As a result of Government budget cuts, Cumbria Constabulary must save £18.7million by 2015, and a further £1.6m by 2016, which is equivalent to a 20 per cent fall in income.
The priority for local communities is funding frontline policing in Cumbria, so a programme of reviews was launched to identify savings in other Constabulary functions. These included a review of the Constabulary’s administrative teams, Communications Centre – the team that answers 999 and non-emergency calls and dispatches the relevant resources, Crime Management Units – the teams that support and audit the crime management and recording processes, and the Constabulary’s fleet and travel costs.
The Constabulary’s Chief Officer Group met this week to discuss the reviews and approve the implementation of a number of changes that will improve efficiency.
The biggest changes come as a result of the administration review, which identified that the Constabulary could make significant savings by drawing together all of the administrative functions across the force into one Central Services Department, providing a smaller, more efficient service to officers and staff. This service centre will be based in Police Headquarters in Penrith and will manage personnel, finance, training and other administrative tasks such as travel bookings, civil litigation and operational support.
The implementation of the new Central Services Department will save in the region of £660,000 per annum from the 2012/13 financial year onwards. It will also provide the structure and capacity for the Constabulary to make the savings identified in the Fleet and in Crime Management Unit Reviews and this, together with implementing new technology to support the department, will save a further £58,000 in 2012/13 and around £258,000 per annum from 2013/14 onwards.
The Communications Centre review has identified that changing the team’s staffing structure will increase resilience and flexibility, meaning they can deliver their service to the community more efficiently, with fewer overtime payments. This will save in the region of £352,000 budget savings and £70,000 efficiencies per annum.
The aim of the fleet and transport services review was to reduce spending by identifying the most cost effective way of replacing and maintaining police vehicles and the cheapest way for officers and staff to travel. Changes to the existing fleet structure and working practices will save in the region of £1.45million over three years plus £230,000 per annum from reducing officer and staff travel costs.
The Crime Management Unit (CMU) review identified that by reducing the bureaucracy and simplifying the processes around crime management, and ensuring that the performance and audit strategies are more effective, the Constabulary could be more efficient by centralising the functions to create one Constabulary-wide team, based at Police Headquarters in Penrith.
The implementation of a new central Crime Management Unit will save in the region of £133,000 per annum and will mean three police officers return to frontline duties in the short term, with another one returning to frontline duties once the changes have been implemented.
In all, 56.3 full time equivalent posts* will go as a result of these reviews. Some of the staff affected by these reviews have opted to take voluntary redundancy and the Constabulary is working hard to minimise compulsory redundancies by finding alternative employment for the affected individuals within the Constabulary.
Everyone affected by the changes will be in their new roles, or will leave the Constabulary, before the end of March 2012 and the programme of reviews will continue to identify efficiencies to ensure the overall target of savings is met.
Chief Constable Craig Mackey said: “The priority for Cumbria Police is to protect the community, investigate crime and prosecute criminals. To do this, we must find ways of saving money that have the least impact on frontline policing. Our challenge is to continue providing an excellent policing service to the people of Cumbria on a reduced budget, so we are making some difficult choices.
“I am very conscious that when we talk about making savings we are often talking about people’s jobs, but we have got to make these savings, and we have got to deliver the best possible police service that we can with the amount of money available.
“To achieve this, we have had to prioritise our frontline services, and streamline our support functions, by being more innovative and creative and by using new technology.
“We have already made savings and our ongoing reviews are transforming the way we deliver a policing service to the people of Cumbria. We are embracing new technology and using this as an opportunity to reduce bureaucracy and streamline services so that police officers and PCSO's can spend more time on the streets, and to ensure we continue delivering support services, such as administration and fleet management, on a smaller budget.
“There is no doubt that we will be a smaller organisation after we implement these changes, but we are firmly committed to providing frontline policing in local neighbourhoods and maintaining a good performance with low levels of crime and anti-social behaviour across Cumbria.
“Our ultimate aim is to provide the best policing service that we can afford so that Cumbria remains a safe place to live, work and visit.”
*A Full Time Equivalent post is a role that requires 37 hours per week to conduct. Most are conducted by one member of staff, but others may be conducted by two or more part-time staff. Consequently, we cannot say exactly how many members of staff will leave the Constabulary as a result of these changes, but we do know how many Full Time Equivalent posts are being removed.
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