Cleveland PEEL 2016

Cleveland Police has a good and improving understanding of current demand. It is continuing to work to better understand the less obvious areas of demand and to identify its likely future demand. It has undertaken a comprehensive review of its demand, which included hidden demand and the demand that has the potential to cause the most risk to the community.

The force has made a good start in developing its capability to predict likely future demand, and has an innovative resource and service modelling capability. The force has worked with police and partner data to assess demand in local areas. It has considered the potential impact of changes in demand associated with changes in society and levels of hidden crime.

Cleveland Police makes good use of its resources to manage current demand. The force has set clear priorities for the delivery of its services against the police and crime plan. The force engaged with partners and local councillors, as representatives of the public, on the changes to its operating model, although it recognises that it did not consult directly with the public before making the changes.

The force has increased the efficiency with which it deploys its resources. It has invested extra resources in protecting vulnerable people. The force has also introduced an incident and crime management unit, which has significantly reduced the number of calls for service that are attended by officers. This, coupled with the new force shift pattern, has resulted in an improvement in the availability of frontline officers and staff to attend incidents where there is a risk to the public. The force has reviewed its structure and changes to its operating model in order to meet demand and to become more efficient. The force is continuing to develop collaboration with other forces and partners that have generated savings and efficiencies. The force is developing its understanding of the benefits of change and has a team of staff to ensure that those benefits are tracked and realised.

Cleveland Police is good at planning for the future. It has demonstrated its ability to both achieve savings and plan its investments for the future. The force has developed a comprehensive policing plan, Towards 2020, which sets out its strategic intent in relation to planning service provision and reshaping services along with partner organisations to make them more efficient and effective. The force has produced a long-term financial plan for 2016–20 to support this strategy and has reviewed its planning assumptions against those of other organisations.

The force has invested in its ICT infrastructure with the continued development of mobile working and the force has also developed its ICT technology to assist with mapping its demand and resource allocation.

The force has made realistic and prudent assumptions about future income and costs, and has considered risks and contingencies. All investment decisions are subject to both internal and external scrutiny. The force has a workforce plan that identifies the numbers of officers and staff required over the next four years, setting out the intended change in the number of police officers. The workforce plan also identifies the need for workforce modernisation and recruitment based on the numbers of predicted leavers and existing gaps. The force has planned recruitment for police officers, transferees, police community support officers and special constables.