Cleveland PEEL 2017
Efficiency
How efficient is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?
How well does the force understand demand?
Cleveland Police has a detailed understanding of demand, which it continues to develop. The force is developing its understanding of demand that is less likely to be reported, which is based on the type of crime, geographical areas and specific communities. It has good governance and adequate processes in place to identify and remove inefficiencies from its processes and systems.
The force is good at prioritising how it deals with different types of demand to ensure that it responds appropriately to each call for service. It has basic arrangements in place for ensuring that the benefits from its change programmes are realised. It is good at listening to and receiving feedback from its workforce and has systems in place that allow its workforce to provide feedback. The force involves its workforce in seeking new ideas and when implementing change.
How well does the force use its resources?
Cleveland Police has a good understanding of the skills and capabilities it needs in its workforce and leadership, now and in the future. It is making good use of external recruitment, promotion processes and training to develop these skills further, although the force could do more to understand the broader skills and leadership skills the workforce has now. The force has some flexibility in how it prioritises and redistributes its workforce resources with the required skills, allowing flexibility in the deployment of resources.
The force’s approach to prioritising its activities is informed by national requirements and public expectations. The force is making sensible decisions about what it invests in. It continues to work well with other forces, partner agencies and its private sector providers and takes a proactive, wide-ranging and well-structured approach to considering options for collaboration. Cleveland Police actively seeks out best practice and improved working practices from other forces, academics and independent reviews.
Areas for improvement
- The force should undertake appropriate activities to fully understand its workforce’s capabilities, in order to identify any gaps and put plans in place to address them. This will enable the force to be confident in its ability to be efficient in meeting current and likely future demand.
- The force should conduct a leadership skills audit that will allow it to understand leadership capacity and capability.
How well is the force planning for demand in the future?
Cleveland Police is developing its understanding of future demand. The force has taken positive steps to understand the public’s views about what services they are likely to want in the future. It has plans to make good use of changes in technology. The force uses succession planning to fill future vacancies. Although there is no talent management programme in place, we found that the force is doing some work to identify and nurture the talent of its existing workforce.
The force continues to look externally to recruit talent into the organisation and makes good use of young people’s apprenticeships. It has consistently advertised its senior leaders and management posts externally and has recruited officers from other forces.
The force’s future plans are built on sound planning assumptions and are subject to informed challenge. Cleveland Police has a good track record of making savings and is on track to make further planned savings. However, it would be difficult for the force to make any rapid additional savings without stopping a service.