Gender pay gap report 2021-22

Introduction: Deputy Chief Constable Jane Gyford

We are dedicated to reducing the gender pay gap and I am confident we can continue to make positive steps in supporting officers and staff in their career development, for the benefit of all.

We are committed to pay policies and guidance that encourage gender parity, and it is encouraging to see our pay gap has reduced to 16.6%, from the 2020/21 median of 17.87%.

Our recent success in meeting national recruitment “uplift” targets has enabled us to increase the proportion of female police constables to 36.8%, a 2% rise on the 2020/21 figure. While it is great to see the number of female new joiners rising, this does mean the proportion of women in the early stages of their career is also increasing.

Our commitment is to build a workforce that is reflective of the community we serve, and it is our goal to better understand and overcome barriers to achieving an equal and representative constabulary across all ranks.

Gender representation

The breakdown in gender demographics for police officers and police staff shows that we continue to have a higher proportion of female police staff to males. There has been an increase in officer numbers in 2021/22 which has seen a 5.82% increase in the number of female officers employed in the Force. Although females still represent a lower proportion this increase is a step in the right direction to bridge this gap. 

-	2021-2022	2020-2021
Female Officers	564	533
Male Officers	1091	1100
Female Staff	582	605
Male Staff	348	362

 

Officer Female proportion	34.08%
Officer Male proportion	65.92%
Staff Female proportion	62.58%
Staff Male proportion	37.42%

 

Breakdown of workforce

Looking at the female and male split at each officer rank, we have seen a consistent increase in the percentage of female Constables in the last three years. In 2017/18 31.95% of all Constables were female. This increased to 32.07% in 2018/19 and had increased further in 2019/20 to 32.78%. The 2020/21 figures showed a further increase, females represent 34.65% of the Constable population and in 2021/22, females represent 36.78% of the constable population. Within the Senior Rank proportion (Chief Inspector and above) females make up 22.92% of the population.

Officer Head Count

-	2021-2022	-	2020-2021	-
-	Females	Males	Females	Males
Constable	466	801	440	830
Sergeant	70	189	63	174
Inspector	17	64	18	57
Senior ranks	11	37	12	39

 

Senior Officer – promotion progress

At our Chief Officers levels our female Deputy Chief Constable (DCC Jane Gyford) and Assistant Chief Constable (ACC Vicki Evans) have remained in post. Detective Chief Superintendent (Det Chief Supt Rebecca Tipping) and Superintendent (Supt Laura Hunt) also form part of our Senior Leadership Team. We are pleased to say that this continues the trend of being able to have a positive female representation at the most senior ranks within our Force.

Promotions processes across our three collaborated Forces are the same for male and female officers. In 2021/22 the tri-force promotions resulted in the following female promotions taking place:

Chief Superintendent: 

There was no promotions process run for the Chief Superintendent rank in this year.

Superintendent:

At this rank there was 1 female applicant out of a total of 9 Cambridgeshire applicants.  This represented 12% of those who applied in Cambridgeshire Constabulary.  This female was not successful in the boards. 

Chief Inspector:

There were 6 female applicants in the Chief Inspector process out of a total of 16 Cambridgeshire applicants.  3 female applicants passed of which represented 37% of those who passed the boards from the constabulary. 

The gender pay gap

Median: The mid-point in the range

Mean: The whole range expressed as an average

Police Staff and Police Officers combined (includes all staff and officer levels)

The median gender pay gap is 16.60%

The mean gender pay gap is 9.42%

Compared to the previous reporting year, the mean pay gap has widened by 1.20% and the median gender pay gap has narrowed by 1.27%

 

Police Staff and Police Officers separated

When we split out the data for staff and officers we can see that this does change our Forces dynamic:

The median pay gap for police staff is 8.87% and for police officers is 0.25%.

The mean pay gap for staff is 8.29% and for officers it is 7.15%.

Compared to the 2020/21 data, the staff only mean and median pay gaps have both increased by 1.82% and 1.27% respectively.  The Officer only mean pay gap has increased by 1.51%, whereas the median pay gap has widenened slightly at 0.25%.

 

Employee Quartiles (Staff and Officers combined)

-	Quartile 1	Quartile 2	Quartile 3	Quartile 4
Male Proportion	45.90%	47.83%	56.04%	72.91%
Female Proportion	54.10%	52.17%	43.96%	27.09%

In this year there are some changes in the quartiles breakdowns, and they are showing a change in our profiling.  The key changes are the significant increase in Q1 of 6.1% in the female proportion and the slight increase of 2.73% in Q3. Q2 and Q4 profiles both show decreases in the female proportions of 2.14% and 4.45% respectively. The decrease in Q4 is due to the transfer out of force of one of our female superintendents (Sup Kate Anderson) and the retirement of a female Detective Chief Inspector (DCI Andrea Warren).

 

The bonus gender pay gap  

For Police Officers, there is Home Office national guidance, introduced in 2003, that allows Forces to make one-off bonus payments of between £50 and £500 when an officer has carried out work of an outstandingly demanding, unpleasant or important nature. Specific to Firearms officers, there is also a national agreement for bonus payments to be made as an agreed retention incentive. Though paid as a bonus payment in previous years these are now being paid as a temporary targeted variable payment (TVP) which has been in place since 2017.  The value of these forearms payments in remain at the same value and can be up to a maximum total of £2,000 per officer annually.  The situation remains unchanged that most firearm officers are male, and this continues to affect the bonus gender pay gap data. The TVP scheme allows Forces to recognise specialist skills and to assist with retaining officers in these types of roles which now includes detectives as well as other specialist units.

Police staff are eligible to receive honoraria payments for work that is over and above their normal duties and/or of particular importance or quality, and payments require formal sign off to review the rationale for the payments.

Bonus - Staff and officers combined.

The median bonus gender gap is also in favour of females at -25%%.

In comparison to 2020/21, the mean pay bonus gap is now in favour of females, to now showing a pay gap of -66.49%, a difference of 106.36%.

	Number of Recipients	% of males and females who received a bonus	Median Payment	Mean Payment
Male	89	6.16%	£400	£922.46
Female	24	2.04%	£500	£1535.76

Officer bonuses

The officer only median bonus pay gap has closed by 23.33% and is now at 66.67%.  The officer only mean bonus pay gap has closed by 32.8%, and is now 56.48%

Staff honoraria

The staff only median pay gap has grown by 35.84% from 0% in the previous reporting year.  The staff only mean pay gap has continued to remain in favour of females at -94.03%.

Summary and key activities

Cambridgeshire continues with the work already established to achieve a diverse workforce but recognises that there is always more that can be done. Our Corporate Plan 2022/23 and Ethics, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (EDEI) Statement of Intent aims to create a workforce that is truly representative of the diverse communities we serve, utilising positive action initiatives to better understand the barriers to developing an equal and representative workforce at all levels. Future activity that we will be focusing on in the forthcoming years in relation to better representation and fair pay activity include:

• Dedicated Positive Action Team and other personnel whose main aim and purpose is to help create a more diverse workforce. To achieve this, the teams work is focused on attraction, recruitment, retention and progression of ethnic minorities and female staff. This includes providing support to those applicants from under-represented groups through the force ‘Buddy Scheme’. We have seen an increase in the number of females who joined as police officers with 49.2% of new police officer recruits being female in this reporting year. This is well above the national average of 32.3%.
• Continued implementation of national to local talent management programmes to support people from an ethnic minority background and female staff lateral development and progression to first and senior management positions supported by Chief Officer Reverse Mentoring Programme.
• Cambridgeshire Constabulary working in collaboration with Bedfordshire Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary is one of only a few forces to have been awarded The Menopause Friendly Association following an upskilling of resources and undertaking a range of initiatives which has been a significant step forward in opening up the conversation about menopause at work. This provision has enabled 3 trained menopause champions in Cambridgeshire as a point on contact for officers and staff to gain support with menopause conditions, signposting, support and help. We want everyone to feel comfortable talking about menopause, never feeling that the subject is taboo or off limits or a reason not to join or to leave the police service.
• The Becoming Career Ready pilot programme launched in April 2022. The Becoming Career Ready programme is aimed at career-minded women from Black, Asian, and other underrepresented ethnic backgrounds, including those who do not speak English as a first language. The programme is designed to help underrepresented female officers and staff, of any rank or grade, progress their policing career, whether this is through promotion or a lateral career move. It offers a networking and learning opportunity where career development barriers - whether perceived or experienced first-hand - can be explored and dismantled to support progression. The aim is to create a space for their voices to be heard, and for them to be seen and included.
• Cambridgeshire active engagement with Women of Colour in Policing (WoCiP) initiative which elevates and champions all women from ethnic minority backgrounds and their allies, whether they are officers, staff, volunteers or retired. It is open to all women of colour and works to increase knowledge and understanding of the lived experiences of women from ethnic minority communities and also addresses issues regarding intersectionality. 
• Women’s force network called ‘Fusion’ whose main aim is to support women to achieve their potential and the organisation to develop a truly inclusive organisation that supports and encourages difference. The objectives of the network are to:

• • To significantly raise the profile and accessibility of senior women in policing
  • To ensure that there is equality of opportunity for all employees including opportunities for promotion / lateral development.
  • To encourage the organisation to use the workforce innovatively.
• Continued work to champion female development, progression and achievement including activity co-ordinated through the women’s tri-force network including an annual conference in March each year to mark International Women’s Day and force nomination and attendance at British Association for Women in Policing Annual Award Ceremony.
• To continue understanding reasons for under representation in certain units and how we can encourage and support more female officers in this teams. Particular areas continue to include specialist policing teams such as Dog and Firearms units. Female representation in these areas is a national issue and work continues to support an increase. 
• Activity to ensure delivery against our new force culture statement which sets out the behaviours we believe are key to creating an inclusive working environment, namely;
  • Ensuring all voices are respected and heard.
  • Being a progressive organisation, which encourages innovation and enterprise.
  • Investing in all our people and ensuring they have the right support in place to flourish.
  • Creating an environment where people feel happy, and everyone feels part of the team.

Recent activity includes;

• • Development and Inclusion of the force Culture Statement following extensive consultation into our Corporate Plan 2022/23 to ensure external and internal awareness supported by an extensive programme of culture activity and workstreams supported through the introduction of a force Culture Champion to ensure this is translated into tangible activity at all levels and across all business areas.
  • Deputy Chief Constable culture roadshows at police stations across the force area discussing culture work directly with staff, what it means to them and how they can influence and shape delivery.   
  • Launch of the Cambridgeshire People Delivery Plan 2023-2026 which incorporates relevant activities to improve under-representation in the workforce and make a more inclusive working environment.
  • Development of the force Career Development ‘Leadership Pathway’ providing one single hub detailing leadership and continuous professional development opportunities for all from a local to national level
  • Development and delivery of force Leadership and Culture 5-day workshops for all first- and second-line police officers and staff supervisors, in order to develop a more inclusive workplace where all staff feel valued and supported and an environment which embraces difference and recognises that diverse perspectives are the best way of solving many of the complex and challenging issues facing policing.

Through our force culture work we aim to build trust and confidence in one another and our communities, ensuring our behaviours reflect our force values of Fairness, Integrity, Diligence, and Impartiality. Values + Behaviours = Culture

• Through better data collection we will also understand the composition of gender pay in relation to ethnicity and the 9 protected characteristics.

For more information you can contact us via [email protected]