·         2009 Janes’ Police Review – Diversity in Action judge

Mr Smikle is a graduate of the International Leadership Institute (University District of Columbia and Jackson State University.

History of PDTN

The Network began in 1999 in Nottinghamshire.  Richard Martin, Constable and Diversity Trainer, had attended the Equalities Associates (Home Office Specialist Support Unit) - Community and Race Relations Course at Turvey, Bedfordshire in 1998, where the idea of network / support meetings for C & R R Trainers was born.  Towards the end of 1998 the Equalities Associates did not have their Home Office contract renewed, and the proposed network / support meeting did not take place.

Richard with the support of his line manager, Garry Chadwick arranged a networking meeting at the Nottinghamshire Police Training Centre.  Invitations were sent to trainers from across the region – Northamptonshire to West Yorkshire, Staffordshire to Lincolnshire.  This first one day meeting was held for 16 trainers.  It was agreed that the meeting had been a useful exercise and West Yorkshire offered to host another event at their training centre at Bishopgarth.

For this second seminar, invitations were sent across the UK and around 65 delegates attended.  The seminar included themed workshops, giving delegates an opportunity to exchange ideas and good practice.

The work of the PDTN gained recognition in the HMIC Thematic “Diversity Matters” and recommendation 7.5 recommends that “with immediate effect the Home Office, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Association of Police Authorities (APO) officially recognise and support the Police Diversity Trainers Network (PDTN) as a formal service-wide support mechanism”.

It is important to note that currently the Steering Group is not elected, it is simply made up of volunteers, who are generally enlisted at the Conferences.  At present these volunteers (around 12 plus some Centrex staff) meet approximately once a month.  The main aim of these meetings is to progress the work of the PDTN with a Sub-Group that is convened to organise the conferences.  Since June 2002, a host force has looked after the logistical arrangements and dealt with the hotel bookings.  This has worked well and considerably eased the workload on the volunteers of the Steering Group.

In conclusion, it is worthy of mention, that the meetings held to date with staff from ACPO, HMIC and NPIA have been very positive and supportive and we hope to continue to support new and established trainers in this often challenging field of training through this unique mix of workshops and networking.