Our Strategy and Objectives
Equality, diversity and inclusion
Derbyshire Constabulary is committed to working together to ensure Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are at the heart of our service delivery and thoroughly embedded in our organisation’s culture.
Our Vision
Derbyshire Constabulary’s vision is to be an outstanding police force with its key purpose.
- to fight crime
- to bring offenders to justice and
- to protect the vulnerable from harm.
We also have a joint purpose with Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service (DFRS) to:
‘Make Derbyshire Safer Together.’
We recognise that key to delivering our purpose(s) is the commitment of an effective Culture & Inclusion strategy.
Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 is the UK's discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fairer and more equal society. The Act protects people from discrimination, harassment, and victimisation in work, education, and when accessing services.
Protected Characteristics
The Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. Under the Equality Act, there are nine protected characteristics:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender re-assignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Race
- Religion
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)
There is a statutory duty for police forces to meet the general and specific duties under the Equality Act 2010. It is our intention to not only continue to meet statutory obligations but to improve the way we serve our communities and build an inclusive workforce culture which reflects the diverse communities we serve via clear objectives and measurement of progress.
The Equality Act 2010 protects from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. It places a duty on us as a public authority in carrying out our functions to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment or victimisation
- advance equality of opportunity between people who share protected characteristics and people who do not share them
- foster good relations between people who share protected characteristics and people who do not share them.
These are often referred to as the three aims or arms of the general equality duty.
Specific Duties
The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 require public sector organisations to:
- Prepare and publish one or more objectives they think they should achieve to do any of the things mentioned in the aims of the general equality duty, by 6 April 2012, and at least every four years thereafter.
- Ensure that those objectives are specific and measurable.
- Publish those objectives in such a manner that they are accessible to the public.
Our Strategy
We have produced our Culture and Inclusion strategy to ensure that there is clear direction and response from Derbyshire Constabulary around culture and inclusion, in line with local and national strategies.
Our strategy is therefore aligned to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing (COP), national policing culture and inclusion strategy 2025 – 2030.
Vision
To be a representative police service that is a trusted profession, demonstrating the highest levels of integrity, fairness and respect towards each other and the public we serve.
Mission
To transform police culture, positioning diversity, equality, and inclusion at the heart of good policing and having it as an integral part of all policies, practices and procedures.
Derbyshire Equality Objectives
The purpose of setting specific, measurable equality objectives is to help us to achieve the three aims of the general equality duty listed above, focusing on the outcomes to be achieved.
Equality objectives will help focus our attention on the priority equality issues within our organisation in order to deliver improvements in policy making, service delivery and employment, including resource allocation.
Guidance for public sector bodies states that proportionality is a key principle in setting the number of objectives and their level of ambition.
As part of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulation, the Constabulary must set and publish equality objectives (one or more) at intervals of not more than every four years.
Objectives
Our local equality objectives will mirror the national strategy and focus on the areas and themes as outlined:
Evolving our organisation
In line with the national focus, we need to identify, address and eliminate disparities, discrimination, harassment and victimisation in our policies, procedures, processes and practices that affect our internal culture.
How we involve, value and treat our staff is fundamental to us ensuring that we can serve our communities effectively, to make them safer and stronger. We are committed to recruiting and developing a diverse workforce at all levels that reflects the communities we serve, alongside empowering and creating an inclusive culture that allows our people to bring their true, full self to work.
- We will aim to recruit a diverse workforce and create a fair, respectful, and inclusive culture.
- We will develop our workforce to ensure they have the confidence and skills needed to effectively eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity, and foster good relations
Working with the public
In line with the national focus, we must improve the public’s confidence in the police to be fair and respectful, understand and deal with community concerns and address hate crime. We will take action to support the workforce to understand and acknowledge community trauma and work towards reconciling divisions between the police and communities.
We acknowledge that we can only effectively serve the communities of Derbyshire when we police with their consent. This is achieved by retaining legitimacy with our communities, through transparency, continued dialogue and engagement alongside an ethical and fair application of the law, delivered by a workforce that reflects the people we serve.
- Increase positive engagement with our local communities aimed at building trust and confidence through developing an inclusive culture
- Strengthen our collaboration with community stakeholders, utilising their experiences to develop inclusive policy and practice
Overarching objective
Access to and understanding data of both the workforce and our communities is important in identifying and addressing disparities in outcome, discrimination, harassment or victimisation. This is impossible without accurate, meaningful and usable data. Data is also a key evidence base for the development of new policies, processes, programmes and standards.
- Improve the collection of relevant, good quality data and information to understand disparity and develop actions to take positive steps to address it
Positive Action
Positive Action is a term used to describe steps an employer can lawfully take, under the Equality Act 2010, to help make a workforce more representative of the community it serves.
Positive Action is a range of measures and initiatives that we can lawfully take under the Equality Act 2010 to actively encourage people from communities that are underrepresented to bring their talent, experience, and expertise to our organisation when applying for roles.
We recognise that although the diversity of our staff is improving, we are not fully representative yet and we are striving to address this imbalance through positive action.
Positive action helps us as an employer to remove barriers and address issues relating to recruitment, retention and progression that affect people from under-represented groups whilst still employing people on merit.
We treat all applications fairly and in accordance with current legislation. Positive action is not about giving some people more favourable treatment; it’s about levelling the playing field.
We are looking for a talented workforce who can best serve the communities of Derbyshire. We are looking for talented people from a wide range of diverse applicants.
Positive action is a range of measures and initiatives that we can lawfully take to actively encourage under-represented groups to bring their talent, experience and expertise into the organisation.
Our Strategy
The purpose of our positive action strategy supports our commitment to recruiting, retaining and developing a workforce which is representative of the communities we serve. We recognise the benefits of employing a diverse workforce – a workforce who can bring their own personal experiences and values to work with them. A workforce which is productive, innovative and above all, inclusive.