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 Lincolnshire Police’s performance this year, including exceptional events and where I would like to see improvements next year.
I am satisfied with some aspects of the performance of Lincolnshire Police in keeping people safe and reducing crime, but there are areas in need of improvement in order to provide a consistently good service.
The force has an effective approach to crime prevention, tackling anti-social behaviour and disrupting the activity of organised crime groups. The time taken to allocate crimes for investigation has reduced; but the force needs to improve the quality of these investigations. It also needs to improve how it works with partners to reduce re-offending.
The force is good at identifying and responding to the most vulnerable people. However, our inspections found that it does not always involve the right level of specialist expertise or have appropriate supervision for complex cases involving domestic abuse and serious sexual offences. The force should also improve its response to missing children and child sexual exploitation by developing its understanding of the scale and nature of these issues. I have been reassured by the force’s response to our inspection findings and the steps it is taking to remedy the problems we identified.
While the force has made the necessary savings in recent years, at the time of our inspection I was concerned that the force was projecting a budget deficit after 2016. This would have meant that Lincolnshire Police would not have been in a position to maintain its workforce numbers. I am reassured that the force has reviewed its position and I will focus on this issue when I return to inspect the force’s efficiency in 2016.
I am pleased with the progress the force has made in reinforcing ethical and professional behaviour. It works well with its communities and partner agencies to understand and address local priorities. The force engages well with its communities through social media and tailored communication with minority groups for whom English is not their first language.
Description of force area
Lincolnshire Police provides policing services to the non-metropolitan county of Lincolnshire. Although there are some more affluent areas, Lincolnshire has a high level of poverty. Around 0.7 million people live in a mainly rural setting. Its urban areas include the city of Lincoln and the small towns of Boston, Grantham, Skegness and Spalding. The resident population is increased by university students and those who visit or travel through the county.
The proportion of areas in Lincolnshire 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 size of the force area and the road network.
Exceptional events
Over the spring bank holiday weekend, more than 300 officers from Lincolnshire Police and neighbouring forces were involved in restoring order at an unplanned and illegal rave event in Twyford Woods, near Grantham. Forty-three people were arrested for violence and public order offences and 21 officers were injured.
Working arrangements
Lincolnshire Police entered into a contract in April 2012 with G4S, a private sector partner, to provide a range of business and some operational support functions, for example the control room and custody. The focus of this arrangement is not just on making financial savings, but also on supporting transformational change and continuous improvement.
The force works well with other forces within the East Midlands and is part of a successful collaboration that provides policing and support services, such as major crime, special branch and serious and organised crime and forensics.
The force is also part of the East Midlands Operational Support Service, a collaboration between Leicestershire Police, Northamptonshire Police and Nottinghamshire Police that is responsible for managing and deploying resources including firearms, dog sections, search and roads policing units.
Effectiveness
In our effectiveness inspection, we judged Lincolnshire Police to require improvement in the way in which it keeps people safe and reduces crime. The force needs to improve the quality of its crime investigation and how it works with partners to stop re-offending. There is considerable commitment to put resources into the areas identified in HMIC’s 2014 crime inspection but there has been very limited progress in some areas. The force works well with others and has an effective approach to crime prevention and tackling anti-social behaviour. It generally provides a good service in identifying vulnerable people and responds well to them. However, there are several areas where improvement is needed. The force can fulfil its national policing responsibilities and works with other regional forces to disrupt the activity of organised crime groups. This is the first year HMIC has graded forces on their overall effectiveness so comparison of their year-on-year effectiveness is not possible.
Efficiency
Lincolnshire Police is partly prepared to face its future financial challenges. It has balanced the budget and has a good track record of achieving savings. However, at the time of HMIC’s inspection, the force’s financial plans beyond 2016 were projecting a budget deficit, meaning that a commitment made by the force to maintain current workforce numbers would not be achievable.
In last year’s value for money inspection, which considered how forces had met the challenge of the first previous spending review period, Lincolnshire was judged to be good.
Legitimacy
The force has worked hard to establish an ethical culture across the organisation. It has supported the wellbeing of the workforce and ensures that complaints from the public are dealt with fairly and consistently, in a way that is free from bias.
Lincolnshire Police engages and communicates well with the communities it serves. The involvement of local people in policing activities, especially as volunteers, is commendable.
The force is not compliant with all aspects of the Best Use of Stop and Search scheme. Its use of Taser is fair and appropriate.
This is the first time HMIC has graded forces on their legitimacy, so no year-on-year comparison is possible.
Leadership
Lincolnshire Police’s chief officer team communicates a clear sense of the organisation’s core purpose and aim of ‘policing with pride’. The workforce understanding of this future direction is less apparent and some of the workforce reported being anxious about the future beyond 2017 due to financial uncertainty over police funding.
Lincolnshire Police’s use of the performance appraisal system to link individual performance to force objectives is inconsistent. This system is used to identify talent and promote development.
Insights from other inspections
HMIC undertakes other inspections in addition to the PEEL programme. Since the last PEEL assessment there have been seven reports published on inspections that included Lincolnshire Police. 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 to the areas for improvement that HMIC has identified in the last year.
I will be particularly interested to see:
- the detail of the steps the force has taken to address the projected budget deficit after 2016;
- how the force improves its response to vulnerable people and child sexual exploitation;
- compliance with the Best Use of Stop and Search scheme; and
- how the force continues to improve the quality of its investigations.
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.
