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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Objectives 2020–2022

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1. Our People

Increase diverse workforce representation and declaration rates to ensure the CPS workforce is representative of the communities we serve and the rate of people declaring their personal information on our HR system is at or above 75%.

Key activities for 2019-2020

  • Ensure local and national strategies and plans set targets and take positive action where required to ensure the local workforce at all levels reflects local populations;
  • Support and encourage employees to declare their personal characteristics on HR systems;
  • Continue to analyse all employment data annually to identify and deal with anything that appears unfair in any CPS practice.

2. Our People

Develop an inclusive workplace culture by ensuring our organisational culture allows employees of all personal characteristics and backgrounds to feel included, thrive and develop in the workplace.

Key activities for 2019-2020

  • Work in partnership with our colleagues in the trades unions and employee networks to identify potential barriers to workforce inclusion for all and develop approaches to overcome them;
  • Work in partnership with our colleagues in the trades unions, employee networks and external benchmarking organisations to identify potential barriers to workforce inclusion for all and develop approaches to overcome them.  
  • Continue to embed the Anti-bullying and harassment Respect Programme (which aims to identify and tackle inappropriate workplace behaviour linked to bullying and harassment), evaluate its impact and take follow up action, linked to local People Survey outcomes;
  • Continue to measure employee experience by demographic group through the Annual Civil Service People Survey to ensure that any difference in experience between groups is identified and acted upon.

3. Casework Quality

Work with communities and partners to deliver high quality casework by ensuring crime trends and feedback from stakeholders help to inform our priorities. Improve the CPS approach to service delivery and casework in relation to Violence Against Women and Girls crimes (including male victims), hate crime, serious violence, mental health and communities that are disproportionately affected by particular crime and share a relevant protected characteristic.

Key activities for 2019-2020

  • Refresh membership of Local Scrutiny Involvement Panels (LSIP) to ensure they reflect representatives from all the communities affected by the cases reviewed;
  • Engage with stakeholders to review CPS’ approach to casework involving victims, witnesses and defendants with mental health issues and learning disabilities, to improve their experiences of the Criminal Justice System;
  • Ensure that casework feedback from LSIPs and community engagement activities feeds into local and national Casework Quality Assurance processes, helping to shape national priorities;
  • CPS Areas and Casework Divisions to promote the use of Registered Intermediaries where the victim or witness has a communication need that would be assisted by a Registered Intermediary or where the victim or witness is under 18 and seems liable to not fully understand the questions put to them;
  • CPS Areas and Casework Division to promote the use of Registered Intermediaries with police stakeholders at the earliest stage of the investigation for victims, witnesses or defendants to ensure support is given for individuals with communication needs; and
  • CPS HQ to liaise with the MoJ Witness Intermediary Service (WIS) to ensure that there are sufficient Registered Intermediaries to meet the needs of the victims and witnesses including deaf and hearing impaired victims and witnesses.

4. Casework Quality

Ensure prosecutions are fair and transparent by ensuring any unjustified disproportionality is identified and appropriate action taken wherever necessary.

Key activities for 2019-2020

  • Publish data on CPS decision-making, broken down by protected characteristics wherever possible, and take appropriate action where unjustified disproportionality is identified;
  • Monitor national and local performance on issues which disproportionately affect communities with protected characteristics, and take appropriate action where necessary to address any issues identified;
  • Engage and communicate with diverse communities who have lower levels of confidence in the CJS to explain decisions and share casework outcomes.

5. Public Confidence

Build trust with all our diverse communities.

Key activities for 2019-2020

  • CPS Areas and Casework Divisions to conduct a stakeholder and community mapping exercise to inform and prioritise local community engagement activity;
  • Pilot and embed new ways of engaging with seldom-heard communities identified through the programme of ‘Community Conversations’ led by Chief Crown Prosecutors; and
  • Review the terms of reference and refresh membership of the Community Accountability Forum, which will oversee progress against our Equality and Diversity objectives and ensure the CPS is meeting its duties under the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998.

6. Public Confidence

Making equality and inclusion everyone’s business by ensuring the public sector equality duty is applied consistently and effectively in regards to employment and how we deliver our work with the public.

Key activities for 2019-2020

  • Further improve the culture and approach to undertaking Equality Analysis, to include governance arrangements, delivered through training, awareness raising and process changes to demonstrate how robust Equality Analysis supports informed decision making;
  • Develop a local and national assurance process to monitor the implementation and progress of the Inclusion and Community Engagement Strategy and equality and diversity objectives;
  • Encourage staff from all levels, roles and characteristics to participate in community engagement activities; and
  • CPS Areas to work with local Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs), to formulate learning opportunities for staff to increase awareness of the ‘social model of disability’ which will support them in creating a more inclusive working environment and improve support for disabled and Deaf victims and witnesses.