Appendix
SUMMARY
OF KEY
RECOMMENDATIONS
FROM THE
NORMINGTON REPORT
A. TRUST
AND PUBLIC
ACCOUNTABILITY
1. The Federation should adopt immediately a revised
core purpose which reflects the Police Federation's commitment
to act in the public interest, with public accountability, alongside
its accountability to its members. This should be incorporated
in legislation as soon as practicable.
2. A new independent reference group should be established
to assist the Federation in ensuring accountability to the public
interest and monitor progress on such issues as equality and implementation
of the Independent Review recommendations.
B. OPENNESS AND REPORTING
1. A new requirement at national level to publish
online an annual public value report alongside a short assessment
of progress by the independent reference group. Branch annual
reports should also report on the value the branch is bringing
to its members and to the public.
2. National guidelines for all expenses, honoraria
and hospitality policies should be agreed and local force branches
will be required to comply with these-a requirement embedded in
regulations. All individual expenses, honoraria, and hospitality
received should be declared and then published online.
3. An openness commitment should be signed by all
local force branches and the national Federation which will establish
the principle that all committee papers, votes, and minutes should
be available to members unless there is genuine commercial, political,
or negotiation sensitivity.
4. All accounts from which the Police Federation
derives income or contributes revenues should be published and
be publicly available. This includes Number 2, member services,
group insurance trusts, accounts or funds. These should be included
in the F45 return.
C. BETTER COMMUNICATIONS TO MEMBERS.
1. Guidance to be agreed by local force branches
and the national Federation for publication of all committee papers
(with a few exceptions), and decisions taken.
2. The completion of local and national databases.
Where these are currently incomplete we request that ACPO and
the Home Office agree to the transfer of email addresses to the
local Federations and the national Police Federation. The national
database cannot be used to promote commercial services in competition
with those provided by the branches.
D. DIVERSITY AND EQUALITY
1. A Director of Equality and Diversity should be
appointed to oversee the Federation's progress on managing equal
opportunities as well as liaising with support groups and networks
for minority officers and others.
2. A rolling three year equality plan should be prepared
with measurable benchmarks for improvement of representation,
support, and public engagement monitored by an Equality sub-committee
of the National Board. This sub-committee should contain members
from external minority associations.
3. New networks of support for 'protected characteristics'
and other groups such as young-in-service officers need to be
established.
4. Equality assessments should be undertaken in each
local force and at national level to determine the need for reserve
seats for the 'protected characteristics'.
E. PROFESSIONALISM AND STANDARDS
1. A new performance and standards agreement will
be drafted, consulted upon, and then signed by all representatives.
It will comprise expectations of a Police Federation representative.
2. An ethics, standards and performance process to
be established on the lines of that introduced in Scotland.
3. Both the performance and standards agreement and
the process should be published on local branch and the national
Police Federation websites.
F. LOCAL REPRESENTATION
1. The provisions in regulations for equal representation
of ranks at local level should be repealed.
2. Regulations should be amended to establish a national
framework within which local negotiations on representation levels
should take place. The regulations should establish a right of
reasonable representation, ie the level at which members can receive
a good and appropriate level of support. There should be a minimum
20 percent of the total representation across a force area for
sergeants and inspectors. Where a local force Branch and chief
officer cannot agree on levels of representation it will Federation
nominee, one nominee of the chief officer, and an independent
chair whose decisions shall be final.
G. PROFESSIONALISM AT HEAD OFFICE
1. Increase the profile and capacity of professional
staff in HQ with a focus on the research capacity to support branches
and influence the pay review body, professional management, member
support and training, communications and public policy.
2. Create a senior executive team and the additional
posts of Director of Finance to oversee the reform and management
of the Federation's budgets; Director of Policing Policy with
a view to engaging in debates about the future of policing; a
Director of Equality and Diversity. It is likely that Directors
of Communications, Research, and Legal would also be part of this
team.
3. Unify the staffing of Head Office under the General
Secretary, as de facto Chief Executive. Create job descriptions
for the General Secretary and other post-holders that recognise
the need of the Police Federation to be credible, authoritative,
expert and professional. Individuals will be assessed in relation
to the degree to which their skills match this job description
and appraised on that basis also.
4. Appoint an experienced project director and an
implementation team to implement the change programme recommended
in this final report.
H. GOVERNANCE AND DECISION-MAKING
1. Rank committees at local and national level should
be removed from the governance and decision-making structure of
the Police Federation.
2. A new Branch Council of workplace representatives
in each local force area and a Branch Board should be established
as the main body governing Federation Branch affairs. These will
be conducted on the basis of the principles and process outlined
in this final report.
3. The current 10-10-10 default membership of Branch
Boards should be abolished and replaced with a new '50-20 rule'
at local level: no rank can have more than 49 percent of the membership
of a Branch Board and no rank can have less than 20 percent. 'Protected
characteristics' should be safeguarded in accordance with local
independent equality assessments. Branch Boards will be considerably
smaller than is currently the case in accordance with the numbers
related to force size outlined in this final report.
4. The Branch Chair should be elected by all members
and the Secretary should be selected by the Branch Board. They
should be from different ranks.
5. The Branch Chairs and Secretaries' meeting should
be established as a new National Council with formal powers. This
will be the main national forum representing local force branches.
It will be a co-decision-maker with the National Board on major
strategic decisions, national budgets, a consultee on subscription
rates and negotiation strategy, and will have a formal role in
selecting nominees for General Secretary.
6. A new National Board should replace the Joint
Central Committee. This will be a slimmed down body both in terms
of numbers and the amount of time that representatives will devote
to national level business. It will still have regional representation,
some rank representation and better representation of 'protected
characteristics'. Its role will be to safeguard the organisation,
make day-to-day decisions as required, formulate strategic direction,
monitor the budget, oversee communications, oversee national elections,
and ensure that the standards and performance process is in place
and effective.
7. A new professional means of selecting the General
Secretary. The Chair will be elected by the membership.
8. National Conference should be slimmed down in
terms of time and numbers.
9. There should be limits on tenure for all post-holders
of two terms of three years with potentially two terms of five
years for the General Secretary.
I. MEMBER SERVICES AND NO. 2 ACCOUNTS.
1. All accounts including Number 2, group insurance
and member services accounts, funds, and trusts to be published.
A general financial transparency clause is needed in regulations
including a requirement to publish and report all income that
derives from and funds Police Federation activity.
2. The market for members' service and group insurance
products should be reviewed and collective provision between a
number of Branches, potentially facilitated and negotiated by
the national Police Federation, to gain from possible economies
of scale, should be explored. The National Board will not seek
to replace Branch commercial relationships other than by joint
agreement with the branches affected.
J. FINANCE AND THE FLOW OF MONEY
1. A new fund should be created from some of the
surpluses and reserves of the current rank committees to support
smaller branches in deficit.
2. All resources to be routed via the centre and
distributed to branches on the basis of agreement in the National
Council. This step will be agreed to within three years once the
National Council and National Board have found
a constructive way of working.
3. The new National Board to commission in 2017 a
review of the options for Leatherhead after 2019.
K. REDUCING THE MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION
- There should be a 25 percent reduction in subscription
levels for one year in 2015 financed by the reserves of the rank
central committees. An extension of this one-off reduction should
be reviewed for subsequent years on the basis of existing reserves,
reserves in unpublished accounts, and an estate strategy once
the reform package is complete.
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