Performance and Measurement

Summary

Staffordshire is a diverse county encompassing urban areas, such as Stoke-on-Trent, Tamworth and Stafford, together with the Peak District in the north, and with a population of just over 1 million. Pockets of affluence in the southern commuter belt sit alongside areas of relative high deprivation around Stoke-on-Trent and Burton. Staffordshire benefits from an extensive transport network – the M6, M6 Toll, M42 and M54 motorways pass through the county – but these roads also assist cross-border crime and are a source of major congestion and roads policing challenges.

The force continues to build on the strong performance evident in the 2006 baseline assessment. The strategic planning framework incorporates IT, finance and business processes and links these to the National Intelligence Model. Performance Management is again graded Excellent to reflect the force’s continuous search for good practice and innovation; learning is genuinely valued throughout the force.

The force is making commendably good progress in embedding Neighbourhood Policing from its base of 23 Neighbourhood Policing units. Through a process of community consultation, the force has identified over 500 individual neighbourhoods. These are all serviced by Neighbourhood Policing teams, some of which cover a number of neighbourhoods, and the force has exceeded its target for the recruitment of PCSOs, with over two hundred now in post. Notable practice includes strong partnership and community engagement to identify and deal with local problems. The use of local action groups and joint action groups underpins this approach.

Last year, the force was graded Fair for Protecting Vulnerable People. This year, it is assessed as providing an acceptable level of service in respect of public protection and missing persons and as being better than similar forces in dealing with child abuse and domestic violence. Good practice is evident in the force’s strong partnership-working arrangements, including multi-agency training to ensure a consistent and effective approach across Staffordshire. Volume crime investigation has improved, with the rate of sanction detections increasing. Volume crime reduction has remained stable, but user satisfaction rates have increased.

The police authority has identified three priority areas for which targets have been set in 2007/08, with anti-social behaviour emerging as the key issue for residents. Domestic violence is another prominent theme, and a target has been set to reduce repeated incidents. The third local priority is a reduction in drug-related crime.

The force and the police authority have used last year’s strong assessment as a springboard for a major programme of work to enhance the quality of service to users and victims, alongside a comprehensive review – under the banner of Project Liberate – to identify efficiencies that will allow reinvestment to strengthen protective service capacity and capability. Following the decision not to proceed with the proposed force mergers, the police authority is looking for collaborative opportunities that will offer further protection from major crime and organised criminality.

The force is currently working with the national Neighbourhood Policing team to develop a suite of performance indicators to measure Neighbourhood Policing outcomes. Further improvements to management information systems will deliver significant benefits in monitoring performance in real time and will facilitate dynamic response and tasking. The chief officer team has seen major turnover, with two new Assistant Chief Constables taking up post in 2007 and a new Chief Constable in autumn 2007.