Human Resources
Workforce modernisation
Effective policing is delivered by an appropriate mix of police officers, police staff and police community support officers (PCSOs). The government is committed to supporting forces in developing their workforce, reflecting a more effective mix of police officers and staff.
The right person in the right job
Workforce modernisation is about putting the right person in the right job. It means fewer officers behind desks, greater visible police presence on our streets and freeing up officers to take jobs that make best use of their skills and training.
By engaging with the concepts of workforce modernisation, participating forces will have a distinct advantage in preparing for the comprehensive spending review (CSR) years because of the efficiency savings they will have already made. Workforce modernisation will give forces the chance to look again at how their policing is delivered and to realise significant improvements in their effectiveness and value for money.
Worksforce modernisation programme
The workforce modernisation (WFM) programme explored the potential benefits of a remodelled workforce in ten pilot sites which ran between 2004 and 2006. These covered a range of capabilities from custody and prisoner handling, to response and investigative policing.
The work highlighted the efficiency gains that can follow. For example, a pilot in the metropolitan borough of Bexley helped the area to become London's safest borough, a rise from sixth position. The pilots encouraged new roles and career opportunities for staff and identified benefits for officers in terms of the assistance they received from staff in the new roles.
Independent consultants at Accenture undertook an evaluation of the ten pilots and the Accenture report, published in November 2006, identified some improvements in force performance and efficiency savings.
The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) sponsored workforce programme was launched on 12 July 2007. The programme is supporting eleven demonstration sites across thirteen forces in demonstrating new and more efficient ways of working.
The NPIA has developed and agreed a methodology on how the changes will be implemented and measured, which they would like to see used consistently across the demo sites. The sites are at varying stages of readiness, but it's anticipated that some will be ready to start later in 2007.
It's important that the workforce modernisation programme gathers evidence to demonstrate the benefits in efficiency and quality of service that can follow from a redesigned workforce. The Home Office is very supportive of this work and is therefore funding an independent evaluation of the demonstration sites across the country. The evaluation team has started visiting forces in order to agree the evaluation criteria and baseline measures.
The programme team is pleased to share with you their quarterly e-zine, The Knowledge. Please read the latest edition of The Knowledge, which reflects on last year's acheivements and looks forward to what's coming up in 2008.
Further information is available on the WFM Programme website (new window).
Milestones
The milestones so far are:
- In January 2007, we agreed some further flexibility for demonstration sites in the use of police community support officers (PCSOs) and Special Priority Payments (SPP) and offered assistance to the WFM team in communications and marketing.
- In February 2007, we received the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) report identifying aspects of the WFM programme in need of review. We have been working with the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Police Authorities and the NPIA to address the points raised in the OGC report.
- On 5 March 2007, Tony McNulty met the chief officers and police authority chairs of sixteen forces interested in participating in the programme. Eleven forces have now signed up.
- On 1 May 2007, the NPIA programme team relaunched the modernisation website as a knowledge base, containing practical advice and tools for forces.
