Single non-emergency number for London

Report: 7
Date: 1 September 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the current MPS position on the Single Non-Emergency Number programme.

While the Single Non-Emergency Number programme aligns well with MPS Strategic Outcomes and provides opportunities for partnership working, the business change required for service delivery in the BOCUs is likely to be significant and there is no central funding available for Service Delivery Partners.

A. Recommendations

That members note the content of this report.

B. Supporting information

Introduction

1. The concept of a Single Non-Emergency Number (SNEN) was first introduced in the 2004 Home Office White Paper “Building Communities, Beating Crime - A better police service for the 21st century” as one of a package of measures to improve community safety. The government subsequently made a commitment to provide this service in the 2005 Labour Party Election Manifesto. The aim is to improve access to public services through a memorable national three-digit number – providing community safety advice, information and action – and improving the efficiency of delivering non-emergency services through partnership arrangements between police and local authorities.

2. The national 101 Programme is managed jointly by the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local Government. The service is being rolled out in three waves, leading to national coverage by April 2008. Wave One is already in operation in the counties of Hampshire and Northumbria and the cities of Cardiff, Leicester and Sheffield.

3. The MPS signed an Expression of Interest in June 2006 to participate in a London 101 Partnership as part of Wave Two, due to be operational by June 2007. A project team has been established to develop the police aspects of the funding bid, and a Project Brief document containing further information has been circulated to committee members as an attachment to this report.

Project Progress

4. The MPS project team has identified significant strategic alignment between the introduction of a Single Non-Emergency Number in London and a number of MPS Strategic Outcomes and Critical Performance Areas linked to the following initiatives:

• Citizen Focus and Diversity;
• Safer Neighbourhoods; and
• Working Together.

In this respect, the Single Non-Emergency Number will complement and support these initiatives, but will also be dependent on some of their deliverables.

5. The project team has been working closely with colleagues in the Directorate of Information, Central Communications Command, Safer Neighbourhoods, Citizen Focus and Diversity Directorate and Territorial Policing to determine what services the MPS will provide to customers of the Single Non-Emergency Number (i.e. the “Service Catalogue”), and what business change will be required to support the delivery of those services (i.e. the “Target Operating Model”). The project team is facilitating a number of workshops and focus groups throughout August to ensure that all relevant business areas are engaged in the analysis.

6. It has become clear that in order to fully meet the customer service and service delivery requirements of the government’s 101 programme, the scope of change extends beyond MetCall and into BOCU operations where services are provided. There is an opportunity to significantly improve the quality of end-to-end service provided by the MPS for non-emergency matters, and there is a need to engage further with the relevant business areas, Territorial Policing in particular, in order to fully understand what business change is required.

7. The team is working to produce a “Blueprint” which will model what processes are required to support the introduction of a Single Non-Emergency Number in line with the Home Office requirements, what impact this will have on the MPS and provide an estimate of cost and resource requirements. The Blueprint will form the basis for the MPS submission for the London 101 Partnership funding bid. The deadline for submission of the bid to the Home Office is 6 October 2006.

Challenges for SNEN in London

8. The national 101 Programme has limited the scope of 101 to eight priority areas covering community issues and anti-social behaviour. While the scope of the 101 Programme is quite limited, the advertising for the service and the national logo uses the slogan “A new number to call – 101 – for when it’s less urgent than 999”. Some very early learning from Hampshire in Wave One partnerships suggests that:

• 999 are down by only 2%,
• As many as 72% of calls to 101 are “out of scope” for the 101 Programme.
• Some 75% of these “out of scope” calls are for the police matters.
• The net result is an increase in the non-999 calls for the police.

9. The MPS will participate as a Service Delivery Partner, but not as a Call Taking Partner for the London 101 service. At the time of writing, the London 101 Partnership has not identified who the Call Taking Partners will be, although it is expected that three local authorities will be selected. Non-police call-takers will need to be trained in National Call Handling Standards, and techniques for identifying when calls require police intervention or response. In Wave One partnerships where police take the calls, “out of scope” calls can be handled by the same operator, whereas in London these will have to be either “signposted” or transferred to MetCall, where the caller will have to repeat the details to a police operator.

10. The government timescale for implementing Wave Two is June 2007. The MPS wishes to provide services for 101 on a pan-London basis co?ordinated through MetCall, however not all BOCUs will have transitioned to MetCall until at least September 2007. The introduction of a 101 service prior to this date would result in some callers to 101 in non-MetCall boroughs having to be “signposted” back to their local police station number.

11. The government expectation is that Service Delivery Partners will deliver 101 services using their existing business processes, and that 20% efficiency gains will be achieved in delivering those services. No central funding is being provided for Service Delivery Partners, however business change will be required to receive, action, manage and update 101 service requests in line with the 101 programme’s Service Specification. The extent of this change is currently being determined and will form part of the “Blueprint”.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The introduction of a single, memorable, non-emergency number for London with multi-lingual support will make public services more accessible to all sections of the community as well as the visiting population.

2. The national 101 programme is currently investigating accessibility solutions for the hard of hearing, although in many cases Call Taking Partners have already implemented services such as BT TypeTalk or Minicom.

D. Financial implications

1. The 101 programme has provided £400k of funding to the London 101 Partnership to pay for the resources for the current bid phase. Of this, £135k has been earmarked for MPS resources.

2. The 101 programme will provide central funding for Call Taking Partners, most likely based on a cost per contact. No funding is available for Service Delivery Partners, and therefore the MPS will not receive central funding for the implementation of 101 services. It is assumed that efficiency gains will be achieved as a result of 101, and the 101 Programme Benefits Management Strategy outlines the following assumptions:

• 20% reduction in total calls to 999 emergency call services
• 60% reduction in cost per emergency calls in Police Emergency Contact Centres
• Cost of Service delivery for in scope services reduced through efficiency savings by 20%
• Suppressed demand released: a 25% increase in non-emergency calls post rollout.

3. The cost to the MPS of implementing service improvements at CCC MetCall and TP BOCUs is currently un-quantified. Work is underway in the project team to estimate the cost of business change required.

E. Background papers

• A list of reference material used in the preparation of this report is listed in the Project Brief document.

F. Contact details

Report author: DAC Mcpherson, MPS.

For more information contact:

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

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