Joint memorandum submitted by Warwickshire
Police Authority and Warwickshire Police
I have attached a joint response from Warwickshire
Police Authority and Warwickshire Police prepared following liaison
with the Chief Constable on the information you requested, and
comprised of an overview and answers to your specific questions.
The request is timely and important to the future
of policing at the level and high standard it currently enjoys,
in order to provide an effective, efficient and responsive service
to local communities.
From our response, I hope you will be able to
appreciate the considerable work that has already been undertaken
over recent years in Warwickshire in the areas you are interested
in exploring. As a governing and scrutiny body on behalf of the
public, we take our role seriously and have developed a very effective
model of embedded governance which eradicates duplication of effort
and time, but enables Members to engage strategically and appropriately
in a range of structures and processes with the Force in relation
to financial planning, workforce planning and sustainability.
OVERVIEW
The Force will focus on delivering the maximum
protection from harm from the resources available and seek every
opportunity to improve the level of protection even in times when
resources are reducing. We will aim to do this through different
and more efficient ways of working and doing business.
The force completed a comprehensive strategic review
in 2007 under the banner, 150Forward. This established
the current force approach in terms of focussing all resources
across the force on the fundamental objective of protecting people
from harm. The 150Forward review programme also substantially
re structured the force removing Basic Command Units and developing
a directorate based command structure for the force, delivering
considerable improvements to overall force performance and required
financial efficiencies. Integral to the development of the force
was a workforce development approach recognising that posts can
be filled in many cases by not just officers but support staff
at a lesser cost.
On the back of 150Forward the force has
developed a Medium Term Financial Plan which, based on assumed
levels of future funding in respect of CSR, Council tax and Grant
developed before the full extent of the economic climate became
known, identified an overall funding gap of some £6.4 million
per year. In response to this a sustainability strategy has been
developed aimed at delivering £4.5 million of the cashable
savings required over a three year period (£1.5 million in
each of the years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12). It should be
emphasised that the £6.4 million gap is based on the current
assumptions around the funding availability and budget requirements
and is reviewed regularly in light of the updated financial position.
The Police Authority have agreed the Sustainability
Strategy, built around the needs of the Force to protect people
from harm and enable the delivery of the overall direction resulting
from 150Forward, but substantially aimed at delivering
the further reductions in cost base identified as being necessary
in the Medium Term Financial Plan. The Sustainability Strategy
is kept under constant review against the emerging financial position,
through the governance structures set out below, and will be adapted
to meet any changing needs.
The sustainability strategy has two key elements:
(i) embedding behavioral and cultural change
through leadership, targets, performance objectives as well as
marketing and communication; and
(ii) delivering the actions that enable us to
work smarter and drive out waste, including investing in Challenge
& Innovation on an invest-to-save basis to help "kick-start"
the savings process, driving through "quick wins", the
service review programme, reviewing the capital/corporate programme,
exploring opportunities for outsourcing and collaboration, etc.
The current focus of the sustainability strategy
is the identification and reduction of waste and the delivery
of on-going workforce development, which will each deliver a proportion
of the cashable savings required. However, it is also recognised
that other significant initiatives in terms of review of organisational
structure and service delivery approaches incorporating fundamental
service review will also be required to deliver all of the cashable
savings required. A range of such service reviews is currently
underway and will start to deliver cashable savings over coming
months.
Potential benefits that may be accrued through
wider collaboration initiatives and working more extensively with
partnerships are currently not factored into our planning assumptions.
However, the Force is continuing to explore this route as a way
of delivering greater protection and as contribution to the need
to identify significant cashable savings.
The Governance of the drive to sustainability
through the Sustainability Strategy is delivered by the below
structures and processes:
(i) The Force Executive Board (FEB), which includes
Police Authority embedded governance, has agreed the Strategy
and sets the service review programme.
(ii) The Business Improvement Board (BIB), which
likewise has Police Authority embedded governance, tracks progress
against the savings target, receives the findings of service reviews
and agrees recommendations.
(iii) The Efficiency and Productivity Management
Group (EPMG) is responsible for driving forward service review
recommendations and achievement of the savings target.
(iv) The Police Authority Resource Assurance
Group (RAG) further scrutinises and has oversight of the progress
against the savings target and the force efficiency & productivity
target.
(v) The RAG will adapt the existing strategy
against emerging financial information, providing the strategic
direction for the Authority and force as we move forward. The
experience the force gained through the 150Forward review programme
is valuable in this context.
On a final note, it should also be appreciated
that the force has also had its maximum budget determined for
2009-10 and 2010-11 as part of the capping legislation.
ANSWERS TO
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
Number of Police officers and staff currently
employed by the force
As at 3 November 2009 Police Officer and Police
Staff establishment is as follows:
| Police Officer | 987.27
|
| Police Staff | 897.32 |
| |
How this figure has changed over the past five years (including
details of business areas where reductions or increases have occurred
if possible)
The table below shows how numbers have changed over the past five
years:
| 2004-05
| 2005-06 | 2006-07
| 2007-08 | 2008-09
| 03/11/2009 |
| Police Officers | 1,011.67 |
1,039.89 | 1,060.7 | 1,035.56
| 993.52 | 987.27 |
| Police Staff | 650.05 | 677.8
| 753.95 | 762.05 | 831.78
| 897.32 |
| |
| | | |
|
Over the past two years, police officer numbers have decreased
and police staff numbers increased. This is due to the workforce
development (wfd) programme which commenced in 2007 following
a full review of the workforce mix and skills required for an
acceptable, affordable and sustainable police service. This resulted
in the identification of a number of police officer posts, which
no longer required police powers and thus could be carried out
by police staff.
Comparing the workforce composition since 2004-05 to date,
the biggest changes are highlighted below:
Police Staff
— Increase in the number of PCSOs. — Increase
in the number in the CID, Complaints, Intelligence, Traffic, Training,
HOLMES, Criminal Justice (Judicial Services), Child/Sex/ Domestic
(PVP).
— Reductions in the number in Finance, HR, Property
Services.
Police Officers
— Increased numbers in Child/Sex/Domestic (PVP), Control
Room, (PHD, Force Duty Inspectors etc), Criminal Justice (Judicial
Services—Prisoner Processing Team). — Decrease in
CID, Complaints, Firearms—Tactical (Firearms now part of
Taskforce and classified as Response), Training, Intelligence.
Any comments on the relationship between these trends, the
most recent CSR funding settlement, efficiency savings targets,
the force's overall financial position and any other factors
Warwickshire Police's Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) provides
the detail of the current drive of the Sustainability Strategy.
Attached are documents that have been prepared between August
and October 2009 for the Police Authority Treasurers Society (PATS).
These provide the detail of the current view about the overall
force financial position. The most significant paper is the Police
Resourcing Paper B which sets out details of our impact assessment
and planned approach for narrowing the funding gap identified
within our Medium Term Financial Plan.
An indication of likely changes to the workforce during the
remainder of 2009-10 and in 2010-11
Warwickshire Police holds a monthly Workforce Management
Group which tracks our police officer numbers within our budgetary
and operational parameters against our actual establishment and
strength.
This is carried out by the use of a predictive modeling report,
taking into account retirements, average monthly leavers and also
the workforce development of police officer posts. This prediction
thus enables the Force to plan in transferee and student officer
intakes. It is therefore predicted that our police officer numbers
will change as follows:
| 31/03/10 | Establishment |
958.83 |
| Actual strength | 977.45
|
| |
|
The above figures have included the intention within our
Sustainability Strategy that 15 police officer posts be subject
to workforce development before 31 March 2010, this will thus
result in our police staff establishment increasing accordingly.
| 31/03/11 | Establishment |
929.83 |
| Actual strength | 940.45
|
| |
|
Within 2010-11 our Sustainability Strategy includes the intention
that a further 33 police officer posts will be subject of workforce
development thus resulting in an increase to our police staff
establishment.
The numbers of Transferee and Student Officer intakes will
be reviewed regularly to ensure police officer numbers and operational
requirements are managed accordingly.
Clearly, these changes are required and included in our current
Sustainability Strategy, which is driven from our MTFP. As set
out below if the assumptions within our MTFP need to be adjusted
to reflect lower levels of available funding then we will need
to revisit planning assumptions regarding number of staff across
the force, including the balance between police officers and police
staff numbers.
Given the apparent inevitability of public spending cuts, which
will undoubtedly impact on the police service, what plans the
force is putting in place to deal with reduced funding
This point has largely been addressed within the overview
provided earlier in this response. The following points should
also be noted.
It should be noted that the force is already facing the requirement
to identify £6.4 million of cashable savings in order to
meet reduce its current funding gap.
It is recognised, that the changing economic climate is likely
to cause the assumptions made within the MTFP to be revised (current
modeling assumes 2% increase year on year in government grant
and 5% increase in council tax year on year). If these assumptions
are required to be revised, resulting in a reduction in the funding
envisaged through our MTFP, then given that our current financial
position already requires the force to deliver cashable savings
of the £6.4 million in order to achieve a balanced budget,
such could only be achieved through more fundamental structural
change or failing that a reduction in the range and/or level of
services provided by the force.
It is noted that each 1% in council tax equates to £330,000
and 1% of central government grant equates to £540,000.
November 2009
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