Met Support - improving the infrastructure that supports crime fighting

8. Met Support

Over the next four years we will be challenging the Met to maximise its use of resources in every area. We will challenge them to drive out waste and inefficiency to create a lean, effective and efficient organisation focused on fighting crime. This will require the Met to be innovative and creative about the way, and with whom, it delivers its services.

Finance and budgets

The Authority does not underestimate the significant financial challenge ahead. Despite delivering significant savings over the past few years we are required to significantly deliver more over the next three years, some £163m in 2011/12 rising to £323m in 2013/14, there remains a budget gap, at the time of writing, of £11.9m next year rising to £178M in 2013/14. Robust Authority oversight and challenge will be key in ensuring that the savings already built into the budget are delivered, and that the additional savings are identified.

An MPA Value for Money (VfM) Strategy will provide a coherent framework for how we will drive this agenda forward. This will enable us to prioritise our efforts in terms of delivering large scale savings in the short to medium term, and ensure we are focussing the Met in the right direction in terms of priorities. The VfM Strategy is currently being developed by MPA officers.

To make sure we are achieving value for money we will continue to explore both benchmarking and other productivity measures, including assessing best practice from other police forces, government and industry. This includes working closely alongside HMIC to influence the way the Met is measured to reflect its unique position in the police family.

We will improve our understanding and influence over the Service Improvement Plan (the Met’s key efficiency programme) to ensure that projects with the most scope for savings, either directly or by enabling other programmes, and the least impact on service delivery are driven forward.

Effective asset and estates programme management

There are huge opportunities to use resources more effectively and we will be working with the Met to maximise these opportunities. The Authority will ensure that its assets and estate are effectively used and continue to evolve to meet the demands of policing in the 21st century. The Authority will robustly hold the Met to account for delivering major change programmes, including property and training reviews, to deliver proposed savings and efficiencies. The Authority must be assured that the Territorial Policing development programme will positively impact on the way that the estate is used and managed to support the demands of front line policing.

Procuring services in collaboration

The Met is making good progress in seeking out new opportunities to collaborate with other forces, and with the GLA. But more needs to be done.. The Authority needs to be assured that there are systems to monitor the delivery of intended benefits, monitor progress and address poor performance. A procurement re-let strategy which covers the principles for procurement and reviews all contracts coming up for renewal, is currently under development.

Any changes to the current procurement agenda being progressed through the NPIA must be closely monitored by the Authority to ensure that collaboration remains a priority.

Information Systems and Information Technology (ISIT)

An effective and efficient ISIT system is critical to support operational policing. Improved information management systems lead to better intelligence, which results in more efficient and effective policing. The Met is working hard to develop systems that ‘talk to each other’, remove duplication and enable officers to spend more time fighting crime and engaging with communities. However, the Authority needs to be assured that any investment made in new systems is backed up by a performance monitoring framework to track the delivery of benefits or record problems encountered. The Authority must continue to be aware of ISIT developments and influence national delivery through the implementation of the Information Systems Improvement Strategy, to ensure that each of the 43 police force areas can benefit from interconnectivity..

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