Investing brings benefits for Strathclyde Police and public

Another police force that is no stranger to the Investor in People (IiP) journey is Strathclyde. The Scottish force was the first in the UK to achieve IiP status, receiving the award in 1995. Police Professional spoke to Shirley Andrews, Head of Force Training, about Strathclyde’s continuous application of the IiP principles since 1995 and their embedded improvement agenda.

Strathclyde Police has responsibility for a resident population of more than two million people who live in an area that extends from rural Argyll in the north to the lowland farming communities of Ayrshire in the south, and from the islands of the Inner Hebrides in the west to the industrial areas of Lanarkshire in the east.

Shirley Andrews, Head of Force Training for Strathclyde, is well aware that policing the region brings many challenges: “Although the force has its headquarters in Glasgow, the bulk of force personnel work in the surrounding areas,” said Shirley.

“The diverse nature of the force area means that all members of staff are required to undertake varied roles and responsibilities in seeking to fulfil our mission statement, which is to deliver the highest possible standards of people, investing in community needs, expectations and concerns in a professional, caring and sensitive manner.

“With a staff of approximately 11,000 police and civilian force support officers, Strathclyde Police is the largest force in Scotland in terms of personnel numbers, and the third largest in the UK,” she added.

Shirley believes that there have been very real benefits for both the force and the community it serves from applying the IiP principles. “The journey to becoming an Investor in People began in the early 1990s, stemming from a consultancy report on the effectiveness of the force and the recommendation that, as the training and development opportunities then in place were very much in line with the IIP principles, it would be worthwhile seeking formal recognition as an Investor in People. Recognition had the added bonus of allowing the force to benchmark its own development programmes against the IiP national standard.

“The decision was taken that the force, as a whole, would seek IiP accreditation in order that the benefits this would bring could be applied to all members of staff. This led to the appointment of a Force Steering Group that maintained a high level overview of the process, working along with a group of officers whose task was to review all of the training and development issues across the force.

“It was recognised that the IiP national standard had application for all types of organisations, both in the public and private sectors, and that meeting the standard would have a positive impact on one of the fundamental tenets of the force – providing a quality service to members of the public.”

The continuous improvement agenda now in place within Strathclyde is evidence of the entrenched policy IIP establishes. Describing current activities, Shirley said: “The next stage for IIP is to ensure that it is rooted within all departmental business plans. Newly appointed personnel managers have a key role to play here.

“We are also about to update training for IiP champions, to make sure that the momentum is continuous and we have redesigned our management and leadership programme with the IiP skills, which are really just good people skills, at the forefront. We have a Force Focus Group which oversees the IiP re-accreditation and keeps the foot on the pedal, so to speak.

“We are seeking our next re-accreditation in September and are going to be moving to annual accreditation in order to keep our IiP processes in line with business planning processes,” she concluded.