Our reasonable adjustments policy supports parents to develop their careers

Sarah: Okay Tor, do you want to tell us a little bit about you, in terms of your background – who are you and why you're talking to us today? 

Tor: I'm Tor Garnett, I'm a police officer from the Metropolitan Police. I have just been promoted to be a chief superintendent. I'm on the executive leadership programme currently, and most interestingly I've got two small children. 

Marni is three and Jemima has just turned one. So this last year I've been on maternity leave, or did nine months maternity leave, and so I've been on this training course with Jemima. You know I don't think I'd have been able to do it for another five, maybe ten, years if it was still twelve residential weeks but it has been possible for me, with a tiny baby on maternity leave, coming back from maternity, to bring her with me or to manage it because of the new structure of the course and I'm so impressed by what the College has done on it and I so want to role model that while it's of course challenging, it's totally possible to keep going with your career when you've got very small children as I don't think it always has been in policing. 

And I've been so impressed actually by how the College have supported me. The administrative lead, Jill, as soon as I was thinking about this and asked for reasonable adjustment, she was straight on the phone. She has a 9-year-old she's been professional working single mum right the way through her life really, and she really helped - you know there would be a fridge in my room, I'd have a ground floor room so that I could get the buggy in and out, there'd be a room next door for me for my child care, my child care and my baby could eat in the canteen. So you know she was just great. 

People have been really, really supportive and they've really bent over backwards to help me and I'm grateful for that - but also that is how it should be. You know the Code of Ethics and where we're going in policing is that high performing teams are diverse, and we therefore have to include. And the numbers of people in policing now who are women and who are women with children, and of course you know all parents, all people with caring responsibilities, and I feel really proud to be part of a system where those needs are being looked after and I really want to role model to people that it is possible.