MPA resourcing

Report: 10
Date: 07 February 2008
By: Chief Executive 

Summary

This report seeks approval for an increase to the MPA’s budget to reinforce capacity to support members in achieving the aims of the Corporate Strategy.

A. Recommendations

Members are invited to approve, subject to detailed proposals on job descriptions, an increase to the MPA’s budget of £0.5million to finance three extra posts, accommodation and specialist consultancy support.

B. Supporting information

1. Full Authority on 22 November 2007 instructed officers that a further report be provided on MPA resourcing which gave more information on growth proposals. 

2. Officers have reconsidered the Authority’s needs in respect of its statutory duties to scrutinise and audit the MPS. Over the last twelve months or so, as part of the MPA’s improvement programme, the resources necessary to support members in their borough link work have been increased by redeployment from other areas. Members recognised that this was essential given the changing central government agenda on local engagement and the dividends in terms of community confidence of an increased responsiveness to local needs. If the pace of localism continues, it may be necessary to revisit this area of work in the future.

3. This Improvement Programme has also identified a need for strengthening of the Authority’s capacity to meet three of its corporate priorities, which cannot be met within existing resources:

• to hold the Commissioner rigorously to account for improving the operational performance of the MPS
• to work with the MPS to achieve cultural change throughout the service so that everyone in London can gain and retain confidence in policing
• to drive the MPS to make the most effective, efficient and cost conscious use of all of its resources.

4. Recent events have demonstrated that the Authority must continue to improve its own performance on scrutiny and audit. As part of the budget and equality process, the Mayor’s office has made it clear that it regards the Authority as under-resourced in its important task of ensuring that the MPS maintains momentum on the mainstreaming of diversity across the business groups. The effectiveness of the Authority’s scrutiny programme is without question yet members have noted that officer resources are already overstretched in providing support to the individual scrutinies. And the need for increased analytical support to Internal Audit, to join up the scrutiny and audit processes, has been recognised for some time.

5. Proposals are now set out below to reinforce the service officers are able to give members and thereby render more robust the scrutiny process and the performance of the Authority’s statutory responsibilities.

6. There is a real risk to the Authority’s capacity to fulfil its statutory duties, and consequently to its reputation and credibility if it inadequately resources itself. These proposals are designed to mitigate that risk.

7. In terms of the MPA’s office accommodation, there is virtually no spare capacity at the offices in Dean Farrar Street. Improvements to the MPA’s office infrastructure have also been minimised in past years to stay within a historically small budget. It would be opportune therefore to make provision so that the MPA can make the most efficient use of its premises over the next five years or so.

8. The staffing proposals are as follows:

• Strengthening the authority’s ability to scrutinise MPS activity:
  Members have been concerned over the last year about the resources available to support MPA scrutiny activity. In particular, Members have raised concerns about the resources available to deliver the formal scrutiny programme (which this year has included scrutinies of crime data accuracy, young people and their relationship with the police and Stockwell). There are further gaps in officers’ ability to support members to effectively hold the MPS. These include:
  • Ensuring equality and diversity initiatives are mainstreamed into policing delivery across the MPS and within the work of the MPA
  • Providing Members with briefings and advice on a whole range of policing policy issues (such as public order) .
  • Officers consider that this can be achieved by strengthening the Corporate Development and Strategic Oversight Directorate by 1FTE and by redesigning a current vacancy. Estimated full year cost £65,400 (£36,000 in 08/09).
• Internal Audit – Analyst Post.
  It is proposed to strengthen the analytical team by increasing the number of analyst posts from one to two. The present analyst provides a reactive and proactive research capability within Internal Audit. The results of analyst’s work are used to support auditors and forensic auditors carry out their roles. The demands made of the analyst exceed her ability to deliver the full range of outputs and as a result the proactive work is limited. The analyst would be based in Internal Audit but would work closely with the Planning & Performance Unit. Since 2000 the MPS has grown by 25% while capacity in Internal Audit has shrunk. The benefit of this post would be the support it would enable the analytical team to offer to auditors and forensic auditors by conducting their research for them and thus freeing them up to concentrate on their core work. This will enable the present audit staffing to cope with the growth in the MPS and meet the increasing demand for audit services by improving the way internal audit work rather than by increasing the number of auditors and forensic auditors. Estimated full year costs are £54,400 (£31,000 in 2008/09).
• Internal Audit - Fraud Prevention Support Officer. This post would contribute to the raising of fraud prevention awareness across the MPS and MPA by organising and participating in the delivery of the Audit Commission’s ‘Changing Organisational Culture’ toolkit. It would also liaise with the Audit Commission on fraud prevention matters and assist in the drafting of internal counter-fraud documents, together with drafting guidance and planning for the gathering of data on fraud within the MPS.

The benefits from this post would include raising the level of fraud awareness within the MPS, measuring the level of fraud and supporting managers in adopting fraud prevention policies and procedures. This should lead to a reduction in the level of fraud within the MPS business, improved internal control and demonstrate to external reviewers such as the Audit Commission the positive and pro-active approach to fraud related matters (leading to an improved assessment of MPA performance). The estimated costs in a full year are £65,400 (£36,000 in 2008/09)

9. Non staffing proposals are:

• Development & improvement initiatives. 
  To enable the Authority to continue to support the delivery of its continuous development & improvement initiatives (Improvement Programme) for staff and members, particularly in respect of a leadership & management development programme for staff; a development & induction programme for members; reinforcing the Authority's Values & Behaviours Model; and conducting a follow-up on-line staff survey to measure improvement against the original benchmark and to inform further improvement initiatives. It is estimated that the cost of progressing these initiatives will be in the region of £45,000 per annum. 
• Specialist Consultancy Support. 
  This will cover the need for short-term specialist support in areas to generally support the work of the Authority, including scrutiny and specifically on estates, procurement and IS/IT. The Authority is now engaged in major change to oversee the implementation of the estates strategy and review its forward direction, and there are several individual major estates development proposals which the Authority would benefit from some professional external advice to assist in oversight; similarly the scale of business change in procurement and IS/IT suggests that it is desirable to make use of expert support as and when needed. Costs are estimated at £150,000 in the full year (£113,000 in 2008/09).
• Office Accommodation. 
  The MPA has been at 10 Dean Farrar Street for over five years. In that time the organisation has grown in size (the Secretariat has nearly doubled) and in terms of the demand it places on its accommodation (particularly in relation to meeting room space and storage). With the current desk configuration the MPA is at capacity and different provision will be needed, for instance, to accommodate any additional posts agreed as part of this report. It is therefore proposed to carry out a desk replacement on the first and second floors, providing desks which are smaller and more space efficient in terms of their shape. This exercise will result in:
  • Sufficient desk capacity to cater for staff increases in the future (in the expectation that there will be no significant growth over the next few years)
  • Additional storage space, the lack of which is a growing problem
  • The opportunity to create additional meeting areas

In carrying out a desk replacement, there will be a need to reconfigure and upgrade the data/voice cabling, for instance to increase the number of floor sockets (for computers, phones and power) and to match their location to the desk layout. It is also proposed to increase the category of the cabling (from 5 to 6) to improve performance of the network, bearing in mind that the numbers using the current cabling has grown, impacting on performance.

In the medium term the MPA will need to consider whether it wishes to remain in its current accommodation at the end of the current lease in 2012, or seek alternative accommodation. The proposed desks would be a moveable asset and, being more space efficient, could impact positively on the size of accommodation the MPA would require at that time. 

C. Race and equality impact

Increasing the Authority’s capacity to hold the MPS to account on delivering its Diversity Strategy will improve the service it gives to the public and internally to officers and staff across the whole range of minority needs. Increased professionalism in the production of scrutiny reports will ensure that the explicit objective that every scrutiny must address diversity and equality aspects of the topic under review will more easily be achieved. Equality impact assessments will be undertaken on all proposals.

D. Financial implications

The additional costs are as estimated as follows:

A sum of £0.5M has been included in the 2008/09 Budget Submission for additional MPA growth.

The 2007-08 MPA budget is shown at Appendix 1.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Catherine Crawford and Ken Hunt

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1: MPA Budget 2007-08 

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