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Case study: Surrey Police – design and delivery of a diversity programme

A diversity programme for managers and supervisors in Surrey Police was required in order for officers and support staff to increase awareness and consider attitudes and behaviour. The programme needed to address diversity from a leadership perspective, rather than a pure diversity perspective – thus integrating diversity into effective leadership. The focus was much more on enhancing people’s capabilities and managing others and having the opportunity to practice diversity skills as a leader.

A one day programme was developed that addressed police responsibilities as well as some of the behavioural aspects of managing diversity. This was based on a set of learning indicators distilled from the Police’s National Occupational Standards. The course involved the use of a social distance questionnaire to explore stereotypes in real, rather than in conceptual terms. Participants stood in different parts of the room depending on their responses and then discussed the reasons for certain attitudes without personalising the issues. There was a session of interactive forum theatre to explore diversity behaviours.

Immediate post course feedback was very positive from the 363 Inspectors and Sergeants who took part and the 200 civilian staff. The leadership foundation carried out an evaluation with some positive findings; many of the findings were related to the objectives of the programmes. Interactive theatre was very well received and the program was felt to have delivered important messages about diversity in an engaging and non-threatening way. In this way participants were very open in terms of their contribution, and were less defensive than they have been on other police diversity programmes. A clear link between management responsibilities and diversity was established and on the back of the diversity workshops individual coaching sessions were carried out.

 “(The workshop) achieved everything the organisation wanted and went down a storm with the officers”.
Kul Verma, Superintendent, Surrey Police