The Front Line Policing Measure

Report: 7
Date: 09 September 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides a briefing on the front line policing measure, developed by the Home Office to support the achievement of Public Sector Agreement (PSA) 2. Targets for this measure must be set by police authorities by 30 September 2004.

A. Recommendations

That the report be noted.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The front line policing measure has been introduced by the Home Office as a key measure for Public Service Agreement (PSA) 2 which stated the need to:

“Improve the performance of all police forces, and significantly reduce the performance gap between the best and the worst performing forces; and significantly increase the proportion of time spent on frontline duties”

2. The measure also forms part of the Policing and Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF).

3. It is intended that improvements in the proportion of time spent on front line policing will increase resources available to reduce crime, increase public reassurance and tackle police authority priorities. The Home Office requires police authorities to set improvement targets for this measure covering the period 2004/05 to 2007/08.

The front line policing measure

4. The headline measure on which targets are to be set is:

‘Percentage of police officer time spent on frontline duties’.

Data for the measure is collected annually and uses:

• Personnel statistics: a snapshot showing how police officers and police staff are distributed against different areas of work according to HMIC role code definitions (see Appendix 1).
• Activity Analysis (AA) data collected annually for the police national activity based costing model (also part of PPAF). For those staff in traffic, CID and patrol roles, the AA data are used to determine what proportion of time is actually spent performing front line activities (see Appendix 1).
• Sickness data to account for time lost due to sickness absence.

5. Two subsidiary measures have also been established by the Home Office:

1. The percentage of time spent on frontline 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.
2. The percentage of police officer time spent on visible patrol.

Both these measures are also monitored using the AA data collected annually. It should therefore be noted that this visibility measure is different to that used for the MPS’s current policing and performance plan target which uses our monthly operational policing measure data from the CARM duty planning system.

Target Setting

6. Earlier this year the Home Office carried out a provisional baseline assessment of the measure using activity analysis data from around 30 forces. This included some data from the MPS albeit the full AA study programme was not complete at that time. (The MPS’s AA programme for 2002-03 covered around 12,000 staff and a programme of similar size is planned for this year).

7. The Home Office’s assessment found that individual force results ranged between 44% and 68%, with an overall total of 61%. The initial assessment for the MPS was 64%. However, the full MPS AA results for 2002-03 (MPS totals only at this stage) have just been returned to the Home Office and we are awaiting confirmation of the actual MPS baseline figure.

8. The Home Office has agreed with HM Treasury that the national average for the measure should be increased by 9 percentage points to 70% by March 2008. Forces with lower levels of officer time spent on front line duties are expected to set more challenging targets although forces nearer 70% are also required to examine ways of improving their level of front line policing to improve capability. The Home Office also requires that milestone targets are set each year to achieve the overall improvement.

9. Action plans for the delivery of improvements must also be set and it is intended that forces should consider improving their performance through a mixture of:

• movement of officers into front line roles (this will need to fit with any overall civilianisation plans for the MPS); and
• workforce modernisation initiatives to increase the time that front line officers spend on actual front line duties.

In support of this, the Home Office would also like to know what targets will be set for the two subsidiary measures (% front line duties for all staff, % visibility of officers) reflecting action plan details.

10. Targets must be submitted to the Home Office by 30th September 2004 and work to progress this will take place over the next few weeks led by Directorate of Strategic Development, for approval by the MPA. This work will be supported by an analysis of the current baseline figure.

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. Any race and equality impacts of the action plan underlying the front line policing measure target will be considered during the target setting process.

D. Financial implications

Any financial implications of the action plan underlying the target will be considered during the target setting process.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report authors: Helen Dean, Directorate of Strategic Development

For more information contact:

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

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