Officers With Neurodiversity Conditions - 290/23

Date Responded 01 March 2023

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Separately for each of the periods: 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022:

1. Number of officer applicants in total.

2. Number of officer applicants disclosing neurodiversity conditions

3. Number of officer applicants recruited in total

4. Number of officer applicants with disclosed neuro diversity conditions recruited.

Please state whether your data is collected by financial year, or calendar year.

5. Number of police officers in the force currently with disclosed neurodiversity conditions?

6. What adjustments are available to support police officers with neurodiversity conditions?

I am defining neurodiversity conditions as; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Tourette's syndrome.

In Response:

We have now had the opportunity to fully consider your request and I provide a response for your attention.

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the People Services Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows with all the below caveats noted as to the information provided:

Data provided at point 1 is based on Engage application data from 2018 to 2022 as of 13 February 2023. Please note applications from deleted accounts will not appear in results. Police Now applicants do now apply through Northumbria Police.
Data provided at point 3 is as of 13 February 2023.
For points 2 and 4. Applicants are not routinely asked about neurodiversity, although a medical questionnaire does go to applicants that reach a conditional offer stage in the process. There is nothing specifically related to neurodiversity on the questionnaire, and it would be dependent on if the applicant highlighted the issue. Forms are not held electronically and would have to be checked manually as a result the time it would take to do this, in addition to the time to provide a response to the other points asked within this submission, would result in this request being issued a S12 exemption. However, rather than refuse the request we have retrieved data for these questions based on if the applicant has highlighted a neurodiversity condition within the adjustments question on the application of the form.

The following key words (including misspellings as below) were used;

Dyspraxia

ADHD

Dyslexic

Dyslexia

Dsylexia

Dylexia

Dyscalculia

Asperger

Autism

Neurodivergent

Neurodiversity

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Dysgraphia

Tourette

Recruited are those who show at onboarded stage of their application.

Please note new recruits in a calendar year does not directly correlate to applications in that year. Applicants from one year may be recruited in a later year.
For point 5 the data provided is as of 31 January 2023.

With all the above noted I respond as follows.

1. The below data does not include Police Now

Calendar Year	Applications
2018	829
2019	1348
2020	3140
2021	1279
2022	1963
Total	8859

2. The below data does not include Police Now - *please see caveats above

Calendar Year	Applications
2018	25
2019	21
2020	80
2021	0
2022	34
Total	160

Calendar Year	New Recruits Excluding Police Now	New Recruits Including Police Now
2018	0	93
2019	186	207
2020	368	398
2021	291	322
2022	322	344
Total	1167	1364

Calendar Year	New Recruits Disclosing Neuro Diversity Condition On Applications
2018	0
2019	0
2020	7
2021	0
2022	3
Total	10

Current Police Officer Establishment Disclosing Neurodiversity Conditions

6. Please note this is an overview to show what we deliver as best practice.

Northumbria Police have implemented a single point of contact for Neurodivergent candidates coming into the force, staff and officer employees.

We have a tiered approach to support as follows:

Force-wide Neurodiversity toolkit covering Neurodiverse conditions, understanding the condition, reasonable adjustments the individual can implement and available adjustments a manager can support with. Wellbeing is at the forefront for employees, and we have a wellbeing platform where employees can see numerous opportunities to support overall wellbeing.

This is not an exhaustive list as we offer a person-centred approach to support based on the individual needs.

Wellbeing passport
Additional time to complete office-based tasks
Laptop with assistive software
Noise cancelling headphones
Desk risers
Fidgets, calming aids
Location and environment review – this is to remove any sensory processing challenges the individual may be experiencing in the workplace
Supervisors to provide advance notice of change, clear concise communication and providing deadlines to tasks
Wellbeing decompression breaks
Coloured overlays
Coloured Notepads
Grip pens

Tier 2 - Support as from the Neurodiversity officer

Study skills support
Coaching on developing new strategies around organisation, time management, prioritisation, use of force systems,
Supply of coloured pocket notebook
Training on using assistive software and creating crib sheets (guide templates)
DSE assessment – for optimum workstation
Specialist equipment – soft touch keyboards, alternative mouse, document risers etc
Three month reviews to aid up to date support adjustments – we are proactively working with our Neurodivergent colleagues to understand and implement new adjustments as we strive for best practice and inclusivity.
The Bigger picture support group – this is a monthly meeting for Neurodivergent employees and carer/parents of a neurodivergent relative to come to a safe space to discuss challenges, private matters and receive up to date information around support available and signpost/ resolution to circumstances they have raised.

Tier 3 - HR and external

Flexible hours
Adjustment to role responsibilities
Coaching around communication, confidence building

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.