Item 3.3

Bi-Annual Equality, Diversity and INCLUSION - Presented by Katy Miller/ ACC David Duncan

Members considered the bi-annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) employment update to Committee.  The report covers the period from 1 October 2022 – 31 March 2023.  In addition to the submitted report the following was discussed.

• The Chair reflected that as the papers for this meeting had been submitted prior to the recent statement made by the Chief Constable in respect of institutional discrimination in policing, Members would be seeking understand what would be different following the comments by the Chief and how the committee will see these changes taken forward.
• ACC Duncan who leads the Policing Together Portfolio of work explained to Members that the Chief’s comments not only identified the challenges facing Police Scotland but also highlights the progress made. The change that will be seen going forward, is the recent announcement by the Chief will give new impetus to the work already underway through the Policing Together portfolio.
• ACC Duncan provided a brief overview of the report and restated the commitment to further improve the reporting to the Committee so that there was appropriate and meaningful oversight of trends, insights and evidence of improvement for the workforce.
• In response to a question about whether work was planned to systematically review all the past and current activity to identify areas in which discrimination may be present, ACC Duncan confirmed work to assess this would commence soon and at pace with a prioritisation exercise would be completed first to make sure priority areas were addressed.
• Members sought clarity on what oversight would be in place for the improvement activity and it was confirmed by the ACC that the existing governance structure would be in place with regular updates being provided to this committee.
• Higher resignation rates of staff to officers were raised as an area of interest, and it was noted by Members that further detail would be provided to give a better understanding of any specific reasons for this being the case. Adding to this, the Director of P&D explained that part of the planned activity with exit interviews and resignations was to improve the quality of data and insights that was collected from leavers so that the organisation can understand why people and leaving, and once these drivers are identified, plan interventions to fix problem areas.  Members welcomed an assurance that effort would be made to capture feedback from individuals before they resigned or decided to leave as this would also be important information to make changes and improvements.
• The Committee discussed the need to have a clearly stated objectives in place for activity to ensure a tracking of whether objectives are being met and if not, how changes can be made to better progress towards the aims.
• Members also asked that consideration be given to how the information would be reported and how the Committees and Board can effectively scrutinise the impact of the activity.
• Recognising the importance of all equality, diversity and inclusion work it was agreed that there would be a need to prioritise the work going forward to ensure a focus on delivering against objectives for the areas that are highest priority.
• Regarding vetting, it was agreed that the committee would consider the findings of work that is being done to understand the reasons for failures in vetting requirements and what, if any trends can be identified. It is the intention that, through a proactive approach, these vetting requirements which may be creating a barrier for applicants can be identified and where possible addressed.
• An assurance was sought that all the different areas of the organisation would be aligned to the overall objectives of Policing Together. ACC Duncan assured the Committee that the Policing Together portfolio was committed to ensuring the work will be done in a joined-up way and this will be regularly tested to ensure it remains linked across the portfolios of activity.  The DCO explained that consideration would be given to greater involvement of senior civilian staff as this should bring consistency sue to the nature of policing means that officers may often move to other areas at short notice with a loss of corporate memory for that project.  It was explained this would go some way to ensure better stickability.
• The Committee welcomed a commitment from Trade Union colleagues who would be keen to work with PS colleagues to ensure the work to improve the quality of information taken from Exit Interviews is as good as it can be.

 Members noted the report and agreed the following actions:

 PEOPLE-20230531-004 Recruitment and Protected Characteristic Impact:  Report to be brought to the Committee which,

- Provides analysis of data and insight into disproportionate impact on protected characteristics throughout the recruitment process.  (As per discussion at committee this should include vetting and assurances that no groups are being unfairly impacted.)

 PEOPLE-20230531-005:  Assurance to be given to committee that follow up discussions have taken place with Staff Associations and Trade Union colleagues to explore trends and patterns in the reasons given by those who have exited the organisation.