Gwent PEEL 2016

Gwent Police fully recognises the importance of treating the public it serves with fairness and respect and has made it a priority in its vision and values, which are clear and well articulated. The Code of Ethics is familiar to staff across the organisation. The force promotes the Code of Ethics by using ethical dilemmas to prompt discussion and debate.

The force regularly seeks feedback from the public through its Your Voice scheme and its web tool Rate our Service. It meets the independent advisory group every month to explore ways to improve public trust and confidence.

The force is good at acting on learning and has a management board that identifies and manages learning from a range of sources.

Gwent Police conducts recruitment vetting for new people entering the organisation; however, it has not yet vetted all of the people in designated roles who require a higher level of vetting. There are also backlogs of staff who require re-vetting.

The chief officer team and professional standards department regularly reinforce standards of behaviour using a variety of methods. The force held briefings across the organisation after the dismissal of an officer for sexual misconduct.

The force has an anti-corruption unit that effectively identifies threats to the organisation. For example, Operation Erasure provides the opportunity to identify members of the workforce who may pose a risk with regard to predatory sexual behaviour. The force has a management board made up of key stakeholders which uses management information to identify risks and threats to the integrity of the organisation.

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 – Gwent Police

Gwent Police frequently seeks the views of its staff through established methods of engagement.

The force has a well-established health and wellbeing strategy that is supported by a range of practical measures to promote health and wellbeing. The workforce recognises the value of this. The force also undertakes preventative work in order to improve workforce wellbeing.

The force has recently introduced an individual performance assessment process and as yet is unable to provide evidence on whether this is operating effectively. The new system requires face-to-face meetings to take place and evidence to be recorded around three identified areas: public confidence, customer satisfaction and performance.