Help shape our Inclusion Strategy

Inclusion means creating an environment where everyone is treated fairly and feels respected.

For our workforce, this means ensuring staff are supported, valued and able to develop and perform at their best.

For Londoners, this means addressing disparities in people’s experiences of policing, improving support for victims and strengthen trust and confidence in the police.

By better understanding the barriers that can prevent people reporting offences, seeking support or engaging with investigations, the Met aims to increase reporting, strengthen investigations, identify hidden harm earlier and bring more offenders to justice.

The Inclusion Strategy is designed to support the delivery of NMfL2, not operate as a separate plan.

While NMfL2 sets the overall direction for the Met, including priorities such as fighting crime, improving culture, building public trust and raising standards, the Inclusion Strategy supports these priorities by making sure the Met's systems and ways of working are fair and inclusive for both staff and the public.

The strategy has been developed alongside existing NMfL2 activity to strengthen and complement work already underway, helping to drive better outcomes for both the workforce and Londoners while avoiding duplication.

The strategy is built on a simple principle: policing is most effective when communities trust the police. When people have confidence in the Met, they are more likely to report crime, share intelligence, act as witnesses and work with officers to keep their communities safe. Where trust is lower, victims can be less likely to come forward, crimes can go unreported and offenders can evade justice.

Inclusion is not separate from effective policing. It is fundamental to it. It helps the Met keep London safe by improving decision-making, strengthening public trust and confidence, and enabling more effective policing.

Rather than treating every disparity as a separate problem, the Inclusion Strategy focuses on improving those systems so that we can deliver more consistent and sustainable change.

The strategy places greater focus on understanding the causes of inequality, measuring progress, and holding leaders accountable for delivering improvements. The aim is not simply to do more activity, but to improve experiences, reduce inequalities and achieve better outcomes for both Londoners and Met colleagues.

Therefore, this strategy is designed for the Met to identify and remove barriers in its policies, processes, behaviours and decisions, so that all colleagues and all Londoners experience fairness, respect and accountability.

The Inclusion Strategy focuses on the parts of the organisation that the Met can directly influence, including its systems, processes, policies, behaviours and decision-making. These are the areas that shape both the experiences of our workforce and the outcomes delivered for Londoners.

The strategy does not try to address every inclusion issue at once. Instead, it focuses on the areas where there is the greatest evidence of unfairness, barriers or unequal outcomes, and where the Met is best placed to make a meaningful difference through its own actions and decisions.

Success will be judged by whether experiences and outcomes improve over time, supported by evidence, data and lived experience.

This strategy focuses on the systems, processes and decisions that have the greatest impact on people's experiences, rather than treating inclusion as a standalone issue. It is designed to address the underlying causes of unequal outcomes and drive lasting organisational change.

The strategy builds on progress already made in areas such as workforce representation, professionalism, scrutiny and policing standards, while focusing on the challenges that remain.

It brings related work together under a single framework, with clear ownership, accountability and measures of success. Using data, evidence and lived experience, it helps the Met better understand where disparities exist and target action where it can have the greatest impact.

Progress will be tracked through outcomes and people's experiences, not simply by whether activities or training have been completed.

Ultimately, confidence in the strategy will need to be earned through delivery. People should expect to see clearer accountability, more transparent decision-making, earlier action where issues are identified, and measurable improvements for both colleagues and Londoners.

Delivering the Inclusion Strategy is a responsibility shared across the Met.

Every person in the Met has a role to play in ensuring fairness, inclusion and accountability are reflected in the decisions they make and the services they provide.

Senior leaders will be responsible for driving delivery, monitoring progress and ensuring the organisation remains focused on the priorities set out in the strategy.

Each focus area in the strategy includes clear actions, measures of success and accountability arrangements so that progress can be tracked over time.

Progress will be monitored through performance measures and governance processes, helping the Met understand where improvements are being made and where further action is needed.

Importantly, success will not be measured by the number of actions completed or policies introduced. It will be measured by whether colleagues and Londoners experience meaningful improvements in fairness, trust, confidence and policing outcomes over time.

This is not about ideology. It is about effective policing. The more confidence people have in us, the more likely they are to report crime, share information and work with us to keep London safe. That helps us protect victims, prevent harm and catch criminals.

The strategy has been informed by data, research and the experiences of colleagues, communities and partners. By listening to the people affected by these issues, the Met has been able to better understand where change is needed and what actions are likely to make the biggest difference.

We now want to build on this through public consultation. We cannot do this alone. We want Londoners to have their say and tell us where we need to improve, challenge our thinking and help shape a police service that is more trusted, more representative and more effective at fighting crime.

The strategy recognises that people's experiences can be shaped by a combination of different characteristics and life experiences. It also recognises that data alone does not always tell the full story and that some groups may not be visible in large datasets.

To build a fuller picture, the Met will use feedback, lived experience, research and engagement alongside data. This means issues can be identified and considered even where limited data is available.

The strategy also aims to improve the quality and detail of the information the Met collects, helping it better understand the experiences of smaller or less visible groups over time.

The strategy does not prioritise one protected characteristic over another. Instead, it focuses on improving the systems, processes and decisions that shape people's experiences and outcomes. By making these systems fairer and more consistent, the strategy aims to improve outcomes across all protected characteristics, while still allowing targeted action where evidence identifies a specific issue or need.

The strategy also recognises that people's experiences are often shaped by more than one characteristic or circumstance.

Data, lived experience and feedback will be used together to better understand these experiences, identify issues that might otherwise be missed, and ensure action reflects the needs of different groups.

The Inclusion Strategy builds on the foundations of the London Race Action Plan (LRAP) and New Met for London (NMfL), while taking a broader approach to addressing disparities across London’s communities and within the Met’s workforce.

Through the LRAP, the Met has worked with communities to deliver reforms including the Stop and Search Charter. Since 2022, the proportion of stop and search encounters assessed as having reasonable grounds has risen from 75.9 per cent to more than 94 per cent, while the number of intimate searches has fallen from 2,437 to 850.

That work will continue, but the Met’s understanding of inequality, vulnerability and confidence has evolved. People do not experience policing or harm through one aspect of their identity alone. Race can intersect with sex, disability, sexuality, faith and socio-economic circumstances, sometimes compounding vulnerability or creating very different experiences of policing

Progress will be monitored through data, scrutiny and community feedback to help assess whether trust, confidence and policing outcomes are improving over time.

The Met is seeking to improve its response to hate crime. Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of Londoners believe hate crime is a problem in their local area, with concerns particularly pronounced among LGBT+, Jewish and other affected communities.

The strategy also recognises that some communities may face particularly high levels of hate-related harm and may require targeted action alongside the wider approach. 

The strategy proposes measures to improve reporting, strengthen investigations, increase support for victims and ensure the Met is better equipped to identify repeat offenders and emerging trends.

Progress will be measured through areas such as investigation quality, victim satisfaction, confidence in policing and outcomes for victims.

This is a genuine consultation, not a finished strategy that people are simply being asked to endorse. We want to hear where people think we have got it right, where we need to go further and whether the commitments we are proposing will make a meaningful difference.

The consultation is particularly seeking views from communities that have historically had lower levels of trust and confidence in policing, as well as those most affected by crime and victimisation. Whether people have had positive experiences, concerns about policing or ideas for how services can be improved, the Met wants to hear directly from them.

The feedback will help shape the final Inclusion Strategy and influence how the Met tackles crime, supports victims and builds trust across London in the years ahead.

Our aim is to develop the strongest possible strategy, with clear priorities, meaningful actions and a focus on delivering real improvements for colleagues and Londoners.