Humberside PEEL 2017
Efficiency
How efficient is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?
How well does the force understand demand?
Humberside Police has improved in how it understands current demand. However, it still requires improvement in the extent to which inefficient internal processes impose additional demand on the force. Its approach to prioritisation has some risks and causes a certain level of potential unintended consequences.
The force has enhanced its ability to identify demand and now has a good understanding of the demand for its services. It is identifying what can affect the demand now and in the future. It has processes in place to identify both the demand which presents the greatest risks to the public and that which, because it does not give rise to reports from the public, may be hidden (and the reasons for this). It has measures in place to raise awareness among its workforce. While some changes have been made to improve safeguarding, the force still needs to understand and review both internal inefficiencies and the unintended consequences of its approach to prioritisation.
Areas for improvement
- The force should put in place better processes and governance to understand and realise the benefits of risk-based policing activity, and how it affects the force’s ability to meet current and likely future demand efficiently.
How well does the force use its resources?
Humberside Police has improved its performance since the findings of HMICFRS’ 2016 efficiency inspection, but still requires improvement in how well it uses its resources. Although the force has completed a five-year workforce plan, it still needs to complete an audit of the workforce skills and capabilities. This should inform its understanding of gaps in workforce capability and capacity, and support succession planning and recruitment and selection. The force has a good understanding of its priorities and has a medium-term workforce plan, which will see the force recruit additional police officers as part of the plan to allocate resources to meet those priorities. It needs to refine the way it varies the levels of services it provides to meet changes in demand. It has longstanding joint ventures and works collaboratively with regional police forces and its partner organisations; these arrangements have seen the force make the savings it needs and improve efficiencies in the policing services it provides to the public.
Areas for improvement
- The force should undertake appropriate activities to understand its workforce’s capabilities fully, 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 ensure that it understands the level of service that can be provided at different levels of costs, so it can identify the optimum level of service provision.
How well is the force planning for demand in the future?
Humberside Police is assessed to be good in the way it is planning for the future. It has improved on how it predicts likely future demand and now has the structure in place to gain a better understanding of the factors that will have an impact on future demand both from the community and its partner organisations. The force continues to develop its workforce understanding and understanding of needs for the future, and has completed a workforce plan which is supporting it in that development and understanding. The force has plans to increase its numbers of police officers through to 2021 to provide additional resources to meet the demand it is predicting. It has identified its vision and aims and is aware of those that have been set by the public and the police and crime commissioner. It has a change programme based on realistic and sound assumptions. It aims to make the financial savings required of it, as well as the efficiencies necessary to provide the workforce and infrastructure it needs for the policing service it plans to provide.