Being Renowned for Fairness, Excellent Career Opportunities, and the Commitment and Skills of all Our People
The >invest< programme has been running since October 2005 as a major change initiative to establish;
- What jobs the CPS expects its staff to do;
- How those jobs are organised;
- How the CPS expects its staff to behave in doing their jobs;
- What skills staff need to do their jobs;
- How performance and individual development is managed; and
- How the CPS rewards its staff.
During 2007 the on-line tools will become fully available to staff and the new performance management system will become operational.
Proactive Prosecutor Programme
The proactive prosecutor programme (PPP) addresses the critical skills of case analysis and giving investigative advice. The training has been developed to support the rollout of the Charging programme.
At 31 March 2007, the CPS had delivered 254 training courses to approximately 2,270 lawyer staff. Seventeen Senior Managers’ Workshops were held between November 2005 and March 2007, with 217 members of the senior management teams having gone through the programme.
Recruiting and Developing our People
The CPS has improved recruitment processes resulting in a reduction in the time taken to recruit staff to seven weeks; the introduction of talent pooling; telephone shortlisting and telephone competency interviewing. An on-line recruitment system has also been introduced to track applications and enable information management relating to each individual recruitment campaign to be easily accessed.
In January 2007 the CPS won the Recruitment Ad (RAD) awards for Recruitment Marketing and Communications.
Case Study
Debbie Birrell, CPS Merseyside
Debbie Birrell, an HCA in CPS Merseyside, became one of the first female CPS part-time immigration judges. Preparation for her new role has included attending sittings at tribunals, studying cases and judgements in the immigration court and two training courses. Debbie said, "I was thrilled and very proud of myself... this is a truly amazing achievement."
Legal Trainees/Legal Scholarships
Since the scheme began in 2003, 640 staff have benefited, or continue to benefit, from the opportunities provided. This achievement was recognised in November 2006 when the CPS won the 'Personnel Today' award for Excellence in Training - with the Law Scholarship and Legal Trainee Schemes both forming part of this joint award.
In this period there were over 315 law scholars, including 82 legal trainees.
In 2006 a national campaign to attract external applicants for the Legal Trainee Scheme was undertaken. Over 2,000 applications were received and the CPS appointed 24 high quality trainees in October 2006. Internal recruitment also continued during the year, as of March 2007 there are 35 internally-recruited trainees.
Case Study
Mo Dampha, CPS Thames Valley
After graduating from Brunel University with a law degree, Mo Dampha joined the CPS in 2000 to gain some legal experience to help him decide whether he wanted to go on to qualify as a lawyer. He joined as an administrative officer and quickly progressed to become a caseworker dealing with a range of cases. In 2003 he received sponsorship from the CPS to complete the Legal Practice Course as part of the Law Scholarship Scheme. Mo successfully completed the course in 2005 and attained a post as a DCW dealing with cases in the magistrates' courts. Mo knew he wanted to qualify as a lawyer and successfully applied to become a legal trainee. Mo has enjoyed the variety of work he has been able to experience and said: "I am well on my way to conducting my own trials at court. It has been a long journey so far, but definitely worth the wait. I think it is testament to the CPS that it values its staff and encourages those from all backgrounds and in all roles to develop and progress within its ranks."
Prosecution College
Prosecution College team: Paul Bramley, Sharron Hughes, Andrew Castle (presenter) and Stephanie James
The Prosecution College, a flagship CPS e-learning initiative, has continued to meet the demands of the business and has substantially increased its learning portfolio and internal customer base to 4,400 users. The learning portfolio offers staff a choice of 25 learning programmes consisting of 114 modules, ranging from specialised subjects, from Induction through to Performance Management. It is the efficient delivery and high quality production of complex legal and non-legal content that has made the Prosecution College an award-winning product and internationally-recognised brand. Winning the 2006 HR Excellence Award and achieving Highly Commended in the National Training Awards, demonstrates the achievement of the Prosecution College and the benefits it offers to staff and the business. Crown Prosecutor Sandra Hawkins adds, "I am a great fan of e-learning! I found it very helpful to be able to complete part of a module and then go back to where I left off and continue. I could fit the training round my other work duties. I also liked the instant feedback on my multiple choice answers."
Management Training
Between June 2006 and March 2007, 1,177 managers attended workshops on individual performance management. The workshops were designed to equip every junior and middle manager with the knowledge and skills to undertake effective performance management of their staff.
Work is continuing on the management development strategy for April 2007 onwards, and will include development options for lawyer managers as well as coaching for senior managers.
Finance training to Professional Skills for Government levels has been made available to all staff within the organisation, and a continuing programme of project management training is in place. e-learning to support all of the above initiatives has been developed in order to make available different methods of learning.
Case Study
Allison Kenna, CPS London
CPS London caseworker Allison Kenna earned a new title - Paralegal of the Year - in 2006. She was chosen for the award by the Institute of Paralegals, which described her as a "real credit to the CPS".
Allison, from South East London Prosecution Service, South Sector, beat 23 other nominees, including a colleague from another CPS Area. She was nominated by District Crown Prosecutor Judith Reed for her "outstanding contribution to the care of the victims, witnesses and families of those whose lives are affected by crime".
As well as the award, presented last November, Allison received a year's free membership to the Institute, which represents people in the UK who are not qualified solicitors or barristers but carry out legal work.
She said: "I'm very honoured to be given the award although, to me, providing care to victims and witnesses is an essential part of my job."
Case Study
Anna Zimand, CPS Derbyshire
Anna Zimand, Head of the Trials Unit CPS Derbyshire, volunteered to take part in the national Ethnic Minority Undergraduate Scheme, a mentoring programme providing support and experience to black and Asian students planning managerial and professional careers, run by the University of Derby. Anna is mentoring a BA student, Margaret Kungule, who stated that the scheme is helping to build her confidence. She said: "Women, and especially black women, can face barriers in the workplace, so it's been really good for me to be mentored by a women in a senior management position." Anna has been so successful that she has been asked to continue with the Scheme and the University has approached her to use her experiences as part of a booklet to promote the Scheme.
Representative Workforce
The CPS Annual Equalities in Employment Report 2005-06 was published in April 2007. The report shows a significant increase in the number of senior women and Black and Minority Ethnic employees in the past year. The number of female CPS employees at Senior Civil Service level has increased from 33.3% to 45.2%, with female CCPs increasing from 24.5% to 26.5%. In April 2006, Black and Minority Ethnic employees made up 15.2% of all CPS employees, exceeding the Labour Force Survey (December 2005) benchmark by 2.3%.
Maximising Attendance
The CPS remains committed to reducing the level of sickness absence. For April 2006 - March 2007 the CPS absence rate was 8.7 days per employee, a slight increase from 8.6 from the previous financial year. The CPS is now engaged on a programme to embed a culture of proactive ‘attendance’ management. The introduction of the Carefirst Contracts (providing professional counselling services to CPS staff and their dependants), were the first steps and these are being supplemented by an improved occupational health service and HR interventions. This has resulted in a reduction of ‘very long-term’ absences during 2006. Work has also begun to pilot workshops relating to the management of stress within the workplace.
Equality and Diversity
Members of the CPS Equality and Diversity Unit
The CPS published its first Single Equality Scheme 2006-10 on 4 December 2006. The Scheme sets out the Disability Equality actions that the CPS will undertake in order to meet its statutory duty under the Disability Discrimination Act. The Scheme builds on the CPS Race Equality Scheme 2005-08 and sets out Gender Equality Actions. The Scheme also incorporates equality and diversity actions in respect of age, religion or belief and sexuality and gender identity.
DPP, Ken Macdonald QC said "My vision for a world-class service on equality and diversity delivered through the Single Equality Scheme is part and parcel of my wider vision for CPS. We have identified the overall equality goals and outcomes we aim to achieve. These are at the heart of our Single Equality Scheme."
Health and Safety
The CPS has continued a programme to increase awareness of health and safety across the Service. The CPS held various events across England and Wales during European Health and Safety week, 23-27 October 2006 to raise the profile of health and safety and awareness of staff in offices. The 2006 Staff Survey results showed a dramatic and positive increase in the health and safety awareness of staff compared to 2004.
A full revision was undertaken on the Health and Safety information available on the Infonet - Health and Safety Manual, Policies, Guidance and Forms - to ensure up-to-date information is available for all staff. New Health and Safety policies issued were the Fire Safety Policy Statement and the Smoking Policy Statement, both issued in December 2006.
The CPS continued its programme of internal health and safety training courses across the department, where over 100 courses were held during 2006-07. Feedback from the courses showed them to be well received by the attendees.
