Focus for Police Race Action Plan agreed for the next year

It comes after chief constables voted last month to fund a national team to drive delivery of the Police Race Action Plan for a further 12 months.

The plan is the biggest coordinated effort ever across every police force in England and Wales to improve trust and confidence in policing among black communities.

Every chief constable has signed up to support the plan and achieve its objectives, the first time there has been such a coordinated response across policing to making the vital improvements envisaged under the plan.

Established in 2020, with the plan published two years later, it was intended that the national team would drive delivery of the programme for four years, but the national team has been extended for another year following a decision by Chief Constables Council, which represents UK police chiefs.

Abimbola Johnson, chair of the plan’s Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board (ISOB), said the extension has proved necessary after “slow progress” in delivery of the plan’s anti-racism goal.

In 2025 the programme will be focusing on giving police forces the tools and support they need to embed anti-racist policy and practice across policing. Priorities for the team in 2025/26 are:

• Supporting police forces to implement action and policy developed by the programme team, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing to deliver an anti-racist police service, such as recording the ethnicity of those subject to traffic stops;
• Reviewing and prioritising actions and projects under the programme and making plans to transition activity led by the programme into the NPCC, College of Policing or police forces;
• Ensuring police forces, partners and the public understand what has been delivered so far and what to expect from policing in the future. Continuing to engage with police forces and leading civil society groups working in criminal justice and anti-racism will be critical to this;
• Sharing knowledge and good practice identified in local forces across England and Wales; and
• Finalising long-term processes for measuring, overseeing and scrutinising the performance and impact of the plan and policing’s progress towards anti-racism over time. This includes a proposed maturity matrix that will enable police forces to assess and track their progress.

The central team will be working with stakeholders over the coming months to test, refine and begin to implement these processes. Engagement is being planned with police forces, the ISOB, the National Black Police Association (NBPA) and the Home Office, as well as civil society and community groups.

The NPCC says these priorities reflect and address recommendations from the ISOB’s most recent annual report.

The plan’s senior team has recently held positive discussions with the Policing Minister and senior government officials, as well as leading civil society groups. These discussions around joint working and shaping the future direction of the plan will continue in the coming months.

November also saw the NBPA vote to re-engage with the plan, lifting a suspension of support that had been in place since June.

T/Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dr Alison Heydari, programme director for the Police Race Action Plan, said: “Tireless work by our central team and invaluable insight from the partners we work with has helped deliver some major strides forward over recent months.

“I am under no illusion about the scale of the challenge that still exists to build the trust and confidence of our black communities in policing.

“Our mission over the next year is to give policing the tools it needs to deliver the plan’s long-term vision to build an anti-racist police service.”

Thios includes the development of a maturity matrix assessment across key areas of delivery for an anti-racist police service, underpinned by key performance measures.

Over the coming months the plan’s central team will continue its work with police forces, ISOB, the NBPA and the Home Office, as well as civil society and community groups, to finalise this assessment, including how communities will be involved in it.

ISOB chair Ms Johnson said: “The extension of the Police Race Action Plan has proven necessary after slow progress and an initial lack of traction in delivery against policing’s anti-racism goal.

“The Police Race Action Plan was announced four-and-a-half years ago and sadly many community members, internal and external to policing, continue to report that policing does not feel different in its impact upon them; in some cases, that their experiences have worsened.

“In the last few years, we have seen pockets of good work, commitment and progress. These have primarily been driven by hardworking individuals and have landed best where they have received proper backing and support from local leadership. We have also been frustrated by delays in achieving simple and logical steps to get work underway.

“Sustained focus and resources are critical to achieving Police Race Action Plan’s vision of an anti-racist police service. Progress requires commitment and delivery by the central team but also adoption of responsibility and prioritisation by local police forces, parallel commitment by statutory accountability organisations like HMICFRS and the IOPC, and the involvement of central government. Input from communities and anti-racism experts must be utilised appropriately to give this work the legitimacy it requires.

“We are encouraged that the 2025/26 priorities reflect key recommendations from our recent report, including embedding anti-racist policies, developing a maturity matrix to measure progress, and transitioning activities into long-term structures. We have started to see work that reflects proper commitment to those recommendations.

“This year, our scrutiny work will be focussing on the legacy of this plan. Policing needs to demonstrate that anti-racism commitment is a permanent focus that will outlive the central team’s final year: joined up working, structural reform and cultural changes.”