Workforce Modernisation – Surrey CID Experiment

Report: 7
Date: 17 September 2009
By: Chief Executive

Summary

The aim of workforce modernisation (WfM) is, in essence, to move away from the expectation that police officers should be omnicompetent to a position where being a police officer is seen as an accredited profession. WfM is not civilianisation (replacing a police officer with a police staff member); it is segmenting some of the work that police officers are currently required to perform in order to make the best use of their training and skills, and using a different workforce ‘mix,’ e.g. PCSOs, police staff investigators etc, to deliver a range of activities. There are a number of ‘demonstration site’ activities taking place across the county at the moment, one of the most successful of which is within Surrey CID offices. This is intended as a very brief explanation of some of the productivity (and associated) benefits.

A. Recommendation

That Members

1. note the report; and
2. members take the opportunity to discuss some of the issues outlined in paragraph 7.

B. Supporting information

1. As part of MetForward, the MPA is particularly concerned with ensuring that workforce development is addressed. The MPA wants to be clear about the costs, benefits and risks of introducing new staffing models and the long-term implications, including the ability to maintain operational resilience and offer staff and officers career progression – both upwards and laterally.

2. The aim of WfM is, in essence, to move away from the expectation that police officers should be omnicompetent to a position where the Service has a different workforce ‘mix,’ e.g. Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs, police staff investigators etc, to deliver a range of activities.

3. For example, in Surrey they have introduced a programme looking at the ‘processes’ in the investigation of volume crime. They found that out of 2000 days ‘expended’ nearly 1100 days were wasted. 30% of the time was administrative allocation and 60% was investigative – but not of a highly skilled nature, e.g. taking witness statements, interviewing suspects etc. They set up five teams with one DC, one administrative allocator and three police staff investigators on each team and found that instead of dealing with 12 cases at any one time they were able to deal with between 60-100 cases at any one time. They also found that the teams were more integrated because it wasn’t reliant upon one police officer managing his time.

4. This led to improved sanction detection rates, improved intelligence and reductions in the time taken for each investigation. Less encouraging, however, is that some measures of average case length show it is now taking longer to complete a full investigation. Nevertheless, it is now being ‘rolled out’ to all Surrey CID teams.

5. The benefits are seen to include:

• Critical role of team co-ordinator in timetabling activity for the team;
• Developing role of police constable in investigation;
• Early ‘uniform’ presence at incidents (the Police Staff Investigators wear identical corporate wear);
• The Police Reform Act has been used to designate specific powers to the Police Staff Investigator roles, including dealing with custody, interviewing suspects, arresting for further offences and executing search warrants; and
• Monthly savings of approx £37k per office (approx. £500k per BOCU per annum)

Charts: Previous CID ‘office’ structure and New CID ‘team’ structure (number of teams depends upon workload) are attached.

7. For the police service, and the MPS, there are undoubtedly huge potential resource (financial and human), operational and strategic benefits in WfM. As the MPS move towards ever more straitened financial times, there is a need to actively explore some of the advantages that programmes such as this one offer. These include:

• The benefits of the team approach can be adopted and adapted to reflect the different demands on each BOCU;
• The current shortage of detectives, particularly within Territorial Policing (despite the policy of rotation), can be addressed by the adoption of this model. It has the benefit that trained investigators can be recruited directly into these roles without the lengthy recruitment, training and selection programmes necessary for detectives;
• The delays experienced in Surrey post the investigation phase can, in part, be addressed by the MPS’s Integrated Prosecution Teams;
• The possibility of attesting Police Staff Investigators as special constables could be explored to overcome some of the restrictions on their activities;
• Potential opportunities for Police Staff Investigators to ‘convert’ to Police Constable and fast track their applications; and
• The clear financial benefits that flow from using fewer, more specialist police officers.

C. Race and equality impact

In broad terms the impact in terms of equality and diversity is very positive since drawing from a wider pool of talent has the potential to improve performance, whilst developing a workforce that is more representative of the public is also positive. The results from the staff survey across all the demonstration sites, not just Surrey, show a range of positives, reinforced by a generally more positive tone observed in site-visit interviews.

D. Financial implications

Inevitably there are some ‘start up’ costs associated with bringing in new police staff roles, including recruitment and training. For the police officers, in Surrey these individuals have been offered Special Priority Payments (SPPs) to encourage officers with the right skills to apply for these roles. However, the initial set up costs were recouped in a little over 12 months and the savings started to accrue – and continued to accrue - after two years. The productivity benefits from improved efficiency and effectiveness were almost immediate.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Alan Johnson, MPA

For more information contact:

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

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