Performance and Measurement

Summary

Gwent Police serves a resident population of 560,000, comprising a diverse mix of urban, industrial and rural communities. Significant regeneration activity is taking place in the Newport area and the demography of the force is rapidly changing as new communities emerge.

During the period under review, Gwent Police dismantled two major organised crime groups and managed a series of major crime investigations with successful outcomes. Despite the significant pressure which this placed on resources, volume crime performance has been delivered and this is to the force’s credit.

The force is committed to delivering a citizen focused policing service, providing the basis for the force priorities of: focus on the citizen; quality; crime reduction; partnership and collaboration; as well as resources. As part of a broader Citizen Focused Policing programme, the LISTEN programme has been implemented. This programme of cultural change seeks to improve customer service and engender a unified approach to service delivery, geared towards the organisational vision of public service excellence.

The HMIC inspection of Major Crime revealed that the force demonstrates maturing processes in its approach to managing all types of major crime. However, HMIC suggested that the force undertake a review of certain types of serious crime together with a review of major crime investigation. The HMIC grade awarded was ‘Meets the Standard’. In the Neighbourhood Policing and Citizen Focused Policing inspections, the grade awarded was also ‘Meets the Standard’.

Six local priorities were identified during 2007/08 for call handling and neighbourhood policing. National standards were exceeded in all areas of call handling, but fell just short of the local priority targets for neighbourhood policing, where improvement activity is underway.

The only ‘Poor’ grade awarded by HMIC in 2007 was in the area of Child Protection. A fundamental Service Improvement Review was ongoing prior to the inspection, subsequently, 37 recommendations to improve the service were approved by the Police Authority. Implementation is now well advanced and a further HMIC visit, in August 2008, acknowledged that significant progress has been made, with the force now ‘Meeting the Standard' in this important area of service delivery.

Over the last three years, Gwent Police has exceeded both local and national targets, with a 20% reduction across all crime areas translating into 11,698 fewer victims. Anti-Social Behaviour also decreased by 6% and the sanction detection rate was consistently maintained at over 30%. The force improved in terms of assets recovered per head of population.

Sickness absence has been reduced by 36% over the three years and the force has been awarded the Welsh Assembly Gold Standard for Corporate Health. Neighbourhood Policing Teams were introduced and embedded force-wide, a full twelve months ahead of the national target date of April 2008. Against this backdrop, over £7m Cash Releasing Efficiency Savings have been realised.

A fundamental review of the organisation (called ‘Staying Ahead’) has been initiated to improve efficiency and ensure future demands for service can be met within current resource constraints. The review team has made a series of high level recommendations and an implementation plan is being developed, which will see fundamental change delivered by 31 March 2009.