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Dyfed-Powys PEEL 2014

Efficiency

How well the force delivers value for money

Last updated 12/11/2014
Good

 

Dyfed-Powys Police will meet the challenge of the spending review and is now preparing for further austerity in the future.

Dyfed-Powys Police has continued to make good progress in managing the reduction to budgets while maintaining a good level of service to the public. The force is on track to meet the spending review challenge through identified savings. It has made changes to the way it manages policing, and has plans in place to improve further the productivity of business support functions to help the policing operation run more effectively. It is also planning to provide its officers with improved mobile technology to enable them to work more efficiently.

The force has benefited from facing a smaller financial challenge than other forces in England and Wales and, with the agreement of the PCC, is using its reserves in 2015/16 to smooth the transition to a new structure.

The force is looking beyond 2016 where the financial position becomes more challenging.

Work is progressing to develop savings plans; the restructure of business support functions and technology are key elements to ensuring a sustainable provision of policing in the future.

Dyfed-Powys is aware of the long-term financial challenges, but benefits from a low demand on resources, support from the PCC to invest reserves and a strong focus on keeping communities safe.

Questions for Efficiency

1

To what extent is the force efficient?

Good

The challenge for Dyfed-Powys Police does not come from being able to manage the volume of demand, but from having to provide a full policing capability over a very large geographic area.

The force carried out an initial restructure at the start of the spending review period that resulted in savings in police staff posts and senior police officer ranks. It is now refining this further to improve the business support functions through the ‘Public First’ programme.

 

2

To what extent is the force taking steps to ensure a secure financial position for the short and long term?

Good

Dyfed-Powys Police has plans in place that will, with the use of reserves, achieve its entire savings requirement to 2014/15.

The force faces a less difficult challenge than some other forces as it benefits from receiving a higher proportion of its funding from the police element of the council tax and so is less affected by the impact of central government police cuts.

The force faces greater uncertainty for 2016/17 and beyond, and its plans for this are less well developed. Work is progressing to develop options for future savings. The restructuring of the way business support functions operate and a greater use of technology are key to this.

 

3

To what extent has the force got an affordable way of providing policing?

Good

The force has focused its savings on police staff, losing a higher proportion than other forces in England and Wales. This has allowed it to protect police officer numbers.

The force plans to have a greater proportion of its workforce and police officers in frontline crime fighting roles than the figure for England and Wales.

The force is starting to implement a new change programme, ‘Public First’, which aims to improve the service to the public by making better use of resources to limit cuts in frontline policing and to invest in new technology to support officers in doing their jobs more efficiently.