Showcase of work delivered through Police Race Action Plan published

The work by the Police Race Action Plan (PRAP) brings together submissions to a call for practice to forces run over the summer, as well as presentations delivered at the plan’s inaugural conference this year.

Work in 27 separate police forces is highlighted, as well as work by national criminal justice agencies and community groups. Some of the work highlighted includes:

• A youth engagement partnership between Greater Manchester Police, Manchester United and Manchester City, which reached nearly 1,000 young people from global majority backgrounds and led to an 85 per cent increase in positive perception of policing as a career and a 90 per cent uplift in trust and confidence.
• Police Scotland developed a training programme based on behavioural science which teaches officers and staff to understand why someone may be acting in a certain way and how they can regulate behaviour. Extensive evaluation has shown significant reductions in use of force, injuries to officers, and recorded complaints against the police.
• West Yorkshire Police's early action hubs review every stop and search encounter with a child to identify potential safeguarding opportunities. Interventions have ranged from educational inputs on knife crime and child criminal exploitation, online safety and drugs, as well as partnership interventions with schools, health services and mental health provision.
• Nottinghamshire Police has successfully piloted a support scheme for those in custody in partnership with local pastors from Majority Black Led Churches.
• Sussex Police introduced new measures to better support Black victims of crime in mental health settings, nearly doubling the solved rate for offences reported in these circumstances.

Knowledge sharing is one of the key priorities set by chief officers for the Police Race Action Plan this year, as it aims to share work going on under the plan in forces up and down the country.

Throughout October around 130 officers, staff and community members have attended three in-person events around the country highlighting promising practice taking place in forces, hosted by police in Avon and Somerset, Hertfordshire and North Yorkshire respectively.

The national team has visited nearly every force in person to hear about the work they are doing under the plan, and is scheduled to have visited every force over the coming months.

The plan has today also released a new video reiterating the importance of the plan from the perspective of senior police officers as well as community members.

T/Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dr Alison Heydari, programme director for PRAP, said: “The Police Race Action Plan remains just as important as it was when it was launched five years ago.

“Recent coverage in the media has once again prompted policing to ask searching questions about racism, discrimination and culture in our service, while I hear consistently from people from a whole range of diverse backgrounds both in and outside policing that wider society feels increasingly divided.

“The examples of work we are publishing today I hope provide some reassurance about the ongoing commitment there is right across policing to use the plan to deliver a better, more operationally effective police service.

“There are thousands of people across the country who support the plan and want to deliver meaningful change.

“Our commitment remains as strong as ever and while their efforts are hugely valued, more must be done if we are to deliver a service that really delivers for all our communities.”

For more information about the plan and the work being delivered visit The Police Race Action Plan