Meeting documents

Attached is the Revenue Estimates 2016/17 and the Medium Term Financial Plan 2016/16 to 2019/20 for consideration.

 

For information on the Medium Term Capital Plan 2016/16, the Reserves, Balances and Provisions and PCC Financial Strategy please see supplement pack.

http://sbdcspider2.southbucks.gov.uk/democracy/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=289&MId=2384&Ver=4

 

The following questions were raised in relation to the proposed precept of the PCC:-

 

1.              You say you are assured that the pledges outlined in the Police and Crime Plan are fully funded by the proposed budget but have you any concerns about some aspects of it becoming compromised or undeliverable?

 

The PCC reported that his main concern was the cuts to Council budgets and the impact this would have on communities. He had only reduced Community Safety Partnership Funds by 1% and was worried that this would be subsumed by Council cuts.

 

2.              What further information is awaited before the budget can be finalised ?

 

The PCC was waiting to hear about the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Project (para 24) which should be funded by Government but the costs for implementing this Project would inevitably impact on his budget and it was difficult at this time to say how much and how easy it would be to control.

 

3.              Please could the PCC provide an overview of the Force Productivity Strategy and Priority Based Budgeting Review process?

 

The Force Productivity Strategy has been in place since 2010 and has been used successfully to identify and remove over £72m of revenue savings from the base budget. It is a carefully planned and controlled process to review all areas of force activity. The Productivity Strategy summary report is reproduced on pages 87 to 89 of your agenda papers; the main areas of focus are:

 

• Collaboration: ICT, JOU, Business Support, see Q 13
• Structure & process reviews: These tend to be focussed around a service or function.  For example the review of processes within CJ.  Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) will predominately replace these reviews.
• VFM reviews: These reviews look across the organisation, for example, transport costs or workforce modernisation programme which was initiated from the HMIC VFM profiles.
• Review of remuneration & conditions: this strand included all of the Winsor elements but has also included, for example,  our own review of shift allowances
•  Review of remuneration & conditions: this strand included all of the Winsor elements but has also included, for example,  our own review of shift allowances

 

The PBB process undertaken by Thames Valley Police has challenged the majority of the organisation to identify the resources required to deliver priority services. A series of Panels were chaired by the Chief Constable or his Deputy. The first Panel looked at the baseline of each service level, the second Panel method and service level changes and the third, prioritisation of services. Areas looked at included providing services at a bronze standard rather than gold, the minimum legal requirements and whether the police were providing a service which should not be their responsibility. There were four work groups:-

 

• Demand – understanding the causes of demand and hence how we respond including mitigation e.g. appropriate police resourcing for mental health issues (triage project), whether shoplifting offences should be a lower priority, rape is a high priority complex crime but now is a bulk crime due to significant increased numbers and reporting and requires significant resources to investigate.
• Investigations – whether crimes require a local knowledge and hence a local level response (e.g. rape) or is a more centralised specialist investigation required (e.g. cyber crime).
• Governance and Service Improvement – how the Force deliver operational and organisational strategy.
• Business Innovation – the work is focussed around a new Enterprise Resource Planning System in collaboration with Surrey and Sussex police forces.

 

The four work groups are now developing the new operating model for Thames Valley Police against which a saving of £16 M has been identified to date but this will be refined at a later stage. There were also 15 work streams covering more discrete areas such as the night time economy and custody and prisoner handling. Forces are now considering how to improve productivity of their officers by identifying and analysing demand on their time.

 

How confident are you of the ability of the Force’s productivity strategy and Priority Based Budgeting to keep on delivering the savings you need and are you concerned that this will impact on the objectives of the Police and Crime Plan including the Chief Constable’s annual delivery plan objectives? [£15.61m savings expected in 2016/17 and a further £20.41m in the following three years (Executive Summary)]? For example the new Contact Management Programme (para 72), which is a significant element of the savings programme has slipped due to technical delays which has reduced savings n 2016/17 by £1.9m

 

I accept that the challenge is becoming ever more difficult but I am very confident in the Force’s ability to continue to deliver the necessary level of financial savings to balance the annual revenue budget and medium term financial plan. In terms of the impact on policing priorities and operational policing I am a pragmatist and understand that the force cannot continue to deliver more, or the same with fewer resources and the next iteration of my police and crime plan will be drafted accordingly.

 

In October HMIC released the results of their first PEEL inspection. In answer to the question ‘How sustainable is the force’s financial position for the short and long term?’ Thames Valley was graded ‘outstanding’.    

 

4.              A FOI request recently revealed that the Force paid Noonan Services Group £2,556,960.66 for security services between the start of this financial year and November 30. Do Forces normally spend this amount of money on private security companies and what is the reason for this spend?

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/News/Areas/Maidenhead/Police-pay-private-security-companies-more-than-18m-since-2012-14122015.htm

 

The PCC reported that this related to custody suites and it was important that this was operated efficiently and effectively but it was not appropriate to use police officers for this purpose. This has been outsourced for several years and provides good value for money.

 

5.              ‘Investment decisions need to support the long term development of the Force as the PCC has a cash-limited opportunity to continue to shape the Force to be able to operate effectively in an increasingly hostile financial environment’ (para 27 of the Capital Plan report) – what sort of investment decisions are being made and how are they being assessed?

 

The PCC referred to the ICT Strategy and expressed concern that it was easy to overspend on some ICT Systems in order to get the right functionality. They were working with Hampshire Police Force and were monitoring it closely.

 

6.              How are you planning to influence the new funding formula so that it includes the full range of drivers on demand for policing, not just crime? The Panel would welcome verbal updates on the proposed changes to the funding formula.

 

The PCC commented that six PCCs had objected strongly to the last Home Office police funding formula proposals and the Force could have lost up to £44 million. They were originally thinking of taking this to judicial review. However, independent analysis had shown that errors had been made and therefore the Government had deferred the implementation of the new formula. In addition, the PCC was also concerned that the new formula had not taken into consideration the size of the Force area and one part of the formula included the number of bars divided into the force area. The number of motorways in a Force area was not also considered and had resource implications for TVP. It was crucial that the formula had the right criteria to be fair to all Forces.

 

7.              Can you provide more information about the Force’s value for money reviews (Appendix 5) – including PCSO’s/use of agency staff (and consultants)/review of CCTV provision and the benchmarking tools you use to demonstrate VFM? Will these reviews involve key external stakeholders?

 

There are 10 VFM reviews that contribute towards financial savings over the next 4 years. They are:

 

·         PCSOs - this removes the TVP contribution from part funded PCSOs when the partners withdraw their funding.

·         Carbon management savings. This work is focussed on reducing the level of energy we use and hence the overall cost.  Examples include voltage optimisation units, solar panels and motion detector lights.

·         Review of income budgets to ensure that all income is appropriately recognised and budgeted for. 

·         Review of all estate costs through the Asset Management Plan. Surplus assets are being disposed of generating capital receipts and revenue savings

·         Review of roles not requiring police powers.  The HMIC VFM profiles were used to inform this review.

·         A holistic review of transport costs.  This review considers the most efficient mix of transport costs from fleet, hire and grey.

·         Review of future contracts to ensure that best value is derived from all procurement activity

·         Review use of agency staff to ensure they are only recruited when it is a more efficient option.

·         Review the Minimum Revenue Provision policy to ensure it remains prudent and affordable

 

Stakeholders are consulted as and when required for individual reviews  

 

In terms of benchmarking data HMIC publishes a VFM profile for each force in the autumn. This is an extensive benchmarking exercise which uses force level performance data, Police Objective Analysis (POA) and CIPFA Police Estimate statistics as its source data. We use the output from these VFM profiles to identify areas for further budget scrutiny i.e. we investigate all areas where we are shown to an outlier in terms of cost and/or performance

 

8.              Do you have much slippage on capital schemes? What is your new capital monitoring process? What is the likelihood of there not being enough capital income in the event of a negative balance? (para 11 of the Capital Plan report)

 

On average over the last eight years the annual capital programme has been under spent by £6.2m or 24% of the approved annual capital programme. In the main this has been due to slippage of expenditure arising from delays in planning approvals, sale of linked property, and the issuing and acceptance of tenders for ICT schemes, which have inter-dependencies with other capital schemes or revenue projects.

 

A new capital monitoring process was introduced earlier this financial year whereby only live schemes and schemes in preparation are included in the annual capital budget. A formal request has to be submitted before a new scheme from the medium term capital plan is included in the annual capital budget.

 

Please have a look at the capital monitoring reports on my website http://www.thamesvalley-pcc.gov.uk/Transparency/Agendas-and-Minutes.aspx - - to see how this process works in practice.

 

The likelihood of there not being enough capital income to fund capital investment is very low.  

 

9.              Should there be contingency arrangements for material reductions in Government funding whether from formula change or overall new reductions?

 

The PCC reported that the expected 25-40% cuts expected from Government had not happened and therefore major cuts to policing were not required which meant that the budget was reasonably stable depending on the impact of the new formula.

 

10.          Has any consultation been carried out on the budget?

 

The PCC reported that there had been some internal consultation. The Government had encouraged PCC’s to put their precept up by 2% which they had done and therefore no formal consultation with the public was required.

 

11.          Community Safety Partnership Funding (Appendix 4 Current service) - could you prove further clarification and detail about the future funding for Community Safety Partnerships across the Thames Valley? Can you also provide an update on the bidding process for the grant being issued under the Police Property Act Fund ?

 

The PCC reported that he was one of five PCC’s who directly allocated Community Safety Partnership Funding to local authorities. He would not amend the process this year but the process could change the following year but there would be a consultation process before this was undertaken.

 

12.          What do you think of communities paying for their own police – is this something you would endorse?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11980510/Frinton-the-seaside-town-paying-for-its-own-police.html

 

The PCC reported that he had written to the Home Secretary on this issue and had endorsed the principle of this. He was also in favour of centralising all major services such as roads policing and then having a separate function for local neighbourhood policing where funding was raised by a local precept. Therefore if the precept is increased by 5% then more police officers could be recruited and local forces could see the impact of their investment.

 

13.          How are you pursuing opportunities to deliver services in collaboration with public and private sector partners? For sensitive areas such as Mental Health and Child Sexual Exploitation what are the proposals for engaging with the relevant Boards?

 

From a policing perspective we already collaborate very closely with Hampshire on a range of activities such as ICT, joint operations and information management. Counter terrorism and regional organised crime are delivered regionally across the south east. Our fleet management is delivered collaboratively with Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. In March we are hoping to sign a joint contract with Surrey and Sussex for a new Enterprise, Resource Planning system which covers finance, HR, duties planning and Learning & Development.  We have an MOU with the three Fire & Rescue services in TVP.

 

Operationally there is significant work with partners across all areas of the business.  In terms of mental health we have implemented the street triage project in Oxford and are looking to roll this initiative out across the force area. For CSE we now have multi agency safeguarding hubs in all areas (or planned) across the Thames Valley.

 

14.          How is your programme of commissioning [services for victims, etc.] impacted by the budget proposals for 2016/17? Is the level of grant still unknown ?

 

The PCC reported that there was a slight rise in Government grant which therefore had not impacted on their plans for commissioning services.

 

15.          What systems does the Force use for tracking demand and how are changes made to ensure resources are used effectively?

 

16.          Is the Force concerned about their capacity and capability to deal with cyber crime and CSE and new and complex crime? Are you being provided with more information in financial reports about the costs of various police activities and how will this information be developed going forward?

 

(Answered together)

The PCC reported that there were a number of systems for reporting crime. As reported previously the Force is undertaking a priority based budgeting review to ensure resources were target to the right areas, particularly as crime was changing and different specialisms were required e.g cyber experts. There were hidden sexual crimes and of which a number were historical investigations and serious organised crime which was a priority. The PCC was fully briefed.

 

17.          Do you have a more detailed risk register relating to changes in the budget eg impact of reducing police officers?

 

There is a detailed risk register of which the Joint Independent Audit Committee has oversight. 

 

18.          How will the Force work closely with partners to deliver cost savings when there is likely to be a withdrawal of partner funds. Headlines include ‘police officers are concerned their work won’t get picked up by other struggling public services. Is there a partnership risk register to flag up impacts of cost savings from all partners?

 

The PCC reported that cuts to council funding was a real concern e.g part funded Police Community Support Officers being reduced and a reduction in wardens who were a real asset to communities and improving housing estate environments. Without them residents would lose pride in their area which had an adverse impact on crime levels.

 

19.          A question was asked at the Budget Task and Finish Group about whether most of the savings that have been made are tactical or efficiency savings rather than service transformation? E.g reorganising Neighbourhood policing teams or closing under used police stations. The response was that this was a mix of both. A previous question on investment referred to the Force having a cash limited opportunity to continue to shape the Force – do you think you are being radical enough with your transformation?

 

The PCC reported that they were making major changes to policing and were being radical enough.

 

20.          The last HMIC report said that the Force’s current efficiency is hampered by the lack of investment in IT. What improvements have been made in ICT efficiency since the report was written and how is this being developed? What are the key objectives of the ICT Strategy?

 

The 5 year ICT strategy was developed early last year to deliver an enhanced policing capability. The additional investment in ICT will support better policing outcomes by increasing the amount of data that can be transferred across the network and stored. This will support frontline delivery through increased use of smart phones, body worn video, digital case files, predictive policing and increase opportunities for better interaction with the public.

 

These enhancements will improve the quality of evidence that can be gathered and transmitted, with the intention of increasing the quality and speed of investigations and criminal justice outcomes, providing a better service to victims, witnesses and the general public.

 

Thames Valley is considered to be a Force that is at the forefront of finding innovative ways to improve policing services in a challenging financial environment. This investment in IT will ensure we can maximise the benefits that can achieved through better use of technology. In particular, this proposal is enabling a number of critical business change programmes such as Contact Management, Command and Control and Digital Policing to proceed.

 

We are also working closely with the new Police ICT Company, which is owned by the PCCs, to ensure that our ICT strategy and individual policies tie in and dovetail with national strategies and policies. 

 

21            We appreciate the joint working on service delivery with Hampshire on both back office and frontline services. Does the Chief Constable anticipate extending these services to other Forces to drive further efficiencies and economies of scale?

 

The PCC reported that they were working with Surrey and Sussex on the Force wide Enterprise Resource Planning System and future collaboration works have led to savings of £1.8m. Kent were planning to collaborate but have now partnered with Essex.

 

RESOLVED

 

1. That the Panel approve the Police and Crime Commissioner’s precept for 2016/17 as set out in the OPCC report ‘Revenue Estimates 2016/17 and Medium Term Financial Plan 2016/17 to 2019/20’ having received satisfactory responses to the questions raised at Appendix B of the report and supplementary questions asked at the Budget Task and Finish Group on 26 January and the Panel meeting on 29 January 2016.

 

2.    That the Panel add, if necessary, its support to the PCC’s representations to the Home Secretary with regards to the setting of the revised Funding Formula.