SESSIONS LEADERSHIP IN POLICING


PFEW and College of Policing look at past mistakes and moving towards new path


Paul Matthews, PFEW professional development lead, took an examined look at the failings of current and historic police leadership in the session sponsored by the College of Policing. He shone a light on the lack of a supportive, compassionate, loyal and inspiring leadership in police forces today up and down England and Wales. He also noted the Baroness Casey Review highlighted the absence of clear structures, systems, expectations and two-way communication in policing allowed for poor cultures to grow. Paul argued this can only change with


fundamental reform that can challenge old cultures and embed new cultures. But as Paul pointed out, much of Casey’s work has largely been ignored by senior leaders who have focused on the extremes her work highlighted and not the more mundane failings in leadership she went to great length to expose. Policing cannot sack its way out of a crisis but must now look to replace those under


whose watch failings and poor culture has been allowed to embed, he added. He rightly asked the questions on how


this has been allowed to happen, looking at recruitment, vetting, management, training and promotion within a culture in which poor performance, behaviours and attitudes have been allowed to go unchallenged. Ray Clare, head of leadership and progression at the College of Policing (CoP), focused on the future of leadership and what the College, in partnership with PFEW, is doing to ensure great improvement going forward. CoP has set up a National Centre


for Police Leadership (NCPL) with the immediate aims of setting clear national standards for leadership at all levels, something that can act as the benchmark for leadership performance across policing; equal to this is to provide leadership development opportunities for all in policing and further, to develop the function of the leadership centre as a centre of excellence


that builds a positive leadership culture. The principal areas of work the NCPL will look at, Ray explained, are leadership standards, leadership development for everyone, promotion and progression, talent development and the sharing of good practice.


The College will work closely with


PFEW and other staff associations to ensure dedicated support throughout for the successful implementation of these development programmes. There exists key initiatives that are in various states of progress. Already being implemented are the adoption of new national leadership standards, an integrated Police Leadership Programme, locally and nationally, and reform of chief officer development and progression programmes.


MISOGYNY: NO LONGER A FORBIDDEN WORD


Sue Honeywill, PFEW women in policing co-lead, opened the session by laying out the current landscape of British policing and the prevalence of misogyny. “We cannot get away from the fact there have been far too many instances of misogyny and sexism involving some members of the police service, fire service and armed forces in recent years,” she said. “There has been an acknowledgement


and acceptance there is an issue. This is a big step forward for policing.” To begin with, the session focussed on the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to prevent victims sharing their stories and experiences. A recent FoI submitted by PFEW has


revealed between 2017 and 2022, at least 243 NDAs have been handed out – with Durham Constabulary being the only force which has disclosed it is no longer using them.


10 | POLICE | SPECIAL EDITION | 2023


Session acknowledges what has gone wrong, focussing on changing culture and restoring trust


When asked about the issues surrounding


NDAs, Women in Policing co-Lead Belinda Goodwin said: “This is real, it was only really when we started looking because of the behaviours we had been seeing that we discovered how NDAs are being used.” Belinda commented on how the use


of NDAs are slowing the progress made against changing the culture of misogyny, as silence prevents learning from taking place. The Federation is calling on chief


constables to cease the use of NDAs designed to silence victims and conceal unacceptable behaviour. Kathryn Billing, chief fire officer for Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service, the service’s first ever female chief who gave her experiences of misogyny within the fire service. “There is an absolute acceptance across the National Fire Chiefs’ Council that we


must address it,” she said. “We find that non-disclosure agreements are quite prohibitive in the context of learning.” Also on the panel was ITV 1 Wales News presenter Justina Simpson who shared her work on investigating misogyny in the fire service.


“I am currently speaking to six women who


are being silenced with NDAs. There is one case where a woman was paid £40,000 to protect a senior fire officer (…) they are only interested in protecting their reputation.” Sue shared more on the support offered by PFEW to its members, adding: “We need to make sure all our members know we are here as a Federation to support them. “We want professional standards


departments to directly refer victims to their local Federation for support from trained reps. We have equality reps that are specially trained to deal with these cases.”


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