Culture and workforce

Below you will find further examples of local and national work ongoing across policing and the wider criminal justice system in this workstream to deliver an anti-racist police service.

We will continue to share promising practice and ideas we come across, as well as encouraging forces to submit their initiatives onto the College of Policing’s Practice Bank so these can undergo an evaluation process. For more information please contact the relevant force or email our team.

The Practice Bank is made up of shared interventions that have been implemented by crime reduction and community safety organisations, including policing. These have been used to address specific crime problems or organisational change. 

Devon and Cornwall Police saw promising results in a major project to improve its internal culture.

Dorset Police developed the Someone Else’s Eyes (SEE) intervention, using the approaches, insights and interventions of clinical psychology to target culture. 

Durham Constabulary developed a clear action plan to embed the updated police code of ethics.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary developed a specific training programme to embed the code of ethics into its public order training programme.

Hertfordshire Constabulary has used academic research to develop a major programme for first line supervisors to help them lead and develop inclusive teams. It is now being rolled out in several forces around the country.

Merseyside Police has developed strategic meetings and working groups to address issues of assaults and hate crime towards police officers and staff. 

The Metropolitan Police has delivered the positive steps mentoring programme, workshops to support staff and officers from underrepresented groups with promotion or assessment processes.

The force has also developed the Signa system and rolled out training to encourage reporting of discrimination across its workforce. This has since evolved into an anonymous reporting line operated by Crimestoppers for all police forces.

Merseyside Police developed professional development and action learning sets, a targeted programme for underrepresented workforce groups to improve retention and support personal development.

These initiatives were highlighted in our practice brochure published in October 2025. You can read the brochure online for more information about each initiative.

The Discriminatory Behaviour Assessment Framework (DAF) was developed across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire Police to address discriminatory behaviour in complaints and misconduct cases. This approach has led to a significant improvement: misconduct cases involving discrimination progressing to proceedings rose from 20 per cent to 50 per cent, and learning outcomes are now applied in half of cases even when no formal action is taken. The DAF also addresses systemic issues, such as the tendency to dismiss complaints when the complainant isn’t from the affected group.

The British Transport Police has supported the integration of staff networks into posting panels for promotion and development. The force’s Support Association for Minority Ethnic staff (SAME) and the Female Police Association (FPA) provide a voice at posting panels that ensures transparency and equity within the process. 

BTP has also launched the Police Race Action Plan Lending Library, a digital platform where colleagues can search for and borrow books covering a wide range of topics related to Black history and lived experiences. 

Dorset Police worked with a local university, its training team and internal and external Black communities to develop online workshops for officers and staff. These facilitated four hour workshops focused on the data and evidence that underpinned the force's acknowledgement of institutional racism, some of the academia that influences society and important topics such as the history of policing and Black communities and the impact of generational trauma. Over 65 per cent of attendees reported an improved understanding of how bias impacts victim interaction as well as increased confidence in areas such as importance of names, describing actions and exploring improved descriptions of Black people during incidents.

Durham’s PRAP training product is Durham’s version of Race Action Plan training which is being delivered throughout its workforce. The product is a hybrid of national information and localised content pertinent to Durham in order to give a balanced perspective to the training. 

Essex Police, in collaboration with Kent Police, has developed and implemented a bespoke, in-person training programme for all officers and staff, focused on the PRAP and the historical relationship between policing and Black communities.

Greater Manchester Police's positive action team adopted a dynamic, gen Z friendly, data-driven approach rooted in community and partnership. Collaborating with the Manchester United Foundation and Manchester City in the Community organisations, they delivered targeted outreach in schools, colleges, and community hubs across Greater Manchester. In just three months, GMP directly engaged with 550 young Black people and 400 young people of Mixed Black heritage. Feedback from Manchester United showed an 85 per cent increase in positive perception of policing as a career and a 90 per cent uplift in trust and confidence. 

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary’s Inclusion and Wellbeing training team created a comprehensive continuous professional development programme called ‘Inclusion Matters’ covering topics to inform, educate, upskill and give confidence to staff and officers in the practical, and work-related application of inclusive principles and best practice. The University of Reading conducted an evaluation study to understand how the programme is received and its impacts on attendees. They found that overall, the foundation course was effective in promoting positive attitudes and behaviours towards diversity, equality, and inclusion in the workplace.

Humberside Police has launched various continuing professional development opportunities to support their delivery of workstream one. This includes the 'Blues and Views Vodcast', Black history training, a student officer training package and drop-in sessions run by its Black and Ethnic minority staff association.

Lancashire Constabulary has presented on how disproportionality can manifest in professional standards departments and what steps organisations can take to help officers from minority groups.

North Yorkshire Police has designed and delivered a bespoke development course for its ethnic minority females called Launchpad. The primary objective of Launchpad is to provide a structured, high-impact development experience for female officers and staff from ethnic minority backgrounds within North Yorkshire.

Police Scotland's Act Don’t React is a training programme based on behavioural science which teaches officers and staff to understand why someone may be acting in a certain way and how they can regulate behaviour, relate to the individual and reason with them to de-escalate and positively influence the situation.

South Wales Police has a positive action team which seeks to identify disproportionality within processes for attraction and selection, engagement and progression and leadership for those from ethnically diverse backgrounds, with a view to implement positive action initiatives where appropriate and to provide education to the workforce about what positive action is and what it is not. It worked with the force's legal team to consider opportunities to implement section 159 opportunities through a paid summer work placement open only to those from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Surrey Police carried out its own inquiries and found disproportionality in recogition processes for officers and staff from ethnic minorities. 

Sussex Police has empowered senior leaders to lead on anti-racism through a force-wide book club. To embed anti-racist thinking at the highest levels of leadership, Sussex Police launched a Senior Officer Book Club focused on Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad. This initiative addresses a key challenge in policing: ensuring that those in strategic decision-making roles are equipped to understand and dismantle systemic racism. The book club provides a structured, reflective space for senior officers to explore their own biases, privilege, and leadership responsibilities.

Thames Valley Police's Support Association for Minority Ethnic staff works with the force on vetting, professional standards investigations and development days.

West Midlands Police has introduced a walk through life from a Black perspective, which is delivered to students as part of their initial training. This programme gives a first-hand perspective of what it is like to be Black and growing up in the Windrush era right up to the present day. 

West Yorkshire Police developed a forum for officers and staff of Black Heritage. The Black Heritage Advisory Group is a group of Black and Black heritage staff and officers with a purpose to use their expertise, professional skills and lived experience to provide insight and challenge to West Yorkshire Police. This is focused primarily on the delivery of the products and services for the Police Race Action Plan internally and externally. The discussions have sparked honest conversations and deep personal learning, helping leaders to approach operational and cultural decisions through a lens of equity and inclusion.

The projects below have been developed by police forces and other agencies. While not formally endorsed by the plan, hopefully they encourage ideas and discussion among those looking to deliver the plan's objectives, as well as showing the breadth of activity happening in policing.

The Attraction and Retention Hub from the College of Policing contains lots of information and resources to assist forces around the objectives in the Police Race Action Plan. If you search in the retention hub for information on retaining a diverse and effective workforce, you’ll find information on:

• Materials on positive action and why it is important.
• The national All Together Better campaign, which supports communications activity around positive action in forces.
• The national Safe to Say campaign, to help forces develop their efforts to improve culture and encourage those with protected characteristics to disclose them.

Several areas have established independent panels to scrutinise police complaints and misconduct processes, such as these panels in Avon and Somerset and Dyfed Powys service.

Derbyshire Constabulary's professional standards is working with its independent advisory group to improve transparency in processes. In addition to this, the force's race equality network provides scrutiny of decision making within the misconduct arrangements.

Devon and Cornwall Police commissioned an external company to carry out an audit of its culture, in relation to inclusion and any potential discrimination.

Dorset Police has undertaken lot of work tailoring the initial training of officers, utilising case studies and encouraging students to become critical reflectors. Students are exposed to a whole range of information and are encouraged to think about the experience of Norwell Roberts, the first Black police officer to join the Met Police, identify the causes of low ethnic minority representation in the force and more.

Project Drawbridge launched in April 2024 as a result of funding from the Office of the Police Chief Scientific Adviser’s Police STAR Fund. It set out to tackle challenges within SOC policing by embracing a broader approach to diversity, incorporating both surface-level characteristics such as ethnicity and gender, as well as deeper-level characteristics such as experience and values. The research data, which was gathered from Devon and Cornwall, Essex, Greater Manchester, and Gwent police forces using mixed methods - including surveys - examined three key areas including; perceptions and experiences of SOC, recruitment and progression in SOC, and managing inclusion and diversity.

Essex Police’s acclaimed We Value Difference recruitment campaign helped grow the proportion of applications to the force from underrepresented groups.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct has published guidelines for forces on managing complaints involving discrimination.

Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies introduced the ‘Right Education Learning and Development’ packages in 2024. It is a mandatory course for all first- and second-line managers, to the rank of Inspector and police staff equivalent. Once completed, attendees have access to toolkits to share with their teams. The training is designed to help people understand the importance of creating the right culture and how good leadership can help the forces to achieve this.

Nottinghamshire Police teamed up with local emergency service partners for a thought provoking video about racism.

Police in South Yorkshire have reviewed all their internal training and is due to roll out a new force-wide in-person inclusion training programme.

The force has also established its internal Black Heritage Action and Advisory Group to provide an opportunity for Black and Black heritage officers and staff to feedback their concerns and receive support. It is also establishing a specific peer support group.

Surrey Police has focused on its professional standards department. This includes a focus on diversity of staff in the department and the force’s Race Equality Network being involved with facilitating management advice.

Surrey and Sussex worked together on the Black, Asian, and Global Majority Mentoring Scheme, an initiative aimed at providing career and personal development support to police officers and staff who identify as Black or of colour. The programme is designed to create an inclusive environment where underrepresented employees can progress in their careers with guidance from mentors who share similar lived experiences. The mentors within the scheme are primarily external to the organisation, bringing diverse and rich personal experiences.

West Yorkshire Police is funding training for over 500 officers based in Leeds that focuses on local knowledge and explores the Black community’s history and perspectives of policing in Leeds, in partnership with the Chapeltown Youth Development Centre. The training will be delivered by members of the community. 

Internally the West Yorkshire force has implemented extra layers of support for officers who are repeat victims of racial hate crime.

Wiltshire Police has developed its We Rise programme, centred around investing in the learning and development of a cohort of employees who are underrepresented or have protected characteristics and who show potential in the force.  

Several forces, such as Gwent, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Nottinghamshire and West Yorkshire, are working with local Black communities to deliver anti-racism training to their staff. We consistently see that in-person training, delivered in partnership with local Black communities, is well received by participants.

The Positive Action team at West Yorkshire Police conducted an email survey with ethnic minority police officers and staff to understand how they could better support their development. This helped them develop a recruitment brochure, which gave a realistic view of joining the police, as well as a 12-month development campaign. You can read the full case study on the Attraction and Retention Hub.

The tri-force Women of Colour in Policing initiative started in Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. The group supports women from ethnic minority backgrounds and those whose first language is not English. They promote policing as a rewarding pathway, as well as working with a network of young ambassadors. The name and initiative was adopted nationally in 2022 and local branches are being established in other police forces.

Women in the Shade is working to improve the opportunities and experiences for women of colour across the uniformed services.

This study is a platform for change in the belonging, inclusion and retention of minority ethnic police officers. Through the innovative, participant-led research design and solution-focused impact activities, the Being Blue project centralises the lived experience of ethnic minority officers. The research will support police organisations in generating lasting and meaningful change in the experience of belonging, and inclusion for ethnic minority officers.

This study explores how racially minoritised communities perceive policing and recruitment, examining trust, representation and institutional barriers shaping career aspirations and diversity within policing.

This article examines the hidden and under-researched area of bullying and harassment of Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in the police service in England. It discusses the impact of a historical policy failure to acknowledge the importance of intersectionality in matters of diversity and the continuing struggle between race and gender. This contributes to the ‘invisibility and sexualisation’ of BAME women in policing.