Aiming Together

p18-21_PP191115 copy_Layout 1 17/11/2015 20:57 Page 18 Executive feature The East Midlands region has developed the most advanced collaboration on operational services. Chief Constable Neil Rhodes explains how consideration of roles and processes across four forces has led to new ways of working and significant savings in firearms deployment. Aihme East Midlannds Ogperatio natl Suopport gServicee ther (EMOpSS) provides roads policing, armed polic - FTohrece ss taocrry oss the East Midlands have a strong history of ing and firearms training, specialist search, spe - successful collaboration. In December 2013, four forces – cialist and general purpose dog support and Leicestershire Police, Lincolnshire Police, Northampton - collision investigation to the communities of shire Police and Nottinghamshire Police – pushed the Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Not - boundaries still further when they agreed to an innovative Ttinghamshire. That is a population of 2.9 million people and far-reaching collaboration across specialist uniformed across 5,255 square miles. operational services. The EMOpSS was designed to provide: Teams of officers drawn from all forces work in combined • Roads policing; teams, conducting operations and day-to-day business • Serious collision investigation; Neil Rhodes is the seamlessly across borders. Even in high-risk, complex and • Armed policing and firearms training; chief constable within the East sensitive matters, command structures often involve senior • Specialist search; Midlands officers from different forces. Over recent months this has • Specialist and general purpose dog support and training; Operational extended to chief officers sharing on-call arrangements • Public order training; and Support Service across the four-force area. • Planning and coordination of major public order who holds the Real operational flexibility, increased effectiveness and response across the four forces and in support of national portfolios for better service delivery has resulted, together with a really requirements. Specialist Uniform valuable level of savings for all four forces from standardis - The leaders of the organisations were in no doubt that Operations and ing ways of working, pooling vehicles and integrating staff. providing services across such a large area to almost three Criminal Justice. The case studies discussed illustrate a level of operational million people was a challenging undertaking. effectiveness that would have been difficult to achieve in With a real appetite to make progress swiftly, on the back earlier years. of an outline business case and initial scoping study, a sen - The current budget for EMOpSS is £32.5 million. It ior management team was appointed to take control of the employs 511 officers and 51 police staff. That represents a formation of the new collaborated service. real budget reduction of £5.2 million a year for forces com - Chief Superintendent Chris Haward, a Leicestershire pared to the original baseline cost in the first year. In addi - officer, was appointed to lead the team. Chief Supt Haward tion, further efficiencies in the region of £1.5 million will was to be supported by two superintendents and four chief be delivered in the year ahead. inspectors. Their task was initially to coordinate the four 18 WWW.POLICE PROFESSIONAL .COM November 19, 2015 p18-21_PP191115 copy_Layout 1 17/11/2015 20:58 Page 19 Executive feature forces’ functions, standardise processes and build a busi - Critical success factors ness case for further integration. Remaining passionate about the College of Policing support • • – with Early teething troubles were worked through, budgets quality of service delivery – with any firearms support at the heart of this were combined, structures and working practices aligned multi-force collaboration where savings collaboration and single training and confidence grew. The four forces’ specialist teams are looked for service degradation is a provision a key enabler for that, the help, worked together under one command. Barriers were over - real danger. Agreeing principles as the guidance and support of the College of come, trust built and there was a genuine sense of excite - foundation for organisation design was Policing and two or three key personnel ment at what was clearly possible. early work. The first principle upon there to achieve the interim firearms By December 2014, the police and crime commissioners which we agreed, and which shaped training licence was crucial; (PCCs) and chief constables of the four counties were confi - Culture change for chief officers many subsequent decisions, was that • – dent enough to agree a business case to fully integrate their improving service while maintaining a real enabler was a willingness among specialist services, allowing pooled resources with formula standards had to underpin this work; chief officers to share command and contribution in both cash and people, and mixed teams of A commitment to find the best way • control of people and resources. officers routinely operating across force boundaries as day- – inevitably, bringing four organisations Existing close working gave confidence to-day normal practice. together there are different ways of that a strategic firearms commander The core of the case was built on a set of principles to working. We found that searching for a from Nottinghamshire could run a which all parties committed. The principal focus was new way, practitioner built and drawing firearms operation in Lincolnshire using improved operational effectiveness, with savings and effi - upon existing experience, gave the mixed armed response vehicles teams ciencies seen as vital, but secondary, objectives. most efficient and effective service. It from four forces. The final piece in the It was essential that the new structure was fit for purpose. also achieved buy-in and minimised jigsaw was the move to cross-force The new management team had swiftly realised that very parochialism; chief officer cover, where as I type this, different working practices and attendance criteria existed. Taking the people with us • – an assistant chief constable from The efficiency and savings of the new model were based on significant organisational change, new Nottinghamshire is the chief officer on a better quality service being delivered by fewer people, structures, new locations and fewer call for my force and the deputy chief with fewer vehicles working far more flexibly across a roles was tough to sell. Open constable in Northamptonshire is greater area and across force boundaries. It was a sensitive engagement by the most senior covering Leicestershire as well; and situation, which needed careful handling and had to be evi - Building that strong business managers at staff seminars and • dence-led. case commitment to fair, open and – We had to gain buy-in from four A commercial company, Process Evolution, was used to transparent selection processes, police and crime commissioners measure and process map activity to help design the new backed up by delivery of promises (PCCs) determined to see the best for structure. worked well for us; their communities and to ensure value The evidence it produced was pretty stark. All forces had Federation buy-in • – the potential for for money. Building a convincing lessons to learn from each other. Time spent training var - challenge, disaffection and disruption to business case meant chief officers ied significantly with the same roles having different ini - the introduction of major change across involved early and staying engaged. tial training and refresh periods in each of the forces. four very different forces was high. Tough decisions and significant ‘Double hatting’, where the same officer had to be trained Early honest and open conversation business change was necessary. The for more than one specialist role, often meant deployable with Police Federation officials, and a quality service had to be accompanied time was low. Armed response vehicles (ARVs) in some degree of flexibility, paid real dividends by real savings, and the focus was forces had a pro-active combined roads policing role; in oth - in terms of practical support when always on cashable savings and ers more time was spent on standby to be ready for swift difficult decisions had to be surrendering assets rather than simply deployment. implemented; doing more with the same. We were able to quickly identify over-capacity in special - ist dogs and many specialist firearms roles, such as close protection or rifle officers, when viewed through a regional decision points. Following a searching process, a team of lens rather than at force level. assistant chief constables agreed our operating model, In policing major events across the region, mutual aid drawing on previous approaches. They standardised the would be provided on several occasions during the year, way armed vehicles operated: also performing a defined leading to a wasteful administrative nightmare of cross- roads policing role and deployed from just five bases across charging at artificial rates. Instead, we saw that a reason - the region, principally located at force headquarters with able balance could be struck with cross-charging one remote base to achieve even response cover and minimised and applied on a core cost recovery basis only. patrolling and working seamlessly across force boundaries. At the outset, understanding of our costs was very patchy, These Roads and Armed Policing Teams (RAPTs) were with budgets

Load more