Suffolk and Norfolk constabularies 'delighted' at the success of the Senior Women in Policing Conference 2010

The Senior Women in Policing (SWIP) Conference 2010, held at Dunston Hall, Norwich from Monday 8th March - Wednesday 10th March has been deemed a success, with close to 150 delegates attending from police forces across the country.

The Conference, hosted by Suffolk Constabulary in association with Norfolk Constabulary and Cambridgeshire Constabulary, on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) Women's Forum, centred on the themes of inspiration, leadership and the challenges facing women in policing today.

The event was targeted towards senior women officers and staff working at, or aspiring to work at the strategic level with the aim of developing and supporting the future leaders of the Police Service.

All but five of England and Wales' police forces were represented at the conference, highlighting the significance of the annual event for women in policing across the country. Deputy Chief Constable of Suffolk Constabulary, Jacqui Cheer, who was the host of the conference commented, "Colleagues from right across England and Wales attended the event, and it was excellent to see such a diverse range of talent and experience from all fields of policing. Our delegates were senior police officers and senior police staff, from departments ranging from Chief officer teams, to finance, communications, intelligence and IT."

After a networking dinner on Monday evening, Tuesday focused on the theme of inspirational leadership, featuring a morning of key speakers, followed by leadership workshops. The morning speakers were DCC Jacqui Cheer; Simon Ash, Chief Constable of Suffolk Constabulary; Sir Hugh Orde, President of ACPO; Mike Hay, Head of Uniformed Services Practice with Lesley Wilkin, UK Managing Director of the Hay Group; Andrea Hill, Chief Executive of Suffolk County Council; and Dina Knight, Group HR Director of Northgate Information Systems.

Mrs Cheer opened the conference with a welcome which included a reflection on how far the police force has developed in terms of making opportunities available for women at a senior level, making reference to a female Sergeant she was inspired by in her early years as a PC. She comments "During the 1980s, being a Sergeant was often the highest rank that most women would progress to. Now, I am so pleased to be able to say that the most senior woman attending our conference is Julie Spence, Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, and that we are also joined by female Assistant Chief Constables, Deputy Chief Constables and women at the most senior level of police staff."

Key themes from the speakers focused around the unique qualities that women can bring to leadership roles within the police force, and the importance for organisations, whether private or public to recognise the diverse qualities present in their workforce and to encourage progression and development.

Chief Constable Simon Ash quoted Tom Peters, who referred to women as "a neglected source of talent", and emphasized the need to make best use of our talented leaders, male and female, at a time when collaboration, efficiency and change is at the forefront of the structure of policing. He referred to women as "a pool of talent yet to be fully tapped" and commented "I hope this conference inspires women to grasp the leadership challenge. We all have the responsibility to make these challenges possible."

Issues around women in policing were discussed within the wider context of today's difficult economic climate, with all speakers commenting on the challenging times ahead for policing and for leaders within policing.

Sir Hugh Orde stressed the importance of the 'team' and the need to identify our talented people, to recognise and reward their skills and to support them in their progression. He referred to leadership as 'critical' at this time, when "hard questions" are to be asked about how policing is structured, about what the police service does and doesn't do, and how it will respond to the requirement to provide even more with even less.

Andrea Hill has a great deal of experience as a female in a senior leadership role. As Chief Executive for Suffolk County Council she has civic leadership responsibilities on behalf of 720,000 residents, and workplace leadership for 28,000 staff. Referring to the huge cuts expected in the public sector, Andrea emphasised the need for public services to work more closely together to achieve common goals for the benefit of the communities they serve.

In light of the increasing demands for public servants to reach centralised performance targets Andrea stressed the importance of creating a working environment in which people can creatively provide the best possible services in collaboration with other public organisations and Suffolk communities. Andrea also offered a clear message of support to the women at the event, encouraging each of them not to apologise for their career successes but to reach their potential by using all of their skills and seizing every career opportunity.

Afternoon workshops provided delegates with an opportunity to engage with leaders or experts to hone skills useful at strategic levels of policing, such as advanced IT systems, finance and media relationships. Jacqui Cheer lead a workshop on 'Gold Command', sharing key learning experiences from her involvement as Gold Commander during the Suffolk murders of 2006, known as 'Operation SUMAC'. Other workshops explored techniques for development such as action learning sets.

Wednesday featured speakers Vic Towell, Her Majesty's Assistant Inspector of Constabulary, Gulshan Kayembe, Chair of Suffolk Police Authority and Stephen Rimmer, Director General for Crime and Policing for the Home Office, who all presented on 'the External Environment Today and Tomorrow'. Presentations from Vic Towell and Stephen Rimmer both focused on the need for police forces to put the public at the centre of their service delivery and examined current issues for police forces and their regulatory bodies.

Vic Towell spoke on 'Things aren't what they used to be', recognizing the substantial changes in policing that have occurred over recent years. He emphasized the role of the HMIC as the "fierce advocate of the public", inspecting forces in the public interest, with a key message to delegates and to forces to "do less 'stuff' and do more of your job"; to simplify the way police work and to match community priorities with policing delivery.

Gulshan Kayembe spoke on the complicated relationship between police authorities and constabularies, and the need for them to stand 'shoulder to shoulder', especially during hard times, with authorities serving as both a friend and a critic.

Stephen Rimmer focused on the current priorities for the Home Office and for police forces, covering areas such as the necessity to tackle anti-social behaviour, which is key to increasing public confidence in policing, currently the single measure on which police forces are assessed.

He praised the police and partners for managing well in the current climate, and for the key fact that crime has not increased significantly in the past 18 months, unlike during other recessions when historically, crime has risen. He stressed the increasing importance of police leadership in addressing the central challenge of the next few years - delivering improved services with fewer resources.

Reflecting on the event, Jacqui Cheer comments "The whole team is delighted at the success of this year's event. We believe the content of the conference contained the right mix of speakers and themes, merging the topics of women and their progression with the police force, with key matters for policing in today's world.

"The purpose of the event was to provide women in policing with an opportunity to network, to engage with colleagues who are at a senior level and to share expertise and best practice. Women now make up over 25% of our police forces which is a huge improvement from only a few years ago, but we still only have four female Chief Constables across 43 forces and we would like to encourage women to seize opportunities, to recognise their unique talents and abilities and to push for progression within their career.

"The feedback from delegates has been extremely encouraging and we will be using this to plan next year's conference which we will also be hosting with our partners from the 14th - 16th March 2011."