Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) action plan - summer 2024 updates

We will tackle sexism and misogyny in the Met. We will implement a new programme to transform the Met’s culture, with specific focus on sexism and misogyny.

Summer 2024 updates

A reforming programme for culture in the Met 

We are building a Culture, Diversity and Inclusion Directorate committed to a robust programme of culture reform, led by an Assistant Commissioner and a newly appointed Deputy Assistant Commissioner and Commander. It will have the diagnostic capability that will monitor the cultural health of the organisation holding local leaders to account for their areas. 

We are developing a culture plan to drive the culture change we want to see. We are ensuring we take best practice from other organisations and police forces and taking time to speak to communities and Met employees to ensure the culture we aspire to reflects all. This programme will recognise and respond to the relevant recommendations in the report by Dame Elish Angiolini that require police forces to be inclusive and equitable environments that attract and retain women 

We will identify priority cohorts to support the pilot of the new College of Policing Intervention to tackle sexism, misogyny and racism that adopts a behavioural change approach. The interventions directly support the Angiolini Inquiry recommendations 14 (positive culture and elimination of misconduct or criminality often excused as 'banter') and 15 (reporting by police officers and staff of harassment, sexual offences and inappropriate behaviour committed by fellow officers).

We have incorporated our new values and principles within our performance reviews, promotion and development policies so they align to the standards and expectations around inclusive behaviour. We have created a network of values advocates from across the organisation to promote and champion our values amongst their colleagues. This is supported also by a communications plan that seeks to publicise real examples of our officers and staff 'living' our Values and Guiding Principles in their day-to-day roles 

We have recently launched our Upstander Project. Taking inspiration from similar initiatives adopted in organisations such as NHS, the Upstander Project is a piece of work designed to support Met employees in challenging inappropriate language and behaviour where they see it. It provides a toolkit of possible interventions that can be tailored to the situation. Upstander training is already a feature of Initial Recruit Training, as well as various leadership programmes. However, the ambition is to ensure it reaches further and wider. Upstander was officially launched on 21 May 2024. The roll out will focus on key cohorts and will be supported by a network of senior leaders across the Met’s operational command units committed to Upstander activity and supporting those who speak out. The launch brought together 120 Values Advocates from across the Met who will be working together to embed the Met’s Values of Respect, Empathy, Integrity, Courage and Accountable. Upstander training sessions will also be offered to 1,900 HeForShe Allies during September 2024.

Baseline Audit: Analysis of the positive baseline audit of culture, diversity and inclusion (CD and I) activity across the Met is nearly completed. A baseline audit of positive examples of culture, diversity and inclusion initiatives and projects across the Met is nearly at completion. The purpose of the audit is to develop a comprehensive and clear picture of culture, diversity and inclusion activities, programmes and behaviours across the organisation, that are not currently supported nor monitored at a central level. This is to enable an effective assessment of the Met’s existing commitments and plans towards diversity and inclusion, and culture change. This will further inform the culture plan. 

Training and continuous professional development 

Tackling sexism and misogyny is already a core part of recruit curriculum and the programmes for all newly promoted and existing frontline supervisors and mid-line leaders.

A total of 9,040 current and new supervisors and managers have received training.  

Our NMfL (New Met for London) Learning Needs Analysis was competed in February 2024. It identified existing training gaps in relation to sexism, misogyny, anti-racism and up-stander behaviour, as well as a focus on colleagues who are also victims of crime. New training content on these areas has been built into our recruit training and our new leadership programmes, and proposals for a new package of learning for the wider organisation is currently being shaped.

Improving how we identify and eliminate pockets of poor culture  

The Culture Diversity and Inclusion Directorate will be a driving force for culture change and the promotion of diversity and inclusion across the Met. It will have the diagnostic capability that will monitor the cultural health of the organisation holding local leaders to account for their areas, but simultaneously support them to improve through the deployment of a suite of tailored interventions 

Work is underway to develop a culture measures framework to help track our progress in changing our culture and becoming truly anti-discriminatory. It has been incorporated into the Met’s Professionalism and Legitimacy Framework, and aims to build upon this to set targets that will be tracked using a range of measures. An initial 'measures framework' and evaluation approach has been developed and is currently being validated with key stakeholders across the Met.