Progress with new conduct regs – but more needs to be done

2 February 2021

The Force is making slow progress in embedding the culture of learning and development that was at the heart of the new conduct regulations when they were launched a year ago, says the Federation’s conduct lead.

But George McDonnell, while acknowledging the progress that has been made, says Reflective Practice (RP) is not used anywhere near as much as the Federation feels it should be and that more training on the new regulations is needed for both managers and officers.

“I do believe the Force is making slow progress but I have to emphasise the word slow,” George explains.

“The new conduct regulations came into play in February 2020 and the request for these to be used or in the spirit of learning and development rather than sanction and punishment was made a considerable time before then.

“However, despite that, last year was our busiest on record in terms of the service of Regulation Notices and conduct proceedings.

“There was, on the whole, little evidence that RP was used anywhere near as much as we believe it should have been.”

The new regulations give officers the chance to undertake RP with their line manager if their performance requires improvement. This enables a discussion to take place around how the issue can be avoided in the future. The overall aim is that what happened is accepted, lessons are learned and then people can move forward. It should eliminate the need for punitive action for minor issues.

As well as introducing RP, the new regs also introduced a higher threshold for disciplinary action meaning that conduct proceedings should only be triggered if the wrongdoing warrants at least a written warning. Low-level outcomes were removed.

The harsher outcomes would then be balanced by the fact that more officers would be diverted away from the conduct area and only more serious matters would be escalated.

Where RP has been used, George says officers have benefited in terms of their matter having being dealt with expediently, hence saving them the stress of having to go through the misconduct process.

The Federation is continuing to push for RP to be used where it believes it should have been implemented.

But, George believes part of the reason for the limited use of RP is that many managers simply don’t know how or when to implement the new regs or understand where or why RP may be applicable.

“I can’t see any evidence as to the ethos of the new regulations being fully embedded and neither can the rest of the Federation’s conduct reps. This is because the evidence is just not there,” he explains.

“A better understanding of RP is vital as is training for both managers and officers. This would include education around accepting we sometimes get it wrong and it is OK to admit that and make it right.

“Being more open to change is key and messaging around RP would be helpful as officers still feel the use of the misconduct stick is still in play.”

Despite the need for this training and the slow progress to date, George acknowledges that there have been improvements in terms of Force support for officers’ wellbeing and also with updates, though again he feels this still needs to go further.

He adds: “There have been improvements with communications coming from both the Professional Standards Department and the Independent Office for Police Conduct. Again, the hope is this will continue and this can only be a positive.”

In terms of an overall rating for progress with the new regs, George awards a four or five out of 10 and says both PSD and the IOPC need to embody RP far more often than they are doing right now.

He concluded: “My wishlist would be a more confident approach in dealing with RP with managers taking the time to deal with the situations placed before them by their officers and not looking to deal with so many of these at the higher level.”