City of London PEEL 2015
Efficiency
How efficient is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?
How well does the force use its resources to meet its demand?
The force has a good understanding of the demand on its services from the public. It is currently meeting this demand and evidence for this comes from the higher than average victim satisfaction rates and good response times.
The force works effectively with the Corporation, other partners and the community to identify better ways of meeting demand and delivering an effective service.
It is the national lead for economic crime and has developed an effective approach to dealing with the demands of this crime type locally and nationally.
The force has a good understanding of its performance and there is clear governance for accountability both internally and by the City Corporation.
The force though recognises the need to change to meet future demand within its future budget. The force’s change programme is looking at new ways the force can operate and improve services to meet future demand with a reduced budget.
How sustainable and affordable is the workforce model?
Since March 2010 the number of officers in the force reduced from 852 to 739 in March 2015.
The current workforce model is meeting demand, organisational need and financial requirements. Evidence for this comes from a balanced budget, achievement of savings targets and victim satisfaction rates in line with England and Wales.
The force has conducted reviews in each business area to look at demand and resources and is confident that it has achieved this efficiency in resourcing without having an impact on the provision of policing services to the public.
However, the force needs to develop more detailed plans and improve its understanding of workforce skills, knowledge and ability. More work is needed to better align workforce plans with the medium-term financial plan.
Areas for improvement
- The force should develop a future workforce plan that is aligned to its overall demand and budget. The plans should include future resource allocations, the mix of skills required by the workforce and behaviours expected of them.
- To support the workforce plan, the force should improve how it records and retains information concerning the skills and knowledge of the workforce to identify future training needs.
How sustainable is the force’s financial position for the short and long term?
The force has met its savings target period to 2014/15 and achieved a balanced financial position from the spending review set in 2011.
The force does obtain full cost recovery, such as for the national economic crime lead function and has been successful in securing other funding including from the business community.
It is taking a number of steps to control expenditure and achieve the aims of the 2015/18 financial savings. Future financial plans are still to be fully developed in partnership with the City Corporation but are expected to be finalised in July 2015.
The policing plan for 2015 to 2018 includes the priorities set by the Corporation and these include a closer working relationship to further reduce costs and meet the public demand.
The force budget and the policing plan are jointly prepared with the City Corporation which, through the Police Committee, holds the force to account effectively.
Together with income generation, other efficiencies and potential support from the Corporation, HMIC has confidence that the force should deliver savings and balance future budgets.