Let's get it right: race and justice 2000 - Nacro

Let’s get it rightmade proposals about training for supervisors.An attitude survey among the officers involved showed that:‘… there is a need for more general equality trainingfor officers, which takes place in the division and isbased on the real circumstances they are required topolice. It is one thing to have a session on equalopportunities during recruit training. It is quiteanother to put this into practice on the street in newor unfamiliar surroundings. A Vauxhall officer raisedthe question of conducting searches of members ofthe opposite sex: a similar awareness is needed abouthow police conduct might be perceived ormisconstrued in terms of race.’The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report found that:‘… not a single officer questioned before us in1998 had received any training of significance inracism awareness and race relations throughout thecourse of his or her career.’ (6.45d)It made several recommendations about training in racismawareness and valuing cultural diversity which have allbeen accepted by the Government. A new trainingcontract has recently been awarded by the Home Officewhich, it is hoped, will give a new impetus to race andcommunity relations training in the police and which willtackle some of these concerns. The new contract has twoelements:The integration of community and race relations issuesthroughout the national police training curriculum.A programme of training and support to individualforces which will be firmly rooted in the operationalcontext in which forces deliver their services.‘Winning the Race Revisited’ – published soon after thereport of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in 1999 –highlighted just how important this is. It looked at whathad been achieved since its first report in October 1997.On training, it had this to say:‘… training in general awareness of varyingcultural issues, the investigation of crime with aracial element, the prudent use of discretionincluding stop and search powers, and addressinginappropriate behaviour has been marginalised.’The Association of Chief Police Officers standingcommittee on Race and Community Relations has maderace and community relations training one of its four mainstrategic goals.Inter-agency trainingRecommendation 51 of the Stephen Lawrence InquiryReport suggests that consideration is given to joint trainingwith other agencies. Joint training across criminal justiceagencies would promote a co-ordinated and consistentapproach to fairness and equality in the delivery of justice. Itwould allow exchanges of ideas and experience in differentworking situations and would be a good way to moreactively involve community groups in design and delivery oftraining.NACRO Race and Criminal Justice UnitIn the course of its local work over the past six years, theUnit has developed training designed to meet the local andnational needs of each criminal justice agency. The widercriminal justice perspective of its work means that thetraining is not delivered in isolation from new developmentsand legislation. For example, the community and policepartnerships set out in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, andnew approaches such as restorative justice and mediationschemes, can be taken into account as training programmesare designed and as they are actually running.Training courses are practical and related to daily workingpractices, designed for different grades of staff, includingmanagers, and to take into local cirumstances.In addition to the JSB and the CPS, the Unit has providedmore than 50 courses for staff and magistrates inmagistrates’ courts, and for frontline staff and ushers inCrown Courts in various parts of the country; courses for theBoard of Visitors at HMP Pentonville; and for staff at HMPsWandsworth and Altcourse.Three pocket guides to race and religion have beenproduced, based on the training and designed to suit theworking practices of the agencies concerned. The first wasproduced for Crown Court staff, in conjunction with theSouth East Circuit of the Court Service; the second was formagistrates’ courts (jointly with the Justices’ Clerks’Society); a third was for the CPS and has also been providedto all staff.The private sectorPrivate companies are now providing most court escort andsecurity services and managing an increasing number ofprison and youth training centres. It is crucial that theyoperate recruitment and promotion systems and providetraining for their staff to at least the same standards as26