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 South Yorkshire 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 South Yorkshire Police in keeping people safe and reducing crime, but there are also areas in need of improvement in order to provide a consistently good service.
I have been impressed by the manner in which South Yorkshire Police continues to manage the current reaction to the legacies of the Hillsborough tragedy, and child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
The force is generally good at keeping people safe and reducing crime. It works well with others and has an effective approach to crime prevention, tackling anti-social behaviour and disrupting the activity of organised crime groups. However, the force’s approach to investigating crime and managing offenders requires improvement.
Our inspection found that the quality and consistency of how the force assesses and responds to the risks to vulnerable people needs to be improved. The force has taken positive steps to improve how it identifies and protects vulnerable people. This includes the identification and protection of vulnerable children at risk of harm, and the force’s response to victims of domestic abuse. I welcome the positive response that the force has made to these findings.
South Yorkshire Police has a good understanding of the demand on its services. It has a balanced budget and a good track record of achieving savings, with plans in place for future savings. The force is meeting the operational demands from historic investigations into sexual offences and associated demonstrations. It has also improved its welfare provision for current and former staff. However, I am concerned that the financial burden of these legacies is a risk to South Yorkshire Police’s financial plans and the force’s long term sustainability.
The force has made good progress during 2015 in implementing its new operating model and is working closely with Humberside Police. It engages well with the communities of South Yorkshire through social media and tailored communication with groups for whom English is not their first language.
Description of force area
South Yorkshire Police provides policing services to the county of South Yorkshire. Although there are a small number of affluent areas, South Yorkshire has a high level of poverty. Around 1.4 million people mainly live in the urban centres which include the city of Sheffield and the towns of Doncaster, Rotherham and Barnsley. The resident population is increased by university students and the large numbers who visit, socialise in, commute into, or travel through the county each year. The transport infrastructure includes major rail stations and an airport.
The proportion of areas in South Yorkshire that are predicted to present a very high challenge to the police is lower 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
South Yorkshire Police continues to manage the current reaction to the legacies of the Hillsborough tragedy and child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.
May 2015 saw the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire cycle race, which attracted crowds estimated at over 1.5 million across the three days of the event. Together with colleagues in Humberside and West and North Yorkshire, the force undertook a significant policing operation to ensure the safe passage of the race through the county.
Working arrangements
The force has entered into a strategic partnership with Humberside Police. The two forces have joint human resources, information technology and finance departments. The two forces are also considering further collaboration to provide all policing functions, apart from local policing and the role of the chief constable.
Effectiveness
In our effectiveness inspection, we judged South Yorkshire Police to require improvement in the way in which it keeps people safe and reduces crime. The force works well to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour and to keep most people safe. However, the force needs to improve its response to domestic abuse victims with more consistent and thorough processes. Similarly, it could improve how it investigates crime and manages offenders. It is good at tackling serious and organised crime, and understands its capability to address national threats. 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
South Yorkshire Police is partly prepared to face its future financial challenges. The force has a good understanding of the demand on its services. It has balanced the budget and has a good track record of achieving savings with plans in place for future savings. However, HMIC has concerns that the force’s future plans and financial position may not be able to sustain effective policing in the long term. In last year’s value for money inspection, which considered how forces had met the challenge of the previous spending review period, South Yorkshire was judged to be good.
Legitimacy
South Yorkshire Police has effectively promoted an ethical culture and standards through its FIRST principles (fairness, integrity, respect, standards and trust), which it uses to guide officers and staff. The force effectively uses a wide range of approaches to engage with the diverse communities it serves.
South Yorkshire Police complies with most aspects of the Best Use of Stop and Search scheme, and the 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
South Yorkshire Police has provided clear expectations of its workforce and has decided on clear and ambitious future plans and priorities.
Senior officers engage with the workforce in a number of formal and informal ways. However, many of the workforce still feel that they do not see enough of senior leaders and would welcome more regular updates from chief officers on the longer-term vision for the force.
Insights from other inspections
HMIC undertakes other inspections in addition to the PEEL programme. Since the last PEEL assessment there have been five reports published on inspections that included South Yorkshire 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 the causes of concern and areas for improvement that HMIC has identified in the last year.
I will be particularly interested to see:
- the continued improvement in the force’s response to child sexual exploitation;
- improvement in the force’s response to victims of domestic abuse;
- how the collaboration with Humberside Police provides an improved level of service to the public at a reduced cost; and
- how the force continues to respond to the legacy issues.
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.
