Final Report of the Morris Inquiry: The Case for Change

THE CASE FOR CHANGE
8.96 One way of supporting these organisations is by providing duty time for
their representatives. We have received evidence suggesting that the amount of
duty time which staff support association representatives are permitted to devote
to their functions may not be adequate for the demands placed on them by the
organisation:
“We are inundated with e-mails usually, and then hard copies, of consultation documents, and
we are only given so many hours of duty time with which to deal with staff association
matters, which is a cause of some concern and distress to us all.
“… The end result is that the document gets either the most cursory of glances or not even,
and I know that there are some people, for example, in DPS who have given up on me
replying to them now, because they send us considerable wads of documents on the sort of
sanctions, volumes, conduct and so forth, and the revised system of what our views are, and
then it is just finding the time to sit down with other people who are able to give some
serious input to this, within your own association or collectively as a group… So we have a
high level of frustration when it comes to consultation.”
(Evidence of Kevin Boyle, Chair of the GPA.)
Other resources too are at a premium: “One of the most frustrating aspects for the C.P.A.
is our inability to be able to help more people because we are resourced inappropriately and
unfairly. This disadvantages minority groups within our association and the service as a whole.
We have submitted two business cases since May 2001 and have yet to receive appropriate
administrative support.” (Submission from the CPA.)
“With regard to being involved in developing policy, procedure and practices we are regularly
sent draft documents and asked to read and comment on them. The problem with this is, we
all have full time jobs within the MPS, and as is often the case, we are given a few days to read,
digest and formulate comment on documents. These documents often consist of hundreds of
pages. We as an association feel this is just a management tactic of getting policies ‘rubber
stamped’, as in most cases the draft versions would have taken months to create and we
get a few days to study them. This tends to give the illusion of consultation but in reality
excludes real involvement in the process.”
(Submission from the Disabled Staff Association.)
8.97 If the MPS is serious about seeking the views of the various representative
organisations, it clearly has an interest in ensuring that they are able to respond.
It is unrealistic to expect people to give up large swathes of their own time for the
benefit of the MPS, although it is clear from the evidence that we have received
that, in practice, this happens extensively.
8.98 In order to enable staff support associations as well as the Metropolitan Police
Federation and the Trades Unions to make a constructive contribution, they should
be afforded appropriate duty time and other support. We note that there are now
two full-time office managers supporting all the associations collectively but
administrative support is not a substitute for workplace representation.
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