Inclusion and Community Engagement at the CPS
Our commitment to inclusion, diversity and equality is at the heart of how we work.
Our mission as an organisation is to deliver justice through independent and fair prosecutions. We can only do that if we work in a way that is inclusive of the diverse communities that make up the population of England and Wales.
There are three key elements to our community engagement work:
Using insights and feedback from diverse communities to improve our policies and the way we work
Engaging with communities from across England and Wales helps us to understand their needs and their experiences of the justice system. This in turn helps us to improve our policies and the way we work in a way that’s fair for everyone. For example, feedback from community forums has helped us to improve the way we conduct needs assessments for vulnerable witnesses, improve the training we offer to our prosecutors on issues such as hate crime and violence against women and girls and identify ways we could improve our communications to make them more accessible.
Explaining who we are and how we work to help everyone have confidence in the CPS and in the criminal justice system
The criminal justice system is complicated and can be difficult to understand. That’s why a key part of our community engagement work is reaching out to diverse communities to explain who we are and what we do. Delivering independent and fair prosecutions is only possible if people have confidence in us that we will treat them fairly and examine their case on its own merits. As part of this public confidence work, CPS staff regularly speak to educational establishments such as schools and colleges, community groups and the voluntary sector about our work.
Supporting the CPS to be a diverse and inclusive organisation
We want to be representative of the people and communities we serve. The CPS is proud to be one of the most diverse departments in the Civil Service but we know we still have a long way to go. That’s why as part of our community engagement work we reach out to communities who are under-represented in the CPS to showcase what a great place this is to work and helping to break down any barriers that might stop people from applying for a job with us. For example, we currently run a number of work experience programme targeted at range of people from diverse backgrounds.
This section will explain what we are doing to achieve this.
Inclusion
The action of including or of being included within a group or structure. Promoting an inclusive culture is about recognising the value of diversity and supporting everyone to realise their full potential.
Diversity
The understanding that each individual is different and the recognition that diverse teams produce better outcomes. This involves taking into account the different experiences and needs of everyone.
Equality
Equality is about ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents.
It is also the belief that no one should have poorer life chances because of the way they were born, where they come from, what they believe, or whether they have a disability.
Equality recognises that historically certain groups of people with protected characteristics such as race, disability, sex and sexual orientation have experienced discrimination.