Warwickshire PEEL 2018
Legitimacy
How legitimately does the force treat the public and its workforce?
To what extent does the force treat all of the people it serves with fairness and respect?
The force needs to improve some elements of public treatment.
The force’s work with communities informs its decisions about local priorities and activity, as well as some decisions at a strategic level. It works well with IAGs and communicates well with communities. But few members of the workforce have received specific communications skills training. And the force does not give frontline staff bespoke training to help them communicate effectively.
The workforce’s training in both use of force and stop and search needs to be timely and up to date. Current systems do not ensure that the workforce is trained well enough in use of force. The force could also use the IAG network to scrutinise its use of force.
Areas for improvement
- The force should review its arrangements for training, monitoring and independently scrutinising how force is used.
- The force should ensure that all relevant officers and staff have in-date personal safety training.
- The force should review the training of effective communication techniques to best equip the workforce with the necessary skills to achieve its community engagement ambitions.
How well does the force ensure that its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully?
Warwickshire Police makes sure that its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully. It maintains an ethical culture, and shares and discusses ethical dilemmas with officers and staff. Force leaders act as role models and chief officers have worked hard to improve performance in this area.
The force has an effective approach towards tackling corruption, although it is reliant on the limited analysis that is available from the anti-corruption unit (ACU). All members of the workforce need to be aware of the risk of abuse of position for a sexual purpose.
Areas for improvement
- The force should ensure that its counter-corruption unit has enough capability and capacity to tackle corruption effectively and proactively and that it can fully monitor all of its computer systems, including mobile data, to proactively identify data breaches, protect the force’s data and identify computer misuse.
- The force should continue to improve knowledge and understanding across the workforce of the abuse of position for a sexual purpose.
To what extent does the force treat its workforce with fairness and respect?
Warwickshire Police is good at treating its workforce fairly. But it could do more to raise confidence in the effectiveness of its grievance process.
The force has a vision of a representative workforce by 2025, and it is working to attract more black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) applicants.
The force has a clear focus on workforce health and wellbeing. It prioritises mental health along with physical health. Staff spoke positively about various initiatives that are in place.
The force is working to make sure that its assessment, development and management of individual staff and officer performance are consistent.
Areas for improvement
- Individual performance reviews and processes for talent identification should be consistently and fairly applied across the workforce. Poor performance should be managed consistently. In this way these processes will be more valued by the workforce.
- Suitable training and support should be provided to supervisors so that they are fully equipped and confident to manage the performance and development of their staff, including effectively managing poor performance and identifying talent. The force should also create sufficient capacity for supervisors to manage performance.
- Promotion and selection processes should be made accessible and transparent to the workforce so that they are perceived to be fair.