Positive Action
What is it?
There are lots of misconceptions about positive action - that we’re more interested in someone’s characteristics than their ability, that people will get bonus marks for being from a minority or that we aren’t interested in recruiting white males.
These are all wrong.
So what is positive
action?
‘Positive action’ is the term for initiatives
we put in place to help people from certain backgrounds become and
succeed as police officers. We want our force to represent the
community it serves.
The key word here is ‘help’. In reality it is a simple gesture to provide support and encouragement, so can be holding merely holding a workshop for people from a certain background to dispel myths and help with their confidence or providing mentors for new recruits.
What protected characteristics are disproportionately
low in policing?
The answer, in short, is probably
very many. It is likely that we are not proportionately represented
by people from the LGBT community or people with disabilities
however we cannot evidence that shortfall and it would not be legal
to take positive action based on guess work. We can clearly
evidence that we are underrepresented by black and minority ethnic
(BME) and female Officers as 90% identify as white and 84% as
male.
What are we doing and
why?
Let’s start with why. We want a workforce that
represents the community it serves. We’ve actually made great
progress towards achieving this and we are proud that British
Transport Police has the second highest proportion of BME Officers
after the Met. This is not an insignificant achievement but neither
is it ‘job done’ for improving diversity.
Diversity matters. Diversity helps us to build bridges between the police and groups who traditionally feel disconnected from us. This speaks to the public’s trust and confidence in the police; it speaks to the ability for a young black male to feel that we will treat him fairly or for a woman to feel confident reporting a sexual assault to us. These are serious issues and we do not shy away from addressing them and nor should we.
Despite that seriousness, the action we take is actually quite subtle. We hold workshops aimed at BMEs and females to dispel common myths about policing, give the candidates a good idea of what to expect from the job and the recruitment process and help them feel confident to apply. Should these candidates fall out of that process we contact them to understand why and, in some cases, provide development where they fell short, encouraging them to reapply again in the future. Regardless of their characteristics, everyone has to meet the same rigorous standards and every application, test and interview is scored on its own individual merits alone and absolutely no other factors.
It’s important for all applicants to
understand and value the importance of a workforce that represents
the community it serves but it’s equally as important that people
understand what positive action is and isn’t because we don’t want
anyone to feel as though they are excluded from policing based on
who they are.
FAQs
Is positive action
legal?
Yes, of course. We are a police force and it’s
vital that we uphold the law. Positive action is endorsed by
Sections 158 and 159 of Equality Act 2010.
How do you define what an
underrepresented group is?
We know who works for us
as this data is provided by our own staff. If we have a much lower
representation of a particular group within BTP than there is in
the general public then we know they are underrepresented. We can
evidence that women and black and ethnic minorities are
underrepresented within BTP as compared to national statistics.
There is a great deal of this information available on this
Home Office
website.
Surely other groups are also
underrepresented? Why don’t you use positive action to help
them?
Yes, it is quite likely that we are
underrepresented by other groups. However it’s really important
that we can provide evidence of this underrepresentation so that we
are acting in a way which is fair, transparent and legal. At
present, we can only properly evidence that women and BMEs are
underrepresented within BTP.
Do you explain how to pass the
assessment process to underrepresented groups?
No,
definitely not. The support we provide is good but generic and is
more about building confidence in the individual that they will be
welcome to work for BTP. It would undermine our assessment process
to explain how to pass it so we would never do that – whoever you
are.
Is it an advantage to be from an
underrepresented group?
No. Whilst we proactively
approach female and BME candidates to encourage them to apply to
BTP and answer their questions we will answer everyone’s questions
and encourage anyone, whoever they are, to get in touch if they
need our support.