Posting of an officer to another BCU/Directorate

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.029896

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. I request any formal postings policy and associated documentation held by the organisation. By postings policy I mean any documentation which is held which governs when/if an officer is moved to another BCU/Directorate, whether by choice or forced move by the organisation.

2. I also require any information held on how many times officers can be deferred or blocked from postings due to corporate strengths and any other defined reasons a move may be blocked.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - I request any formal postings policy and associated documentation held by the organisation.

By postings policy I mean any documentation which is held which governs when/if an officer is moved to another BCU/Directorate, wether by choice or forced move by the organisation.

I am pleased to inform you that the link MPS Workforce Planning Policy/Police Officer Postings Policy is enclosed.

Please also find below relevant extracts from the MPS Postings Toolkit.

Corporate postings process
A Posting Panel is convened monthly to consider voluntary and compulsory transfer requests, promotions and individuals selected via an advertised recruitment process; they determine whether a transfer can be approved, and set a transfer date. A transfer is the process through which an individual gets moved from one post to another; a posting is where we allocate you to a new post. The Posting Panel for Police Officers is ratified by the Corporate Workforce Planning Meeting, attended by DACs and chaired by the Director of HR.

Specialist and voluntary postings are assessed against the relative strengths and priority status of the current and receiving Operational Command Units (OCU). This means that if you are an officer coming from an OCU that is strong at the rank in question, or you are seeking a posting to a high priority OCU, you are more likely to be posted before other officers.

Where possible we endeavour to account for the views of line managers and individuals, in addition to corporate priorities, in posting and transfer decisions.

A list of potential officer vacancies to consider for voluntary or compulsory transfer can be found within the local strength information page. If an officer has been displaced because of organisational change, they will be considered for vacancies before others are posted.

Promotion
Following a promotion process or a Trainee Detective Constable (T/DC) process, an initial posting panel will be set up by Workforce Planning and Deployment (WPD) to post officers to meet the operational needs of the Met. If you are not posted at this stage, you will be considered at future monthly posting panels.

Probation
Police probationers are posted through a separate process to boroughs taking account of the proportion of probationers within the total strength. This provides a balance of experience and training commitment. These postings are arranged in agreement with Territorial Policing (TP).

Panel principles
The posting panel will apply the following principles, as far as possible:

• The operational needs of the Met in relation to officers and skills will be the main consideration.
• Each case will be considered individually and travelling distance to work will be taken into account. However, the Commissioner reserves the right to post an officer anywhere in the Met. It must be clearly understood that officers will not be automatically moved to a location closer to their home address because they move home. This is particularly the case for officers moving to locations some distance from the MPS.
• The preferences of officers required to transfer on a compulsory basis will be considered before those from officers making voluntary applications. If no preferences for a compulsory move are provided it may be assumed that they are willing to be posted anywhere within MPS.
• In the case of voluntary transfers, applicants may be offered an alternative posting or an opportunity to withdraw, if their preferences cannot be met.
• The panel can’t guarantee specific posting locations, shift patterns or flexible working arrangements. These will need to be agreed with the receiving (B)OCU / Unit.
• Informal agreements for transfers must not be made before consideration by the panel.
• From time-to-time it may be necessary to select police officers for compulsory transfer. The requirement for such transfers is likely to be driven by the wider needs of the MPS, the local community or issues relevant to an individual officer. For compulsory transfers, the panel may provide a provisional posting where the officer has an outstanding application for an advertised position. Should the officer's application be unsuccessful, the officer will transfer to the posting allocated. If successful the provisional posting will be withdrawn.
There is no automatic right to carry over an existing flexible working pattern. Consultation will need to take place with prospective line managers to work out whether the new role is possible with the desired/current flexible working pattern.

Postings for officers that have been waiting excessive periods of time are reviewed on a case by case basis. Every effort will be made to facilitate these postings as long as it does not impact greatly on corporate priorities.

Exceptional cases may be dealt with outside the posting panel. For example:

• sensitive or urgent welfare cases, complex issues or transfers to enable reasonable workplace adjustments.
• disciplinary matters / adverse information and judicial findings.
• urgent operational needs.

Q2 - I also require any information held on how many times officers can be deferred or blocked from postings due to corporate strengths and any other defined reasons a move may be blocked.

There is no specific information held on the number of times an officer can be deferred or blocked from postings, each case is considered according to its own circumstances. However the below MPS Postings Toolkit extract is relevant.

Transfers outside of the posting panel process

Exceptional cases may be dealt with outside the posting panel. For example:

• Sensitive or urgent welfare cases or complex issues (i.e. restricted duties) or transfers under the Equality Act 2010 (to enable reasonable workplace adjustments);
• Where an officer on long-term sickness absence can provide medical evidence from OH in support of being unable to return to their original OCU before transfer, consideration will be given to allowing the officer to move to directly to their new OCU on return to work;
• Disciplinary matters / adverse information and judicial findings; or
• Urgent operational needs.

In each of these cases the needs of the individual will be balanced against the needs of the BCU/OCU / Unit that is being considered for the posting of the officer. The Workforce Planning and Deployment will consider each case based on the individual circumstances and will, where appropriate, make a compulsory posting to accommodate these officers.

When considering the posting of officers who are not fully operational, account will be taken of the BCU/OCU / Unit's skills base and the number of non-operational officers already at that BCU/OCU / Unit.