Gloucestershire PEEL 2016

The force has well-embedded, clearly defined and well-understood values and behaviours. These values and behaviours link to the values and behaviours set out in the Code of Ethics.

The chief constable has invested a considerable amount of effort into developing and maintaining an ethical culture across the organisation.

HMIC found evidence that the workforce have a good understanding of the force’s values and ethics. The Code of Ethics is well known and understood throughout the organisation. Staff surveys are carried out regularly, allowing the force to understand how the workforce views public service, fairness and respect.

The force strives to seek feedback and identify those issues and areas that have the greatest impact on people’s perceptions of fair and respectful treatment. However, the force does not have an engagement and communications strategy. The Channel Management Project began in January 2016 and is in the early stages of development.

The force publishes and publicises the learning from serious case reviews, domestic homicide reviews and IPCC investigations.

The force requires improvement in the way it ensures staff behave ethically and lawfully. It has well-developed processes for maintaining an ethical culture and complies with the national police vetting policy, which it does to a good standard.

The force clarifies and continues to reinforce acceptable and unacceptable standards of behaviour. For example, weekly communications from the chief constable include the force values and a link to the Code of Ethics.

The force identifies and monitors the risks to the organisation from its own staff, but could improve the way it audits systems for signs of suspicious behaviour. The force was developing a counter-corruption strategy to provide a more structured framework for identifying and prioritising risk at the time of the inspection. However, the force does not have any specific process, other than its standard practices, to address the abuse of power for sexual gain.

There is no overall governance structure in place and no central co-ordination of lessons learned. Oversight meetings between the professional standards department, the anti-corruption unit and the force’s appropriate authority have not been held recently. This poses a risk to the force.

Gross misconduct cases are publicised on the website, as are details of misconduct hearings involving officers, but cases involving police staff are not automatically publicised. The website also holds information on gifts and hospitality offered to officers, including chief officers, and staff.

In our 2016 national overview of police legitimacy, we recommended that all forces should have started to implement a plan to achieve the capability and capacity required to seek intelligence on potential abuse of position for sexual gain. In 2017, we reviewed of the plans put in place by all forces to in response to this recommendation.

Abuse of position assessment – Gloucestershire Constabulary

The force requires improvement in respect of fair and respectful treatment of its workforce. While it undertakes both annual and quarterly staff surveys, staff we spoke to remain unclear of the lessons learned and what actions have been taken as a result.

The anonymous section of the force-wide online staff forum on which staff can voice opinions has been closed and the live chat facility stopped, resulting in a significant drop-off in posts and concerns expressed by some of the workforce regarding transparency.

The force has a ‘fairness at work’ process to manage grievances and has seen a considerable increase in such issues being registered in the past 12 months. While, in general, those we spoke to had confidence in the process, the force acknowledges that not all the workforce perceive it as being fair and effective.

The force has a wellbeing board, and wellbeing is a key element of the force’s ‘people’ objective within their strategic business plan. There is a regular reporting process, which provides an opportunity to identify issues early, and a range of options for welfare support, which managers understand well.

The force’s performance assessment process for officers and staff could be more effective. An internal force assessment identified that it is not used consistently for staff development or at all as part of the promotion process, and it is regarded as adding little value in terms of promotion, appraisal or development.