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Shrinking Finance Top Topic at National Police Collaboration Conference

29 June 2010

Days before the new coalition government prepared to reveal its emergency budget, the impact of shrinking public sector finance was top of the agenda at the National Police Collaboration Conference, held in Leeds (Thursday 10th and Friday 11th June 2010).

Over 100 delegates from police forces across the UK attended the conference which was hosted by the Regional Collaboration Team of Yorkshire and the Humber.

Senior Police Officers, Police Authority Members, associates from the National Police Improvement Agency and delegates from the Home Office were present at the two-day event.
They came together to debate the likely impact of decreasing public sector finances on Police Forces, and examine how forces and authorities might respond to this issue through increased collaboration.

Also on the agenda was the issue of governance and sovereignty as police forces across the country look to their neighbours to work more closely together in an effort to save money.

The key themes for the conference, hosted by DCC Mark Whyman, Head of Regional Collaboration for Yorkshire and the Humber, were efficiency and productivity, policing beyond the local and governance and sovereignty. The conference was timely, taking place days before the government announced further swingeing budget cuts in the public sector.

Offering some insight to the new coalition was Director of Police Reform and Resource, Stephen Kershaw of the Home Office. He made it clear that some of the key aims of Nick Herbert?s original Police Reform plans were here to stay including the appointment of locally elected Police Commissioners which remains at the heart of new Home Office strategy. The role of the Home Office will be to support and challenge police forces where necessary.

Mr Kershaw said: ??6 billion of savings had to be made from the public sector budget although agreement had yet to be made as to where these savings would be realised. However, performance success will be rewarded by the new government and whilst collaboration will not be mandatory, patience will run out quickly for forces seen to be inactive in bringing about effective change.?

Three weeks into its role, the coalition government is keen to support greater collaboration between forces and intends to reduce bureaucracy in order to enhance forces? ability to tackle serious and organised crime, recognising that ?closing the gap? in protective services remains a priority.

He said that the UK threat assessment of organised crime remains high costing the country approximately ?20 - ?40 Billion per annum. Organised Crime Group mapping revealed 38,000 people involved in serious and organised crime operating in 6,000 known criminal groups.

Tackling this problem is a major part of the policing landscape and as critical as local policing. He said that the coalition government was keen to support cross boundary policing to tackle serious and organised crime.

Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, Sir Norman Bettison, focused on Policing beyond the local. His presentation examined how forces can respond to the financial challenges they face with an exploration of the different models for delivering local services in the context of the broad policing mission.

Setting the historical context, he said that everyone wants local policing and expects public protection. He explained that the new policing structure was not so different from that laid out by the Royal Commission on Policing over 50 years ago. However, the change of scope and level of serious threats and harms had changed particularly in the areas of international threat from serious and organised crime and terrorism.

Sir Norman stated that protective services could be enhanced through collaboration to meet the policing required above neighbourhood level. He suggested that direction or a central lead together with incentivisation to collaborate would help to speed up the process for some forces.

To illustrate areas of potential savings, Sir Norman produced headlines from the recent Deloitte report commissioned by the Joint Police Authorities Committee (JPAC) of Yorkshire and the Humber. ?Delivering value for money through collaboration? maintains local policing should be sustained through the existing four force structure.

Costs could be reduced and capability improved through collaboration in key areas. Collaborative back office support would be a longer term objective and operational savings through ?middle office? collaboration would be a more readily available option.

Centralised or shared services does not necessarily mean delivered in one place and different implantation approaches could be made for different functional areas from ?Big-Bang versus Incremental Plans. He endorsed a whole programme approach should be adopted not a collection of discreet projects.

Delyth Humfryes, Chair of Police Authorities of Wales, and Shelley Bosson, CEO, explained the journey that the police forces and authorities of Wales had travelled for closer collaboration and its affect upon sovereignty and governance.

Although set in a national context, the Wales example identified some of the opportunities, benefits and wins, and of course, the losers, which were the same for all forces and authorities.

Ms Humfryes explained the governance structure of the Police Authorities of Wales and its role of scrutinising and managing performance. She said that whilst some members experience conflict between their own force obligations versus those of a national and strategic basis, open dialogue, good communication and recognising the greater good, had assisted in the success of the Police Authorities of Wales (PAW).

In finishing she said that ultimately, members had to believe that PAW could make a difference, had learned to trust each other and look at the bigger picture in terms of collaboration and not just at the here and now.

The results spoke for themselves as the benefits to policing in Wales included a service that delivered consistently high professional standards, a service that does not recognise force boundaries in managing risk and a service that provides value for money.

The speakers then took questions from the floor in a lively debate with the role of elected Police Commissioners being a prominent theme throughout the two-day event. What became apparent was although police forces and authorities were embracing the notion of collaboration, the level of commitment was at different stages across the country.

A patchwork picture of joint working across force areas emerged, with different ideologies in situ, from Total Place arrangements with local authority partners to joined-up cross border collaboration tactics such as those employed by Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands and Wales.

Day two featured a series of workshops including the Financial Context ? increasing productivity and efficiency, delivered by Nigel Hiller, Director of Finance for South Yorkshire Police and William Wilkinson, OBE, Treasurer of South Yorkshire Police Authority.

Ian Caplan, (Programme Manager for the Police Protective Services Programme for the Home Office Crime and Policing Group) delivered a workshop on Preparing for the Future through Government Policy and was keen to gauge thoughts from the delegates to feed directly back to the newly formed government.

Shelley Bosson and Linda Major, (Strategy and Planning officer for the Wales Central Team) led the Challenges for Governance and Sovereignty workshop, which offered valuable insights to those police authority members and police officers still in the early stages of collaborative working.

Although the financial status looks bleak for police forces across the country, delegates were able to find some solace in elements of collaboration that were not only realising value for money but also seeing an improvement in performance.

The next conference will be held early in the New Year hosted by Essex Police. It will be interesting to see how police forces and police authorities have responded to the financial constraints imposed upon them and if some of the benefits of collaboration can be showcased in 2011.

Group Shot:
L-R: Back Row, PCs Paul Stockwell and Gary Panther of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Roads Policing Team, with car.
Middle Row, DCC Bob Dyson, South Yorkshire Police, Stephen Kershaw, Home Office, Sir Norman Bettison, CC West Yorkshire Police, T/DCC Mark Whyman, Head of Regional Collaboration, CC Grahame Maxwell, North Yorkshire Police, DCC David Griffin, Humberside Police, Cllr Mark Burns-Williamson, Chair of West Yorkshire Police Authority.

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