Memorandum submitted by Thames Valley
Police Authority
I attach a table showing police officer and
police staff strength over the last five years. These figures
are taken from the annual return to the Home office (PP01 returns).
Police Officers and Staff in Thames Valley Police
(FTE)
| Police Officers | Support Staff
|
| 30 September 2009 | 4,418.5
| 3,587.0 |
| 31 March 2009 | 4,317.1 |
3,467.8 |
| 31 March 2008 | 4,185.8 |
3,300.8 |
| 31 March 2007 | 4,259.8 |
2,978.0 |
| 31 March 2006 | 4,288.1 |
2,928.0 |
| 31 March 2005 | 4,189.4 |
2,733.2 |
| Information as submitted to Home Office on PP01 Returns.
| | |
| Excludes staff on secondment, but includes staff on career break.
| | |
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The growth has been invested in neighbourhood policing and
protective services and has only been achieved by cutbacks elsewhere
in the force budget and redistribution of other posts. In particular,
the force efficiency strategy, referred to as the productivity
plan, has already delivered £14.6 million of cashable savings
in the last two years, whilst growing overall strength as shown
in the table.
For the remainder of 2009-10 and, hopefully, for 2010-11,
we will maintain police officer and PCSO strength. However, it
is highly likely that police staff posts will be reduced in 2010-11
and subsequent years. Our best estimate at present for 2010-11
is approximately 180 posts.
Losing our workforce posts is a last resort given the current
situation. For police officers, we have the lowest ratio to population
of our family and the 9th lowest across all forces. Taking all
staff into account, we have 321 (4.4%) less staff than our family
average, and 1,106 (15.2%) less than the national average. This
is the current position before future spending cuts. To preserve
as many frontline posts as possible, the productivity plan is
examining all other areas of expenditure, including contract specifications,
shared services of HR, Finance and Procurement collaboration for
ICT, Forensics and Transport and a comprehensive zero based budget
approach across the organisation. The productivity plan is led
by my Deputy Chief Constable.
I hope this gives you a flavour of how we are tackling what
is inevitably going to be a difficult period for the service.
Our intention is to preserve and improve our service to our communities,
despite less resources.
November 2009
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