Final Report of the Morris Inquiry: The Case for Change

THE CASE FOR CHANGE
MPS, is for the MPS to embrace far greater interchange of skills and ideas with
other public and private sector organisations.
9.136 By way of example, we consider that the idea of greater exchange of
expertise with other public sector services during training, suggested by Sir Michael
Lyons, is worthy of consideration by the MPS:
“I have got a very strong view there that we do not put enough energy into developing a onesystem
view of the public service in this country.We are still far too preoccupied, and indeed I
see some evidence of this, for instance in the Metropolitan Police’s presumption that they have
their own in-house training. I would be much happier if I could see clear evidence – and it may
exist – that police officers working in Lewisham, for instance, were having part of their training,
part of their development work, in conjunction with the social services of Brixton, other
emergency services, so that what we develop is much more of a one-system approach where
you follow delivery chains down, even in different public sector organisations, and end up with
people who understand the rationality of different services. Because there is this dreadful
mythology that we are dogged with, that all accountants are only interested in saving money;
all social workers are profligate; all education workers are only interested in the holidays. All of
that mythology is because people do not understand the different rationality of different
services and their contributions …
“I would emphasise that even for the operational, if the Police Service is going to be effective
in child protection, if it is going to be effective in community relations, in complex diverse
communities, then the people who deliver the service, the constables and other police officers
of today, need to be trained for at least part of their training with other people whose
contribution is just as critical to the delivery of those services.”
9.137 We consider that this approach should be employed with respect to the
development of officers and staff at all levels in the organisation. Whatever
leadership training is undertaken by the MPS, we think it would be of enormous
value if it were to be a joint enterprise with others which would provide a forum in
which management skills could be learned and developed by interchange of ideas
from senior managers in other public and private sector organisations.
9.138 The Deputy Commissioner commented: “… we will certainly be trying to ensure
that some of this is delivered in a way in which people from other professions and organisations
also are involved in that learning environment.”
9.139 We are encouraged by this, and would like to see the MPS make a step-change
in considering and implementing a variety of schemes to enable a productive flow
of ideas between its own officers and managers in other organisations.
“I am a great believer in the idea of interchange between different sectors, different types of
business. We had at B&Q an interchange process with Whitehall and the Civil Service, and we
had a prison governor who came to do a short placement at a B&Q store, and he was a
brilliant success. He ended up running, after a very quick time – he stayed on longer than he
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