Final Report of the Morris Inquiry: The Case for Change

BUILDING CAPACITY
9.118 This was also recognised by a speaker at the Inquiry’s Women’s Forum.
“A lot of the issues we are talking about today are not women issues, they are male and
female issues, part-time, flexi-time, and women are getting bad press because we are looking
at these issues from a woman’s perspective.”
9.119 This is a problem for the MPS. Its aspiration is to be an employer of choice,
yet it risks losing the skills of talented officers and staff. The need to implement
flexible working and work / life balance does not arise from political correctness,
but rather a strong business case to maximize use of available resources.
“SCD [Specialist Crime Directorate] 7 does encourage family friendly policies on a local
basis to cater for staff with exceptional circumstances in relation to work-life balance.
This is known throughout the branch and has proven success towards retention of
police officers and police staff.”
(Submission from Detective Chief Superintendent Sharon Kerr.)
9.120 During the course of this Inquiry, we received much evidence about the
difficulties officers experience in relation to flexible working. We welcome the
interest and the commitment of the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner in
this area.
9.121 We also understand that flexible working must be introduced fairly:
“… if an individual wishes to work part-time, fine, you tell me when you want to work. But
then my expectation in return is in line with the policy. If you are going to work two fifths of
the week, then that two fifths will be a spectrum of the various shifts and include an aspect of
weekend working.
“It is that side of it where I have seen the workforce does not understand it. Quite often there
has been an expectation that ‘My part-time working will be that I will do an early turn
Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday and that is all I can offer’, which I think is unfair on their part,
and on the other side of the coin there is a lack of understanding of middle managers where
they think,‘I can tell them they cannot do part-time working at all because it is not operationally
effective’. My view is it might not be operationally effective but you have to live with it.”
(Evidence of Chief Superintendent Alex Fish.)
9.122 However, we are sure that the MPS can devise more effective ways of how
to use the human resources available to it. Indeed, examples of good practice,
which were brought to our attention include the approach of the Child Protection
Unit and the Croydon BOCU’s scheme to make use of the services of retired police
officers on a flexible basis. We are sure that, with a little imagination, the MPS can
devise more flexible ways of working which will enable it to harness the talents of
its officers and staff in the service of London.
9.123 Finally, we were impressed by an initiative launched by the Greater Manchester
Police Service (GMP). The Service has employed a childcare co-ordinator, who deals
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