West Midlands PEEL 2017

West Midlands Police has many effective ways of understanding the demand for its services. However, some errors in crime recording practices cast doubt on the accuracy of crime data and too many calls from the public are not being answered. The combined effect is that the force’s understanding of demand may not be fully accurate because some incidents are not being recorded properly and others are not being recorded at all.

Each project in the force’s change programme has a detailed business case with the intended benefits and any disadvantages fully identified. However, despite the force’s considered approach, HMICFRS found that not all the consequences of change were properly considered; in particular the reduction of audit activity in the high-risk area of domestic abuse should have been thought through more carefully. Also, despite the efforts to involve staff in all aspects of the change programme, we spoke to a small number of frontline workers who did not feel they had the proper opportunity to exert influence over the force’s future.

West Midlands Police is good at using its resources to manage demand. It has an adequate understanding of the current skills and capabilities of the workforce and those that will be required in the future. However, this position could be improved upon if the scope of its skills audit was extended to cover police staff competencies further. This would enable it to consider recruitment and training more effectively to develop a more productive workforce. Similarly, the force’s understanding of leadership skills and capabilities is limited in scope. Its focus is primarily on the operational skills and qualifications of police officers. The force recognises that it needs to develop a broader understanding to enable it to recruit and train future leaders in a more systematic and focused way. The force has allocated £2m to introduce and implement fully a new comprehensive leadership development programme.

The force continues to have a good understanding of prioritisation and costs; this takes into account the public’s changing expectations and national policing requirements. The force uses this understanding to vary service levels intelligently across the force to reduce costs and to meet changes in demand. The force has a strong record of reducing costs while improving the quality of its services, and there is a structured system to advise on, decide on and control investment. Comprehensive governance arrangements provide effective controls to assess the benefits of the force’s investment decisions. The force continues to demonstrate a strong commitment to joint working with a range of public and private sector agencies, in particular to support its drive to engage in early intervention and prevention.

The force is clear about the benefits from joint working, including arrangements with organisations outside law enforcement, such as the NHS. The force also ensures that all joint working arrangements are designed to improve the service to the communities of the West Midlands. The force is proactive in seeking out opportunities for service improvement and leaders show a willingness to experiment with new approaches. The force can demonstrate its commitment to innovation and this often results in an improvement to working practices.

Although there are areas where the force’s understanding of demand can be improved, overall the force is outstanding at planning for the future.

The force pays careful attention to public expectations and how they are changing in the development of its change programme and the training of its officers to be 21st century public servants. The force has a thorough understanding of the benefits that technology can offer policing and many aspects of the change programme focus on developing the force’s digital capability to enable it to operate more efficiently. The force has substantial plans to enable it to meet the problems and opportunities presented by technological advancements; it is planning to invest £31.7m over three years. The force works closely with other organisations in the West Midlands to improve outcomes for the public, reduce costs and build resilience.

The force’s plans are ambitious, wide-ranging and underpinned by effective governance arrangements. The next phase of the change programme is intended to focus more on how the force secures the envisaged benefits from its new operating model. The force works closely with its innovation and integration partner to ensure its change programme remains on track and that improvements to services are smoothly implemented.

There are some areas that require a greater focus. Staff development should be made more available throughout the workforce and the volume of calls received into the force’s contact centre needs to be managed better. Nevertheless, the strength of the force’s future plans and careful budgetary control leave the force in a very strong position to meet the challenges of the future.