Civil staff wastage

Report: 5
Date: 19 October 2000
By: Commissioner

Summary

To report on the emerging findings of the current analysis of civil staff wastage, identifying particular grades and specialisms, and describing on-going work to identify effective short and longer term solutions.

A. Supporting information

1. In response to the continuing drop in civil staff strength, work was initiated to analyse the situation in some depth to identify any general issues together with any particular problem areas in order to devise effective remedial actions.

2. The buoyant jobs market in London and the South East puts particular strain on the ability of the Metropolitan Police Service to attract and retain appropriate numbers and quality of civil staff. Nonetheless it is vital that the MPS is able to do so to support operational policing. A growing number of civil staff are in front line roles and vacancies are often filled by police officers.

3. The analysis has not been completed. This paper reports on the emerging findings. A further report is to be prepared for the November meeting of the Committee and will cover a pay/reward strategy building upon the wastage position.

4. The Optimum Workforce Levels (OWLs) for Business Groups have not yet been finalised for 2000/01. These are the locally assessed workforce figures that units actively work towards achieving. In the absence of OWLs this paper is predicated upon the budgeted workforce targets (BWTs).

5. The three month period 1 June to 31 August saw the strength drop by 257. Although this was slightly higher than previous months, if this trend continued for the remainder of the year, there would be a shortfall of 1321 (12%) by the end of March 2001.

6. The highest number of unfilled vacancies are at grade 10 (Executive Officer) where there are currently 135 vacancies and grade 12 (Administrative Officers) where there are 292 vacancies. 90 of the grade 12 vacancies are communication officer posts. Wastage at grade 9 is also growing.

Civil staff posts filled by police officers

7. Currently 161 of vacant civil staff posts are filled by police officers. There are 70 police officers employed as communication officers, and 43 employed as station reception officers, the two highest categories of vacant civil staff posts.

8. These are key posts that have to be covered and the use of police officers is an abstraction from operational policing. These numbers do not include officers on recuperative duties. If the number of vacant key civil staff posts continues to increase, the number of police officers filling these posts is likely to exceed 200 by March 2001.

Civil staff turnover

9. Civil staff turnover was 12% in 1998/99 and 11% in 1999/2000 (excluding traffic wardens and those transferring under outsourcing arrangements). The rate to date in 2000/01 has risen to 17%. This is the same as the national average turnover in the public sector and compares to the average national turnover rates across all sectors of 15%.

10. Although the MPS’s turnover of civil staff is comparable with rates elsewhere, the current rate of 17% constitutes the loss of around 1800 members of staff in a full year. Whilst a number of staff retire on pension (13%), 53% of leavers so far this year have resigned. This requires high levels of recruitment and is on top of a shortage already more than 700.

11. Particular problems have been identified in a number of specialisms. These are discussed below.

Analysts

12. For some time concern has been growing over the recruitment and retention of analysts. A portion of potential recruits have been taking up similar appointments elsewhere and once new analysts had been trained and gained some experience they have been attracted to more highly paid similar jobs with other police agencies or the private sector. There are currently about 30 vacancies in a strength of 241, a shortage of 12%.

13. To redress this, it has recently been agreed to pay a market related allowance (MRA) of £2000 per annum to all analysts at the time of recruitment and to those already in post, and a further £2000 as retention MRA after two years. The MRA is reviewed annually. The MRA has only just been introduced and its impact will be closely monitored.

Communications officers

14. There are 726 communication officer posts in the MPS. Currently there are 90 vacancies. Bringing communication officers up to full strength would release 70 police officers for front line operational work.

15. Whilst it would have been expected that the C3i project and the inherent uncertainties it introduces would exacerbate recruitment and retention difficulties for communication officers, this does not appear to be happening. There are vacancies and these need to be filled, but the position has not worsened.

Personnel managers

16. At present there are 23 vacancies for grade 9 (Higher Executive Officer) personnel managers out of 90 posts. This is largely due to the loss of professionally qualified staff to the private sector and other public bodies who pay more. MPS personnel managers at grade 9 earn around £24,000 (depending on London Allowance). Current market rates provide for salaries in London of between £28,000 and £38,000.

17. A recent internal selection board found only 14 candidates suitable for the role. This reflects the high standards required. The MPS will be advertising externally but the salary levels being offered will fall below the market rate including those for local authorities. The 14 selected will barely cover impending wastage.

Other specialisms

18. Initial analysis suggests that two other specialisms at grade 12 level suffer particular recruitment and retention problems: station reception officers and HOLMES indexers. Further work is underway to confirm the position.

London allowance

19. Additional allowances paid over and above basic salaries for working in London appear to be a strong factor affecting recruitment and retention. The current MPS rates (increased in the 2000 pay award) are:

• Inner (5 miles from Charing Cross) £1,784
• Intermediate (5 - 10 miles from Charing Cross) £911
• Outer (10+ miles from Charing Cross) £592

20. Elsewhere in the public sector, London allowances vary widely. In some Government departments the former London Weighting has been consolidated into basic pay and is no longer separately identified. Others have consolidated part and pay a smaller allowance separately as an additional allowance. Examples where an allowance is still paid are:

• Home Office Inner London £1,842
• NHS Inner London £2,413
• Benefits Agency Inner London £800 plus £1,052 consolidated

21. London local government allowances are:

• Inner London £2,556
• Outer London £1,359 23.

In the private sector, banks and building societies pay varying rates of London allowance but the norm is about £3,000 to £3,500 for inner London.

22. It is not easy to make direct comparisons of London allowances especially when organisations often pay their London based staff higher basic salaries than their non-London staff. Nonetheless, the general position is that MPS civil staff are paid less extra for working in London than most employees in comparable sectors.

23. Civil staff shortages in inner London are disproportionately higher than elsewhere, although recruitment difficulties are also now being felt in other parts of London. Further analysis is being undertaken to confirm the areas where recruitment and retention are most severe.

Additional demands

24. The work to date has concentrated on current staffing requirements. Recruitment and retention difficulties will, however, also affect the MPS’s ability to staff new demands, such as a large number of administrative staff to operate the call centre for the new Criminal Records Bureau.

Reward strategy

25. The recruitment and retention difficulties currently being experienced and the continued decline in overall civil staff strength has prompted consideration being given to whether the existing civil staff pay and grading structure and reward strategy requires revision to better reflect today’s requirements. Such a fundamental review would be a substantial piece of work and would take some time to complete.

26. A project initiation document is currently being prepared. The first step is the recruitment of a specialist Compensation & Rewards Analyst. There was no response to the first advertisement and the post has just been re-advertised at an increased salary.

27. In the meantime, short-term measures might well be required to tackle the immediate problem areas. Both these aspects will be covered in more detail in the report for the November meeting.

B. Recommendations

1. That the Committee note the position as identified to date; and
2. That the Committee note the on-going work and the presentation of a further paper on civil staff wastage and rewards strategy to the next meeting of the Committee.

C. Financial implications

There are no financial implications arising directly from this paper.

D. Review arrangements

The standing Personnel Management Information report provides monthly data on civil staff strength against the budgeted workforce total. A further paper on civil staff wastage and reward strategy is to be presented to the November meeting of the Human Resources Committee.

E. Background papers

The following is a statutory list of background papers (under the Local Government Act 1972 S.100 D) which disclose facts or matters on which the report is based and which have been relied on to a material extent in preparing this report. They are available on request to either the contact officer listed below or to the Clerk to the Police Authority at the address indicated on the agenda.

None.

F. Contact details

The author of this report is Chris Haselden, MPS Personnel Department.

For information contact:

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

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