Creating and managing an inclusive workplace with the Met Police

About Protection Command

The Protection Command is a part of Specialist Operations within the London Metropolitan Police. The division is made up of around 250 officers and civilian staff and has two main branches:

• Royal and Specialist Protection (RaSP) - provides Close Protection, armed motorcycle protection via the Special Escort Group (SEG) and armed security for members of the royal family, prime minister, other government ministers and visiting heads of state.  

• Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP) – provides armed and unarmed protection of embassies, missions and the parliamentary estate as well as being responsible for access control and security at Downing Street and Scotland Yard. They also provide residential protection for high-profile government ministers.

The Challenge

Following the Casey Report it was identified that there are some cultural issues to be addressed across the whole force and that whilst RaSP performed its duties in a world-class manner there were some problems with envy and greed driving the allocation of duties. In the light of high profile cases of Met Officers abusing their position and status, it was felt that training and support was needed for Sergeants and Inspectors to help them create and manage an inclusive work environment. This is all set against the backdrop of staff and officers having to employ extreme coping strategies to manage their human responses to what they witness and experience, which may involve unhealthy ways of managing the impact of the work. How do we ensure that we are appropriate, boundaried, inclusive spaces for officers and staff to process the impact of their experiences at work whilst not colluding with behaviours that may look like coping strategies to one person and at the same time be seen as abusive and inappropriate by others?

Police training has a reputation of being didactic and sometimes punitive in its style. Police officers and staff have to engage with a lot of training, and much of that training only achieves low marks in evaluation. We were prepared to meet a lot of people with low motivation for their work, training, change and with a mistrust of senior leaders.

Our solution

We decided to introduce an ‘ask don’t tell’ approach with a potentially resistant group of delegates.

Our solution was to offer Inspectors and Sergeants awareness and skills-based training which was designed to give them a better understanding of what an inclusive environment might look and feel like and then discuss ways to achieve and manage that. Co-produced with RaSP, we gave participants an introduction to a number of psychological theories, executive functioning and the impact of trauma on human beings. We then gave people a chance to think about how that knowledge might help them to manage their colleagues and peers in a psychologically informed way. 

These sessions were delivered to all RaSP staff and also to the RaSP SLT (senior leadership team).

The Impact

At the beginning of the training sessions we had a lot of people who really didn’t want to be there, who are incredibly good at what they do and definitely didn’t need to be told how to do their jobs. By working with them and facilitating discussion around the subject matter we created a space where people could be more honest about their experiences and inclusion blind spots, to talk about the impact of trauma on their work and their lives. We were also able to encourage realistic discussions about how to ensure we invite officers and staff to take responsibility for their mental health and well-being as well as their attitudes, beliefs and behaviour in the workplace and beyond. By the end of every session people left more open to the approach, less suspicious and with theories and understanding to apply, skills to try and a clear message that culture change doesn’t occur if we do nothing. Directly or indirectly, we all have a responsibility to ensure we are contributing to an inclusive and supportively challenging workplace.

To evaluate the process we asked two questions: Would you recommend this training to a colleague? If no, why not?

The responses were that over 90% of all participants would recommend the training to a colleague and we have worked with those that wouldn’t to understand more about how we could have improved their experience.

That said, to have such a positive response from so many cynical, training-fatigued cops is very encouraging. The next steps are to roll this out wider in the Met and to continue this training in other forces across the UK.