Efficiency Savings Alone won't Balance the Books
Friday, 23 April, 2010
How can the UK's Police Forces Balance the Books and Deliver an Ever Broadening Spectrum of Policing?
This years Managing Strategic Performance conference for Police saw some 70 senior leaders from UK's Police Services meet in London on Tuesday 20th April to debate propositions around the challenges of an ever broadening spectrum of policing set against unprecedented cuts in funding. Propositions at the event were lead by the Chief Constables of four constabularies.
Faced with the most savage budget cuts in fifty years, combined with the Treasury's recent edict to increase efficiency gains from 3 per cent to 4 percent, there is a consensus that efficiency savings will not alone balance the books. Demands from Whitehall for £480 million of spending cuts for the year ahead have prompted fears that officer numbers may be cut. This, and a rise in crime from increasing unemployment, could defeat years of investment in reducing criminality ranging from anti-social behaviour to cyber-crime, people trafficking and terrorism.
Entitled 'Beyond Efficiency to Transformation', the conference addressed the opportunities from a Transformational approach.
"It's a given that Police Services now face ten years or more of budget constraints," said Ian Smart, Director of Alexander, management consultants and organisers of the MSPP conference.
"Directives from Government to serve communities, improve performance, and grow public confidence, were fine when mandates to do more came with more (funding). New initiatives such as proactive upstream prevention were starting to show promise. That was in the pre-credit crunch boom. Without radical steps that go beyond traditional efficiency savings, such commonsense approaches may be victims to cost cutting".
Andy Hayman, a former Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service and head of the Counter Terrorism Command, speaking at a conference for the first time since leaving the service, reflected on the research he undertook for the three part series on BBC Radio 4 in 2009.
"The financial outlook is going to be difficult. New initiatives such as neighbourhood policing have brought considerable benefits. But continually extending the boundaries of policing is not sustainable if forces are to deliver on the interdiction of crime - be it anti-social behaviour, organised crime, or acts of terrorism. Chief Constables, struggling to address the deluge of performance indicators from central government, need to rethink policing structures and reform ahead of a new administration, else face having it done to them by a future Home Secretary".
Ian Smart further looked to the challenges police services now face.
"There are times when the size of the financial challenge we face is bigger than our efficiency opportunity alone can provide. To know where the improvement will come from, we must be clear about why we are here and what it is that our communities and service users need and value most. We must make our organisation ready for change. We must understand and then build the capacity and capability to succeed. Collaboration is just one ingredient in the recipe for transformation. The current climate offers an exciting opportunity to transform, invest in the kind of change that will deliver long term benefits to communities and long term savings for police services."
