Accessible version: Gender pay gap reporting

In 2017, the Government introduced legislation that made it statutory for organisations with 250 or more employees to report annually on their gender pay gap. Nottinghamshire Police is covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 which came into force on 31 March 2017. These regulations underpin the Public Sector Equality Duty and require relevant organisations to publish their gender pay gap by 30 March 2018 (and then annually), including: the mean and median gender gaps in hourly pay; the mean and median gender gaps in bonus pay; the proportion of men and women who received bonuses; and the proportions of male and female employees in each pay quartile.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate that there may be a number of issues to deal with and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman.

Nottinghamshire Police supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff, irrespective of gender. Our pay approach is based on the principles of consistency, fairness and transparency, supporting the fair treatment and reward of all staff, irrespective of gender.

We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive organisation and understanding and improving our gender pay balance.

This report fulfils Nottinghamshire Police’s reporting requirements, analyses the figures in more detail and sets out what we are doing to close the gender pay gap in the organisation.

All figures provided within the report are based on the organisation’s data taken from 31st March 2021

Workers in Scope

Included in the data are the Police Officers serving with Nottinghamshire Police and the employed Police Staff.

Police Officers: 58.3%

Police Staff: 41.7%

Gender Profile

The gender profile of Nottinghamshire Police is as follows:

Male: 54.6%

Female: 45.4%

The gender profile of Police Officers:

Male: 66.3%

Female: 33.7%

The gender profile of Police Staff:

Male: 38.1%

Female: 61.9%

Gender Pay Gap in Hourly Pay – Combined

Mean Gender Pay Gap: 10.6%

Median Gender Pay Gap: 21.7%

Gender Pay Gap in Hourly Pay – Police Officers

Mean Gender Pay Gap: 5.5%

Median Gender Pay Gap: 0.0%

Nottinghamshire Police uses the national police officer ranks ranging from Constable to Chief Constable. Each rank has a specific pay scale. Police officers move through the pay scale within a rank based on length of service, regardless of gender.

Pay quartiles - Police Officers

Female - Lowest: 37.6%

Female - Lower middle: 36.4%

Female - Upper middle: 34.9%

Female - Highest: 25.7%

Male - Lowest: 62.4%

Male - Lower middle: 63.6%

Male - Upper middle: 65.1%

Male - Highest: 74.3%

The difference in hourly pay is driven by a number of factors, including the greater proportion of female police officers in the lowest pay quartile (37.6%) compared to (33.7%) average across all quartiles for female officers.

Nottinghamshire Police have seen an increase of 5.1%, 3.5% and 1.9% in female officers in the upper middle, lower middle and lowest quartile and a 4.7% reduction of female officers in the upper quartile when contrasting the 2020 and 2021 pay gap police officer data. Included in the leavers for the upper quartile is 5 female officers of inspector and above ranks, the majority due to normal retirement and one senior officer leaving through transferring to another force on promotion.

Gender Pay Gap in Hourly Pay – Police Staff

Mean Gender Pay Gap: 6.8%

Median Gender Pay Gap: 5.5%

Nottinghamshire Police uses local police staff grades determined following formal job evaluations. Each grade has a specific pay scale. Police staff move through the pay scale within a grade based on length of service, regardless of gender. There are a small number of Police Staff who are on career grade schemes, who progress across grades linked to attainments such as qualifications.

Pay quartiles

Female - Lowest: 73.2%

Female - Lower middle: 64.5%

Female - Upper middle: 58.4%

Female - Highest: 51.7%

Male - Lowest: 26.8%

Male - Lower middle: 35.5%

Male - Upper middle: 41.6%

Male - Highest: 48.3%

This demonstrates that the pay gap for police staff is partly as a consequence of a higher proportion of females occupying more junior roles.

Nottinghamshire Police has seen an increase in the lowest quartile (0.9%). This represents a positive increase in the attraction of female police staff. We have also seen increase (4.3%) in female staff in the upper middle quartile. In the highest quartile the proportion of females in this quartile is 3.4% higher than males. Although there has been a reduction (1.7%) from last year’s figures.

Bonus Gender Pay Gap – Combined

Mean Bonus Gender Pay Gap: 6.3%

Median Bonus Gender Pay Gap: 0.0%

Proportion of Men and Women receiving a bonus payment

Female: 7.8%

Male: 13.7%

The percentage of female officers paid a bonus has reduced in 2021 in contract to 2020 by 3.5%. Male officers that receive a bonus payment has also reduced by 2.9%

Bonus Gender Pay Gap – Police Officers

The Police Officer Bonus Payment Procedure provides details of the bonus payment scheme within Nottinghamshire Police and the circumstances in which the bonus payment will be awarded. The objective is to ensure a consistent and fair approach to bonus payments.

Mean Bonus Gender Pay Gap: -0.4%

Median Bonus Gender Pay Gap: 22.6%

Proportion of Men and Women receiving a bonus payment

Female: 13.3%

Male: 17.3%

Police officers are eligible to be considered for a bonus under the Police Officer Bonus Payment Scheme, as per the May 2002 Police Negotiating Board Pay Agreement.

The percentage of male and female officers paid a bonus payment has reduced.

Bonus Gender Pay Gap – Police Staff

Mean Bonus Gender Pay Gap: -2%

Median Bonus Gender Pay Gap: -23.1%

Proportion of Men and Women receiving a bonus payment

Female: 3.6%

Male: 4.7%

Police staff in certain roles, are eligible to be considered for a bonus payment for undertaking formal tutoring. The Police Staff Honoraria Procedure also provides opportunities for consideration of an honoraria payment for police staff undertaking some higher-level duties or demonstrating exceptional performance over a prolonged period.

In 2020 4.8% male police staff and 4.1% female police staff (0.7% gap) received a bonus in contrast to the 2021 figures 4.7% male and 3.6% for females. There is a slight reduction overall with the proportion of police staff receiving bonus payments.

Taking action – The Year in Review

In our 2019/20 gender pay gap report, we prioritised a number of areas for action to help reduce our gender pay gap. Here we report on our progress for those areas and how we will build on our plan in order to work towards reducing the gender pay gap for Nottinghamshire Police.

We committed to the following:

 - Family Friendly Policies

We have continued to refresh our family friendly policies to enable parents and carers to achieve a work life balance. These include but are not limited to flexible working, career break, agile working and recruitment and selection.

 - Widening access

Following the success of the first years Widening Access Course aimed at improving representation within our workforce. This positive action course allowed an exciting opportunity for individuals interested in developing a greater understanding of Nottinghamshire Police, to gain an in-depth understanding about the variety of policing roles and career opportunities available. This initiative ran for two weeks and provided participants with a real and practical insight into the specifics of being a police officer.

The course offered support for the national assessment centre preparing individuals for the processes involved in becoming a police officer. The main purpose of this programme was to remove the barriers that are present for individuals in considering policing as a career with the aim of helping and developing participants to gain a greater insight and passion for the role and support them towards their career as a police officer within Nottinghamshire Police.

Following the success of this positive action initiative we were able to help individuals increase their confidence to apply for roles in Nottinghamshire Police by familiarising them with the organisation and recruitment processes. Mentorship was provided for both the SEARCH and interview assessments thereby increasing employability skills and success in future recruitment initiatives. This course empowered over (70%) of attendees to apply for police officer and police staff roles, which resulted in (3) female attendees joining/due to join Nottinghamshire Police as police officers. We also had (2) individuals commence in a police staff role. For the individual that was unsuccessful, we will continue to mentor in order for them to reapply.

 - Schools

We continue to have a dedicated school engagement team to visit schools to promote recruitment, educate young people around criminality affecting the area and encourage interest and engagement toward the police force through open communication and education.

Due to Covid-19, the schools engagement teams have not been able to attend schools in the usual way but we have continued to engage with young people through the career offices in schools, cadet schemes and apprenticeship roles.
The Schools Officers are promoting opportunities within our organisation and engaging with students to divert them from the criminal justice system and to help to mentor their peers.

 - Development plans for promotion

We have implemented detailed development plans at all ranks to those who are unsuccessful at promotion, that will highlight areas of strength and specific areas to dedicate improvement and to allow for growth and reflective learning.
We have developed a dedicated group of individuals from different ranks and roles within the organisation who have been given specialist training to support those seeking promotion.

Nottinghamshire Police have also implemented enhanced leadership training which includes both sergeant and inspector rank and police staff equivalent.
The programme is two fold. Our Proud to Lead programme is designed to provide an insight into the next role/rank at the point that individuals are considering taking the first supervisory step. This gives individuals the opportunity to speak to practitioners and managers to understand the reality of what is expected as well as what the demands might be. This includes peer to peer mentoring, on the job training and coaching.

We are working with Support Networks to ensure that opportunities and development events are well attended. We are jointly providing one to one sessions in preparation for promotion boards and interviews, group training sessions and advice.

 - People Survey – you said we did

We undertook a People Survey, which provided an opportunity for colleagues to tell us what’s important them. This opportunity was reinforced by the Deputy Chief Constable’s roadshows, where we asked colleagues, if there were any barriers/hindrance factors that were hampering them performing their role or issues that were important to them. In response to this we reviewed the feedback received and communicated our responses through a `You said we did` campaign. It was unfortunate that Covid-19 caused us to cease the DCC roadshows early to comply with the restrictions in place.

We have continued to deliver the wellbeing initiatives that the organisation said were the priorities, evaluating the business benefits of what we have delivered, after the event and at a 6 month point following the event/training. This is to increase awareness/education, improve the health and wellbeing of our staff and ensure it is appropriately targeted and relevant. Nottinghamshire Police continue to make the workforce more inclusive for all in line with our aim to be the Employer of choice.

Future Actions to Remove the Gender Pay Gap

Nottinghamshire Police is committed to addressing the gender pay gap and aims to undertake further initiatives and actions to reduce this including:

 - Family Friendly initiatives

In light of Government proposals to reform the statutory right to request flexible working. We will review our flexible working policies to consider if we wish to make any changes to our policy to support our employees. We will also review our agile working strategy and refresh the agile policy so we are clear how the agile/hybrid working processes are going to interact with flexible working.

Following the Government confirming its plan for the introduction of a statutory right to carer’s leave. We will review our existing policies and procedures to understand the impact of this legislation and how it fits in with our current policies. We will consider how the new type of leave will operate and what further support we will provide our employees.

Working alongside our support networks we aim to review and update our Menopause policy and associated documents to ensure that is providing the guidance and support to individuals and line managers. We are seeking feedback whether training for line managers is required.

 - Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI)

In order to become an employer of choice for people from all backgrounds and cultures, we need to have the best possible understanding of our communities and we need to ensure our workforce is aware, educated and confident in DEI matters.

DEI and how we use positive action, provides Nottinghamshire Police with opportunities. Our DEI strategy aims to provide a framework for our activities, engagement and reporting mechanisms to ensure we build on the progress made. We want to further improve the service we provide, ensure we are a fair and respectful employer that values its people and reflects these values out into our communities.

To meet this objective, we will continue to use positive action to remove barriers to opportunities in recruitment, retention and progression and seek ways to attract people from all diverse backgrounds and communities to our organisation.

 - Recruitment, selection and promotion

We intend to provide recruitment and selection training to staff involved in recruitment. We have previously provided some unconscious-bias training, and this will be included in the training.

With our recruitment and selection policies and processes, we will seek to continue to improve our diversity and representation from under-represented groups particularly women.

We will review our recruitment and selection processes including our application process to ensure it is more accessible, review the digital recruitment changes, and all stages in recruitment and selection processes to support our commitment of being an employer of choice.

We will continue to build on the success of increasing our officer and staff numbers, attraction of female officers and supporting them through the promotion process to see female officers and staff in higher ranks and roles.
We will provide refresher training to all trained job evaluators to ensure the process continues to be consistently applied, robustly managed and fair.
We will continue to provide information, support and mentoring to help individuals to make informed decisions around career progression. Working with Support Networks to ensure that opportunities for career progression is accessible and relevant to their members.

 - Engagement at an Early Age

The Citizen’s Policing Department (CiPD) of Nottinghamshire Police, will continue to target underrepresented groups to showcase opportunities with us and to make joining Nottinghamshire Police an appealing option to the younger community. All of the CiPD programmes promotes good citizenship, helps to mentor young people to develop strong values and promotes the understanding of the different career pathways. CiPD team will continue to provide the young people with life skills, engage them in productive activities to support their onward journey, guiding them to make good life choices and inspiring them to want to succeed.

CiPD will continue to engage with the young people of Nottinghamshire through a number of structured programmes covering a range of ages from primary through to adulthood such as:

• Mini Police
• Cadets
• SEIO
• Youth Outreach
• Careers
• Apprenticeships
• Student Placement and volunteers

We hope to build on the success of the above programmes in encouraging a more diverse workforce into a wide range of opportunities.

 - Payment of Bonuses

In this reporting period, we have seen an overall reduction in individuals receiving bonus payments. We will continue to review the bonus payment procedure and monitor the impact based on gender.