Thames Valley PEEL 2016

Thames Valley Police’s approach to the Code of Ethics is excellent. The workforce is very well aware of the code and its content and it is included in training courses. The force has a proactive approach to dealing with problems such as incivility, and we saw good examples of action taken to tackle the high number of complaints in a specific local policing area.

The force has an independent panel that holds it to account in respect of complaints, ethics and integrity. It has acted on feedback from this group and external reviews to improve the fair and respectful treatment of the public, including people who have been detained by the force and those from groups with less trust and confidence in the police. Misconduct hearings are held in public and the results are published, but the force could do more to communicate more regularly with its workforce about actions taken.

During our inspection we found that Thames Valley Police is committed to the highest standards of behaviour; the workforce is generally aware of acceptable standards of behaviour and reports suspected wrongdoing to the PSD. While we have identified that the force needs to improve in this area, this is because of its systems that need to improve, as opposed to being a comment about the force’s overall approach, its commitment to tackling corruption or its ethos.

The force has effective initial vetting processes in place for new staff joining the organisation; however, it has taken a conscious decision not to complete routine re-vetting. The force thus does not comply with current national vetting guidelines. The force makes very good use of the opportunities presented by training to reinforce the Code of Ethics and the required standards of acceptable behaviour. Officers and staff are aware of the processes for declaring business interests and notifiable associations and the force intervenes appropriately when corruption is identified. However, the force needs to improve how it gathers information about potential police corruption from external agencies and from its IT systems. It also needs to do more to ensure that its workforce fully understands the lessons identified by the force as results of misconduct cases. The force should also reassure itself that all officers and staff understand the signs that indicate sexually predatory behaviour among their colleagues.

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 – Thames Valley Police

The force is to be commended for the investment it has made in understanding the workforce perceptions of fair and respectful treatment in a number of ways. The main way is through the staff survey that it has carried out twice in conjunction with the University of Durham to identify issues about fair and respectful treatment of its workforce, and to track the success of subsequent improvements it has made. However the force needs to encourage more of its workforce to value participating in the survey and to publicise its benefits.

The force monitors other data around fair treatment and has an excellent focus on workforce wellbeing, particularly around mental health, with supervisors who are trained to recognise warning signs of potential mental health problems. It responds well to issues raised by its workforce, although HMIC found some people working in high-demand areas who would benefit from more regular communication about how the force was responding to issues related to pressure of work.

The force has made a significant investment in its PDR system, which it links to other human resources processes such as transfers, promotion and work-based assessments. The rate of completion of PDRs is very high, but the force needs to do more to convince officers and staff of the value of the process.