Centre for Policing Research and Learning
Senior Practitioner Fellowship – 3-month secondment opportunity for police officers and staff
The Open University established the Centre for Policing Research and Learning to create and use evidence in practice to improve policing. Funded by the Home Office (through the College of Policing) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Centre consists of an interdisciplinary team of academic researchers working closely and collaboratively through a national consortium of *16 police organisations (forces and their PCCs, and the NCA). Details of the Centre and the partnership can be found at http://centre-for-policing.open.ac.uk/. The Centre has funded five Senior Practitioner Fellowships for police officers and staff from police organisations which belong to The Open University Policing Consortium and now there is opportunity to recruit one further Fellow.
The fellowships are on a fully funded secondment basis. Policing professionals will spend three months working shoulder-to-shoulder with academics on a defined research project. Each will provide a significant contribution to a Policing Centre research project and ensure that the context, the operational rigour and current practice are fully understood within the research itself. The secondment will give police officers and staff the opportunity to deepen their understanding of how research can be created, carried out and used in the workplace. The secondments are also designed to build on the strengths of academic-practitioner collaboration (which may involve Mode 2 research, co-research and/or action research).
Each secondment is linked to a research project and has a defined output. This vacancy is to work on the Demand Management in Policing project. The project summary is found in Appendix 01 of this document. Further detail about the research projects can be found at: http://centre-for- policing.open.ac.uk/research.
The Fellowship is open to any member of police organisation which are members of, or are joining the OU Policing Consortium.
While on secondment, the Fellow will have remote access to University facilities (e.g. computing, electronic library) and campus facilities when visits are undertaken. It is likely that the secondment will be undertaken in a variety of locations, and some travel for meetings and workshops will be required. It is expected that some of the work can be carried out from the home base of the secondee.
Fellowships last three months and are available from as soon as possible though the post must finish by 31 March 2017. Actual start date will depend on the work focus within the research project. The successful applicant will take up their secondment at a time mutually agreed by the research leader and the applicant’s force. Where possible, funding will be released directly back to the successful applicant’s local unit to increase local support for this initiative.
Person specification: Operationally able, with a determination to improve service delivery Academically qualified in terms of research. Possessing a Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or Masters Degree or PhD. Able to think critically and with curiosity, challenge and able to write clear, cogent reports A ‘self-starter’, able to work with a minimum level of supervision and deliver high quality work to tight timescales in an unfamiliar context Dedicated to using evidenced based policing (across a range of methods from qualitative to quantitative) to improve operational practice and prepared to promote research and evidence based practice after the secondment Able to operate with a wide range of stakeholders, some very senior Particular research projects may have additional requirements (e.g. computing skills, research interview skills and statistical skills).
Applications are based on a completed application form and ‘statement of benefit’ aligned to the research project of interest (which should be stated in the application). Members of the Consortium, host researchers and representatives of the College of Policing where available, will interview shortlisted applicants. Successful applicants will be matched with a suitable academic or research team.
Fellows will be expected to publicise the progress of their research in policing literature and may be called on in the future as subject matter experts by the Consortium and the College of Policing. The lead researcher remains responsible for the final output of the team and publications arising from their work, which will involve all members of the team as appropriate.
Indicative timetable: Date Activity 9 September 2016 Advertising and application window opens 30 September 2016 Application window closes 3 October 2016 Week for completing shortlisting and interview arranged Shortly after interview Applicants and forces informed. Secondment arrangements prepared
Completed application forms should be sent to [email protected] by the 30 September 2016
If you are interested in finding out more about the Centre and the research projects above, you can find additional information on the following website: http://centre-for-policing.open.ac.uk/
Or by contacting the Centre Director: Professor Jean Hartley or Associate Director (Research): Professor Graham Pike via [email protected]
This information can also be found online at: http://centre-for-policing.open.ac.uk/knowledge- exchange/news * The policing partner organisations are: Avon and Somerset Police, British Transport Police, Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Dorset Police, Gloucestershire Constabulary, Greater Manchester Police, Gwent Police, Hertfordshire Police, Humberside Police, Lancashire Constabulary, Merseyside Police, Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency, Police Service of Northern Ireland, Thames Valley Police
Should you require the documentation in alternative formats, please contact the Centre Manager Heather Barrett, [email protected] Appendix 01: Senior Practitioner Fellows Project Summary
Demand Management in Policing: a study of consortium practices
Introduction
There has been a lot of interest in the notion of demand management within the public sector partly because of the increasing budgetary pressures on most public services. Local Government organisations now have a project that is studying the impact of rising demand and restricted budgets, addressing the question of whether or not improved demand management practices can help maintain the quality of local services. The Police Service also has a Demand management project that has set the following outcomes:
1. To develop measures that will assist in predicting future demand on the Police Service 2. To examine the related areas of capacity and supply of resources against demand and risk 3. To look at capacity generation including productivity and efficiency of resourcing 4. To contribute to the debate on whole system thinking and public value through authentic conversations with stakeholders, especially the public Source: College of Policing 2015
Demand Management within the public sector is an emerging idea that is taking on a very different perspective to that within the private service sector. Within the private sectors the emphasis is on the achievement of demand/capacity balance and the efficient yield from resources applied. The public sector has a slightly different range of approaches, including:
Improving understanding of what demand there is within the system Determining what services to stop providing and what thresholds to apply to restrict the public’s access to demand The elimination of waste in the system to improve productivity
The proposed new work builds on the preliminary study conducted by the Open University into the idea of demand management in back office police activities. This study, conducted with Thames Valley Police, can now be extended, building on the learning from the scoping work. It is proposed that a wider study would be conducted across a larger range of Police regions within the OU Police Consortium, but also looking at a slightly wider range of police activities. Potential research questions include:
How good is the understanding of demand at a local level? Have existing improvement activities reduced workload or simply moved it to other parts of the system? Is there consistency in how police services limit demand through policies of what demand they can meet? Which appears to be the bigger issue: waste in core services or in back office processes? The work would be conducted through interviews with front-line offices at all levels in each of the regions in the study. There would also be a need to compare the availability and quality of demand and capacity management data within each service.
The ideal researcher to conduct this work would be someone with knowledge of police efforts to improve efficiency through improvement activity (e.g. Quest) or someone with prior work in the area of demand and capacity management. Their main duties would be to co-develop an interview schedule, participate in the interviews and report the findings.