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 Humberside Police’s performance this year, including where I would like to see improvements next year.
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 Humberside Police’s performance this year, including where I would like to see improvements next year.
In its PEEL inspections this year, HMIC found some areas of serious concern in the performance of Humberside Police in keeping people safe and reducing crime. In view of these findings, I have been in regular contact with the chief constable and I am reassured by the way in which the force has acknowledged and responded to the issues we have raised. However, I do not underestimate how much improvement is needed.
This year, the force has changed the way it is organised with the aim of improving its service. These changes led to the force not being able to meet the demands from the public and resources not being available at peak times. As a result of this, HMIC judged the force to be inadequate during our efficiency inspection in June.
I have been reassured by the evidence of improvement that we found in our subsequent inspections and our process of monitoring the force.
The new chief officer team continues to make considered changes to the way the force manages its demand. The force’s capability to handle calls has improved and a new shift system is due to start imminently.
Although the force works well with partners, I am concerned about its performance in preventing crime and anti-social behaviour. I am pleased that we found during our inspections that the force has improved how it manages offenders; and it is good at identifying and disrupting organised criminality. However, the force needs to improve further how it investigates crime and how it responds to incidents involving repeat or vulnerable victims.
The chief officer team has communicated its vision and values to the workforce effectively. The force is actively developing an ethical culture throughout the organisation, and is placing a sound emphasis on the importance of strong engagement with local communities.
Description of force area
Humberside Police provides policing services to the East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston-upon-Hull, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. Although there are some more affluent areas, Humberside has a high level of poverty. Around 0.9 million people mainly live in the urban centres which include the city of Kingston upon Hull, as well as the towns of Bridlington, Scunthorpe and Grimsby. The resident population is increased by university students and the large numbers who visit or travel through the area each year. The transport infrastructure includes major sea ports.
The proportion of areas in Humberside 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. Providing services across the entirety of the force area is hindered by the road network.
Working arrangements
The force has entered into a strategic partnership with South Yorkshire Police. The two forces now have joint human resources, information and communication technology and finance. They are considering collaborating to provide all policing functions apart from local policing and the role of the chief constable.
A number of chief officer changes have been made during the year including the appointment of a new deputy chief constable and two assistant chief constables.
Effectiveness
In our effectiveness inspection, we judged Humberside Police to require improvement in the way in which it keeps people safe and reduces crime. The force focuses on the prevention of crime and anti-social behaviour and works well with partners. It has more work to do to improve crime investigation, but it has improved how it manages offenders. The force is committed to protecting the most vulnerable victims but needs to improve how it responds to repeat or vulnerable victims. It is good at identifying and disrupting the activity of organised crime groups and has effective arrangements in place to ensure that it can fulfil its national policing responsibilities. This is the first year HMIC has graded forces on their overall effectiveness so a year-on-year comparison is not possible.
Efficiency
Humberside Police is not prepared to face its future financial challenges. The force has a limited understanding of current and future demand. It has introduced a new operating model but has not fully matched resources to demand in some important areas, which affects the force’s ability to provide a good service to the public. The force has good financial control and plans to meet its savings requirements but these rely on effective implementation of the operating model and increased collaboration. Due to serious difficulties in implementing the new operating model it cannot be judged any higher than inadequate. In last year’s value for money inspection, which considered how forces had met the challenge of the previous spending review period, the force was judged to be good. Since the efficiency inspection in June 2016, Humberside Police has recognised the inadequacies highlighted within the report and is making progress in implementing the necessary improvements needed.
Legitimacy
The Humberside Police chief officer team has clearly communicated its vision and values to the workforce and is actively developing an ethical culture throughout the force. Most officers and staff that we spoke to understood the relationship between doing a good job, effective engagement and confidence in the police. The force has in place an effective way to monitor issues that arise locally and to identify emerging force-wide trends.
Humberside Police is not compliant with the Best Use of Stop and Search scheme. Also, it has more to do to ensure sufficient oversight of Taser use.
This is the first time HMIC has graded forces on their legitimacy, so no year-on-year comparison is possible.
Leadership
The force has a clear vision of the style of leadership that it requires to improve its services, and this has been communicated effectively across the organisation. The force has worked with staff and officers to improve its appraisal, development and welfare programmes.
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 Humberside Police. More detail on some of these inspections can be found under the Other inspections section.
Looking forward to PEEL 2016
In the year ahead, I will be interested to see how the force responds to this assessment, along with the cause of concern and areas for improvement that HMIC has identified in the last year.
I will be particularly interested to see:
- how the force improves the way it investigates crime and the quality of those investigations;
- how the force responds to incidents involving vulnerable victims;
- the force developing a better understanding of the demand for its services and matching its resources to that demand;
- the continued review and development of the force operating model and the implementation of the new force shift pattern to improve the service to communities; and
- how the new chief officer team leads improvements across the force.
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.
