North Yorkshire PEEL 2018

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the force’s performance in this area.

Assessing current demand

North Yorkshire Police has a good understanding of the current demand it faces. This is supported by data and information from a variety of sources, including partnership data. At a strategic level, the force has clear priorities agreed through the neighbourhood survey and community engagement carried out by the PFCC. Funds from the increase in the 2019 council tax precept are pledged to enhance visible community policing. This was highlighted as a need by the public response to the PFCC’s consultation.

The force has adjusted resources as a result of several initiatives to better understand its current demand. Mapping of its workforce’s time led to further development of the performance scorecard software. Performance information can now be accessed more quickly, freeing up time for the performance team to focus on other priorities. These performance dashboards provide detailed information across most crime areas. Managers have instant information to help them manage the service effectively.

Local and force-wide priorities are generally well balanced. Neighbourhood priorities are agreed and managed locally, with information gathered at local meetings and surgeries. Strategically, the force engages with partners to understand pressure on resources from concerns such as county lines and cuckooing of vulnerable people. The force conducted a survey and visited more than 3,000 addresses to try to understand rural concerns. This included a focus on why people in rural communities under-report crime, including domestic abuse. By offering crime prevention advice and developing new links through social media and the rural task force, North Yorkshire Police has successfully re-engaged the rural community. It is working well with trading standards to combat hidden rural crime. It also works with partner agencies to understand hidden harm and has established a broader understanding of female genital mutilation through engaging with local midwives and charities, and reviewing national research.

In our 2017 efficiency inspection, we judged that the force should develop its understanding of demand, ensuring that it has analysed appropriate information and intelligence from wider sources. It has taken positive steps since then that have helped it to improve in this area.

Understanding factors that influence demand

The force understands that efficient working practices can reduce demand. Through analysis of workforce time and effort, it identified that a considerable number of its staff were involved in data processing and analysis. By changing working practices, it freed up resources for other priorities and improved the management of access to force data.

In the summer of 2017, the Home Office highlighted North Yorkshire Police as being among forces that failed to answer emergency calls quickly enough. After a service review, the control room now answers all 999 calls in an average time of less than ten seconds. For 101 calls, the average answering time is 90 seconds, with 48 percent being answered in under 30 seconds. The time taken for the police to respond to incidents has also improved since 2017. In the final quarter of 2018, police attended 76 percent of immediate-grade urban calls within the target time of 15 minutes. For rural immediate-grade calls, the response rate was 75 percent within the target time of 20 minutes. Police attended 81 percent of priority calls within the target response time of 60 minutes.

The leadership team is working hard to effect change through its Transform 2020 programme, and leading reviews into other business areas such as the drive to reduce overtime. The proposed changes have been comprehensively reviewed against good practice, analysing cost and demand with the aim of ensuring a modern workforce. Our inspection coincided with the formal staff consultation and we noted that the workforce is actively involved in discussing the changes with the consultants being used by the force.

An operations board, chaired by an assistant chief constable, examines concerns which are identified about operational performance. Measures are put in place to address problems that are identified.

Working with others to meet demand

The force works well locally with external organisations. It is one of seven forces collaborating in the North East Transformation, Innovation and Collaboration (NETIC) group. It has plans to share further premises with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and works jointly with its support services. It shares resources for investigating serious crime with Cleveland Police. It also works with other Yorkshire and Humber forces on regional scientific support and firearms collaboration. The force is reviewing some of these collaborations as they don’t always demonstrate value for money.

Positively, this collaborative approach extends beyond the emergency services. The force has analysts based in local councils who use partner information to better understand crime reduction. There are productive partnerships in mental health, within the control room and as street-based triage. This is improving the response to vulnerable people with mental health concerns. The force’s commitment to joint working means that it can manage current demand by improving efficiency.

The force challenges partner agencies when changes to their services adversely affect demand on the police. It has responded positively to the impact of plans by the Ministry of Justice to close local court buildings. It is exploring developing virtual court attendance as an idea to reduce the adverse effect on witnesses and officers attending court to give evidence. It has challenged external partner organisations over the closure of mental health suites, using data showing the increased demands on officers. This data also helped to direct the force’s own activity towards early intervention and prevention to reduce future demand.

In our 2017 efficiency inspection, we commented on the effect that the inability of partner agencies, particularly the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, to meet demand was having on North Yorkshire Police. The force has since liaised closely with the service to reduce demand on the police, which is positive, and enables it to focus on its own demands.

Innovation and new opportunities

The force knows that it needs expert help to develop a new model to transform its enabling services. An external provider reviewed the principal types of change needed. It identified the need to advance the force’s use of digital technology and move towards self-service where the workforce can directly access the information it needs to improve efficiency. As a result, the force brought in a strategic partner to help develop the Transform 2020 change programme. The force looks beyond policing for innovation and business processes that could improve its service to the public. It is seeking ways to enhance its versatility and effective communications management with telecommunications companies.

The force has looked externally for fresh ideas. Its intent-based leadership model is an approach where the workforce is trusted, supported and empowered to take responsibility for their decision making and actions. It looks for new talent through local universities and the regional N8 Research Partnership. It has been proactive in appointing seven short-term (12 weeks) and seven long-term (12 months) interns to date, building strong relationships with the data analysis strand of N8 to support its own analysis function. The force has also worked with the University of York, setting research questions for students to bring new ideas to policing and encourage wider and innovative thinking.

Investment and benefits

North Yorkshire Police is still developing its approach to project management. Business cases are being approved and projects are prioritised. Business cases are structured to show what the force wants to achieve and at what cost, to demonstrate the value of any change and to support decision making. However, the force needs to better understand the effect of its change programmes to make sure that it can identify and realise benefits from the changes it makes.

We know that the force has taken steps to rationalise its IT developments. This reflects previous concerns that the delivery of these projects was delayed and the benefits were felt only slowly. The force has now agreed at a corporate level which projects will be prioritised and when they will be delivered. It has recognised that savings projections haven’t been met, because of slow or late delivery of investment projects. It is working with consultants to improve its approach, but changes in implementation are in the early stages. There has already been some slippage in the overall programme due to longer than anticipated consultation periods. This means that the approach is not yet embedded and delivering benefits. The force needs a better understanding of the benefits available when it makes changes to enhance efficient working.

Prioritising different types of demand

The force is good at prioritising demand and has a clear understanding of the resources needed. Its control strategy sets the longer-term approach supporting service priorities and using the MoRile assessment tool to understand risk. Day-to-day risks are managed through daily management meetings, enabling the force to move resources to meet its needs. To gain a more in-depth view of priorities, the operations board reviews the use of resources and undertakes detailed evaluations to make sure that all units and departments have the resources they need and work efficiently. Recent examples include PIP 1 and PIP 2 detective resource levels, investigation hubs, professional standards and the force vulnerability assessment. Financial, workforce, recruitment and retention plans are also reviewed to make sure that they remain appropriate.

The force has carried out work to understand the demand for different types of calls for service and the response required. This led to a review of resources and has made significant savings by reducing the number of shifts from five to four. This enables investment in other priority areas, including an increase in the number of armed policing resources, forensic services and detectives dealing with organised crime. The provision of a neighbourhood service desk enables the force to operate more efficiently by providing telephone resolution of approximately 60 percent of crimes and other occurrences. This means that it can match response resources to those calls that need an officer to attend.

The force reacts well to short-term changes in demand. When faced with protesters at the Kirby Misperton fracking site, it had a flexible approach to dealing with the significant daily demand. It also shifted resources in response to an increase in burglary and the potential harm posed to victims. These examples illustrate the force’s ability to flex resource to meet changing demand.

Assigning resources to demand and understanding their costs

Transform 2020 is a programme to modernise how enabling services are provided. It is on track to achieve £3.5m savings in its first year. The force states that Transform 2020 proposes a more robust process to manage benefits, but this is yet to be rolled out. This means the force is yet to fully understand and realise the benefits of its investment in change. The force’s medium-term financial plan identifies that previous projects weren’t always governed appropriately: the benefits were unclear, and they often failed to produce the savings identified. We also found the force hasn’t yet formally evaluated its £8m investment in digital mobile working.

In 2018/19, a clear leadership focus reduced overtime spend from £3m to £2m for the financial year. Individual reviews of operational and corporate areas provide detailed analysis of the service. However, the force can’t yet fully understand how investing or spending less in those areas can help it determine the right service level to provide.

The force re-evaluates demand to use available resources more efficiently and effectively. Where it has seen increases in operational demand, it has used its specialist resources to support frontline policing and provide service delivery to the public.

Workforce capabilities

The force understands the skills gap it faces in providing services and has a realistic plan to address this. It has undertaken a skills audit for all roles and an assessment of leadership strengths to identify gaps to be filled by recruitment and training. This has informed its annual training and recruitment plans, and its workforce personal development plans. The force has identified gaps including child sexual exploitation prevention, detectives and digital specialists. These areas are identified in its human resources (HR) strategy and form part of Transform 2020. The force is also seeking to fill skills gaps through recruiting PCSOs and apprentices. It has developed a dashboard identifying those qualities needed for future officers to be effective. A strength-based leadership model is used to identify the skills of people in the senior leadership teams to make sure that these are secured through recruitment.

North Yorkshire Police’s Workforce 2025 strategy sets out a clear vision of police officers and staff being co-located with other public sector organisations. The strategy addresses existing and predicted needs for digital and general investigations, leadership, safeguarding and mental health. The aim is to develop a workforce that equips North Yorkshire Police to meet its future requirements.

More efficient ways of working

As well as Transform 2020, the force uses formal reviews to identify when service areas can operate more efficiently and effectively. These reviews consider demand, effort and technological advancements to challenge the force’s ways of working. One particular review produced improvements to the way the digital forensics unit provides services.

The force has reinvested the savings it generated through reducing the number of shifts towards forensic services, organised crime and armed policing resources. However, we found that most savings to date have been made to balance budgets rather than to reinvest into priority areas.

Working with others

The force works in collaboration with others to provide better services and achieve efficiencies. However, there is limited evaluation to show success. Some collaborations, such as NETIC, have more formalised governance arrangements and processes for identifying and reporting on the benefits of partnership working. The force also makes good use of peer review to establish the best way forward when partnerships are becoming problematic.

We found good examples of collaborative arrangements, including mental health and street triage, the multi-agency safeguarding team and the vulnerability assessment team. North Yorkshire Police also led a complex multi-agency investigation into an individual who posed as a child to gain and share indecent images. This resulted in a conviction and a long prison sentence for the principal offender, and the ability to disseminate intelligence to support further arrests both in England and Wales and internationally. A subsequent review of this case by the children’s safeguarding board concluded that the force’s approach was outstanding.

We found that the force doesn’t consistently plan for or evaluate the benefits of its partnership working. In some cases, the rationale for collaboration may not be fully understood. The force can’t be certain that some collaborative ventures are providing either better value for money or more resilience. For example, we found that the identified benefits of its major crime collaboration are no longer being delivered. Timescales haven’t been set for evaluating existing arrangements, although the force has commissioned a peer review of its major investigation team by another force. Because benefits aren’t subject to periodic review or evaluation, North Yorkshire Police can’t be confident that it always derives the best value from such collaborations.

Using technology

The force is proactive in its use of technology to fight crime. It is effective in its approach to identifying those sharing indecent images of children online and demonstrates a proactive approach to reducing this threat.

The digital forensics unit has been subject to recent review and has a clear way forward to address both current and future demand. Information has also been used to inform future plans, including a shift in resources to more prevention activity.

The force has a draft digital transformation strategy in the final stages of approval. This aims to achieve changes including better mobile working for police officers, a new integrated digital platform and the workforce starting to use self-service applications. The force has reassessed its IT projects to make sure those intended to produce the most efficiencies are prioritised. We welcome this approach.

New technology is enabling more efficient working. Digital mobile arrangements help officers and staff to work away from police stations. Despite some initial problems, officers with a laptop or mobile phone can now remotely access the force crime recording system, submit witness statements, and complete stop and search records. Victim contact agreements, the crime recording system and digital evidence storage are all accessible through these mobile devices. We understand that future developments will allow domestic abuse, missing-from-home cases and road traffic collisions to be recorded directly on to force systems.

The force has adopted several other digital initiatives such as body-worn video and MAUDS (mobile asset utilisation and deployment system), a tool that tracks officer, vehicle and incident locations in real-time, allowing resources to be
deployed effectively. However, as its approach to benefits realisation hasn’t been robust enough, is yet to demonstrate improved outcomes.

We set out our detailed findings below. These are the basis for our judgment of the force’s performance in this area.

Assessing future demand for services

North Yorkshire Police has only a short-term view of future changes in demand. Nexus, the force’s service improvement arm within its organisational development department, reviews specific functional areas to better understand their complexity and effect on demand. This is intended to manage demand more effectively. But these reviews are limited mainly to a 12 to 18-month prediction of future demand. For example, the crime resourcing proposal put forward in August 2018 includes predicted demand to 2020 in its work to determine allocation of PIP 2 detective constables. The Transform 2020 change programme includes plans to improve predictive analysis to better understand future demand, but this isn’t yet embedded. The force can’t plan effectively without a long-term understanding of its future demand.

The force can deal with increasing demand, as shown in its control room, where investment has realised significant improvements – as referenced earlier in this report. This has created a stable platform to allow it the opportunity to consider further improvements within Transform 2020.

The force has conducted some trend forecasting for crime types such as rape, serious sexual assault and cyber crime. As a result, it has increased its investigative resources. Its work to improve compliance with the national crime recording standard has seen more reported incidents being recorded as crimes. North Yorkshire Police also asked another force to complete a peer review to seek further crime recording improvement. The deputy chief constable leads on crime data integrity for the force, reporting to the PFCC’s public accountability meeting. But the force can’t currently tell how much of the rise in recorded crime is due to an initial spike as its reporting processes improve, and how much is a genuine increase in crime. The force has also identified areas of under-reporting of crimes. These include rural crime, as was revealed by its work with the National Farmers Union. Overall, the force should improve its understanding of demand so that it can plan well for the future. 

Improved technology is helping North Yorkshire Police prepare for future demand. As well as its investment in the control room, it now equips frontline officers and staff with mobile devices. These allow them to access a wide range of data remotely and perform important tasks online. They can work smarter and faster, and increase the visible policing presence in neighbourhoods. This is a positive step.

Understanding public expectations

Annual surveys, priority-setting arrangements, local neighbourhood engagement and theme specific surveys are all used to help the force to understand public expectations. More than 3,000 households answered a survey aimed at addressing concern over rural crime. The public expects to see the police in their neighbourhood. The PFCC has made “reinforcing local policing” one of the four priorities of the police and crime plan. Results from a 2018 neighbourhood policing survey commissioned by the PFCC suggested that the public would continue to support those four priorities. But the survey, which involved 1,410 participants across the county, also identified some dissatisfaction with policing, particularly with crime prevention and the speed of response. The force responded by reviewing and revising its shift patterns to increase effectiveness and efficiencies and improve neighbourhood policing and service to communities.

The PFCC decided to increase the council tax for 2019/20, following public consultation. There was a pledge to fund 51 additional officers and 23.5 PCSOs within neighbourhood teams, with specific responsibilities for crime prevention, anti-social behaviour and multi-agency working. The force also wants to make it easier for the public to get in touch. It will be adopting the national ‘single online home’ approach on its website and is looking to develop web chat and “report my crime” functions online. The force shares information and updates through more than 100 Twitter accounts and 20 Facebook pages managed locally by safer neighbourhood teams and specialist departments.

Prioritising

The priorities set by the PFCC for the force in the 2017-21 police and crime plan are clear: caring for the vulnerable, ambitious collaboration, reinforcing local policing and enhancing the public experience. They have identified links to the force’s strategic direction – for example, within the people strategy. The PFCC is clear that investment and resources follow these priorities. She has committed to investing the additional police funding generated by the precept increase for 2019/20, and any future increases, in two distinct areas: policing priorities and investments, and reinforcing the frontline. This investment, mainly in recruiting additional officers and PCSOs, known as the PFCC’s policing priorities fund, is projected to amount to £2.7m in 2019/20 and grow to £7.6m by 2021/22. 

Future workforce

The force isn’t clear about how many people it will need to meet future demand, and what skills they will need. It does carry out horizon scanning and knows that its workforce must adapt as communities change. Working more closely with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is at the heart of Transform 2020. This will inevitably mean a smaller workforce. The force has been holding vacancies until its future workforce requirements are clearly defined.

North Yorkshire Police is planning to use recruitment to fill known skills gaps, for example in cyber crime. Senior managers have been asked what skills will be needed to prepare for future recruitment campaigns. But this isn’t enough in itself to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities required to meet future demand. The force has a medium-term people plan for the next two to three years and a more detailed local workforce plan covering the next 12 months. The medium-term people plan is based on meeting the priorities of the police and crime plan. It covers core roles as well as the extended police family and volunteers. Two recruiters manage officer and staff recruitment. A third role is being created to lead the recruitment of volunteers. This role is also intended to support the closing of future skills gaps.

Monthly management data tracks actual workforce numbers against budgeted establishment levels. This includes forecasts for starters and leavers. At the end of March 2019, there were 86 vacancies against its budgeted full-time equivalent workforce of 2,723.5. The force knows the number of officers due to leave, mainly due to retirement, over the next three years. Recruiting an extra 51 officers and 23.5 PCSOs in 2019/20 will present a challenge. The force will also have to manage filling current vacancies and deal with the forecasted number of leavers at the same time.

Recruitment is being used to enable the force to better reflect the communities it serves. In particular, the force wants more BAME employees. It has invested in supporting individuals, engaging with communities, familiarisation and use of a positive action co-ordinator. The force is producing a delivery plan for the next six months and is working with universities to identify suitable candidates. We know the next recruitment process will look for candidates with strengths and behaviours that complement the needs of the force, rather than selecting based on an assessment of skills. Applicants will be helped with a workshop and interview preparation sessions. The force currently has one direct-entry superintendent and is participating in the direct entry to inspector scheme. 

Finance plans

Financial and workforce planning clearly align with the priorities of the police and crime plan. This is shown by recent investment in areas such as the control room. Senior leaders know about the changes planned through Transform 2020 and the associated financial planning. Transform 2020 plans seek to save around £13m over the life of the medium-term financial plan (at around £2.5 to £3m savings each year), which will enable the force to balance its budget. Investment in additional police officers and PCSOs is provided by an increase in the precept in 2019/20, in line with the PFCC’s priorities. The force also received an increase in its central government grant of £1.6m. In addition, it received a one-off special government grant of £1.5m in 2019/20 to help pay for increased contributions to police pensions required from 2019/20 onwards. The force has calculated that its increased pension contributions amount to around £4m each year. Even with the core grant increase and the special grant, it still has a shortfall in funding its additional pension costs of £0.9m, which will be funded from the PFCC’s policing priorities fund. The force assumes it will receive this special pension grant each year. However, there can be no certainty of this, which means that it may be underestimating the scale of savings needed to balance its budgets.

The force tests its assumptions through the bi-monthly Police and Crime Commissioners Treasurers’ Society meeting and by taking account of advice from the NPCC finance leads.

The PFCC maintains a reserves strategy up to 2021/22, comprising a general reserve of £5.97m and other specific funding for issues including general contingencies and major incidents. The earmarked reserves include a general contingency and a major incident reserve to meet identified needs. Transform 2020 aims to achieve £13m of efficiency savings, mainly from sharing enabling services with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service through renegotiation of contracts, procurement savings and workforce reductions.

There is little flexibility in the use of the PFCC’s reserves. Estate disposals – that is, the sale of police buildings – may offer some opportunities to release funds. However, the force is only beginning to identify further co-location opportunities. We know that it has identified risks associated with the costs of implementing the national Emergency Services Network. No specific funding for replacing the police radio network appears to have been allocated in the capital programme within the recently revised medium-term financial plan. Therefore, these costs will have to be met from revenue savings or borrowing. There are currently no plans in place to find this funding. 

Leadership and workforce development

Succession planning for senior leaders within North Yorkshire Police is unclear. Officers are being prepared for the senior police national assessment centre, but HR and workforce leads are unable to articulate formal succession planning processes. The force should take steps to clarify these processes so that future leadership needs can be addressed. The deputy chief constable leads on intent-based leadership, which is looking to develop leaders and enable effective and ethical decision making. The force’s people strategy includes specific aims for leadership development and talent management.

The force is improving its promotion processes. It has listened to concerns from the workforce about the fairness and impartiality of the previous promotion process. The previous process was based on professional development reviews, line manager and local senior management reviews, and a competency-based interview. It has also learnt from the outcome of a recent employment tribunal. Processes are advertised externally as well as internally. Candidates are tested through the assessment centre, interviews focusing on strengths that meet the force’s needs, situational tests and virtual reality testing. This is a positive change. To date, the process has been used for chief officer, superintendent and chief inspector selection processes. There are plans to extend this across all ranks. Evaluation is currently taking place, so the full effect isn’t yet fully understood.

The force is changing staff development processes. It is moving away from formal annual professional development reviews in favour of continuing engagement and dialogue between managers and staff. It is training 500 officers over the next 18 months to enable these discussions with the workforce to take place. This will be supported with management workshops led by HR advisers. The focus will be on regular conversations, rather than procedure and process. The force believes that this approach will identify talent and support talent management, succession planning and wellbeing.

The HR team supports development for officers and staff. There is a specific talent officer, but the force doesn’t have a formal talent management scheme. We were told that talent identification rests locally with area superintendents. Development is currently recorded in professional development reviews and agreed by line managers. Line managers know their team members, but an independent and identified process for managing talent may improve openness and support broader development opportunities. With the move towards ongoing engagement and dialogue between line managers and their team, this would make sure that there is a formal way of recording development and managing talent. We also found that local development opportunities aren’t recorded or retained corporately. The force should consider having a formal talent management process. 

Ambition to improve

As it strives to meet its £13m savings target under Transform 2020, North Yorkshire Police has identified that previous change programmes weren’t managed well. The force has secured expertise, through a private sector strategic partner organisation, to help produce the changes required. A new post of managing director will be responsible to the deputy chief constable and chief fire officer to drive the collaboration between the force and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. Payments to the transformation partner are directly linked to delivery of the savings. During our inspection, a temporary managing director was appointed to start this work.

Transform 2020 is also designed to make continuous improvement an integral part of how the force operates. Business cases that have been agreed in principle are now subject to both union and staff consultation. However, at the time of our inspection, there was limited understanding of future force demands. And it is unclear where any efficiency savings will be invested. This future understanding may improve through the intended enhancement of predictive analysis techniques within nexus. However, this approach isn’t yet embedded.

At the time of our inspection, operational functions within the remit of Transform 2020 were limited to the control room and the roll-out of the public safety service (PSS) – an initiative that will seek to co-locate police, fire, local authority and NHS. Much operational activity remains outside this remit, however. As a result, Transform 2020 may be limited in the scale of its ambition. The force told us that previous change activity was often driven by heads of department commissioning reviews and then implementing change. This left limited IT resources being drawn into too many change projects. As a result, project delivery timescales slipped. The force has made changes to try to avoid this happening again.

In our 2017 efficiency inspection, we identified a need for the force to develop a better understanding of the benefits of investing in and using IT, and to update its IT strategy to improve its ability to meet current and future demand. The force has now addressed this area for improvement. It has created a digital services group with six areas identified where IT services will be prioritised. A superintendent has been appointed to make sure that the programme delivers operationally, and it has introduced three governance boards (people, change and risk) to monitor and drive activity. Transform 2020 seeks to change how the force delivers projects. It intends to make sure that past mistakes aren’t repeated – for example, overestimating the benefits of mobile working.