A11 THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA PUBLIC REALM SCRUTINY COMMITTEE – 9 MAY 2013 REPORT BY THE DIRECTOR FOR SAFER NEIGHBOURHOODS SAFER NEIGHBOURHOODS SERVICES PARKS POLICE SERVICE REVIEW REPORT The Parks Police Service Review has now been concluded and a number of recommendations accepted by the responsible Cabinet Members in both the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Significant financial savings of approximately £140,000 (across both boroughs in 2013/14) are expected to be achieved as a consequence of these recommendations being accepted. £40,000 of these efficiencies are being delivered through a reduction in the number of parks being locked overnight in LB Hammersmith and Fulham. The review recommended that the two Parks Police Services are integrated to form a single team led by a Bi-borough Parks Police Inspector reporting to the Head of Community Safety. The Bi-borough Parks Police Service went live on 1st April 2013, initially patrolling from its two existing bases at 77 Glenthorne Road, Hammersmith and The Stable Yard, Holland Park. In the longer term a single patrol base would be desirable. FOR INFORMATION 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION This document presents the key findings and recommendations from the Biborough Parks Police Service Review. The review also received constructive peer challenge from the British Transport Police and the London Borough of Ealing Parks Service. The provision of a policing service in parks is a discretionary local authority service. The only other London Boroughs with an in-house parks constabulary are the Corporation of London, with teams in both Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest, and Havering, which has a small Parks Protection Service. Most Boroughs have disbanded their service in the past few years and pay the Metropolitan Police to patrol in their parks. The remainder have a variety of arrangements, mostly in the form of park keepers / rangers with no enforcement powers. A few sub contract their security to external agencies such as Park Guard or Ward Security (Ealing, Islington, Bromley and Bexley). In view of this, the service review considered a range of options including closing the service, adopting alternative delivery models and integration of the in-house services in H&F and RBKC. The proposals outlined here will be delivered through a two phased implementation plan. The first phase proposes an integrated in-house service from 1st April 2013, delivering the improvements and efficiencies outlined below. The second phase will take place during 2013/14 and will review alternative delivery options and identify a single location for the accommodation of the service. The phased approach recognises that a different service delivery model would almost certainly entail a much reduced patrol presence in parks, with no capability to respond to call-outs or resource major events and emergencies. The service review was undertaken by the Parks Police Project Board. The membership of the board included: Dave Page- Director of Safer Neighbourhoods Claire Rai – Head of Community Safety Mike Rumble – Parks Police Inspector (RBKC) Stan Davies – Parks Police Inspector (LBHF) Matt Payne – Principal Strategy and Performance Officer Trevor Ridley – IT Manager Nizar Lalji- Senior Accountant Mary Lamont- HR relationship Manager (LBHF) Sue O‟Brien- HR consultant (RBKC) Lucy Vaughan – Programme Manager Flora Ekundayo – Head of Change Management The key findings and recommendations across the service review are highlighted in the executive summary below. 3 Service Delivery i. To implement an integrated Bi Borough in-house service from April 2013. The benefits of this service will be; Achieving staffing efficiencies of £120K (a reduction of 3 parks constable posts). Since one post is currently vacant, a total of two redundancies will be required Implementing a new shared rota covering the parks in both H&F and RBKC and maintaining the current hours of patrol, with staff expected to patrol across both boroughs Maintaining a strong identity and presence in the parks, by re-naming the service “Parks Police” with the boroughs‟ identities on uniforms and vehicles Standardising back office systems used by the teams, using the same radio network and incident log, reducing time in the back office and maximising officer time on patrol Ensuring a pool of 31 officers are available for deployment across the two boroughs between the hours of 7am -10pm (winter) and 7am-12pm (summer). The Biborough integrated team comprises one Inspector, four sergeants and 26 constables, with approximately 18 officers patrolling during the course of an average day. ii. By adopting all of the proposals outlined in this report, the service is set to make savings of £139,000 in 2013/14 which will exceed the overall savings target of £120,000 for this review. Breakdown of Savings Saving Split Description of Total Saving Saving LBHF RBKC Comments Deletion and assimilation of RBKC Reduction of 2 Senior Constable posts into FTE (Senior Constable posts. RBKC to get full Constables) 80,000 0 80,000 share of saving Reduce No. of Parks locked in LBHF locking in H&F reduced to 10. LBHF will get full - 1 FTE 40,000 40,000 - share of saving 60:40 H&F/ RBKC Split Recognises the larger area covered by parks in H&F, placing additional Vehicles 19,000 11,400 7,600 demands on transportation Total Savings 139,000 51,400 87,600 Savings Targets 120,000 60,000 60,000 4 Reducing the number of parks being locked to 10 means that two officers are able to undertake the task rather than four, which has historically been the case. This saves between 28 and 42 hours of officer time per week depending on the season. Phased Implementation and Alternative Delivery Models iii. The proposals outlined here will be delivered through a two phased implementation plan: PHASE 1 - 2013/14 - Launch of integrated in-house service achieving efficiency savings of £139,000 - Use of existing accommodation in Holland Park and Glenthorne Road - Staffing efficiencies of 3 FTE, while providing full coverage of existing parks and hours of patrol - Staff are expected to patrol in both boroughs, ensuring flexibility and resilience in operations - Integration of radio communications and Parks Police databases to minimise time spent by officers in the back office - Fewer, greener vehicles – a reduction of 2 vehicles to save on lease, insurance and fuel costs - Review and reduction of locking duties in H&F (see below) PHASE 2 - 2014/15 - Review of alternative service delivery models including external provision and hybrid model - Identify and deliver a single location for the accommodation of the service - Implementation of income generation initiatives - Review of impact of phase one locking regime with further reductions if successful - Introduction of further improvements in ICT such as the use of handhelds or tablet computers iv. Alternative service delivery models were considered in phase one of the review and will be further explored in phase two . Park Guard is a private contractor with trained officers working with dogs on set patrol duties with an additional capability of being tasked by the police. Patrol hours are purchased with the potential for significant savings, however to achieve these savings there would be a significant reduction in patrolling from the current 7 day a week service, and this would not include locking parks, nor providing a responsive call-out service, or support for civil emergencies and major events. v. Another option for Phase 2 is to retain a smaller core team of in-house parks constables than proposed in this paper, and supplement them with contractors during the longer park opening hours in the summer. This would retain the responsive element of the existing service and maintain existing information sharing relationships while providing a significant efficiency saving during times of lower demand for service. Customer vi. Park users value a uniformed policing service in their parks but a number of them felt they did not see the officers enough and wanted a more visible presence with less reliance on vehicle patrols. This, however, did not impact on their feelings of safety in 5 the parks as over 90% of residents who responded to the 2012 „Policing in Your Parks‟ consultation said they felt safe or very safe in the parks. vii. The service will continue to engage with Friends of Parks groups and the Safer Parks Panel to inform future priority setting and problem solving in parks. Process viii. It is recommended that, as part of phase one, a reduction of locking duties in Hammersmith and Fulham is implemented after the integrated service has been established in April 2013. There are currently 26 parks locked by the Parks Constabulary, which could be reduced to 10 high priority parks, saving up to forty two person hours a week, the equivalent of one full-time Constable post (£40K). The Hammersmith and Fulham parks that would remain locked overnight would be: SOUTH NORTH CEMETERIES Bishops Park Ravenscourt Park Margravine (including All Saints Cemetery Church) Fulham Palace Wendell Park Fulham Cemetery Hurlingham Park Wormholt Park South Park Hammersmith Park Reductions in locking duties are not being considered for Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea parks. People and Partnerships ix. Staff of the services have been fully involved in developing proposals for an improved, integrated in-house service. A number of workstreams are in progress which build on staff ideas. Procurement x. The new uniform for the Biborough integrated service will be introduced at the launch of a the new service in April 2013, starting with the re-badging of all garments that identify the service. Uniforms will be purchased from existing 2012/13 budgets. xi. The service will lease five new vehicles to replace the current seven vehicles across both Boroughs.