MPS/GLA shared service

56/11
11 July 2011
MPA briefing paper 56/2011

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

The following briefing note was requested by Members at a meeting of the Strategic and Operational Policing Committee on 16 June 2011, in relation to a report on the MPS’ ‘lead and manage’ portfolio.

Summary

The MPS is committed to a shared services approach with others if the business case is compelling, and we recognise the opportunities and challenges of shared services across the GLA group. In developing our 2012-15 Policing Plan we are focussing on reducing our inanimate costs (vehicles, buildings etc), undertaking process improvement activity to drive better services and increase value for money, ensure that our business model is as lean as practically possible, benchmarking costs for operational and non operational management on-costs and sharing services internally and externally.

We, the MPS, are involved in a range of internal, national and London wide shared service initiatives:

• As part of the Greater London Authority family, the MPS and the MPA are involved in work led by the Mayor to capitalise on opportunities to work more closely together. The MPS chairs the GLA Chief Information Officer group which identifies opportunities for collaboration in the ICT arena. This work, as is the case for much of our collaboration efforts, has been taken on without additional resources. Of particular note is the development of a One London Network programme to upgrade our respective analogue communications infrastructure to digital and doing it collaboratively to achieve greater savings than would be possible if we all undertake it separately.
• Discussions are underway with Transport for London (TfL) in relation to the MPS potentially taking a lead on the procurement of non-specialised vehicles and data/contracts are about to be evaluated in order to identify whether a business case exists to proceed further. Of course, the Safer Transport Teams are a very tangible manifestation of our joint working. We are also in discussions with LFEPA as to whether we can provide procurement support in areas such as uniforms, and both the MPS and London Fire Brigade are joining a pan-central government procurement exercise for stationery.
• MPS leads have engaged with Nick Griffin, the mayoral adviser on the GLA Group budget and on delivering cost efficiencies. It is key that we recognise that the GLA group is made up of a number of separate organisations with differing structures, terms and conditions. The GLA group of functional bodies will find it more challenging to share some services than Government which is one entity spread across various departments. It is important that when comparing services and the cost of services across the GLA group that we are all confident that we are comparing the same / comparable functions and structures, for example each functional body has a different approach to procurement.
• There is much national focus on collaboration in policing. The scale and regional nature of the MPS means we have already been able to implement shared services – internal collaboration – across a range of activities, from the investigation of serious sexual offences to HR and finance. We also collaborate with other forces, notably through joint working with BTP and City of London Police. The Extradition Unit and the Police Central e-crime Unit are examples where we are lead force nationally, and we have particular national responsibilities in counter terrorism, domestic extremism and in planning for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. We have outsourced payroll, pensions and a significant part of our ICT and FM functions. Successful collaboration with other agencies in the criminal justice system has resulted in Integrated Prosecution Teams and Virtual Courts. Developing further internal shared services and identifying additional opportunities for outsourcing are part of our strategy for delivering a balanced policing model and balanced budget in 2014/15.
• Our payroll, pensions, Facilities Management and a significant part of our ICT functions are already outsourced to private sector providers. Several properties have been built and managed under a Private Finance Initiatives.
• Recent years have already seen a number of change programmes delivered which have already provided major savings in support functions through, for example, centralising HR, clustering local Finance and Resources Facilities, centralising language services and rationalising catering. We are committed to driving out savings through our change portfolio, as a region our first step is to share our own services (TfL are in a similar position to us). Having improved our processes and shared our internal services our next step will be to consider the scope for external shared services and this includes within the GLA group. We believe that savings may be found by individual parts of the group working.
• Additionally, the following emerging areas are being developed as part of ongoing projects:

Development of further national ICT services, building on MPS ICT cost savings initiatives such as Messaging as a Service.

Professional Service Provider (model for support services including call centres)

Territorial Policing Response (regional hubs)

Operational business group shared services

Intelligence review

Performance review

Savings associated with these areas will be identified as part of the current 2012-15 planning cycle which is now underway.

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