Focus for Police Race Action Plan agreed for 2025

Police chiefs have agreed the focus of the Police Race Action Plan (PRAP) team for this year.

It comes after chief constables voted last month to fund a national team to drive delivery of the PRAP for a further 12 months.

The PRAP is the biggest coordinated effort ever across every police force in England and Wales to improve trust and confidence in policing among Black communities.

Every Chief Constable has signed up to support the plan and achieve its objectives, the first time there has been such a coordinated response across policing to making the vital improvements envisaged under the plan.

Established in 2020, with the plan published two years later, it was intended that the national team would drive delivery of the programme for four years, but the national team has been extended for another year following a decision by Chief Constables Council, which represents UK police chiefs.

In 2025 the programme will be focusing on giving police forces the tools and support they need to embed anti-racist policy and practice across policing. Priorities for the team in 2025/2026 are:

Supporting police forces to implement action and policy developed by the programme team, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing to deliver an anti-racist police service, such as recording the ethnicity of those subject to traffic stops.
Reviewing and prioritising actions and projects under the programme and making plans to transition activity led by the programme into the NPCC, College of Policing or police forces.
Finalising long term processes for measuring, overseeing and scrutinising the performance and impact of the plan and policing’s progress towards anti-racism over time. This includes a proposed maturity matrix that will enable police forces to assess and track their progress.
The central team will be working with stakeholders over the coming months to test, refine and begin to implement these processes. Engagement is being planned with police forces, the plan’s Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board (ISOB), the National Black Police Association (NBPA) and the Home Office, as well as civil society and community groups.
Ensuring police forces, partners and the public understand what has been delivered so far and what to expect from policing in the future. Continuing to engage with police forces and leading civil society groups working in criminal justice and anti-racism will be critical to this.
Sharing knowledge and good practice identified in local forces across England and Wales.
These priorities reflect and address recommendations from the ISOB’s most recent annual report.

The plan’s senior team has recently held positive discussions with the Policing Minister and senior government officials, as well as leading civil society groups. These discussions around joint working and shaping the future direction of the plan will continue in the coming months.

November also saw the NBPA vote to re-engage with the plan, lifting a suspension of support that had been in place since June.

“Tireless work by our central team and invaluable insight from the partners we work with has helped deliver some major strides forward over recent months.

“I am under no illusion about the scale of the challenge that still exists to build the trust and confidence of our Black communities in policing.

“Our mission over the next year is to give policing the tools it needs to deliver the plan’s long-term vision to build an anti-racist police service.”
T/Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dr Alison Heydari, programme director for the PRAP.

This is centred on a maturity matrix assessment across key areas of delivery for an anti-racist police service, underpinned by key performance measures.

Over the coming months the plan’s central team will continue its work with police forces, partners such as ISOB, the NBPA and the Home Office, as well as civil society and community groups, to finalise this assessment, including how communities will be involved in it.

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