This year, for the first time, we have assessed leadership across the force. The assessment has led to a narrative rather than graded judgment, which is summarised below.
Read more about my assessment of Cheshire Constabulary’s performance this year, including any exceptional events and where I would like to see improvements next year.
I would like to commend the force for its excellent performance in keeping people safe and reducing crime. I am extremely pleased with the progress Cheshire Constabulary has made in 2015.
The force has a good understanding of the demands on its services. It has processes in place to inform leaders on the resources and levels of service that will be needed across every part of the force. In 2015/16, in addition to making the required savings, the force was able to recruit 53 officers.
I was pleased to find that the force’s restructure in June 2015 has led to an improved service to the people of Cheshire. I was particularly impressed with the work carried out as part of the force restructure to make beat management and problem-solving a day-to-day part of the new local policing teams’ work.
The force engages and works well with the communities it serves. I was impressed by the different methods the force uses to understand people’s views and how the force then responds to these.
Description of force area
Cheshire Constabulary provides policing services to the county of Cheshire. Although there are some areas of marked affluence, Cheshire is generally poor. Around 1 million people mainly live in the urban centres which include the city of Chester and the towns of Warrington, Crewe and Macclesfield. The resident population is increased by university students and the large numbers who visit, socialise, or travel through the county each year. The transport infrastructure includes major rail stations.
The proportion of areas in Cheshire that are predicted to present a very high challenge to the police is higher than the national average. These are characterised by social deprivation or a concentration of commercial premises (including licensed premises), and in some cases both.
Exceptional events
The summer saw a number of high profile incidents which tested the force’s ability to respond after its recent restructuring. These included an explosion at a wood processing plant; a fatal aircraft crash during a display at a festival; and the explosion of a road tanker carrying fuel which caused the prolonged closure of a major motorway. The force effectively co-ordinated the multi-agency response to these incidents, without undue impact on providing wider policing services.
Working arrangements
The force leads shared service arrangements with Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire forces. The services provided to the forces through these arrangements include human resources, finance, and facilities management. The force is developing a way to work collaboratively with Cheshire Fire and Rescue service which could provide joint services in areas such as finance, technology and vehicle maintenance, as well as opportunities to share accommodation.
Effectiveness
In our effectiveness inspection, we judged Cheshire Constabulary to be good at keeping people safe and reducing crime. The force uses priority-based budgeting (a technique that allocates an organisation’s resources in line with its priorities and enables the organisation to identify opportunities to reduce costs) effectively to support its priorities and preventing crime and anti-social behaviour is its highest priority. It works well to protect and support vulnerable victims. The force has the necessary arrangements in place to ensure that it can fulfil its national policing responsibilities but it needs to do more to improve its arrangements to tackle serious and organised crime. This is the first year that HMIC has graded forces on their overall effectiveness so a year-on-year comparison is not possible.
Efficiency
HMIC found that Cheshire Constabulary is exceptionally well prepared to face its future financial challenges. It has a good understanding of demand and has processes in place to make informed choices about resources and levels of service across every business area. Workforce and financial plans are detailed and closely aligned and the force has a strong track record of achieving savings. Together, these provide HMIC with confidence that this performance can be sustained through to 2019/20. In last year’s value for money inspection which considered how forces had met the challenges of the previous spending review period, Cheshire Constabulary was judged to be good.
Legitimacy
The chief constable and the chief officer team actively promote the values of the force and members of the workforce we spoke to were positive about the culture in Cheshire. Police officers and staff in Cheshire Constabulary are diligent and committed in their use of a comprehensive range of methods to engage and work closely with the people they serve, to discover their needs and then report to them the results they achieved.
However, too many of the stop and search records we examined did not contain sufficient reasonable grounds for conducting the search, and it was clear that Cheshire is not complying with the Best Use of Stop and Search scheme. Taser is used fairly and appropriately.
This is the first time HMIC has graded forces on their legitimacy, so no year-on-year comparison is possible.
Leadership
Cheshire Constabulary is a well led force and has a good understanding of the capacity and capability of its leadership at all levels. This understanding has been used to create a varied and comprehensive package of training and development opportunities.
The majority of police officers and staff HMIC spoke to during our inspection articulated a clear sense of the future plans and priorities of the force.
Insights from other inspections
HMIC undertakes other inspections in addition to the PEEL programme. Since the last PEEL assessment there have been four reports published on inspections that included Cheshire Constabulary. More detail on some of these inspections can be found under the Other inspections section.
Looking ahead to PEEL 2016
In the year ahead, I will be interested to see how the force responds to this assessment, and the areas for improvement that HMIC has identified in the last year.
I will be particularly interested to see:
- how changes the force is already making improve compliance with the Best Use of Stop and Search scheme;
- further work in the force’s approach to managing its response to serious and organised crime; and
- how the force continues to progress the innovative collaboration with Cheshire Fire and Rescue service.
In May 2016, like the majority of forces in England and Wales, the force will see the second elections for its police and crime commissioner.
