Valuing diversity in recruitment
Our commitment
Here at Lincolnshire Police, we value people from all backgrounds and we are working hard to build our workforce so that it reflects the rich diversity of our vast communities by attracting experience and talent from the widest pool of people
To help achieve a representative workforce we have expanded our eligibility criteria to enable us to recruit more people who speak English as their second language. Our current police officers with second language skills are integral to community engagement in towns and villages across Lincolnshire, particularly in Boston, South Holland and Lincoln. We are also proud that expanding our eligibility criteria has enabled us to focus recruitment activity in areas such as British Sign Language and Makaton speakers. This shows our determination to be reflective of all minority groups.
Strengthening our workforce diversity is also key to achieving our "Making Lincolnshire Safe" force strategy. A more diverse workforce helps us to understand our mix of different communities and supports our efforts to communicate, listen and work with them so that we can understand their needs and more effectively respond to the problems they face.
We are fully aware that there is still a lot of progress we need to make so we are seeking to become more proactive in our attraction and recruitment, making particular effort to target our seldom reached communities.
We are committed to making ourselves a diverse and inclusive organisation of equal opportunities where everyone feels welcome whatever their background.
Our recruitment and selection processes are based entirely on merit. All candidates wanting to join our police force go through the same processes, and those who perform most strongly will be offered positions working with us.
Support through Staff networks
We are committed to making ourselves a diverse and inclusive organisation of equal opportunities where everyone feels welcome whatever their background. We demonstrate this commitment through support provided through the staff networks within the force. Our networks are:
- SMILE – Supporting minorities in Lincolnshire through Engagement
- WIN – Women’s Inclusive Network
- LGBT+
- Neurodiversity Working group
- Menopause support
- Family Support Network
- Carers Network
- Christian Police Association
All networks are passionate about wanting to ensure Lincolnshire Police attract and recruit, and retain and support officers and staff's development throughout their careers by making the workplace inclusive and representative of the community we serve. Our staff networks also provide support through positive action initiatives too.
Positive action
Positive action is a term used to describe the range of initiatives organisations are legitimately able to use to encourage under-represented people to join the police force and to help candidates overcome disadvantage experienced in selection.
We do this by:
- encouraging individuals from under-represented groups apply to join us, for example, candidates who speak a second language especially in areas where we have higher numbers of Eastern European’s living, working and visiting, female front-line officers and candidates from black and ethnic minority backgrounds
- attending recruitment fairs and holding workshops/online sessions to inform individuals about what to expect during the recruitment process, and answering any questions about joining the police.
- individuals may want to simply talk through their queries and concerns so we can put candidates in touch with officers/staff who can mentor them through each step of the process from their initial enquiries to joining and beyond as people develop through their career.
We treat all applicants fairly and in accordance with current legislation. Positive action is not about giving some people favourable treatment; it's about levelling the playing field. We are looking for a talented workforce who can best serve our communities and that means looking at a wide and diverse range of applicants, identifying and overcoming barriers which prevent people from applying.
Flexible working
Applications for flexible working patterns are considered for all roles across the organisation – for both those joining the force and also our current workforce. We will work with individuals to ensure that wherever possible, such requests can be accommodated in order to meet the needs of our workforce and also our service to the public.
For further information
To find out more about any aspect of recruitment process go to our Police officer recruitment process page and for any PC recruitment queries email the Recruitment Team [email protected]
If you would like to find out more about positive action, contact the Equality Diversity and Inclusion team [email protected]
PC Jason Thomas: My journey into Lincolnshire Police
I'm Jason Thomas, I'm a response police officer based in Lincoln.
I've been an officer now for just over ten years. I wanted to join the police because I just felt that I should represent the community which I'm part of.
At that time, I didn't see many BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) officers.
The police represent the community and how can we represent the community if we're not representative in terms of diversity?
Before I joined up I was waiting for my start date and I was in a hospital waiting room just chatting with a member of the public and I explained that I was joining the police and she was just absolutely agog. She just couldn't get her head around the fact that because I was black I wished to be a police officer.
I tried to explain to her my rationale for starting but it was just 'why would you want to do that?'.
I explained that we need to represent the community which is why we need more black officers. After around five minutes, I sort of gave up. She just couldn't accept the notion that as a black man, I'd want to join the police service.
One of the things that was lacking if I'm honest within the force was some sort of support network for BAME officers and I'm pleased that the SMILE network has been set up. I'm on the committee, I'm proud to be on the committee, and literally our job simple, it's just to provide support and to assist the force with recruiting and maintaining as many offers as we can.
I think the force needs to recruit, which I'm pleased to say it's doing, so that we have BAME officers be it black, Asian or other minority ethnic officers within the force.
PC Mariusz Foks: An officer with second language skills
Hello my name is Mariusz. I'm currently serving as a police constable responsible with Lincolnshire Police at Boston.
Before I started working for the police, I was not really doing anything similar to what I'm doing now - nothing to do with policing. I worked for a transport company mainly driving lorries and big trucks around.
What made me want to join the police? Just the job that they do itself. I just found it very interesting they way they work and it was always in the back of my head.
Working for Lincolnshire Police everything that I do everyday makes me proud, putting on the uniform and working alongside great people. It all makes me makes me proud and makes me enjoy it. Being an officer with a second language, I would definitely say it makes it a little bit easier when you're coming across communities because you can freely have a chat with them and speak to them.
Sometimes people fail to report stuff because they think they are going to struggle with the language, but once they know that someone speaks their language, it makes it easier for them.
I can actually help my colleagues as well when they have got issues or struggle, and we don't have to contact an interpreter so we can save money on that as well.
For someone who's thinking about joining the police, I would definitely say do it because from my perspective it's the best decision I've ever made and is really worth it - so if you're thinking about it, do it.