Three year strategy plan

Report: 10
Date: 27 February 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

The National Policing Plan requires the MPA to issue a three-year strategy plan, in addition to its annual plan. A strategy has to be submitted to the Home Secretary on 28 February.

A. Recommendations

That Members approve the draft strategy for submission to the Home Secretary on 28 February 2003.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The National Policing Plan (NPP) was published in November 2002. It provides the strategic national overview against which chief officers and police authorities should prepare their own local three-year strategy plans and annual policing plans. Three-year strategy plans were introduced by the Police Reform Act, aimed at strengthening police authorities' capacity to focus on the medium to longer-term direction of the force.

2. The MPA must submit its proposed strategy to the Home Secretary by 28 February, who will then check its consistency with the NPP. Following development of the strategy ‘Towards the Safest City’, an analysis was performed to ensure that all imperatives from the NPP had been incorporated into the draft.

3. Members agreed the principles that would be used to develop the strategy at the Full Authority meeting on 30 January. A strategy drafted according to these principles was subsequently circulated to all members and debated at an informal session of the Co-ordination and Policing Committee on 7 February. The draft was also circulated within the MPS to obtain feedback from staff.

4. The comments received from both MPA members and MPS staff have been incorporated into the revised strategy. To reduce printing costs (as the draft strategy is nearly 90 pages long) the draft strategy has been sent separately to members of the Authority only. It will also be available on the MPA website or on request from Simon Vile (7202 0180).

5. Whilst the draft is completely consistent with the NPP, there are differences in emphases to reflect the MPA’s and MPS’ particular concerns. For example, the NPP makes minimal reference to terrorism or diversity issues. However, these are represented fully in ‘Towards the Safest City’.

6. In parallel with final refinements on targets in the annual policing and performance plan, the MPS and the MPA may make ongoing amendments to this strategy plan over the next two weeks, which should not affect the issues being considered by the Home Secretary. The MPS hence commends this draft as suitable to go to the Home Secretary.

Next steps

7. The next steps for development of the three-year strategy plan are:

• 27 February Full Authority approves draft 3-year strategy plan
• 27 February Full Authority confirms the annual targets for insertion into the strategy plan
• 28 February Home Secretary reviews 3-year strategy plan to check its consistency with the NPP
• Mid March Feedback received from Home Secretary
• Mid – end March Any changes requested by the Home Secretary incorporated into strategy plan
• 31 March Strategy plan issued by the Authority
• 30 June Summary strategy plan published in a reader friendly version

8. It is known that when the strategy plan is submitted to the Home Office, it will use the following procedure to check the strategy’s consistency with the NPP: (i) A check will be made by officials as to whether the 51 bullet points in Annex B of the NPP have been incorporated into the strategy plan (ii) A ‘Quanta’ system will be used to check whether the MPS targets proposed will make a sufficient contribution to the achievement of the national target.

9. The MPS will thus provide the Home Office with an analysis showing how/where the 51 points have been reflected in either the annual plan or the strategy plan. By doing so, it is expected that any changes will be minimal.

10. Discussions have commenced with the Home Office as to how it will deal with the MPA’s stance on target setting, namely that the 2003/04 targets have been agreed via the bespoke process in order to set them at realistic and achievable levels. However, increases in recorded crimes in recent years mean that we are unlikely to meet the medium term targets set by the Treasury.

C. Equality and diversity implications

In developing the original ‘Towards the Safest City’, consideration was given to equality and diversity impact. Under the goal ‘Developing a Professional and Effective Workforce’, two different aims encapsulate the service’s desire to reflect London’s diverse communities. In addition, steps have been taken to thread the diversity message throughout the document. An insert will be included in copies of the summary document to be distributed to an external audience, offering a translation into Braille or audiotape and ethnic minority languages. Equality considerations will therefore also be addressed during the production and distribution of the strategy plan.

D. Financial implications

The cost of implementing the strategy plan will be assessed through costing the range of projects being set up to deliver the 2003/04 (and subsequent) annual plans. Financial choices will consider the direction set by the strategy plan when prioritising funding.

E. Background papers

• Update on 'Towards the Safest City' (Planning, Performance and Review Committee 19 September 2002 – paper 8)
• Development of three-year strategy plan (Full Authority 30 January 2003 – agenda item 12 (b) – MPA/03/12)

F. Contact details

Report author: John Zlotnicki, Director MPS corporate planning group and Sarah Hedgcock, MPS corporate planning group, MPS

For more information contact:

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

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback