British Transport Police (BTP) has won an award for its coaching-centred approach to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture, which has boosted diversity in its coaching pool and seen minority background coaches coach senior staff.
BTP picked up the Public Services People Managers Association (PPMA) 2021 Award in the Best Inclusion and Diversity Programme/Initiative category, which acknowledges efforts to build a diverse and inclusive culture that permeates the workforce and/or the broader local area.
BTP’s efforts included a partnership in June 2020 with accredited International Coaching Federation coach training provider Mastering Your Power’s founder Salma Shah to deliver a pioneering pilot programme to train all coaches through a wider lens of inclusion, belonging and equity.
Following investment in further programmes, the diversity of the coaching pool has risen from 11% to 27% of coaches from under-represented groups, including Black, Asian and neurodivergent employees.
“An added bonus was that our minority coaches are now coaching senior staff. This is a ground-breaking result and in many ways more impactful than reverse mentoring – this was reverse coaching,” said BTP in its award submission.
BTP realised in early 2020 that it was facing “an uncomfortable truth…that despite its diverse talent there was a disturbing lack of diversity among its internal pool of coaches. The seismic shifts of major events such as COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests meant that our workplace would never be the same again. Retention and development of staff and officers from under-represented groups is a key strategy going forward” [awards submission].
“Coaching was going to be one of the critical tools for supporting and making a positive impact – a crucial asset in complexities we were going to face going forward. An acknowledgement that a diverse pool of coaches wasn’t just a nice to have, it was a necessity. Our coaches needed to be representative of all our employees,” it said.
In the same award category, London Borough of Newham and Tribepad – Richmond and Wandsworth Council were both highly commended.
Other award categories included Best Workforce Transformation Initiative, won by London Borough of Hounslow, with St Helens Council highly commended, and the Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative (including mental health, and general health & Safety), won by Northumberland County Council, with Leicestershire County Council and Walsall Council highly commended.
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