Victoria Police Access and Inclusion Action Plan 2023-2024

Victoria Police recognises our responsibility to continue improving our approach to disability inclusion in all areas of the organisation. We will continue to lay the groundwork for building disability confidence and capability.

We aspire to create an inclusive, accessible and disability confident workforce and a culture in which people with disability feel safe, valued, and respected at work.

This action plan commits us to the specific actions we must take to achieve our goal of having a diverse workforce and being an inclusive organisation as outlined in the Framework.

Our long-term outcomes-focused approach ensures progress is continually monitored and creates accountability. The actions in this plan build upon the progress made from implementing the 2018–2021 Accessibility Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan and are informed by an evidence-based assessment of our disability confidence in partnership with the Australian Network on Disability (AND).

In keeping with the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’, our employees with disability strive to improve conditions for people with disability and challenge us where we need to re-focus our approach to addressing barriers in the workplace. Our Disability Executive Sponsor and Portfolio Lead, Disability Champions and VP Enablers are all actively involved in this process.

Strategic environment

We work towards our vision consistent with best practice, Victorian and Commonwealth government strategies and initiatives, and the legislative framework.

• The national disability strategy – Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031 – provides national leadership towards greater inclusion of people with disability and guides activity across all areas of public policy to be inclusive and responsive to people with disability.
• The Victorian State Disability Plan, Inclusive Victoria: state disability plan (2022–2026), is Victoria’s plan for making the community inclusive and accessible for everyone.
• Getting to Work – Victorian Public Sector Disability Employment Action Plan 2018–2025 is Victoria’s employment plan for people with disability at all levels of the public sector. It aims for employees with disability to be employed more, have successful careers, and have a fairer employment experience.

This action plan is underpinned by legislation and regulations.

• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force in Australia on 16 August 2008.
• The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Clth) makes disability discrimination unlawful and promotes equal rights, equal opportunity and equal access for people with disability.
• The Disability Act 2006 ensures that a person with disability cannot be discriminated against or treated unfairly because of their disability.
• Equal Opportunity Act 2006 protects people from discrimination on the basis of their disability and provides redress for people who have been discriminated against.
• The Disability Amendment Act 2017 increased the powers of the Disability Services Commissioner to investigate abuse and neglect in disability services and authorises the sharing of certain information for the purpose of implementing the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Victoria.
• The Disability Regulations 2018 provide additional safeguards, transparency and accountability to people with disability.
• Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006.
• Fair Work Act 2009 (Clth).
• Victoria Police Act 2013 is the primary legal instrument regulating the objectives, structure and powers of Victoria Police.
• Public Administration Act 2004 places an obligation on public sector employers to establish processes to ensure employment decisions are based on merit, employees are treated fairly and reasonably, equal employment opportunity is provided, human rights are upheld, employees have access to reasonable avenues of redress, and a career in public service is fostered.

Our work to improve access and inclusion for all employees will also be advanced by the Equal, Safe and Strong Victoria Police Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2030, and the Equal, Safe and Strong Victoria Police Gender Equality Action Plan 2022–2024 (Equal, Safe and Strong).

Equal, Safe & Strong applies an intersectional lens that acknowledges the many different forms of discrimination causing disadvantage, including discrimination encountered by employees with disability.

We review our strategic approach to providing a safe and accessible workplace in response to national and Victorian initiatives and reviews as they occur.

Disability is complex, dynamic and multidimensional.

Our approach to accessibility and disability inclusion is guided by the social model of disability. The social model of disability focuses on the way society is organised; this is what creates a disabling environment for people with disability.

We recognise our responsibility to address these barriers.

We acknowledge that there are many different types of disability, and that disability can result from accidents, illness or genetic disorders. Disability can be visible or non-visible, be inherited or acquired (due to illness, or injury), be temporary or permanent, have minimal or significant impact on a person’s abilities, and some people have more than one disability.

How do we define disability?

The Disability Discrimination Act defines disability as:

• total or partial loss of the person’s bodily or mental functions
• total or partial loss of a part of the body
• the presence in the body of organisms causing disease or illness
• the malfunction, malformation, or disfigurement of a part of the person’s body
• a disorder or malfunction that results in the person learning differently from a person without the disorder or malfunction
• a disorder, illness or disease that affects a person’s thought processes, perception of reality, emotions, or judgement, or that results in disturbed behaviour; and includes disability that:
  • presently exists
  • previously existed but no longer exists
  • may exist in the future
  • is imputed to a person (meaning it is thought or implied that the person has disability but does not).

Under the Equal Opportunity Act ‘disability’ includes:

• physical, psychological, or neurological disease or disorder
• illness, whether temporary or permanent
• injury, including work-related injuries.

Intersectionality

Disability is only one aspect of a person’s identity.

People with disability are diverse within their own experiences of disability but are also diverse in other ways. This might include their:

• Aboriginality
• gender identity
• sex characteristics
• sexual orientation
• ethnicity
• colour
• nationality
• refugee or asylum seeker background
• migration or visa status
• language
• faith
• ability
• age
• socioeconomic status
• housing status or
• geographic location.

People with disability who live with other forms of discrimination can experience compounded inequality.

^{Image adapted from information provided by the Australian Network on Disability (AND).}

Where are we at for access and inclusion?

Victoria Police participates in the Victorian Public Sector Commission’s People Matter Survey. The survey provides valuable insight into our culture and safety from employee perspectives.

In 2021, 6,889 Victoria Police employees responded to the People Matter Survey. Of these employees, 298 self-identified as a person with a disability; their findings included:

^{Rounding of percentages: People Matter Survey round numbers up or down to their nearest whole percentage. This means some percentages may not add up to 100%.}

For some time, Victoria Police has understood and recognised the need to uplift its capability and maturity in providing access and inclusion for employees with disability.

Our 2014 and 2018 accessibility inclusion strategies and action plans helped lay the foundation for a more disability confident organisation and progress was made through the delivery of some significant initiatives.

In 2021, Victoria Police engaged the AND to conduct an independent evaluation of our performance against the 2018–2021 strategy and action plan. This coincided with the organisation’s inaugural participation in AND’s Access and Inclusion Index, highlighting our openness to scrutiny and our commitment to improving.

The evaluation and index have resulted in a commendation for Victoria Police for progress made and some notable achievements since 2018:

• Victoria Police’s Victorian Public Service (VPS) employee and police custody officer recruitment team achieved Disability Confident Recruiter (DCR) status in December 2020.
• All Victoria Police Command members participated in Disability Confidence training facilitated by AND in partnership with VP Enablers.
• A Workplace Adjustment Passport was developed, piloted and launched.
• We appointed four Command-level disability champions.
• Victoria Police sourced VPS candidates with disability for recruitment through AND’s Stepping Into Program, the Victorian Government Graduate Disability Stream and the Youth Cadet Scheme.
• We incorporated universal design principles on access and inclusion into all new buildings and facilities.
• We established an IT Reasonable Adjustments Working Group to facilitate technology adjustments for employees with disability.
• Victoria Police led the establishment of a Whole of Government Mentoring Program Pilot for employees with disability.

Victoria Police Enablers membership

Victoria Police Enablers Network increased their representation – from 16 members in 2017 to 124 in 2022.

Employees sharing their disability information

More employees are sharing their disability related information with Victoria Police – from 94 in 2018 to 171 in 2022.

Our participation in the Access and Inclusion Index and Australian Network on Disability’s evaluation findings provided us with critical insights into where we need to improve.

They found areas requiring greater focus to improve our capability:

Governance

There was insufficient governance or authorising framework to monitor progress and support access and inclusion.

Workplace adjustments

Workplace adjustments must be a priority if we are to become a disability confident organisation.

Premises

Opportunity exists to increase equitable and dignified access for employees and community members with disability.

Information and communication technology (ICT)

Providing accessible ICT and an inclusive website is invaluable to our whole organisational operation.

The Accessibility Hub and the IT Reasonable Adjustment Working Group foster progress, and opportunities exist to deliver more products and services that enable effective communication.

Access and inclusion on the inclusion continuum

The Diversity and Inclusion Program Logic (Appendix 1) provides a schematic representation of how Victoria Police will work towards a truly diverse workplace and inclusive organisation.

The program logic will provide the strategic framework to map future progress through targeted outcomes and action plans. The program logic sets out how we will progress along the Inclusion Continuum, a visual model, which was recently updated to identify five stages on a development continuum.

Each stage describes the diversity and inclusion consciousness and culture of an organisation regarding diversity and inclusion.¹

The 2018–2021 action plan used the Inclusion Continuum as a measure of progress on our journey to becoming an inclusive organisation.

In 2018, we considered that the organisation was at the ‘compliant’ (recently renamed ‘reactive’) phase of the continuum. This is based on the level of maturity and disability confidence and capability.²

An updated assessment of Victoria Police’s progress against the Inclusion Continuum following the 2018–2021 action plan evaluation and the organisation’s performance in the Access and Inclusion Index, placed Victoria Police’s disability inclusion still at the reactive level.

^{1 B. Jones and Michael Brazzel 2014, The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives.
2 Since 2018 Dr. Angela Workman-Stark has improved the definitions within the Inclusion Continuum to better align to evidence-based diversity and inclusion standards.}

^{The previous Inclusion Continuum (2018) included 6 pillars: exclusive, passive, compliant, proactive, redefining and inclusive. See the 2018–22021 Diversity and Inclusion Framework for expanded definitions.}

The next step in the journey towards our vision of access and inclusion for employees with disability in Victoria Police starts with six actions for 2023–2024. In addition, Victoria Police has developed eight actions that will benefit all areas of diversity and inclusion.

These actions complement those actions targeted solely at improving the experience of employees with disability.

We define key terms below and acknowledge that people have different definitions.

Language has changed and continues to evolve.

Accessibility

The extent to which people with disability can access something like an office, worksite or public area.

Carer

A carer is a legislated term under the Victorian Carer Recognition Act 2012 that is applied to a person who is in a care relationship with another person with disability, care needs from advanced age, a mental illness, or an ongoing medical condition.

Discrimination

The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or disability.

Discriminatory workplace harm

This umbrella term covers any way a person experiences discrimination, harm or violence based on protected characteristics within the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act.

Gender Equality and Inclusion Outcomes Committee

The Gender Equality and Inclusion Outcomes Committee is the current authorising and governing committee that sits over gender equality in Victoria Police.

The committee is being expanded to include diversity and inclusion.

Intersectionality

This is an approach to understanding how social meanings related to the way we categorise and identify can overlap and interconnect. This creates different layers of discrimination or disadvantage for either an individual or group.

Program logic

A program logic model is a schematic representation that describes how a program is intended to work by linking activities with outputs, intermediate outcomes and longer-term outcomes.

Stereotype

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Workplace harm

Workplace harm is the detrimental effects of being targeted by all forms of inappropriate behaviour from work colleagues including sex discrimination, gender-based bullying, sexual harassment and assault, predatory behaviour, victimisation, workplace conflict and bullying.

Problem

An engrained culture and systemic bias has amplified inequality and impeded diversity.

Goal

A diverse workplace and inclusive organisation.