Your Police

Leicestershire Police Authority Three Year Policing Plan 2009-12

Our Priorities » Organisational Management

Introduction

Empowered by the Police Authority, the Chief Constable runs the Constabulary aided by the other Chief Officers (Deputy Chief Constable, two Assistant Chief Constables and Directors of Finance and Human Resource). 

The Force is audited by, amongst others, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), who are looking for an efficient and effective police service. In 2008, the force was graded as meeting the standard for Major Crime, acknowledging its significant investment of resources to develop capacity and capability to deal with major crime and thereby minimise the risk to the public.  Following a poor grading for public protection in 2007, the subsequent re-inspection by HMIC in 2008 showed that the force had made significant progress to achieve a fair grade. This was due to implementing new processes and procedures, recruiting additional staff to support and deliver improved performance, and improving in other ways.

Force governance is supported by a series of programme boards which are central to the development and continuing achievement of the Force, through defined business plans. 

The Force constantly evaluates, monitors and manages risk through the work of these programme boards, overseen by the governance of the Police Authority.   The Force maintains a register of all these risks, which is considered regularly (at least four times a year) by chief officers at strategic meetings. 

The analysis of threat, risk and harm as identified by this process is then fed into our annual planning process which in turn informs budgetary and resource allocation.

Finance

This year's budget of £169.8m will maintain police officer numbers at 2338.5, police staff numbers at 1253.3 and in conjunction with partners, Police Community Support Officers at 229.4. (All staff data shown as Full Time Equivalent at 19/03/09.)

The 2.9% increase in Home Office funding has not been sufficient to cover the Authority's revenue base budget requirement or allow for any significant growth.  This will necessitate the use of £6.7m of reserves over the next three years although despite this, a funding gap of £2m remains for 2010/11 and £5.2m for 2011/12.

The Police Authority set a precept increase of 3% for 2009/10 in line with the cap imposed by the Department for Communities and Local Government.  The 2009/10 Council Tax increase represents £4.81 per year or 9.3p per week for a Band D household.

During 2009/10 the Authority is planning to invest £5.5m in capital projects.  This includes Estates improvements at Mansfield House following the vacation of the ground floor by the current tenant, infrastructure upgrades, and safer detention works in custody suites.  Information technology schemes include upgrades to critical systems and the telephone infrastructure, network environment enhancements, Airwave and desk top PC replacements.  Planned replacements for the existing vehicle fleet are also included.

Financial Management

Leicestershire Constabulary has a proven record of effective financial management. Over the past 13 years the Force has achieved year on year efficiency savings totalling £45.3m and these savings have been re-invested in front line policing. For the third consecutive year, Leicestershire Constabulary is the best overall performer in relation to our Most Similar Group (MSG) of Forces in terms of prudent financial and resource management as follows :

  • Leicestershire has the highest investment in full time equivalent police officer as a percentage of total spend (61% compared to MSG average of 58%)
  • Leicestershire has the lowest transport costs per full time equivalent police officer (£1.6k compared to MSG average of £1.9k)
  • Leicestershire has the lowest premises related expenses per full time equivalent police officer (£1.0k compared to MSG average of £1.6k)

Our Procurement Department plays a key part in ensuring we achieve value for money. Working to European procurement directives and in collaboration, we will continue to target all available opportunities to secure goods and services at the most cost effective rate based on price, quality and technical attributes.

In 2009 the Strategic Financial Planning Group will develop arrangements for identifying and monitoring efficiency and productivity gains.  This will assist in mitigating the funding gap identified for the period 2010 to 2012, whilst ensuring existing resources are effectively deployed to the highest business risk areas.  The Audit Commission's evaluation of Police Use of Resources (PURE) will independently assess the Force's success in this regard. 

Productivity

During 2008/09 Leicestershire Constabulary took forward the outcomes of Sir Ronnie Flanagan's review of policing, as one of the national leads working on the reduction of bureaucracy with a clear focus on reinvesting time in front line policing. Through this programme of work we completely reviewed how we deploy and manage our resources and how we record incidents. This will continue to be delivered through 2009/10 by:

Mobile Data - By the 31st March 2009 we will have introduce 300 mobile data terminals which provide officers with access to the entire suite of IT systems enabling them to directly input and retrieve information whilst away from the police station. In addition 600 hand held devices provide access to similar information for front line neighbourhood officers. Work will continue to exploit the benefits of this facility with the introduction of electronic statements and further development of electronic exchange of information with front line officers

Duty Management System - Plans to develop the DMS module of the HR system included a strategic look at the future HR/IT need. This concluded that HR should develop on a new platform  before DMS is introduced. This work is now planned to take place in 2009/10. Demand profiling software, a Resource Planners Manual of Guidance and dedicated training for Resource Planners has been introduced.

IR3 -  The satellite vehicle tracking system allows us to track and map our vehicles in real time therefore enabling us to allocate the most appropriate resources to incidents contributing to faster response times, mileage reduction and the safety of our officers. The software will also enable us to analyse to see pour activities are in line with identified neighbourhood priorities.  

Contact management - We want to develop further on our recent success in improving the responsiveness of our call handling service. We will be reviewing our current processes from initial call through to resolution ensuring that we provide an effective, proportionate and personalised service to all callers. This will include increasing the opportunity for members of the public to schedule appointments with local police officers to resolve non emergency calls.

We will be working with neighbouring forces to increase and enhance working practices across the region  to improve regional resilience. To maintain a high customer focussed performance we will be reviewing the estates facility for the contact management function.  

IMPACT Programme - This programme of work will include ensuring that due regard is given to statutory Management of Police Information (MoPI) requirements, and the implementation of the new Police National Database (PND), into the policing business areas of safeguarding children and vulnerable persons, combating terrorism, and reduction and disruption of serious and organised crime.

Estates

We intend to improve the internal procedures to enhance our performance, for example rewriting the control of Contractors procedure and to set up a regional mechanical and electrical contract. We will deliver both the planned maintenance and the capital programme. We will play a leading role in the strategic review of estates, the aims of which are to deliver of the most effective and efficient estate that supports the Force.

The Environment

We are committed to ensuring that issues relating to the environment are considered when providing our policing service. The Force has commissioned a Strategic Environment Group, chaired by our Finance Director, which ensures that all relevant regulatory and legislative requirements are implemented and monitored and that we achieve continuous improvement regarding environmental performance and management. We ensure that waste, the consumption of natural resources and the release of polluting substances are kept to a minimum.

We will assess our impacts on the environment and minimise any harmful effects resulting from our activities, We actively promote the adoption of these principles to companies and contractors, within our supply chain, and where appropriate we encourage and request improvements to their environmental performance.

Our People

With our current establishment over 80% of our budget is spent on people and our human resources function plays a critical role in enabling the force to deliver short, medium and long term objectives. (Staff data shown in this section under Finance). 

We aim to be an employer of choice and this will be achieved through the proactive management of people issues and the professionalisation of key policing activities. We will;

  • Have a workforce that reflects, engages and understands our local communities and a working environment in which all staff are treated with dignity and respect
  • Proactively manage our workforce to ensure that it remains responsive and flexible enough to meet the changing needs of our communities and organisational risk
  • Develop and promote those leadership skills that are needed and create innovative and practical career development opportunities for both police officers and police staff
  • Ensure that our reward and recognition framework supports the delivery of our goals and values and motivates our staff to consistently deliver excellent service
  • Increase the capability, capacity and efficiency of HR by investing in both technology and our people to improve our effectiveness and performance and to ensure that we are ambassadors of the organisation.

Our Equality Scheme is the framework covering our three statutory duties on race, disability and gender in addition to issues of age, religion, belief, sexual orientation and compliance with human rights legislation. This scheme is regularly reviewed and consultation events are carried out to bench mark progress, identify community views and inform future direction. Over the next three years we will further seek to ensure that our workforce is truly representative of the communities we serve and that people from all sections of the community can access our services.     

Learning and Development

The Learning and Development Department continues to work to ensure that our people are skilled to deliver to both local and national policing priorities.

The following drivers for the primary work streams of the department will dominate our department's priorities.

  • Professionalisation of the Service

This represents the skills development, assessment, accreditation and, where appropriate, qualification of officers and staff in operational roles against national standards. This is reflected in career long learning from equipping officers and staff with personal and public safety skills, to the provision of a vocational and academic qualification framework.

This work stream is at the heart of the Force's People Development Policy, and directly impacts on all of the core areas of this policing plan.

  • Leadership

The Force is committed to the development of its managers and leaders under the Leadership Development Strategy. The launch of the Leicestershire High Potential Development Scheme is a major step in identifying and developing future leaders.

Our ability to deliver an ever more complex policing service is dependent upon strong ethical leadership

  • Community Policing

Maintaining the confidence of our communities remains the core theme running through our programmes, particularly at foundation level, supported by our academic partner De Montfort University. Through this we are focusing our officers on the core areas of promoting safety and tackling crime at local/neighbourhood level.

  • Protecting vulnerable persons

Safeguarding vulnerable persons is a clear priority for the service. This impacts on every aspect of policing and our recognition of and response to vulnerability. Significant developments will take place in 2009/10 within Learning & Development to support this corporate priority.

  • Investigation skills

The Force is undergoing a two year programme to increase our capacity and capability in investigation at all levels bringing offenders to justice, promoting safety and building confidence.

  • Roads policing

The Learning and Development department has increased its capacity to deliver a broad programme of Roads Policing courses and assessments, in order that community expectations are met in relation to the safety of our roads.

  • Use of information systems

The department will continue to be at the heart of systems implementation projects, ensuring that officers capitalise on these innovations to make policing as efficient and effective as possible.

The Department maintains its commitment to working with regional forces where appropriate, collaborating over working practices and in the design and delivery of learning solutions. 

Health and Safety

Our Health and Safety Department supports the organisation and provides guidance to managers and staff to ensure that we comply with our legal duties. Over the next three years we will work towards the implementation of the recommendations of the ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) management bench marking standards. 

Collaboration within the East Midlands

Chief Constables and the Chairs of Police Authorities from Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire are committed to working together in this way to improve efficiency and performance in the future. Collaboration will achieve improved levels of service from within existing resources and/or similar levels of service at reduced cost. Collaboration does this whilst retaining local police forces and local accountability.

Following the HMIC report, 'Closing the Gap', and the work underway around the more recent HMIC report  "Get Smart - planning to protect," the five East Midlands Forces and their Police Authorities have identified and are addressing gaps within protective services. The East Midlands region has been recognised as being at the forefront of collaborative working.

The East Midlands Special Operations Unit is one example of collaboration. It was set up to tackle serious and organised crime in the East Midlands. The region has also been successful in accessing £8.3 million to introduce enhanced mobile data technology.

The five police forces individually and collectively identified those areas where there is the greatest need to increase capacity and capability to address protective service gaps. This assessment drew on local, regional and national data and will be updated periodically. The areas with the most urgency for improvements in protective services across more than one force are the priority for a regional programme and for significant progress by 2009. The current areas of regional protective services work are set out below.

Regional protective services work programme

Leicestershire is the lead force or has significant involvement in those area marked with an *.

  • Witness protection *
  • Hi Tech Crime
  • Technical support to Police surveillance
  • Prisoner processing
  • Making best use of police officers with specialist operational skills
  • Parellel work conducted with support from consultants identified opportunities for greater productivity. Current projects are set out below
  • Mobile data *
  • Managing demand *
  • Digital recording
  • Forensics and identification *
  • Managing resources *
  • Prisoner processing and file preparation workforce modernisation

A collaborative programme team manages the programme of regional work. The Team will cost £1.2m in 2009/10. It is funded jointly by the five police forces. Projects are led by chief officers from around the region.  The programme is overseen by a collaboration board, comprising chief constables, the chairs and members of police authorities. This board meets approximately every six weeks. It provides the detailed management of the programme. There is further oversight of the work through the East Midlands Joint Police Authorities Committee, which meets quarterly in public. 

Detailed information about the programme of regional collaboration on protective services and productivity, including work beyond 2009/10 is set out in the East Midlands Regional Collaboration Plan.