The front line policing measure – proposals for targets

Report: 5
Date: 8 October 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

The Home Office has developed a Front Line Policing Measure to support the achievement of Public Sector Agreement (PSA) 2. Targets for this measure must be set by police authorities by 30 September 2004, through to 2007-08. This report makes recommendations for targets.

A. Recommendations

That

1. the Home Office be advised that initial proposals for MPS growth over the next three-four years are likely to result in achievement of around 67% police officer time spent on front line duties (para. 21).;
2. formal targets be set for the front line policing measure as part of the MPA’s 2005-06 target setting process (para. 21);
3. the target for 2004-05 for the front line policing measure be to maintain the current level of performance, given MPS growth and civilianisation plans (para. 22); and
4. targets are not set against the Home Office subsidiary measures of ‘percentage of time spent on front line duties by all police officers and staff’ and ‘percentage of police officer time spent on visible patrol’ (paras. 24 and 28).

B. Supporting information

Why is the Front Line Police Measure important?

1. The front line policing measure (FLPM) has been introduced by the Home Office as a key measure for Public Service Agreement (PSA) 2 which states the need to ”significantly increase the proportion of time spent on front line duties”. The measure is also a statutory performance indicator (SPI) which forms part of the Policing and Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF).

2. The Home Office requires police authorities to set improvement targets for this measure covering the period 2004/05 to 2007/08. The Home Office has asked for these targets to be set by 30th September 2004 (although we have agreed with the HO that they would be notified of MPS targets following the MPA COP meeting of 8th October 2004.)

3. Baseline data for the measure became available in August 2004. MPS performance is 66%, which is near the top of the range for all forces. The current national average is 63% and Home Office would like to see the national average rise to 72.5% by the end of 2007-08.

4. The FLPM was also included as an indicator for the MPA/MPS Policing and Performance Plan for 2004-05. However, target setting was postponed for 2004-05 as no baseline data were available at the beginning of the financial year.

5. The FLPM also has two subsidiary measures:

• The percentage of time spent on front line duties (including crime prevention activity) by all police officers and staff. Note that this measure will therefore include the contribution of police community support officers.
• The percentage of police officer time spent on visible patrol. This is measured by the amount of time that CID, patrol and traffic officers spend on the activity of visible patrol.

6. While these are not statutory performance indicators, the Home Office would like to see what targets may be proposed for these measures as part of police authority and force plans. The majority of this paper is concerned with the headline measure of police officer time on front line duties.

What is included in the headline front line policing measure?

7. The headline measure on which targets are to be set is “percentage of police officer time spent on front line duties” and data for the measure are collected annually. An understanding of what is included in the measure has helped inform target setting:

• There are certain roles which are defined as front line (see Appendix 1). Data for this is taken from annual personnel statistics showing what roles police officers and police staff are placed in. These roles, such as Special Branch or Community Safety/Relations count at 100% front line.
• The roles of patrol, CID and traffic officers are also included as front line. However, they are subject to activity analysis studies to determine what proportion of time is actually spent performing front line activities (see Appendix 1). The studies show that typically about 70% of their time is front line.
• The measure also uses average number of days lost through sickness.

What factors improve our performance against the FLPM?

8. There are four ways that the percentage time spent on front line duties can be improved. Directorate of Strategic Development has examined the scale of improvement that would be needed to raise MPS performance from its current level of 66% to the HO’s ambition of a national average of 72.5%.

• Increase the number of officers in front line roles – Many of these roles count as 100% front line, for example those officers that are part of Safer Neighbourhoods teams. To achieve 72.5% front line policing solely by growth of posts that count as 100% front line would require an additional 7,600 police officers.
• Move officers from non-front line roles to front line roles - This is probably the most cost-effective option since it involves civilianisation of police posts. However, if the overall number of police posts were required to remain the same this would still increase overall costs. To achieve performance of 72.5% would require the civilianisation of 1,900 officers if all were moved into roles that count as 100% front line. If officers were moved to patrol, CID or traffic roles (70% front line) then 2,340 would need to be moved.
• Increase the amount of time officers in patrol, CID or traffic roles spend on front line duties – This would entail raising the amount of time that patrol officers, say, spend on front line activities from 69% to 85% together with an increase for CID officers from 69% to 73%.
• Reduce sickness – MPS sickness rates for police officers are within current targets. Even reducing the rate of sickness from its current level of around 8 days per person per year on average to 4 days per person per year has only a very limited impact on the target.

9. These figures illustrate the level of change that would be needed to raise the MPS performance to 72.5% and it is unlikely that any of these would be practical on their own.

What plans are currently in place to deliver improvement against the FLPM?

10. As noted above, reductions in sickness could make only a small impact on the measure. In addition, the measure is fairly generous in what activities count as front line for patrol, CID and traffic officers (for example it includes paperwork related to crime and non-crime incidents). Non-front line activity is spread over a number of miscellaneous activities and this makes it difficult to predict how future changes in working practices might impact on the percentage front line activity for these officers.

11. The main opportunities for impacting on the measure are therefore from increasing the number of police officers in front line roles via growth from the Step Change Programme and civilianisation.

Step Change programme and growth

12. Provision for growth of Safer Neighbourhoods teams was made for 2004-05. Proposals for 2005-06 and beyond are being submitted as part of this year’s budget setting process. Funding for future years cannot be taken as a certainty. However, taking into account the growth proposals made as at September 2004 and with all else remaining unchanged, then the percentage time spent on front line duties rises from 66% for 2003-04 to:

• 66.6% for 2004-05; and
• 66.9% for 2005-06.

13. The small increase is because 279 of the new officers proposed for 2005-06 would not count as front line officers. Of these, 226 would be placed in new Case Progression Units or Integrated Borough Operations functions. (Had all the proposed growth for 2005-06 been to 100% front line roles then percentage time spent on front line duties would be 67.8%).

14. Should the full Step Change programme be implemented (over 3000 additional officers), and all these placed in 100% front-line roles, then the percentage time spent on front line duties would rise to around 69.7% by the end of 2007-08 – still short of the Home Office’s proposed national average of 72.5%.

Civilianisation programme and workforce modernisation

15. The MPS programme for civilianisation is currently being revised with proposals due to be submitted to Management Board later this autumn. The workforce modernisation pilot at Bexley BOCU is identifying ways of carrying out police processes in different, more efficient ways which could impact on staffing mix in future and release police officer time for front line activities. The Home Office white paper on the next stages of police reform is due to be published in October and is likely to spark more debate over the next year on future direction.

16. However, to fill the gap between 69.7% and 72.5% would require substantial civilianisation for which there is currently no additional funding (funding for the employment of additional police staff would be required if police officer numbers were also to be maintained). Not only do police posts need to be civilianised but this must result in a net move of officers to front line roles (some plans for workforce modernisation initiatives might not impact on the FLPM as they may affect officers already in front line roles, investigators for example). Civilianisation is also constrained since approximately 150 officers currently occupy non-front line roles for medical reasons. There are also officers on temporary recuperative duties which could be as high as 600 per month.

17. Assuming that the proposals for growth under the Step Change Programme are funded to the level of an additional 413 police officers in 2004-05 and a further 1220 in 2005-06 then:

• Around 1,500 police officer posts would need to be civilianised if officers are moved to roles which are assumed to be 100% front line; or;
• Around 1,835 posts would need to be civilianised if current plans go ahead where some growth posts do not count as front line.

18. It should be noted that civilianisation is unlikely to be a significant factor in raising the percentage time spent on front line duties for 2004-05.

19. Current information includes the following non-front line roles for police officers which could be considered for civilianisation:

• Trainers (1, 230 officers)
• Criminal Justice Units (644)
• Custody (550)
• IT/Communications (78)
• Control Rooms (181)

20. These functions have not yet been studied in depth but they suggest that if the funding were made available for police staff to fill some roles rather than police officers then raising the level of time spent on front line policing to 72.5% may be achievable. Funds would need to be found for around 1,500 more police staff and possibly an additional number of staff to handle increased organisational support that this increase in staff might require. This issue is likely to affect all police forces.

Targets setting for the headline measure of front line policing

21. It is unlikely that the Home Office’s aim of increasing the national average for time spent on front line duties to 72.5% by 2007-08 can be met without additional funding to support workforce modernisation and civilianisation to free up police officer time on front line roles.

22. Current proposals for growth under the Step Change programme would put the MPS at around 69.7% for time spent on front line duties by the end of 2007-08 provided that funding for the full Step Change programme is agreed year on year. However, this funding is not guaranteed and makes assumptions about where growth posts would be placed (it assumes that all posts would be 100% front line, which does not accord with current proposals for growth). With that in mind it is recommended that the Home Office be notified that a target of 67% is likely to be set for 2007- 08 reflecting funding plans through 2005-06. However, it is recommended that the target be reviewed and formally proposed as part of the MPA 2005-06 target setting process. This would allow the MPA to take account of firm budget setting proposals for 2005-06, any further plans for civilianisation and workforce modernisation and to set this target in the context of other plans and priorities. Any future funding to support civilianisation, growth, etc would also prompt a review of the target.

23. Baseline data for 2004-05, only became available in August. At this stage of the year it is recommended that the target for 2004-05 in the MPS policing and performance plan be to maintain current levels of performance. A small improvement is likely in practice, given this year’s growth in relation to Safer Neighbourhoods teams.

Home Office subsidiary measure ‘percentage of time spent on front line duties by all police officers and staff’

24. For this subsidiary measure MPS performance for 2003-04 was 56.2% against a national average of 54.7%.

25. In the short term (2004-05) the main impact on this measure will be growth in the number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) which makes only a small difference to the current level of time spent on front line duties. Since it is difficult to predict the full future implications of further police reform and workforce modernisation on the overall makeup of the MPS, and until plans are more developed, it is recommended that no long-term target is set in this area at present.

Home Office subsidiary measure ‘percentage of police officer time spent on visible patrol’

26. MPS performance against this Home Office measure is 15.8% against a national average of 15.4%.

27. However, the MPS has serious concerns about the usefulness of this measure which only captures the time spent by traffic, patrol and CID officers on the particular activity analysis code of ‘visible patrol’. We believe this significantly under-estimates the amount of time that officers spend as a visible presence.

28. The MPS has its own visibility measure for which a target has been set in the 2003-04 Policing and Performance Plan. In contrast to the Home Office measure, the MPS visibility measure:

• Includes the contribution of all uniformed police officers and police staff to activities which are visible and accessible to the public (eg includes PCSOs);
• Can be tracked using monthly data produced from the CARM duty planning system.

29. It is recommended that the MPA/MPS does not set a target for the Home Office measure of visibility but continues to use the current measure already included in the 2004-05 Policing and Performance Plan.

C. Race and equality impact

The front line policing measure may provide local managers with additional information on which to assess their capability for addressing the needs of all the communities they serve. Plans for growth under the Step Change programme consider the need to make the MPS more representative of the communities it serves.

D. Financial implications

The proposal for setting a target for 2007-08 in line with current Step Change growth would depend on continued funding of the Step Change Programme: growth proposals and their cost implications form part of the budget setting process for 2004-05.

If a high degree of civilianisation or workforce modernisation is expected of forces in order to raise the proportion of time spent on front line duties without reducing police officer numbers then forces will require additional growth funding. The cost of this would need to be assessed depending on any specific proposals.

E. Background papers

• The Front Line Policing Measure – Briefing Note (Planning, Performance and Review Committee – September 2004)

F. Contact details

Report author: Lawrence Morris, Directorate of Strategic Development

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1: The Front Line Policing Measure – Role and Activity Codes

Table 1: Nationally agreed HMIC function/role codes: For anyone who is not a CID officer, patrol officer or traffic officer, this table is used to show whether or not their role is considered to be ‘front line’. Because most forces don’t have full AA data for these staff, they are assumed to spend 100% of their time in that role.

Table 2: CID officers, Patrol officers and Traffic officers are all assumed to be in ‘front line’ roles. However, instead of assuming that anyone in one of those roles spends 100% of their time on ‘front line duty’, activity analysis (AA) data is used to determine what proportion of their time is actually spent on these duties. The AA studies collect data according to a nationally agreed set of activity codes and table 2 shows which of those codes are considered to be ‘front line’.

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