and survey two is due to commence soon with the results being published in December. The survey was used by Durham Constabulary in spring 2019 and their results will support our work.

Phase two of this work will be to develop and introduce training interventions that are aimed at reducing gender bias, prejudice and discrimina-tory behaviour in force. This would be a bespoke intervention based on the results evidenced from the phase one survey.

It is expected that the results and the training intervention would be of wider use to UK Policing.

In addition to this we are currently running an external survey looking at the key areas of sexual harassment, misogyny and misandry within our communities to help shape future work.

Bedfordshire Police


-2.62%


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The BTP Female Police Association recognised that as an organisation our female workforce was working for longer and to an older age. Indeed the police service is now seeing more female officers completing their 30/35 years service.

Both officers and staff are now working at an age when they experience the menopause and the associated symptoms, as well as females that have prematurely started the menopause due to cancer and hysterectomy. Females experiencing the menopause felt that the subject was taboo and


• Development of force policy

• Circulation of guidance from the British Transport Police Federation

• Working in collaboration with Occupational Health

• Sharing of case studies to create a better understanding

• A study into the hidden costs of the menopause

• Chief Officer Group sponsorship

• Development of an online learning package

• Inclusion of the menopause within a health passport

• Coverage of menopause within a well-being day

BritishTransport Police

20.96%

79.04%80.49%

19.51%


-1.45%

were embarrassed speaking to male supervisors. They were ‘suffering in silence’ and we were concerned it was affecting retention and progres-sion of female officers.

To raise awareness of how the menopause can affect women in the workplace and to make the subject less taboo, the Association has created a Menopause Support Group. Support is offered to individuals through a buddying scheme and a WhatsApp group.

Various workplace adjustments are also being considered, with a limited number already in place. This is very much a work-in-progress but the benefits have already been realised through the recognition and support of women in the workplace.


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CambridgeshireConstabulary


Honour-based abuse, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and other harmful practices fall under our force priority of domestic abuse. The vast majority of these investigations involve people with protected characteristics, most commonly foreign nationals, people who identify as LGBTQ+ and people whose ethnicity is black and minority ethnic (BME).

would rarely come into contact with the police. Support services are promoted and again learning is taken away from the individuals in the group. This is done alongside and with support from Cambridge Council’s Communities Team. The force has forged a strong link with the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) which is part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Training and conferences have been held by the FMU to allow learning in these areas to be shared. Strong national and international links have also been made in relation to harmful practices.


We have worked with partner agencies such as local councils, social care and schools in an attempt to improve their knowledge around an area of business which has traditionally not been trained very frequently. This has assisted them in improving their own responses but also opened the door to wider communities that have previously been out of reach for the police in general. Local community groups are being liaised with on a regular basis to build trust, but also to highlight where they can seek help.

We sit on the Peterborough Joint Mosque Council Group for a project on promoting domestic abuse services to the Peterborough muslim community.

This includes regular meetings where concerns can be raised and learning can be taken back.

Additionally, we deliver regular domestic abuse training to asian women’s groups in Cambridge. This allows the force to reach out to people who

22.86%

77.14%

30.09%

69.91%


-7.23%


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Cheshire Police is committed to gender equality and is working to improve the gender balance in all areas of policing.

Action taken by an alliance of Cheshire and North Wales Police has seen the number of females working in armed response rise to the highest percentage in the country.

The Cheshire and North Wales Armed Alliance introduced measures to change the culture within both forces to encourage more female officers to join, as it was identified as one of the areas with greatest gender inequality.

Officers and staff devised and facilitated many different initiatives to encourage change, raise awareness and provide support to women colleagues ahead of this year’s recruitment campaign.

To build the confidence of females to apply for firearms officer roles, the Alliance held a female only familiarisation day which saw a large uptake.

To sustain this work, the Alliance has also held familiarisation days for female officers interested in the Armed Response Vehicle Officer role.

As a result of the measures a total of 14% of the Alliance is now made up of female officers, the highest of any force across the country.

In recognition, the Alliance Policing Unit reached the final of the British Association of Women in Policing (BAWP) Awards 2019.

The Firearms Alliance was nominated in the category of Special Recognition for its contribution and work towards driving change within firearms and its significant contribution to gender equality and service to females.

Superintendent Luke McDonnell, who made the nomination, said: “It is fantastic to have a finalist at this year’s BAWP Awards in recognition of the fantastic work that is going on in Cheshire.

“The Alliance team has put a great deal of effort into making the unit more inclusive and this has been reflected by the number of female officers now working in firearms.

“I’m delighted the team has been shortlisted.”

Five other nominations were put forward from Cheshire Constabulary for the awards. Although they did not reach the final, they are each to be congratulated for the significant commitment to policing.

Deputy Chief Constable Julie Cooke met all the nominees last month and said: “I’m extremely proud that we have so many nominations for this year’s BAWP Awards.

“I attended the awards last year and they are held in very high esteem. After reading the nominations we have submitted it’s clear to see the amount of wonderful work that is going on across the force.”

35.42%

64.58%

33.04%

66.96%

Cheshire Constabulary


+2.37%


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City of London Police Women’s Network aims to provide support and inspiration to the whole police family, and by doing so can establish a culture of gender equality and assist women to achieve their full potential. The network is open to all genders.

We work with MaxLowe Training and Coaching, an organisation which provides courses on enhancing leadership skills, building a support network and boosting confidence.

More than 60 female officers and staff over the last five years have taken part in the four-day course ‘Leading with Impact’. The course is aimed at women in a supervisory role or those interested in stepping-up.

The course is well-received by delegates and is fully supported by the force for the development of women.

A previous participant of the course said:

“The Leading with Impact course is fantastic and has changed my frame of mind. I have experienced quite a big step up the career ladder and having this course has made the world of difference. “Since completing the course, I have reframed how I manage my team, my work and my general life. It made me focus on my strengths and how my emotional intelligence, actions and behaviours can affect team performance. Since the course my remit has increased and I feel the team and I have a real streamlined approach, plus I have a great network of colleagues (friends even) who I still bounce off to this day.”

City of London Police

28.38%22.90%

77.10% 71.62%


+5.48%


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We are a small, specialist force with far fewer sen-ior officers than most other forces and, consequently, have always suffered with gender imbalance. This is now evident across all ranks, from Police Constable to Chief Constable.

During the 2018 constable to sergeant promo-tion process, the only two female constables who applied didn’t get throughto the interview stage. Clearly if we cannot encourage enough suitable candidates to commence their journey up the ranks, we will never have true gender balance.

To address this an ‘Insight’ workshop was conducted targeted at those female constables in the force identified as capable of progression but not entering the process.

The workshop was billed as an opportunity for the organisation to gain insight as to why so few women were applying for promotion and for those attending to gain a better understanding of the process, the benefits of promotion and of gender balance at all ranks, and to dispel some myths.

Insight examined head-on what barriers were in place preventing our female constables from applying for promotion. A broad spectrum of the workforce from around the nation talked frankly about their experiences and attitudes. The Chief Constable, who was present all day as force lead for HeForShe, learned much about what his officers think of their prospects and opportunities.

We have since strived to educate line managers on best practice in developing their people (particularly those who may be less forthcoming about their career plans), dispelled myths that promotion is not family friendly or an exclusive ‘club’, and brought the HeForShe agenda into the spotlight.

One of the initial outcomes is that they now have six women attending the sergeant promotion boards, from a total of six applicants.

They will continue to build on this progress by identifying and removing barriers and imbuing our people development with the HeForShe principles.

Civil NuclearConstabulary


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Having made our commitment to HeForShe, Cleveland Police held a launch event to create awareness of HeForShe and encourage debate. The event was attended by male and female police officers and staff, at all levels from across the organisation.


Presentations were delivered demonstrating:

• The organisational case for gender equality.

• The connection between domestic abuse and gender equality delivered by the DA Whole Systems Approach team.

• The work of the Cleveland Police Women’s Network.

The launch event saw more than 30 individuals make the HeForShe commitment and sign up to be HeForShe advocates to promote gender equality in the workplace.

Cleveland Police Women’s Network has been working to raise awareness of the impact of the menopause on female officers and staff. Meno-pause Cafés provide opportunities for people to come together to share experiences and support each other. The aim is to ensure colleagues are supported to ensure retention and the progression of those female officers through the ranks.

This followed feedback from female officers and staff who reported a lack of understanding and knowledge amongst managers about the impact

of the menopause and the support that could be provided. The feedback suggested organisational decisions were not taking account of individuals’ needs. The first event had a ‘bring your manager’ theme. A number of male managers did accompany their staff members and reported positively about the knowledge and improved understanding they gained.

Feedback from the individuals taking part was developed into forcewide guidance published on the intranet. The aim is to ensure we are supporting colleagues in the workplace to perform.

ClevelandPolice

27.75%25.53%

72.25%74.47%


+2.22%


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Moving forward the College has embedded pay gap (gender and ethnicity) indicators within its regular monitoring to ensure the gap continues to close.


Closing the Gender Pay Gap

Using the GEO (Government Equalities Office) methodology as at the 31 March 2018, the College of Policing gender pay gap, based on the median average, was recorded as 13.1%. This is a notable improvement on the 18.5% gap reported in March 2017.

The main reason for the decrease in the pay gap can be attributed to the 2017 pay award. The decision was made to apply the 1% award at the mid-point of each pay scale and therefore those staff lower paid within their grade received an award which reflected a greater percentage increase to their salary than those above the mid-point.

As our gender pay analysis showed, female employees are disproportionately spread through the pay grades and within the grades are also disproportionately at the lower end of their pay scales.

This means that as more women sit below the mid-point of their pay scale, when implementing the pay award as described, a higher proportion of women than men would have received an increase which represented greater than 1% of their basic salary.

People at the higher ends or top of their grade would receive proportionately less of an increase than those at the bottom or lower ends. As more women have a greater propensity to fall at lower ends of the grades than male colleagues, the increase, by proxy, had a greater impact on fe-males in the workforce.

College of Policing


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CumbriaPolice


We have worked hard to achieve wider diversity within our organisation. Our Chief Constable Michelle Skeers has championed issues within the Force – including part-time working, job share, buddy schemes, mentoring/coaching and uniform issues – as well as organised events, such as the regional centenary celebrations of women in policing. In honour of her work championing gender issues, she has been made President of the British Association of Women in Policing.

We have made strides in the last three years in supporting female officers and staff experiencing the challenges that menopause can bring to their professional and personal life.

In 2016 the force held a Menopause Conference for staff and partner agencies, following enthusiastic interest from staff. At the conference, each area of the force appointed a point of contact to support menopausal women. Additionally a Menopause Support Group was created, as was a Menopause Champion, Superintendent Justin Bibby.


We also recently held a local conference for police constables and junior staff called ‘Right Here Right Now’, which had improving gender equality as one of its goals. The event was pitched at those in junior ranks who do not usually put themselves forward to attend such events. Our Menopause Champion Superintendent Justin Bibby, who is a great supporter of this work, spoke at the event, was open, engaging and talked about

27.59%39.72%

72.41%60.28%


-12.14%

The Conference also recognised that there was a need for awareness training for line managers to enable them to recognise the signs and be aware that changes in behaviour may be symptoms of the menopause, rather than underperformance. The training gives line managers the tools to have the necessary conversations and provide the reasonable adjustments required so that employees feel supported and comfortable to remain in the workplace. It is hoped that the symptoms of the menopause will be recorded so that the Force can understand the scale of the issue.

A Fair Passport scheme has been introduced for staff affected by the menopause which records only the reasonable adjustments they need, so that when they move department or role, they can present this to their new manager without the need for new conversations.

the need to support each other through our career and life journeys. He rightly mentioned that the whole family and wider workforce can be affected.


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DerbyshireConstabulary


empowHER development day for female police officers

On 19 July more than 60 female police officers took part in the empowHER development day at our headquarters.

The day was a unique opportunity for officers to hear from and meet peers, exchange valuable learning, make new and exciting connections and to find out about other areas of policing where women are under represented.

In the morning there were a number of guest speakers who gave an insight into their personal journeys.

Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Swann opened the day and discussed the different aspects of police culture, including the need to create an inclusive environment and delivering an inclusive service for all minority groups.

Superintendent Sarah McAughtrie, Head of Operations and South Division posed the question ‘Can we have it all?’ Sarah talked about her personal coping strategies for a successful work-life balance.

Chief Inspector Rebecca Webster talked about the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone. Her advice, to be brave and take that first step. Rebecca also highlighted the importance of having a good friend and mentor who will offer honest feedback to keep you motivated and focused.

Superintendent Claire Hammond spoke on the top-ic of ‘Change’. She talked about taking a chance on change, giving a personal story of quick promo-tions through the ranks, having a baby, transfer-ring forces and now entering a ‘different world of policing’ as Head of Operations, following a time-served career in CID.

Chief Superintendent Michelle Shooter, who is the Divisional Commander of Operational Support, talked about police leadership. She gave an interesting account of her career and about her mission to make sure that operational support is fully inclusive and breaking down some barriers for females in operational roles.

A carousel table event took place in the afternoon where women representatives from a wide range of different policing areas, primarily where women are under-represented, hosted a table and gave a snapshot into their roles. The ‘host’ rotated every 20 minutes, giving everyone a chance to interact with all.

A similar event for police staff colleagues is planned for early 2020.

28.26%32.69%

67.31% 71.74%


-4.43%


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“We are moving towards a strategy of inclusion, whereby everyone in the force feels connected to others within the organisation

– connected, accepted and a feeling of belonging.

They are then able to participate, contribute and have a voice

without losing their individu-al uniqueness. This will influence

leadership development going forward at all levels of the

organisation.”

Durham Constabulary


25


26


Devon and Cornwall Police is working to promote gender equality, both as a force and in alliance with Dorset Police.

The alliance of the forces has recently increased its investment in positive action and has a revised delivery plan, creating two delivery groups work-ing together to tackle gender imbalances in the workforce.


‘Successfully You’A programme to support women looking to pro-gress into management. Currently 38 women across the alliance are being supported to develop leadership qualities with evaluation due early next year. It is a six day programme over five months designed to enable women to:

• Present with confidence & authenticity • Achieve clarity of purpose to understand what

drives and motivates • Understand strengths and how to maximise

them • Identify personal/professional goals • Maximise leadership capabilities • Build personal resilience • Increase self-awareness • Identify and learn self-management and pro-

gression strategies

Women’s confidence workshops These use coaching to focus on self-analysis and self-disclosure; taiko drumming to take women out of their comfort zone; and public speaking to improve self-confidence.

The workshops are still in progress supporting approximately 92 women across the three forces, with analysis due early next year.

Menopause Conferences These events, held across the Dorset force, aim to build awareness and generate greater support. They incorporate briefings for both male and female supervisors.

Devon & Cornwall Police

One group will focus on recruitment and selection to build a workforce which reflects the community, while the other group will address the develop-ment and progression of female staff and officers.

The latter will also support our fulfilment to the first HeForShe commitment, which is to engage with the workforce to discuss gender equality and to aspire to improve the gender imbalances at senior levels within policing.

29.67%30.69%

69.31% 70.33%


-1.03%


27


At Dorset Police, we are committed to taking action to promote gender equality in the work-place, both as a force and in alliance with Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.

To improve female representation across both forces we have created two delivery groups and an annual delivery plan is in place. One group will

Supporting 38 women across the alliance to develop leadership qualities with evaluation due early next year.

‘Successfully You’A programme to support women looking to progress into management. Currently 38 women across the alliance are being supported to develop leadership qualities with evaluation due early next year. It is a six day programme over five months designed to enable the following:

• Present with confidence & authenticity • Achieve clarity of purpose to understand what

drives and motivates • Understanding strengths and how to maximise

them • Identify personal/professional goals • Maximise leadership capabilities • Build personal resilience • Increase self-awareness and how others

perceive • Identify and learn self-management and

progression strategies

Women’s confidence workshops continue, so far having supported 92 women across both forces, with analysis due early next year.


The workshops have been separated into three categories:

CoachingTo focus on self-analysis and self-disclosure

Taiko DrummingDesigned to take women out of their comfort zone

Public SpeakingTo improve self-confidence

In addition, the Women’s Network is delivering a one day continuous professional development (CPD) event for female staff focused on resilience.

DorsetPolice

19.91%28.38%

71.62%80.09%


-8.47%

focus on recruitment and selection, while the other on development and progression of female officers to improve the gender balance at more senior levels.

At a force level, we are investing in and expanding our positive action team to promote gender equality.


28

Durham Constabulary


Gender Equality Survey

After working with Durham University for seven years, we agreed to work collaboratively by taking part in its first gender study. This supported the launch of the national wellbeing, diversity, equality and inclusion survey.

The survey took place in January 2019 and had a 41.3% return rate (considered very high). The findings of the survey were generally positive. Both men and women have a high perception of the force culture supporting equality, with men having a slightly higher perception. Both sexes have a very high internal motivation to avoid prejudice against moderate levels of external motivation.

This translates that our internal values are high and make more of a difference than external stimuli (i.e. being told how to behave). The survey considered inclusivity at work and asked staff about demeaning or dismissive treatment in the workplace alongside verbal abuse. All areas were low, although there was slightly more dismissive treatment towards women, whereas men stated that they had been subjected to slightly more verbal abuse. With regards to unfair treatment in relation to gender, again it was low but slightly higher when coming from supervisors and managers.

The key finding is that the development of an individual’s internal value system is key to making a real difference. We are now looking to use the research to influence behaviour. It was recognised that supervisors have a responsibility to create a positive culture in the teams. Staff have indicated that their supervisor’s listening skills really make a difference in terms of inclusivity. It’s about style, wellbeing and creating an inclusive climate.

We are moving towards a strategy of inclusion, whereby everyone in the force feels connected to others within the organisation – connected, accepted and a feeling of belonging. They are then able to participate, contribute and have a voice without losing their individual uniqueness. This will influence leadership development going forward at all levels of the organisation.

31.43%30.39%

69.61% 68.57%



+1.04%


29

Dyfed-PowysPolice


On 20 May we launched a new Parent Handbook and Manager’s Guide for staff. This was developed following feedback from a female staff survey where mothers had mixed or poor experiences, due to a lack of understanding from supervisors and not knowing their rights and entitlements.

It is fair to say that while away from the workplace, mothers in particular felt isolated, weren’t in regular contact with their teams and not kept updated on changes within the organisation.

On return to the workplace they had lost confidence and not offered the opportunity to be reintroduced into the policing environment before returning to full operational duties. They were also unaware of their rights and where to access relevant policies. A number of women felt demoti-vated as a result and some had left the force.

The handbook was developed by Chief inspector Louise Harries following her own experiences, supported by members of the Female Support Network. It provides a step-by-step guide for new parents, acknowledging and celebrating this significant time in their lives. Additionally it summaries and signposts all relevant policies and procedures.

To support this work, mothers on maternity were invited in with their children for a ‘keeping in touch day’ and to obtain peer support.

Expectant mothers were provided with a wrist-band to monitor baby movements at regular intervals, which was sponsored by the local Police Federation.

At the same time a managers’ guide was written to assist line managers in supporting members of staff and officers through their journey in becom-ing a new parent. A launch event was held and further seminars delivered across the force.

These new procedures have been supported by chief officers and senior leaders and have been well received by staff.

24.39%32.09%

67.91%75.61%


-7.70%


30

Essex Police


We are working towards combatting domestic and sexual abuse in society to enable communities to be free from such abuse - the second HeForShe commitment.

In September our officers and staff hosted a well-being event for the public in Harlow, Essex, with a number of partner agencies to empower women with knowledge and awareness to help keep them safe from crime.

The women who attended were offered support and information about services available to them, guidance about protecting themselves and how to report crime. At the event, officers addressed crimes which pre-dominantly affect women, including female genital mutilation (FGM) and domestic abuse.

We are also committed to addressing gender equality within the workplace. For International Women’s Day in March we held a well-being event for our female staff and officers together with staff from Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and East of England Ambulance Service. The event offered confidence, menopause and mindfulness workshops, with an overarching theme of #balanceforbetter. By addressing the well-being of female staff we can help improve retention and support progression of female officers to more senior roles.


We continue to offer workshops covering these areas to all members of staff and police officers throughout the year. To improve accessibility they are available in the evenings and weekends, as well as during the working week.

The force has a diversity board and strategy which is committed to HeForShe and members of our Women’s Leadership and Development Forum and other staff networks are key stakeholders.

21.52%31.09%

68.91%78.48%


-9.57%


31


Menopause related health problems can have a significant impact on women in the workplace, many women are now working through the menopause with 75 – 80% of women of menopausal age in work.

It has been noted that in the workplace, gender specific health issues other than pregnancy are rarely discussed and often the menopause can be


In 2018 we ran a ‘Menopause Awareness Week’ with the objectives of: 1. Enabling line managers to support their staff

going through the menopause.

2. Raising awareness forcewide.

3. Creating champions to educate their teams

As part of this week we:

• Created and circulated bespoke posters both in electronic and paper form.

• Ran ‘drop-in’ sessions with the occupational health nurses for anyone to discuss the menopause and seek information and advice.

• Arranged an information point at HQ stocked up with various booklets and leaflets on the menopause.

• Trained a network of champions to provide

long term support across the force for women in the workplace going through, or about to go through, the menopause.

• Arranged for an external company called ‘Laughology’ to deliver two workshops to leaders at all levels within the force including the fire service. This created a lot of creative thought provoking discussions around how to provide support going forward.

• This is the start of our journey to raise aware-ness to help change attitudes and behaviour, and hopefully encourage women to feel confi-dent to seek support from an employer who is well equipped to provide that support.

GloucestershireConstabulary

Senior Leadership

21.21%32.06%

67.94%78.79%


-10.85%

seen as an embarrassing subject to discuss. It is also a subject the majority of women are unwilling to disclose, particularly to a male line manager.

In recognition to the above and in support of women going through the menopause at work, we are campaigning to raise awareness to help nor-malise the menopause at work and help to change attitudes and behaviour.


32


In 2016, we set out to better understand how the menopause was affecting our workplace.

A menopause working group was formed and it worked alongside Manchester Metropolitan University to conduct a study of our staff. The main recommendations from the research were


Moving forward, we intend to build upon this by developing mandatory menopause training for all supervisors while continuing to support events across the force.

All our menopause-related absences are now linked through a new absence code to improve data quality. This will help us to continue to provide support and better understand our work-force.

Our research tells us the majority of women are unwilling to discuss menopause-related prob-lems with their managers or ask for the support or adjustments they need. A dedicated Guidance for Managers document has been produced to edu-cate supervisors and encourage these important conversations, along with a toolkit document for staff, which signposts them to both internal and external support mechanisms.

We hold regular menopause café events which are supported by our force wellbeing teams. These events are designed to encourage staff to attend and seek support for themselves, family, friends or colleagues.

We believe that our managers feel more confident in their ability to support peers going through the menopause and this is confirmed through the recent Police Federation Everyone Pause survey, in which 74% of responding managers felt they had a good awareness, in comparison to the national sample of 65%.

GreaterManchester Police

30.64%

69.36%

30.52%

69.48%


-0.13%

support and awareness training. Since then the group has worked tirelessly to change the way we talk about and support menopause.

We now have a dedicated menopause support page on our intranet site which includes details of our Menopause Ambassadors for Change.


33


We are committed to tackling all forms of domestic abuse and we commissioned work which examined methods of improving engagement with survivors at first point of contact. Research has shown that the longer a survivor is left without such support, the greater the likelihood of non-engagement with services. This leaves them isolated, alone and at risk of further abuse.

We developed a partnership with Women’s Aid and secured a five-year funding pledge from the Big Lottery to place a team of five qualified Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVAs) within the force to improve engagement at the earliest available opportunity.

In addition, the team are also utilised to tack-le repeat calls from survivors who do not meet the high-risk threshold but refuse contact from support agencies. Their aim is to understand the reasons for the calls and highlight all possible support options to ensure survivors are aware of all avenues of support.


The team began work earlier this year and has access to force computers systems as well as information held by local support services and refuge providers around the country.

They can be deployed as a resource to live incidents, as well as offering advice to officers who are at domestic abuse incidents. They complete DASHRA risk assessments in line with force policies and procedures, and all contact and actions concerning survivors is documented on force systems.

The primary aim of the team is to deal with short-term safeguarding measures to ensure the volume of referrals is manageable. They have close working relationships with local support agencies who were consulted in the inception phase. This allows them to refer directly into local support agencies, localised IDVA teams (for all high-risk cases) and refer into the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference process to ensure longer support goals are met.

25.00%33.71%

66.29%75.00%


-8.71%GwentPolice


34

HampshireConstabulary


In 2015 we identified through feedback that confidence was a major block, prohibiting women putting themselves forward for promotion. Work-shops to tackle this have then been built over the following years.

The majority of workshops have been for both staff and officers and have been well attended by both. A significant proportion of those who have attended have subsequently been successful at promotion.

All workshops differ, with specific subjects or confidence strategies being used. We have also utilised a mixture of external speakers and inter-nal speakers of both staff and officers of all ranks from police constable to superintendent.

To ensure these workshops are accessible to the majority of women working in the force they have been held at varying locations and times.

We have run development input for potential women sergeants and inspector promotees. Two recently promoted Inspectors spoke about the reality of blockers, such as myths, FWA worries etc. and senior leaders attended to support.

Senior leaders have spoken at a development workshop about their experiences of the senior police national assessment centre (PNAC) course, one of whom was a female direct entrant superintendent.

Our Inspire Network for Women is running ‘Leading with Impact’ courses bi-annually and is currently planning dates from 2020 onwards.

In addition, Inspire is developing a comprehen-sive plan to address gender inequality. There has already been comprehensive work on menopause

with repeated Menopause Monologue workshops and more recently menopause and HRT advice taking place.

Worksteams to support IVF, baby loss and miscarriage have all been developed by Inspire which is now looking to develop a divorce and separation workstream to provide support, recognising the significant number of those struggling to deal with these issues.

Inspire has recently provided a workshop on body confidence targeted on reducing self-loathing and loving yourself.

Under the Inspire banner we have completed several workshops over the past four years primarily to address the identified issue that proportionally not enough female colleagues were being successful at promotion boards.

28.21%32.54%

67.46% 71.79%


-4.34%


35


In Hertfordshire Constabulary we have been run-ning structured ‘Keeping in Touch’ (KiT) sessions for two years, which will have had 100 attendees by later this year. This programme was established following an internal survey which highlighted the poor experience of female colleagues who often found their return from maternity leave unneces-sarily stressful.

Being absent from the workplace makes applying for a work-life adjustment difficult because of lack of access to managers, HR, duties units and force systems and understandably, for most, making child-care arrangements is the priority.

It also revealed that mothers often felt forgotten while on maternity leave and lose touch with peers and managers. Practically, the process of returning to full effectiveness at work can be difficult with processes, legislation and IT to learn or re-learn. An additional challenge for operational staff is person protective equipment training and fitness testing, and some colleagues do suffer a loss of confidence at the prospect of dealing with conflict.

Combined, this can make returning to work daunting and bumpy and it can be some time before colleagues feel competent, confident and valued.


The KiT sessions run every four months and are opened by a Chief Officer, to show staff their value. They include presentations on making work-life balance applications, health and well-being, fitness and staff protection and from col-leagues about their experiences. These sessions signpost support and provide suggestions for useful activity that individuals can arrange, if they wish, to facilitate their return to work.

The sessions are advertised widely, with depart-ment and line managers specifically targeted to raise the profile of the issue and of the impor-tance of keeping in touch.

Hertfordshire collaborates with Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire and colleagues from these forces have also attended.

The KiT sessions can’t provide individual solu-tions, but they do provide staff the opportunity to understand the issues and better prepare for and address them.

HertfordshireConstabulary

30.77%32.19%

67.81% 69.23%


-1.42%


36


37

“Clearly if we cannot encourage enough suitable

candidates to commence their journey

up the ranks, we will never have true gender balance

at any rank.”

Civil Nuclear Constabulary


38


We held a force conference in 2018 to raise awareness of HeForShe which attracted more than 400 attendees, including officers, staff and cadets from Humberside and neighbouring forces, as well as colleagues from Humberside Fire and Rescue.

The aim was to inspire colleagues to think more about their roles and reflect on how we can learn from the past and work towards equality. Many attendees signed up to make their individual pledge to the HeForShe commitments.

Guest speakers included: • Supt. Miles Ockwell (Sussex Police), who

offered valuable insights into the opportunities and challenges that Sussex has encountered in promoting HeForShe.

• Our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion plan, specifically looking at the Gender Pay Gap, as a result of our HeForShe commitment.

• Promoting discussion about gender issues and opportunities, we are encouraging senior leadership to join and support Humberside’s Women’s Integrated Network, sponsored by our Deputy Chief Constable Christopher Rowley is sponsor for the network.

• Tackle unconscious bias, we have introduced a training programme designed to challenge and remove bias from our behaviour and thinking.

• Zoe Loderick, who spoke about understanding the psychology of victims of rape and sexual abuse.

• Ann Ming MBE, who shared her personal story about the murder of her daughter and her 15 year fight for justice. The story allowed us to reflect on how unconscious bias plays a part in how we approach gender and crime.

• Rachel Mackenzie, who spoke about over-coming anorexia, discrimination and prejudice to become the number one Thai boxer in the world.

• Dr Carine Minne, who spoke about her psycho-analytical work with troubled individuals and how gender differences influence their reactions to her.

• Making our culture more gender-inclusive, we are seeking out senior leaders and diverse individuals to help lead change through our current coaching and mentoring scheme.


HumbersidePolice

24.00%34.02%

76.00%65.98%


-10.02%


39

KentPolice


With almost 3,000 female officers and staff within Kent Police, it is not only important to recognise the impact the menopause can have on both wom-en and their partners or families, but also to un-derstand ways in which we can support and assist those experiencing symptoms.

In early 2017 the new Kent Menopause Action Group was set up to address the growing need to recognise menopause within the workplace. The group aimed to support women in the workplace, educate the workforce, raise awareness and give people the confidence to talk.

was held. A force survey is also currently live and will drive the next phase of action to support our workforce.

Our annual conference was held in October. In support of the HeForShe agenda the chairs of our Police Federation, Superintendents Associa-tion and Branch Secretary of Unison all gave their commitment to the event and to the group in the future.

Working groups were set up and progress was made quickly. The team worked with relentless focus and enthusiasm to ‘start the conversation’ about the menopause and bring about a cultural change. A series of awareness events were held for all staff and line managers. These were well received and grew in popularity, seeing more events being scheduled. Menopause buddies signed up from far and wide to support peers and share their experiences. Following the first ‘sold out’ annual conference, the group presented a menopause policy to chief officers. This was a first and focussed on providing support, guidance and advice in a dignified and sensitive way in the workplace. Adjustments included access to private areas, flexibility in working pattern/location, dynamic risk assessments as symptoms can change, improvements in lighting and temperature control and support for the job related fitness test. The policy was approved and has supported many officers and staff since the launch.

Work has continued apace. This year we have seen the launch of the ‘lunch and learn’ event which is rotating across the county, enabling staff to access the information in their own workplace and embracing technology, the first live web chat


22.92%29.11%

70.89%77.08%


-6.18%


40

LancashireConstabulary


Lancashire Constabulary is one of the leading police forces in preventing modern slavery and has created the Pan Lancashire Anti-Slavery Partnership (PLASP).

The partnership includes representatives from statutory bodies and non-governmental organisa-tions with action-orientated subgroups on train-ing, policies and procedures, faith, victim support and publicity. The aim is to work collectively and in harmony, developing materials and protocols and spreading a consistent message across the county.

Members of the group regularly attend events and roadshows throughout the county. Work around raising awareness of modern slavery has led to increased knowledge and has led to members of the public expressing concerns about establish-ments within their local area including car washes and nail bars.

So far this year, we have identified 87 victims of modern slavery who are now being supported by Lancashire Victim Services. The PLASP group is currently exploring the idea of a virtual victim panel to monitor and support victims of modern slavery including those who have moved out of Lancashire and are living elsewhere.

The PLASP group has also worked closely with other vulnerable groups including the homeless groups. They have built excellent connections with support services such as ‘Hope at Home’ and ‘Home Start’ to support accordingly.

Via the Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses, the group is sharing aware-ness of modern slavery with businesses. All busi-nesses within Lancashire have been offered the opportunity for a member of the group to attend their workplace and undertake a ‘What is Modern Slavery’ presentation to their employees.

Additionally, the group organised a modern slavery event which was attended by over 80 businesses.

To support the Modern Slavery Awareness Day in October, all businesses within Lancashire were offered the opportunity to hold their own aware-ness sessions with employees. Members attended many of these events, giving updates on the PLASP group and providing each business with awareness -raising materials.

29.21%33.00%

67.00% 70.79%


-3.79%


41


In 2019 we ran an internal campaign in Leicestershire Police to highlight the issue of domestic abuse to our staff. There is a recognition that for many police staff, officers and volunteers there can be additional pressure or stigma in reporting domestic abuse because they work for the police.


Our internal domestic abuse policy has been updated and we now have 30 domestic abuse champions, who cover every department. Their contact details are listed and staff are encouraged to get in touch for advice. These champions, who are officers and staff, have received additional training. Our website also contains a list of external support networks and advice agencies.

Our internal campaign has included posters put up around the police buildings highlighting that one in eight people are affected by domestic abuse. In addition, the ‘Brightsky’ app has been made available to download on all police mobile devices.

‘Brightsky’ also provides advice and guidance to people experiencing domestic abuse or people who know someone experiencing domestic abuse. Staff are encouraged to download the app, with the video on the internal website explaining its benefits. As a result of the campaign the domestic abuse champions have received several requests for advice and information.

This has led to three people disclosing their experiences and domestic abuse referrals being made. This demonstrates the impact of the work we have done and the difference it has made to our teams.

LeicestershirePolice

16.33%28.66%

71.34%83.67%


-12.33%

The campaign included an internal website dedicated to raising awareness of the issue and the production of a video highlighting the impor-tance of tackling domestic abuse. The video contained a number of staff talking through a scripted message.


42


Lincolnshire Police has introduced a new and in-novative project to improve our response to domestic abuse.

‘Make a Change’ is a pilot project, developed by Respect and is in partnership with Women’s Aid, to deliver an early response to domestic abuse in Lincolnshire and Sussex. This creates opportunities for those who use abusive behaviours in their relationships to change.

Inspired by the ‘Women’s Aid Change That Lasts’ approach, we are working with local organisations to offer those who work with us the opportunity to make a change for:

• their community • their organisation • themselves • their families

The work is funded by the Home Office and supported by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner in Lincolnshire and Sussex as well as the police and local authorities in each area.

Victoria Cousins, Director of Make a Change at Respect, said: ‘‘This work is an innovative approach to support communities and professionals to develop the skills and confidence to identify and respond to domestic abuse. By providing meaningful opportunities for change, we can support those who are ready, willing, and able to change their patterns of behaviour. Central to our approach are the needs of survivors. We ensure that those who are experiencing abuse get the support they need and when they need it.’’

Ruth Mason, the Change That Lasts Business Development Lead at Women’s Aid, said: “Make a Change will help bring about a step change in how we tackle domestic abuse. Based on our innovative Change That Lasts model, the programme will help the community to identify abusers earlier and safely challenge their behaviour. Working together with Respect, we will ensure that this work is done with the safety and wellbeing of survivors and their children at its heart; tackling coercive control not just physical violence and ensuring survivors are getting specialist support too. Together, we will deliver an effective early intervention response to abusers and bring about a system-wide change in our response to domestic abuse.”

Marc Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire, said: “Domestic abuse is a despicable crime that is not always physical in nature. Coercive and controlling behaviour is just as damaging but harder to identify as signs are not as outwardly obvious. I am fully committed to working collaboratively with partners to achieve early recognition of abuse, swift action and prevention of re-offending.”

LincolnshirePolice

17.14%29.73%

70.27%82.86%


-12.59%


43

MerseysidePolice


We are working hard to support young women in less advantaged communities to empower them to shape their futures. Through this support, young women can build resilience and confidence and become less vulnerable to domestic and sexual abuse.

Merseyside Police’s gender equality network, Parity 21, promotes and facilitates the initiative, ‘Girls Network’. Eighteen mentors work with young females in schools across Merseyside, supporting them onto career paths. These include police staff and police officers who donate their time.

Bespoke training sessions, themed around career progression, help open up opportunities for young females in careers viewed as historically male

dominated to help improve representation of females in these professions.

To provide positive role models, influential guest speakers are invited to speak to the young females about their journey and the challenges they have overcome.

The Girls Network has just been nominated for the Northern Power Women Awards for its work towards gender equality. The support networks also take part in career fairs, demonstrating that Merseyside Police is an employer positive about difference and inclusivity.


• The Red Box Project is an initiative driven by Inspector Lisa Ledder, Vice Chair of Parity 21, to support young females in the force area who are unable to afford sanitary products and as a consequence missing out on school. All staff were asked to donate sanitary prod-ucts and red boxes were placed in 16 schools around the force area.

• Inspector Ledder is working with Chief Con-stable Foulkes, gender lead for the NPCC, on guidance on the menopause and endometri-osis to support female staff and therefore improve retention and progression.

• To raise awareness about the perinatal, antenatal and postnatal mental illness and the support available, Merseyside recently host-ed the Panda’s Foundation at a staff network event. The initiative came from a male officer who had experienced the effects in his per-sonal life.

25.00%29.43%

70.57% 75.00%


-4.43%


44

MetropolitanPolice Service


This year we celebrated 100 years of female officers in the Met. This milestone was used to commemorate those first brave women who ‘walked the beat’, as well as showcasing the role of women in the police today. The Met also used this centenary to consider how we could approach recruitment differently, so we might break down the barriers which still deter women from joining us.

Our recruitment campaign ‘Strong’ sought to capitalise on this work by challenging stereotypes of women in policing and seeking to attract more females than ever before.

In a first for British policing, the Met has offered those interested in joining us, the chance to train on a part time basis. This innovative campaign received over 600 applications, 57% of which were from women. Officers can now also join the Met and move directly into investigative roles as trainee detectives and this route has resulted in over 50% of the relevant joiners being female.

To ensure our current, experienced and skilled MPS women are part of an organisation where they feel valued, we have created a bespoke career development service, including mentoring, support networks and e-learning. These have been developed to assist our female officers and staff to reach their full potential and understand the huge range of opportunities available.

A ‘Women’s Returners Programme’ has also been developed and delivered to encourage and sup-port any female officers, who are on career breaks, back into work.

In July we invited officers on maternity leave to NSY, for an event to seek their views and experiences. The officers were encouraged to bring their babies along. There was a Q&A forum with senior leaders to discuss the challenges faced and those attending were invited to join the trial of a new transitional coaching service.

This engagement work has helped us to under-stand the lived experience of our officers and we are now improving how we manage the milestone moments for our staff as they become parents, striving to create the right working culture through an organisation wide support network called ‘Met Families.’ So far we have established a growing internal network of 160 parents with representatives from all business groups.

Currently the Met is using two Borough Command Units to explore, design and trial new flexible ways of working. Being truly flexible employer, while providing a 24/7 operational emergency service isn’t easy, that’s why we want to be bold and innovative, so we can explore what we can make possible in the future – for all our people.

22.55%27.15%

72.85% 77.45%


-4.60%


45


In Norfolk Constabulary we have completed a significant amount of work in the last year to relaunch our inclusivity network and to promote a focus on gender and equality. The network is called The Forum – Furthering Organisational Relationships for Under-represented Members. This work has involved creating champions across the organisation (officers and staff), the identifi-cation of male HeForShe champions and a survey to seek views from members about areas of support they would look for from their network.

Using the results of this survey we have created an action plan which the executive committee then deliver against.

The areas of focus are communication (branding), rewards and recognition, health (to include focus on menopause and wider wellbeing) and equal opportunities and staff development (officers and staff). Work is therefore captured under each of these focus areas and progressed by the committee on behalf of the wider membership.


To simplify the workstreams and to ensure progress is recognised organisationally, a plan on a page has been created and shared with the Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) who chairs the People’s Board, so work can be coordinated with other departments, such as HR, Workplace Health and Learning and Development.

As part of the relaunch we have created a confidence workshop for members and a work-shop specifically arranged for HeForShe champions where we will promote male engagement. Work has already taken place to discuss the gender equality and gender pay gap position with HR colleagues in force and this now forms part of People’s Board discussions with the DCC.

We have also created a local certificate of recognition which is awarded to people who have delivered a specific piece of work to progress the gender agenda in force. This is awarded to individuals by the chair of the Forum, where possible either at their workplace or at the Forum meetings which are held twice a year. The awards are then promoted through our newsletter.

NorfolkConstabulary

29.38%29.00%

71.00% 70.62%


+0.37%


46

NorthamptonshirePolice


In our commitment to addressing gender imbalances, we have developed initiatives to support staff and officers during maternity to ensure retention.

To support those who are expecting a child, we have buddies who will support them through the experience until they return to work. This is aimed at both male and female officers and staff who are expecting a child through pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy.

The group of buddies helps shape policy with regard to these matters, and supports both those who need access to such policies - and their line managers.

We help to resolve issues when things don’t go so smoothly and ensure that those who are off-work or have differing needs can access the same support as those in the workplace. This has been very successful on an individual basis and work is now underway to progress this further at a strategic level. This will help us in keeping in touch with those who are off, supporting the team of maternity buddies with mandatory support and providing a toolset for line managers


25.00%33.41%

66.59%75.00%

• To promote gender equality and improve work-force resilience, we have undertaken research and analysis around gender-based sickness absence across a number of roles, including those of police officers and staff. This also enabled us to identify any opportunities to ad-dress sickness on a more individual basis.

• We have found that women tend to go off sick for bug-related illnesses, and that there may be link with the fact that women are more likely to be primary caregivers than their male colleagues. Another trend identified is that men are more likely to go off sick for bad toothaches.

• Our overall aim is to identify those illnesses which affect different groups and look at how we can build solutions and improve sickness and leave policies that focus on these specific areas.

• The research is in its infancy, but early research indicates a disparity in types of sickness between men and women.


-8.41%


47


Since signing up to the campaign, we have included the HeForShe lead and advocates within the Northumbria Police Association for Women in Policing (NPAWIP) structure and committee membership and also included the commitments within their targeted agenda.

As a direct result of the work undertaken, our He-ForShe lead and advocates now play an active role in the equality, diversity and inclusion meetings.


We have just concluded a six-month roadshow which received wide media attention.

It also involved our lead and advocates visiting the command team and senior management teams, explaining the campaign and getting senior officers, managers and most recently our new police and crime commissioner (PCC), Kim McGuiness (an innovative, forward thinking leader) to sign up via the UN Women site. Photographs were circulated via social media and the commitment posters placed in prominent communal areas in each of our stations with advocate contact details. This resulted in the blanket education of our officers, raising aware-ness of the campaign and driving home the com-mitment promises, while additionally reaffirming our force values and priorities as these mirror the HeForShe commitments.

These meetings provide support and advice around mentorship (specifically senior male lead-ers developing whilst openly acknowledging and supporting female talent), BAME recruitment (led by a BAME Sergeant, who has been temporarily promoted to Inspector to meet role requirements and serve as an inspirational example to others), coaching towards promotion and specialisms and positively addressing the imbalance of rep-resentation across all departments.

Going forward we foresee HeForShe being a permanent fixture within our structure and strategy. We invite advice and positive learning from our policing family in how best to continue education of our practitioners and further meet our HeForShe commitments.

NorthumbriaPolice

32.50%30.49%

69.51% 67.50%


+2.01%


48


49

“We are working hard to support young women in

less advantaged communities to empower them

to shape their futures. Through this support, young women

can build resilience and confidence and become less vulnerable

to domestic and sexual abuse.”

Merseyside Police


50


Promotion Awareness Workshops for female staff have been held across the force, inviting women who are considering promotion to attend.

A representative from the training department and a Positive Action Officer gave an input as did a number of female staff of varying ranks, experience and police careers, to openly discuss any barriers and challenges to overcome and offer inspiration to those attending.

These workshops have been very well received and resulted in a number of colleagues being mentored, networks of support established and providing staff with the confidence to strive for future development opportunities. Solutions to barriers identified are currently being progressed by the Women’s Association and NPCC team. To date a total of 30 members of staff have made use of the workshops.


We have supported the Chwarae Teg’s All Wales “sexual harassment in the workplace” workshops.

The workshops have been facilitated by Chwarae Teg and consisted of female officers and staff from different departments. The initial find-ings have identified areas for us to progress and will contribute to an understanding of an All Wales forces picture.

An action plan is being worked on taking into account the findings of the force cultural survey and in conjunction with the professional stand-ards department (PSD) and ongoing work around inappropriate relationships within the workplace.

North WalesPolice

13.64%

35.24%

64.76%

86.36%


-21.61%


51

North YorkshirePolice


We are dedicated to combatting domestic and sexual abuse in society in line with our HeforShe commitment.

Our multi-agency tactical and co-ordination process around domestic abuse was established in early 2019 and is based on the Northumbria Police model.

Although it is still too early to evaluate, anecdotally we have found that offenders are engaging with the programme in a meaningful way in order to address their offending behaviour.

During Hate Crime Awareness Week we began following Merseyside Police’s example in record-ing those offences committed against sex workers as ‘hate crime’. This is in line with our agenda in relation to highlighting misogyny and gender-based hate crime.

34.38%34.13%

65.87% 65.63%


+0.24%


52


Within Nottinghamshire we are developing a resource that will help support survivors of domestic abuse in an array of areas.

Through our work with domestic abuse victims we have identified a gap in the provision of information for survivors. To address this we are developing a book which aims to provide the survivor with as much information as possible to help them make their own informed choices and move forward with their life. At present a survivor would have to turn to various sources to find the relevant services available.

At the time of first response by officers, the survivor is very distressed and in shock. They are asked to provide a statement and asked to complete a risk assessment; it is all very over-whelming. What is apparent is the fact that during this distressed state, the survivor cannot recall all


• Detective Inspector Pam Dowson, our lead on Domestic Abuse, is leading on the initiative, which has been welcomed by other agencies.

• With the support of Womens Aid, DI Dowson, is working with other partners and stakeholders to produce the booklet to be rolled out in the first quarter of 2020.

NottinghamshirePolice

25.49%30.55%

69.45% 74.51%


-5.06%

of the information which is given verbally.

Our intention is to work collaboratively with partners and third sector organisations to develop a support services booklet which describes the journey of the survivor from first call to the Police, through to Court and/or a life free from domestic abuse.

It will provide information on the role of the Independent Domestic Violence Advocates, and the roles of the Crown Prosecution Service and Social Services; it will provide information and guidance on housing, lawyers, counselling support, cyber stalking advice, financial abuse advice, Sarah’s Law and Clare’s Law.

Advice will be given to keep the book in a safe place and to refer to it when needed. An online version will be available on our website.


53

Police Federationof England andWales Best practice example

The Police Federation promotes equality and inclusion for all officers. We are fully dedicated to increasing female representation and maximising the value women bring to our organisation.

It is vital that at every level, officers feel they have someone to turn to who they can relate to and who they feel can fully appreciate issues which can be personal and gender-related.

At the last triennial elections we utilised positive action to maximise the number of female repre-sentatives who were elected. This has resulted

in the highest ever number of female reps at a national level, which has had very positive results right the way through the organisation.

The action was informed by a survey of our repre-sentatives, gathering data on protected character-istics to ensure we had a complete understanding of our make-up and a firm basis for using positive action. The results indicated that we needed to take immediate and consequential action to address the low numbers of officers who were successful at becoming representatives.


• To capitalise on this progress we have created self-supporting groups, of which the Women’s Network is the largest. These aim to support female representatives in raising any issues to the highest level in PFEW, including cultural behaviours in the organisation.

• A seminar for female representatives this year focused on issues women are likely to encounter and also provided aspirational talks to motivate and support. There will be a further seminar later this year.

• We will continue to monitor data to evaluate where we are managing to attract and retain female representatives and where we have less success.

• Through taking part in forums, we raise awareness of and drive change in areas of women’s health, inclusion and progression.


54


We are committed to tackling domestic abuse (DA) as a form of gender-based violence and are work-ing collaboratively with partners to eradicate it. Significant time, effort and resource have been invested to improve outcomes including:

Contributing to the development and enactment of new ground-breaking “world class” legislation (Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018) recognising the full spectrum of abuse, not only physical and sexual abuse.

Training 22,000 staff on the complexities of domestic abuse, tackling the myths and miscon-ceptions which remain prevalent in society.

Engaging in pro-active communications programmes raising awareness of abuse locally, nationally and internationally, including social media, traditional media, online forums, conferences, partnership events and observing the delivery of operational policing.

Pursuing knowledge-exchange with academic and international law enforcement agencies to improve local and national responses.

Seeking innovative use of technology to improve victim safety including implementation of a national alarm system to protect people at risk of harm and better enable them to live their lives freely.

Seeking to improve reporting of abuse, particularly those who face additional barriers to reporting including BME and LGBT communities.Delivering a three-tier policing model which provides for local policing responses supported by local and national specialist investigators all coordinated by a national policy unit.

Proactively tackling perpetrators to reduce harm caused using multi-agency, multi-disciplined forums to identify disruption and detection tactics.

Our approach is reaching national and international audiences. This concerted, coordinated and innovative approach maximises the safety of victims while taking a positive approach to prevention and detection of perpetrators.

This work has received national recognition by the Scottish Women’s Development Forum, a Scottish Government Funded Diversity Staff Association for ‘Team of the Year’ Award in Sept 2019 and finalists in the World Class Policing Awards 2019.

PoliceScotland

23.65%31.37%

68.63%76.35%


-7.72%


55

Police Service ofNorthern Ireland


In 2018, as part of its commitment to increasing gender equality in the workplace, and aligned to the HeForShe initiative, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) signed up the Gender Diversity Charter Mark, setting a number of actions to increase gender equality, diversity and inclusion.

Action 1To increase representativeness, ensuring that the recruitment process did not discourage female applicants, PSNI analysed the gender breakdown at application stage and took steps to address any highlighted disparity in success rates.

Activities included: • Use of Recruitment Advertisements which

prominently featured females. • Social media campaign targeted towards

females • Inclusion of advertisements in Her.ie, IFA

Women’s International Fixture and IFA Women’s Cup Final.

• Use of female officers and staff to promote outreach activities during recruitment campaign.

• Reviewing the ‘Join PSNI’ website and seeking feedback about content from minority support associations, including the Women in Policing Association NI.

Action 2To address under-representation of female officers in certain roles (e.g. Armed Response and Close Protection Units) with steps taken to high-light opportunities and encourage greater participation from women.

Activity included: • Research and analysis into barriers for females

entering specialist roles (e.g. reviewing the Physical Competency Assessment process)

Action 3To increase female inclusion and retention rates, PSNI developed and updated a number of family friendly policies and guidance.

Activities included: • Revised New and Expectant Parents Guidance • Menopause Guidance developed • Reviewed the Flexible Working and Shared

Parental Leave policies and procedures • Specific provision for ‘fertility leave’ was

incorporated into service instruction

Aligned to its commitment under HeForShe, PSNI (under the leadership and direction of Chief Constable Simon Byrne) continues to explore opportunities to further enhance gender equality, representativeness and inclusion.


-4.60%

In June 2019, as a result of the initiatives under-taken, PSNI was awarded Bronze Gender Diversity Charter Mark, with the assessment panel commenting on the proactive activity undertaken to address gender diversity, acknowledging that the approach was systemic and integrated.


24.85%29.45%

70.55% 75.15%


56

Police Superintendents’ Association Best practice example

The Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) is working to improve and enhance diversity and equality across the police service with its ‘Valuing Difference’ work.

PSA Gender Lead, Superintendent Emma Richards works with the PSA’s National Executive Committee (NEC), a policy making body, to ensure issues affecting female officers are addressed and that policy supports the retention and progression of female officers into superintendent rank and higher.

Superintendent Richards, who has 31 years’ service as an officer and is a Public Order Commander in the Met, is also dedicated to ensuring that:

• Women get the necessary support so they can still move up the promotional ladder after having children; and,

• Female officers experiencing menopause get the right understanding and support to improve their retention and continued progression.

A film released by the PSA in October 2019 entitled ‘Together we’re different; as one we serve’, featured members of the PSA from all backgrounds reciting the policing oath. The film aimed to show that, regardless of background, ethnicity or gender, the police service is united in a passion and pride for policing.

The move followed recent figures showing there is still significant work required to ensure the workforce reflects the UK population. Home Office data to March 2019 revealed, for example, that just 30.4% are women.

In response, the PSA launched a Coaching and Mentoring Programme in collaboration with the College of Policing last year, training leaders to coach or mentor colleagues of all ranks. To date, 60% of beneficiaries have been female.

Emma and the NEC are working together to re-move some of the barriers to women progressing to superintendents. Officially ratifying part-time and compressed hours would open the door for flexible working and so help support hard-working parents.

Following this, the former Home Secretary Priti Patel announced at the Superintendents Conference in September that the Government would be changing the law to introduce these defined hours.



57

South WalesPolice


At South Wales Police, we are committed to improving gender equality with our female officer representation increasing year on year for some time. Currently 27.9% of our officers are female; however, we acknowledge that there is still a long way to go to achieve true gender equality. The Gender Equality Network and HeForShe Champions are aligned. In the past 12 months South Wales Police’ Female Police Association undertook a re-branding exercise to the Gender Equality Network, recog-nising the importance of both men and women in the quest for gender equality. As part of this process two HeForShe reps were elected onto the Executive Board and they work with female colleagues to recognise and promote gender equality across the organisation.

The Gender Equality Network with a HeForShe Champion as a lead has also developed a Sexual Harassment Policy and accompanying communi-cation campaign to raise awareness and support staff who may be experiencing sexual harassment.

As a result of his work and commitment to Gender Equality Assistant Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan attained the ‘Male Award in Support of United Nations HeForShe Campaign 2019’ from the International Association of Women Police. He is also the Welsh lead for equality and works tire-lessly with the Chairs of the four Welsh equality networks to share and promote best practice.

Within South Wales Police, he oversees the delivery of the Gender Review Delivery Plan and was instrumental in establishing development days for female officers in a range of policing disciplines.

Following the ‘HeForShe’ launch in 2018 he wrote to his counterparts in the three other Welsh police forces to encourage all of Wales to sign up

to a joint commitment across the region, encouraging female recruitment, progression and retention. Indeed, HeForShe Champions, directly recruited by ACC Vaughan, have been influential in coaching and mentoring candidates undertaking promotion processes within the Force.

Following the re-launch of the Gender Equality Network and ACC Vaughan’s personal commitment through HeForShe 39% of those successful at the police constable to sergeant promotion process were female as were 5 newly promoted inspectors. Mentors from the Gender Equality Network along-side HeForShe Champions supported many of these candidates.

Much of the work completed to date has been strategic in nature. Over the next year, it is intended that HeForShe Champions will embed in local BCU or departmental Gender Equality Network working groups to provide more local leadership surrounding issues of gender. It is anticipated that the number of females promoted will continue to rise as the support provided by the Gender Equality Network with HeForShe Champions mature.

23.08%30.97%

69.03%76.92%


-7.89%


58

South Yorkshire Police


Our Women’s Network within South Yorkshire believes in supporting women and those who identify as women to ensure voices are heard, and promote gender equality and opportunity with-in the police service and wider partnership. As a result we relaunched the network to run themed days throughout the year which concentrate on different subjects to assist with gender inequality, confidence and resilience.

In spring we held a menopause awareness day attended by women who needed more information for themselves and line managers who wanted to know how to care for someone experiencing symptoms. The date was oversubscribed so they pushed out literature from speakers, after the event. This event was then supported by the release of a new menopause policy by South Yorkshire Police with explanatory workshops for line managers held across force locations.

In summer, they held a resilience day for women balancing workloads, promotion attempts, caring responsibilities and general pressure. A previous Assistant Chief Constable came along and did a full day’s training on resilience ‘How to Bounce Back’. This was supported by the Force’s well-being strategy. The feedback was excellent and we are planning another event in December and a conference for International Women’s day in March where both speakers will return to talk about the HeForShe agenda. Champions will present learning from the summit and the HeForShe survey results to mark the official launch of HeForShe in the force. They have invited Laura Bates from Everyday Sexism, to speak to the workforce illustrating that sexism is not eradicated as much as everyone would like to believe.

29.85%31.94%

68.06% 70.15%


-2.09%


59

A Diversity & Inclusion Hub has been created on the force’s intranet to raise awareness and engage the workforce in discussion about gender equality within the workplace, in line with our HeForShe commitment. The Staffordshire Association of Women in Policing and other staff networks have been encouraged to highlight role models within the organisation.

We are also taking positive action at the workforce recruitment stage in order to improve representation by supporting more females to join the force. We have seen an increase in female student officers in our recruitment of new PCs.


We are dedicated to promoting gender equality and have introduced a number of positive action initiatives to improve recruitment and progression of female officers and staff.

Female officers wishing to step up to the roles of sergeant, inspector and superintendent have the opportunity to take part in promotion workshops. As well as supporting the officers, the workshops have helped the force to understand the barriers and blocks stopping women from considering or pursuing promotion.

StaffordshirePolice

30.19%27.51%

72.49% 69.81%

• Potential officers and staff are offered an insight and overview into Staffordshire Police and the recruitment process through our STEP IN-Staffordshire Police Positive Action Pre- recruitment Programme. Sessions aim to improve potential applicants’ confidence, presentation and communication skills.

• So far the programme has attracted 44 female attendees, who will be buddied up with an existing officer or member of staff to support them through the recruitment process.

• Positive action and attraction is used at the pre-recruitment stage at recruitment fairs, utilising an expression of interest form to help identify applicants.

• Improving diverse representation within fire-arms is also a priority. To take positive action, our Operations Department Develop-

ment programme aims to better prepare officers for an Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO) course or other roles within Tactical Operations. A 10 week training programme is offered which addresses the key themes of why officers fail an AFO course, both locally and nationally.



+2.68%


60

“The Cheshire and North Wales Armed Alliance team

has put a great deal of effort into making the unit more inclusive

and this has been reflected by the number of female officers now

working in firearms.

Cheshire Police


61


62


The Suffolk Association of Women in Policing (SAWP) was formed in 2006 and its purpose is to support all employees including police officers, staff, specials volunteers and cadets.

The aim of the Association is to identify develop-ment opportunities:

• Raise awareness and find solutions for profes-sional issues, obstacles and challenges facing women in policing

• Ensure women have an influential voice, particularly in the development of policies and procedures

• Develop networks and support employees to make a positive difference to policing

• Promote the interests of women

After the AGM in September the association undertakes a survey each year to ask its members what they would like us to focus on. Since SAWP launched it has successfully:

• Introduced the Maternity Buddy Scheme

• Set up a mentoring scheme for all members

• Forged links with BT, Suffolk County Council and Ipswich Borough Council and Suffolk Fire & Rescue linked closely with Norfolk’s association group, now called The Forum

• Work jointly with other support groups to achieve common goals and mutual support

• Hosted joint conferences with both Norfolk and Cambridgeshire Women’s Associations in 2007, 2009 and 2011

• Offered many events, workshops and master classes on a range of subjects ranging from career progression, application forms, interview skills, personal and self-develop-ment, team building and health, fitness and wellbeing

• Worked with specialist operations to help them identify and address barriers to the recruitment of female and BAME officers into the specialisms of firearms, PSU and the dog section.

SuffolkConstabulary

19.35%30.59%

69.41%80.65%


-11.24%


63

SurreyPolice


Flexible working is a key area in addressing gender imbalances and improving gender equality. Flexible working Single Point of Contacts (SPOCs) are being rolled out across the force. The aim of the role is to provide a level of consistency and to offer a more holistic view as to how flexible work-ing applications are processed.

We are currently in the process of identifying a flexible working SPOC for each department and division and putting together a short training programme for them to undertake. Once all SPOCs are trained, the role will be promoted via the intranet and the amount and type of advice they provide will be monitored to enable us to establish the success of the role.


Currently, submitted flexible working applications are usually viewed in isolation of the individual’s current team and established working pattern without looking at opportunities throughout the force to accommodate the proposed pattern.

Furthermore, it is hoped that the flexible working SPOCs will help facilitate more of a negotiation when a pattern is being proposed, ensuring that it meets the requirements of both the individual and the organisation.

The role is aimed at officers or staff of Inspector rank (or equivalent) and above. Each SPOC over-sees a particular department or division, having sufficient knowledge of existing flexible working arrangements and be able to provide advice and guidance as and when required.

The advice of the SPOC is seen to complement existing advice and support from People Services and relevant unions and is not a require-ment of submitting an application. It is hoped that the SPOCs will also encourage flexible working pattern reviews and promote job share and agile working to ensure that agreements are in place that benefit everyone.

33.33%32.44%

67.56% 66.67%


+0.89%


64

SussexPolice


We are committed to tackling gender inequality and were the first police force globally to sign up to HeForShe.

To promote awareness around gender equality, we have delivered workshops for forces across the country and for Sussex police officers and staff.

The workshops aim to provide attendees with the opportunity to have an open and honest discus-sion, whilst changing the culture within policing around gender equality. They look at:

• The representation of women within policing We consider why women are under-represent-ed at all ranks nationally, with a further reduc-tion of women officers in leadership positions. We discuss controversial statements such as ‘women have babies’ and ‘women are not as ambitious’, and consider how women officers are treated in the media.

• How gender inequality impacts the communities we serve The second HeForShe commitment is to work to combat domestic abuse and sexual abuse in society. We look at how abuse of power by men can lead to women becoming the victims of such abuse.

• The benefits of gender equality to all How men can benefit from the elimination of male stereotypes and greater gender equality.

In line with the HeForShe movement internation-ally, these hour-long workshops in Sussex are delivered by a man.

The workshops have received positive feedback and we are planning to work with the University of Sussex to evaluate their success.


• At our recruitment stage, we are working hard to challenge perceptions and encourage more applications from females

• Through re-branded recruitment materials, social media and PR, we have told strong female stories and invested in digital sites with a high traffic from females

• To ensure opportunities for females are promoted, we work closely with our Positive Action, HeForShe and wider diversity networks.

• Following this approach we have seen a 40.5% increase in females applying to be PCSOs and an overall increase of 117.3% in roles offered to females. Police officer recruitment saw a 113.8% increase in female applications in July.

33.33%32.32%

67.68% 66.67%


+1.01%


65


Thames Valley Police has established a HeForShe network across the force. Members of our network will be a point of contact for gender equality and initiate and support work that addresses gender inequalities. Superintendent Joe Kidman convenes the HeForShe network and ACC Tim De Meyer is its Chief Officer sponsor. Both are passionate about undertaking work that addresses the gender imbalances within Thames Valley Police.

The network was launched at the Senior Leaders Forum and the Women’s Network Development Day, where although traditionally attendance at this event has only been women, 20 to 30 places were given to men to allow them develop a better understanding of gender inequality issues within the force.

Parallel to the launch of the network, ACC De Meyer is the lead for Sex, Pregnancy, Marriage and Civil Partnership for the force. Through this work, he has established a clear programme of work focusing on the below areas:

• Improving care, support, provision and integration during and after pregnancy and maternity.

• Improving the success rate of female officers in promotion.

• Reducing the number of men committing gross misconduct.

• Capitalising on the surge of interest of women in detective careers by introducing a develop-ment scheme for female senior Investigating officers (SIOs).

The Sex, Pregnancy, Marriage and Civil Partnership Sub Group monitor the work and progress under the above priorities.

Updates are provided to the force’s Diversity and Inclusion Board and the work forms part of the overall Diversity Strategy for the force. The work is supported by the HeForShe network.

The HeForShe network are also in the process of introducing a ‘Gender Aware Leadership’ workshop. This workshop will identify some of the negative experiences of women in the work-place and provide practical tools to men as how to respond to these. For example, how a man can speak up to support a women in a meeting if it is clear she is being spoken over and her ideas not listened too.

Thames Valley Police

29.81%32.67%

67.33% 70.19%


-2.86%


66


We have run two, two-day Female Leadership and Team Building Days that have proved a great success with many staff going on to use their new found confidence to be promoted and seek new opportunities and responsibilities. The last event was in February 2019, with some 80 female officers and staff from our force and West Mercia Police. A Warwickshire Fire and Rescue

firefighter, eight senior officers and a business lead acted as mentors as the group headed up to Swynnerton training camp, Staffordshire, for a military activity day.

The event was also run a year earlier and a total of 160 police officers and staff have now gone through the training, as well as 16 mentors.


These team building and leadership development days were designed to challenge all participants in a controlled, fun, team environment and in a completely different way from the conventional police training that is normally undertaken. The activities were packed full of useful tips and techniques, aimed at developing individual leadership skills and team dynamics. By working with the 37th Signal Regiment, it also gave an insight into the Army Reserve and Royal Corps of Signals and the opportunities that are available. It definitely is the taking part that counts but a bit of healthy competition never goes amiss. So everyone was promptly put into four teams – green, blue, red and yellow (or “gold” depending on your allegiance).

Female business leads and senior police officers were secured to be mentors and to take responsibility to support the attendees as they worked through all the different tasks taking on various roles

(some had never had the opportunity to be lead-ers) and to debrief for reflective practice. The mentors added to the diversity and were themselves challenged, however they were each supported by a military counterpart.

WarwickshirePolice

11.11%31.33%

68.67%

88.89%


-20.21%


67


Women of West Mercia (WOW), the women’s staff network for West Mercia Police, aims to provide a support network for all women, whether officers, staff, apprentices or volunteers, and helps our women to fulfil their full potential and work with others to progress diversity issues.

The first major piece of work undertaken by WOW is the #UncoverYourPotential campaign, successfully launched in early October 2019.

We wanted to tackle general sexism within society and challenge unconscious bias, both within the force and amongst the public, regard-ing the stereotyping of certain roles in the police service. The campaign aims to encourage more women to join our force so we can build a workforce which reflects our diverse communities.

West MerciaPolice

24.56%31.64%

68.36%75.44%


• The #UncoverYourPotential campaign was produced by WOW, led by DI Liz Warner, in conjunction with students from the University of Worcester.

• The centrepiece of the campaign is an exciting video, starring officers and staff of all roles and ranks across West Mercia Police, which is fun, engaging and surprising. This was supported by posters, social media and an education pack for all primary and secondary schools across the area.

• The campaign was launched with a premiere screening of the #UncoverYourPotential video, where media were invited to meet the officers featured.

• The educational campaign provides an opportunity for students of all ages to take part in activities, including a colouring competition for younger pupils, a lesson and the opportunity to meet their local officer, police staff or PCSO.

• An inclusivity workshop was held on the same day for officers and staff, with addresses from chief officers on HeForShe advocacy and how officers and staff can play an important role as influential senior leads or change agents.

• Fiona Morden, internationally renowned for her work on diversity, inclusion and equality, provided a workshop to help identify the actions needed to propel the force forward.


-7.08%


68

West MidlandsPolice


In April 2018, we began to complete the job- related fitness test (JRFT) with tier 1 (front line) officers.

To begin with, women were failing at three-times the rate of men. The adverse impact of the fitness test on women was immediately apparent and was noted for action.

When surveyed, women reported they were often the main carers at home as well as having careers, had no time for fitness efforts or lacked confi-dence to train in the police gyms.

The JRFT is a fixed national standard, so no adjustment could be made for gender or any other protected characteristics.

Further efforts remain underway, such an Occupational Health led ‘Couch-to-5K’ training programme.

This is one of a number of initiatives we have underway. These include an ‘Aspire to Inspire’ programme for female leaders in the organisa-tion, promotion development sessions via the West Midlands Association of Women in Policing and pregnancy and maternity support being ad-dressed via our Force ‘Family Matters’ work group.


As a result, a support campaign ensued.

High profile women showcased fitness and supported the fitness test. The Chief Constable (not a Tier 1 officer) led from the front and completed his fitness test to raise the profile. Women were encouraged to attend separate (women only or individual, as required) fitness test practice sessions to assess their levels, after which health and fitness advisors provided them with bespoke training plans and re-testing to ensure a pass on the next occasion.

As a result of this, by April 2019, JRFT failure rates were much reduced overall and adverse impact for gender was within acceptable limits at 5%.

34.91%31.10%

68.90% 65.09%


+3.81%


69

West YorkshirePolice


The Independent Domestic Abuse Advisor (IDVA) Car initiative was funded through the Whole Systems Approach to domestic abuse.

The IDVA Car was trialled in Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale from January 2017 and subsequently rolled out to Wakefield and Leeds in February and March 2018. The initiative is currently funded until 31 March 2020 through the Home Office.

The purpose of the IDVA Car is to offer additional support to domestic abuse victims at the time of incident in order to help reduce repeat victimisation, it is not to take away from the existing role and response of the police.

An Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) or experienced Domestic Abuse Support Worker (DASW) attends with a police officer to explain support options and to make appropriate referrals as a secondary response. At least one IDVA Car is available in each district during peak times of domestic abuse incidents. This is usually one shift on a Friday evening to Saturday morning and a further shift on Saturday evening to Sunday morning.

Officers will attend the incident in the first instance, assess the risk, safeguard the victim and any children or vulnerable adults and take positive action at the scene. Once it is safe to do so, they will then request that the IDVA Car attend and inform the victim that a police colleague and an IDVA will attend to offer further support.

The role of the IDVA Car is to assess what support is currently in place and what additional support and services can be offered, taking into consideration the whole family. Logs attended should normally be higher risk incidents which would benefit from the support of an IDVA.

25.64%33.68%

66.32%74.36%

In addition to live cases, the IDVA car may also conduct follow up visits or Clare’sLaw disclosures.

Benefits of the IDVA Car have included an improved understanding between the police and partners, better working relationships, shared learning, a better service to victims of domestic abuse and improved safeguarding measures. There has also been praise from the courts and examples of more appropriate and victim-focused disposals.


-8.04%


70

WiltshirePolice


We are in the process of developing an internal women’s support network, named ‘Connect’.

The concept of Connect is to allow for support, development and progression through a supportive network. As an example, we have an active menopause support group offering guidance and support to individuals and line managers.

We also have an active ‘Bobby Tots’ scheme, where individuals on maternity leave are encouraged to attend with their children and keep in touch with each other, with a view of preventing isolation and distance from the organisation.

In order to ensure transparency and add value, the Connect network feeds directly into our diversity board, chaired by the Deputy Chief Constable. This board also considers wider issues such as the Gender Pay Gap, and a review piece of work is underway to consider what this means for us and how we can progress.

12.44%

34.46%

65.54%

87.56%


-22.02%


71

“We are challenging the stereotypes of women in policing

and seeking to attract more females than ever before.”

Metropolitan Police


72

Data for the 43 forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police was obtained from the Home Office report Police Workforce, England and Wales: 31 March 2019.

Police Scotland provided their own data as of 31 March 2019.

Police Service of Northern Ireland provided their own data as of 30 September 2019.

This report is inspired by the UN Women HeForShe Annual Impact Reports.

For further information please contact:

Louise CrawfordProgramme Manager HeForSheSurrey Police and Sussex Police

Mobile: +44 (0)7810 757146Email: [email protected]

Produced bySussex Police Corporate Communications 2019

Acknowledgements


73


74

Notes


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Gender Equality in UK Policing

First Annual Report

www.heforshe.org/en/commit/ukpolice

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