NPCC Police Race Action Plan: 4 Key Themes for Policing's L&D Decision Makers
Ellie Pyemont
?? Helping Teams & Organisations Adapt, Embed Knowledge & Scale Impact ?? Strategic Learning | Fractional Leadership | Change & Knowledge Transformation ?? Co-Owner, Enlighten | Charity Treasurer & Trustee | Swim Teacher
The joint College of Policing and NPCC Police Race Action Plan is a long-awaited and cornerstone plan. We have read the plan in detail from a learning and development point of view. In this article, I share my takeaways for L&D leaders across policing.
The NPCC Police Race Action Plan includes 66 Mentions of Learning, Training, Skills, CPD, Coaching or Mentoring
The College of Policing and NPCC Police Race Action Plan has 4 workstreams: Represented, Not over-policed, Involved and Not under-protected against victimisation. Learning, development, skills and training feature in all workstreams.
An Ever-Stronger Link between L&D and Operational Outcomes
The NPCC Police Race Action Plan shows how central L&D leaders are to what happens at the operational frontline, particularly in the Not under-protected workstream. Specifically, the plan sets out actions for training review, development and practice with regard to ensuring the most appropriate services are provided to people and their families within Black communities who are:
The College of Policing and NPCC Police Race Action Plan commits to joint working in these four central areas of operational practice. They wish to ensure all police personnel have 'knowledge, training and understanding of how to deliver the most appropriate service'.
This part of the workstream supports the direct link between training quality and operational outcomes, in central areas of high-harm, high-vulnerability, and high-complexity policing.
Faster Iteration of Organisational Learning Processes
The plan sets out the need for a faster loop between identifying organisational learning and getting that learning back out across the organisation. The action plan refers to these as learning processes. Accountability, scrutiny and supervision are key drivers for these learning processes.
We believe this means finding ways to embed micro and social learning into organisations. Acting to share learning quickly, easily and in an engaging way that resonates. Accredited training, co-produced curriculum design and national mandatory training are all part of the plan (specifically with regard to the legitimate use of powers and quality decision-making).
Nevertheless, a key takeaway is that learning processes from operational events can't wait for the national review and curriculum cycle for sharing, scaling and embedding. Furthermore, the involvement of non-policing organisations is a central theme of the plan.
This part of the action supports the need for multi-model learning. Through this, organisations can actively reduce friction for accessing and engaging in learning content; making learning something that happens 'every day, here'.
Embedding of a Data-Led Approach
The NPCC Police Race Action Plan commits to learning from data, particularly in reference to the use of force and stop and search. With data mentioned 57 times in the action plan in total, data-led operational learning is central. There is also a commitment to publish national training data on an annual basis.
As Chief Constable Lucy D'Orsi QPM says in her reflections on the plan, the importance of being data-led cannot be overstated:
If we don’t understand and accept what the data is telling us, nothing will change. I worry that there are some who simply don’t want to know what the data is telling us, so don’t seek it. We will make that impossible through digestible, consistent and transparent national reporting so that the public can hold us to account for how we use the powers we are entrusted with.
Chief Constable Lucy D'Orsi QPM, BTP News Post, 24th May 2022
National Plan Supported by Local Audit & Self-Assessment Processes
Understanding where your service is now, and having a plan of where you want to be are crucial for your Learning and Development Strategy, and alignment with the NPCC Police Race Action Plan. As the plan sets out the national intention for review of Authorised Professional Practice, forces will be expected to know where they are in relation to the national APP and the mandatory training, and to ensure that their local training provision meets the revised APP. There will be national training on key themes such as historical understanding and ongoing impact and trauma of disproportionality, peer challenge and active bystandership.
The key takeaway for us is that local L&D teams will be managing a lot of audit processes, data and, in all likelihood, unstructured learning data. Getting set up with workflows that work for you and your team to manage that 'local to national' flow of information will enable L&D to thrive and drive the action plan locally. Understanding your 'as is' situation, and then developing a readiness plan for your 'to be' are activities that can be got underway now, if not already in full swing. Having your L&D activity tied together under your Learning and Development Strategy, and aligned to the NPCC Police Race Action Plan, will pay dividends in the future. Automation, streamlining and removal of silos can all assist with this readiness process.
Wrapping up...
In conclusion, the College of Policing and NPCC Police Race Action Plan is required reading for L&D professionals within policing. We hope we've helped you by picking out 4 key takeaways across the four workstreams:
These are four themes which equally apply to other essential areas of police learning and can bring true alignment of L&D with operational outcomes and improvement.
If any of the above resonated with you, we'd love to discuss the action plan with you and your local L&D plans.
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