Dyfed-Powys PEEL 2017

Dyfed-Powys Police works hard to ensure it treats all the people it serves with fairness and respect. Leaders demonstrate a commitment to treating the people they serve fairly and with respect, which is reflected in the workforce’s own understanding. Officers and staff understand the importance of unconscious bias and how to use their coercive powers fairly and respectfully. However, it should do more to ensure the workforce understands the importance of effective communication skills – and how to apply them. The force has made adequate arrangements to scrutinise its use of powers and seeks external challenge to improve the way that it treats people. However, it should do more to ensure that its IAG better represents the communities it serves, particularly young people. The force also needs to improve the way it records and monitors its use of stop and search powers.

Dyfed-Powys Police is good at ensuring that its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully. The new chief officer team has made it clear to the workforce that they need to improve standards by doing the “basics brilliantly”. This includes acting in an ethical manner at all times. The force encourages its leaders to be good ethical role models in line with the force’s values of integrity, objectivity and honesty. Generally, the workforce consider the ethical implications of their decisions. However HMICFRS found that the role and purpose of the ethics committee was not widely understood. For example, some cases were referred inappropriately to the ethics committee, which suggests the force does not yet fully understand what constitutes an ethical dilemma. The force has a large vetting backlog. However, it is taking positive action to clear the backlog by 2019 and has a credible plan for achieving this. Dyfed-Powys Police makes it easy for members of the public to complain but needs to do more to update both complainants and those subject to complaints. HMICFRS also found that not all complainants received the level of additional support they need. On a more positive note HMICFRS found the force identifies and responds to discrimination appropriately and at the earliest opportunity. We found also that allegations had been investigated in accordance with the IPCC guidelines for handling allegations of discrimination.

Dyfed-Powys Police requires improvement in some aspects of treating its workforce with fairness and respect. The force has made some progress since 2015, when we found that officers and staff did not feel able consistently to challenge decisions or inappropriate behaviour. In 2017, we found the workforce felt confident about challenging its leaders and that wellbeing was a priority for the leadership. The force is good especially at taking early, preventive action to improve staff wellbeing. Dyfed-Powys Police is also making determined efforts to manage grievances effectively, maintain open communication and identify opportunities for their early resolution. However, the force needs to do more to ensure that the grievance process is understood and perceived as fair and transparent. HMICFRS was disappointed to find that attempts to improve the diversity of the workforce have not succeeded in terms of BAME representation. We hope the changes made in the chief officer group and the appointment of a positive action officer will bring about rapid changes to the current disproportionality, and that, in future, BAME representation will more closely reflect the diversity of the local population. In 2016, HMICFRS recommended that the force improve its management of individual performance so we were pleased that the force has re-introduced an annual appraisal process. However, at the time of the inspection, few officers had benefited fully from the new system, and some officers still have not received an annual appraisal for ‘many years’. The force also needs to improve the ways in which it identifies potential senior leaders through its talent management scheme and the promotion process. The entire workforce needs a better understanding of the processes, which must be subject to independent scrutiny at all stages of the application process.