Transforming the quality of service police offer to Londoners - MPA endorses recommendations for the way forward

31/03
8 May 2003

The Planning, Performance and Review Committee of the Metropolitan Police Authority today endorsed the final report of the ‘Managing Demand’ Best Value Review (MDBVR) which sets out an improvement plan for the quality of services provided to the people of London.

The MDBVR examined the Metropolitan Police Service’s response to demand from a customer perspective and the 17 recommendations seek to transform the way it delivers services to the public.

Richard Sumray, Chair of the Planning, Performance and Review Committee, said:

“The scope of the recommendations endorsed by the MPA today will mark far reaching changes for Londoners. Highlighting just a few of the major features, such as achieving greater accessibility for the public in the nature and sighting of stations, including the possible opening of police ‘shops’ and mobile stations, and improving the availability of resources by increasing the number of single officer patrols, indicates just how important the changes will be and how they will fundamentally improve the quality of service offered to Londoners.

“These recommendations encompass many of the suggestions members of the Authority have been stressing are necessary since its inception in 2001 and we welcome the Met’s recognition that they are essential. We shall want to ensure that the recommendations are backed-up by the proper level of resources.

“Implementation of the recommendations will mark a real difference in the service the people of London receive from their police.”

Other recommendations seek to improve existing front counter services and telephone access, improve access to, and services available through, the Met website, improve response times to attend incidents and increasing the numbers in the Metropolitan Special Constabulary to 1000 officers.

The overarching aims of the recommendations are to:

• improve public reassurance by increasing the ease with which the public can access police services;
• provide greater opportunities for the public to access police services;
• reduce inappropriate demand for police services through better public understanding of the core role of the police;
• increase the availability of patrol officers to tackle priority crimes and undertake reassurance patrols through the implementation of a corporate demand strategy; and
• improve the quality of service by ensuring the appropriate deployment of officers, match of officer skills, robust supervision and clear operating procedures so that incidents are dealt with right first time.

Notes to editors

1. Full details of the review and its recommendations are available in Appendix 1 of the committee report available on the MPA website.

2. The MDBVR commenced in September 2002 following approval of the topic by the Planning, Performance and Review Committee.

3. The implementation of the identified improvements will be the responsibility of Territorial Policing within the Metropolitan Police Service and following today’s endorsement a full implementation plan will be submitted to a future meeting of this committee.

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