Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 89
89
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 592
College of Policing's anti-racism training and recommendations uptake inadequate
Conclusion
The College of Policing has an important role to play in providing training, guidance and standards for police forces to follow. Although it has developed training and guidance on stop and search, it has not played a strong enough role in ensuring that officer training is focused specifically on anti-racism in addition to diversity and unconscious bias. We would like to see recommendations made by the College of Policing taken up consistently across police forces, so that opportunities to improve standards and practices are not lost.
Government Response Summary
The government supports the College of Policing's role in training and commits to supporting the College and NPCC by autumn 2024 to review and improve police officer training in areas like de-escalation skills and conflict management.
Paragraph Reference:
592
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The College and police forces are responsible for developing and delivering quality training that meets the varied needs of police officers and staff to ensure that they can best engage with, support and protect our communities. The Home Office supports the College’s ambitions to continuously review and improve guidance and training on offer for police forces. As part of this, police officers need training that helps them engage with all the communities they serve. We already see some aspects of training on community engagement or particular protected characteristics available as part of the training offer to police officers and support staff. Many training programmes, such as the Fast-Track programmes, Senior Leadership Development curricular and the new Police Education Qualification Framework entry routes, emphasise the importance of diversity, equality, and inclusion. Training on the use of police powers also provides guidance on their best and appropriate use, and training on conflict management is also provided. However, the Home Office agrees with the Committee that more work needs to be done to understand the consistency of the training available across forces in England and Wales. The importance of training was stressed in the independent CRED report and as part of the ‘Inclusive Britain’ response, the Home Office has committed to supporting the College and the NPCC by autumn 2024 to review and deliver any necessary improvements to police officer training in de-escalation skills and conflict management in everyday police-citizen encounters, such as use of stop and search and use of force powers. Both the NPCC and the College have also co-developed, with policing stakeholders, a new ‘Race Action Plan’ which outlines a series of measures to improve policing and secure the confidence of black people, both within policing and the public. Across policing including forces, the College and NPCC, there is a drive to ensure officers guidance and training reflects the needs of both the police and the communities they service.