Policing London Business Plan 2011-14

Report: 6
Date: 24 February 2011
By: MPS Director of Resources on behalf of the Commissioner, and by the Chief Executive

Summary

This report is to be considered in conjunction with the attached earlier report from the joint Strategic and Operational Policing (SOP) and Finance and Resources (F&R) Committees held on 17 February 2011 (Appendix 1). The report summarises progress to date on the draft Policing London Business Plan 2011-14 following the publication of the Mayor’s draft budget, notably the closure of the previously identified budget gap of £11.9m for 2011/12. It reflects the discussions at the joint meeting of the SOP and FR Committees.

A. Recommendation

That Members

1. Note and comment on the draft 2011-14 Policing London Business Plan as submitted to the joint Strategic and Operational Policing (SOP) and Finance and Resources (F&R) Committees on 17 February and the revised funding limit as reflected in the Mayor’s draft budget for 2011/12.
2. Note the comments on the outcome of the extraordinary member briefings on Key Performance Indicators and the budget; the joint SOP and F&R Committees held on 17 February; and the process for finalising the 2011-14 Policing London Business Plan set out at that meeting.
3. Note the final version of the letter sent from the Chief Executive to the Mayor on 1 February (attached as Appendix 4).
4. Note the actions underway to take forward the points raised at the 17 February joint meeting of the Strategic and Operational Policing and Finance and Resources Committees.

B. Supporting information

1. In line with the amended Authority timetable the MPS submitted the draft 2011-14 Budget and Business Plan for consideration at MPA Full Authority on 27 January 2011. This included a draft response to the Mayor’s budget consultation.

2. Members concluded that they were not sufficiently sighted on the detail behind the draft Plan in advance of Full Authority, both on the emerging budget and on the performance framework, to sign off the draft plan. Members did however agree a response to the Mayor’s budget consultation with the addition of a paragraph stipulating ‘no approval’ of the content.

3. Work has continued on the budget and performance framework for 2011/12. As a result of members’ comments at Full Authority, two extraordinary members’ briefings have been held to explore issues and receive feedback. The performance briefing was held on 3 February and the budget briefing on 9 February. These two private meetings provided members with the opportunity to obtain further clarity on the proposed budget and performance framework.

4. The budget proposals and the performance framework have been worked up against a challenging and uncertain context. The developing Policing Plan remains a work in progress based on a series of best assumptions, both in terms of the budget and associated officer/staff numbers in the text that supports much of the activity.

Revenue Budgets

5. The report presented to full Authority on 27 January indicated a budget gap of £11.9m for 2011/12. The Mayor is now proposing, as part of the draft budget proposals, that this gap be closed by the application of the entire £8m of the projected net surplus in the collection funds of 32 London boroughs and the City of London as at 31 March 2011 and an additional £4m representing part of the additional buoyancy in the London wide council tax base data provided by these billing authorities compared to the assumptions made in the Consultation Budget. The £8m contribution from the collection fund surplus is one-off in 2011/12 only. This means that there is now a balanced budget proposed for 2011/12, with budget gaps for subsequent years of £92.8m (2012/13) and £174.3m (2013/14).

6. The final confirmation of the local government finance and police grant settlement for 2011/12 has now been provided by the Department of Communities and Local Government. The grant levels announced are in line with the planning assumptions made by the MPS. Appendix 2 contains details of the business group budgets for the planning period. It should be noted that these figures represent a provisional budget position for the business groups. However, the analysis does not yet take into account the full allocation of service wide reductions and still does not reflect potential risks around certain specific grants and other external income. Work is underway to develop the business group budgets and the final Policing London Business Plan will be brought back to the MPA in March. It is at this point that greater detail on the impacts of specific grants and other income will be brought for consideration and approval at the SOP/F&R meeting and full Authority in March 2011.

Performance Framework

7. The 2011-14 MPS Corporate Strategic Assessment (CSA) proposed and developed a strategic problem-solving model based on Victim - Offender - Location - Time (VOLT), rather than a traditional approach focused on crime types. The logic is that a greater focus on individuals, victims and offenders, on locations, and times will focus on overall risk and harm reduction, leading to overall crime reduction. The MPS’ 2011-14 corporate objectives have been developed around this methodology. At the 3 February briefing there was a productive discussion with members around the rationale for moving towards a VOLT based performance framework.

8. The VOLT approach has been, for some time, employed and refined as a tactical policing response to reduce crime and disorder. In this respect the strategic transition from crime type to VOLT is not a radical development but a transition to an integrated approach.

9. In addition the MPS has, in recent years, monitored performance against as many as 190 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and diagnostic indicators. This has made it difficult to focus attention on key priorities, and to address this fewer KPIs are proposed for this year, built around a portfolio of measures.

10. There was also a productive discussion with members at the 3 February briefing around a smaller number of KPIs, reflecting the MPA's role in setting the strategic direction and a desire to focus on delivering a victim-focused service (something not helped by artificial distinctions between crime types) that, at least, maintains stable crime levels and increases satisfaction.

Performance Reporting

11. Members were provided, at 27 January full Authority and at the member’s briefing, with an example of the proposed portfolio of indicators for the violence, property and anti social behaviour KPIs, and the relative proportions of each in the violence and property portfolios. Data on each crime type can be used as diagnostic measures for changes in performance against the overall portfolio.

12. Individual crime type data in these portfolios and in other areas will continue be collected and analysed to enable thorough scrutiny, a drive for performance improvement, and the tackling of emerging threats. This will equip members to maintain a robust oversight of trends in performance.

13. In line with more focused performance analysis, the MPS will report monthly on headline performance to the MPA and by exception on individual crimes within each portfolio, taking a VOLT based approach.

14. Members at the briefing on 3 February were clear they needed to see:

• The performance information they would receive under the new framework.
• How VOLT measures would be reported.
• The management arrangements to support performance improvement in that new framework.

The MPS is currently producing this information and will share it with MPA officers as it continues to develop.

Additional KPIs

15. At the 3 February briefing some members suggested that, following earlier discussions with MPS officers and staff, they would like to see the addition of a rape KPI and a roads policing KPI to the set of seven KPIs proposed for 2011/12. In both cases options for the construction of KPIs are being developed and will be discussed with MPA officers in advance of the next full meeting of the Authority. Members also proposed the deletion of two KPIs.

Targets

16. Until the KPIs have been confirmed targets or milestones cannot be firmly established. Members attending the 3 February were briefed on the rationale for a stable approach to target setting given the extremely challenging environment for 2011/12.

17. This would, in many cases, require performance for 2011/12 to match that for 2010/11. These targets will be finalised, as in previous years, once 2010/11 outturn data is available in April 2011.

Equality Impact Assessment - Policing London Business Plan 2011-14

18. The Equality Impact Assessment on the 2011-14 Policing London Business Plan remains a work in progress. In line with the undertaking to update members on the developing EIA in February 2011, the draft provided to the joint SOP/F&R Committee is at Appendix 3.

Joint meeting of SOP/F&R on 17 February 2011

19. Amendments and proposals around the budget and performance framework were explored at the joint meeting of the Strategic and Operational Policing and Finance and Resources Committees held on 17 February 2011.

20. At the meeting members welcomed the commitment from the MPS that further work was underway to set out clearly the supporting management information that would underpin each of the proposed KPIs, as well as options for how best to include the requested KPIs on rape and on the number of people killed and seriously injured on the roads. MPS officers noted that Management Board was due to discuss options in the week beginning 21 February and would send options to MPA officers as soon as possible, in preparation for a substantive discussion at the March joint meeting of the Strategic and Operational Policing and Finance and Resources Committees.

21. At the meeting members also discussed the work-in-progress Equality Impact Assessment (Appendix 3) and suggested that MPS officers might usefully discuss how it could be developed and improved with MPA officers, particularly those who support the Communities, Equalities and People Committee.

22. Finally, the meeting noted that, since the January full Authority report had been prepared, the Chief Executive of the MPA had written to the Mayor of London and that it would be helpful for the February full Authority to have sight of that letter. It is therefore attached at Appendix 4.

C. Other organisational & community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. The planning framework for 2011-14 will help to ensure that equalities and diversity implications are properly reflected in budget and business plans. Throughout the planning process business groups have been encouraged to consider the impact they have on internal and external communities and therefore develop activities that reflects the MPS’s commitment to equality and diversity issues.

Financial Implications

2. Financial implications are outlined in Section B of the report to the 17th February joint meeting of the Strategic and Operational Policing and Finance and Resources Committees.

Legal Implications

3. The Greater London Authority Act 1999, as amended, sets out the requirements of the GLA to calculate the budget requirements for the Mayor, and the Assembly and its four functional bodies. The budget requirements for each body are calculated by determining the difference between projected expenditure and projected income - including specific Government grants. In order for the GLA to estimate the sums required by the MPA/MPS, the MPA/MPS must provide information to the Mayor and Assembly to facilitate this. The Mayor is required to consult with the MPA/MPS prior to setting the final budget.

4. To help assist budget setting and fulfil meeting the priorities within the Policing Plan, the budget and business development process is a key element to ensure there are sound financial plans within which the MPA/MPS priorities and objectives are adequately funded.

5. Expenditure or activities undertaken by the MPA/MPS as statutory bodies must only budget for activities that fall within its statutory powers. There are also positive duties under S3 Local Government Act 1999 to secure the continuous improvement in the ways functions are exercised having regard to a combination of the economy, efficiency and effectiveness. This report identifies steps under the budget and business plan process that will be taken to ensure best value is achieved in the delivery of policing services.

Consideration of Met Forward

6. The MPA has been considering how best to refresh Met Forward. Following positive engagement with members, MPA officers have engaged formally with their MPS counterparts to ensure that the MPS’s views are reflected in a draft revised Met Forward that will come to the Authority in February along with the latest version of the Policing Plan.

Environmental Impact

7. The proposed planning framework will help to ensure that environmental sustainability issues are properly reflected in future plans and budgets.

Risk Implications

8. There are significant risks inherent in delivering policing services within the current legislative and financial environment, but these are being managed as part of the 2011-14 Business planning process. This will ensure the MPA and GLA are aware of implications to policing from the reduction in future years funding. These risks were set out in the supporting financial document to the submission considered by the Authority in November 2010.

D. Background papers

None

E. Contact details

Report author: Anne McMeel (Director of Resources), MPS

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Appendix 4

Letter from Chief Executive to the Authority to Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

1 February 2011

Dear Mayor

MPA Response to the GLA Group Budget Proposals and Precepts 2011-12 Consultation Document

Thank you for your letter dated 22 December 2010 setting out your draft consolidated budget for 2011/12.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Authority, the Metropolitan Police Service and the Greater London Authority have worked closely together in helping you develop your proposals for 2011/12 in a period of considerable uncertainty on funding. The Authority and the MPS recognise your continuing commitment to support policing in what are undoubtedly difficult financial times. This is particularly noticeable in the additional £30m you have identified for policing, within your overall financial strategy of no precept increase for the GLA group as a whole.

After the additional precept support your proposals still identify £61.1m savings to be made by the MPA/MPS over and above the £157.9m savings already built into the draft policing budget.

Given the financial uncertainties still facing the MPS the 2011-14 budget and business plan remains work in progress. However, the MPA/MPS has considered a number of options for reducing the core budget gap of £61.1m. These options are set out in the attached report and were considered and approved by the MPA full Authority on 27 January 2011.

As you can see, by a combination of prudent funding proposals and further reductions, the proposals would reduce the gap to £11.9m in 2011/12 rising to £96.8m in 2012/13 and £178.3m in 2013/14.

The MPS has a good record of achieving savings and we continue to work closely with colleagues on closing this gap. Given the level of reductions planned for 2011/12 , and the need, as far as is practically possible, to maintain a stable platform for delivering security for the Olympics, it will however be difficult to identify further significant reductions for delivery next year.

Whilst the proposals will help us manage MPA/MPS finances over the next three years we recognise the need to identify and deliver permanent reductions as quickly as possible and we are actively engaged in this process.

In developing your draft budget for consideration by the London Assembly we would ask that you note that the MPA agreed that the attached report reflects the work in progress on the preparation of the budget and that it should be submitted to your office to comply with the legislative requirements, but stipulated that the contents are neither endorsed nor agreed by the Authority as further details are required. The transcript of the Authority meeting has been included, as part of this submission, in order that your office may understand the issues raised by members in response to the consultation document.

The MPA/MPS remain committed to working with you to ensure that we do all that we can to maintain operational capability. The additional freedom given to London on PCSO funding also provides an opportunity to look at options to increase our operational police officer resilience.

Operational police officer resilience is also being improved with the expanded programme of Special Constable recruitment. We have this year passed the 4,000 mark and remain on target to deliver 6,667 Special Constables by March 2012.

Officer numbers may, of course, also be affected by decisions yet to be made by government on specific grant and by partners on third party income as well as final decisions on precept income.

Our officers will continue to work with your officers in developing the 2011-14 budget but the analysis provided will inevitably change over the coming months as more information on funding becomes available and our proposals are developed.

Yours sincerely

Catherine Crawford
Chief Executive to the Authority

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