Why is this important?

The four forces and police authorities of Yorkshire and the Humber are at the leading edge of joint working, building a resilient regional capability, supporting neighbourhood policing teams and delivering value for money. 

There are four clear strands running through the principles of joint working:

• Reducing overall costs whilst maintaining service
• Supporting local teams in tackling serious and organised crime and cross border criminality
• Improving the service we provide to the public
• Delivering value for money.

All forces face the challenge of improving public confidence and providing greater value for money at a time when the Comprehensive Spending Review has led to significant reductions in policing budgets.  In order to improve capability in specialist policing services and make efficiency savings, the momentum for regional collaboration has increased.

What’s happened so far?

During 2010 an external review was undertaken by consultancy firm, Deloitte, to identify in both the operational and support areas of business, what could be done to achieve greater effectiveness and value for money.  Deloitte examined 12 activities in each of the four forces.  Within the area of Operations they assessed Specialist Crime, Operations Support, Scientific Support, Criminal Justice and Customer Contact and within the area of Support Services they assessed Finance, Human Resources, Learning and Development, Estates, Procurement, Fleet and Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Following decisions made by the Regional Collaboration Board (RCB) and Joint Police Authorities Committee (JPAC) in September 2010, project managers were appointed to undertake the development of implementation plans for Scientific Support, Procurement and Fleet Services.  JPAC then approved plans for Scientific Support and Procurement to become collaborative projects following appropriate and ongoing staff and union consultation.

With regards to Criminal Justice, the RCB and JPAC supported the move for effective collaboration between the four forces in Yorkshire and the Humber with our partners the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and HM Court Service.  Further work will be undertaken during 2011 to develop collaborative opportunities in this area. 

The other seven areas, (ICT, HR, Finance, Operations Support, Specialist Crime, Estates, and Learning and Development), are currently run by Executive Leads who have all been asked to develop high-level savings plans to consider how the functions could be delivered more efficiently with a budget reduction of 25%.

Results

2010 saw the launch of Operation Odyssey, the brand name for the region’s operations team.  Within this, the Regional Roads Crime Team celebrated its second anniversary, having made over 1,000 arrests and seizing over £10 million worth of assets. 

In June 2010, the Regional Programme Team hosted the National Collaboration Conference to high acclaim.  The year ended with Operation Yankee, bringing in a combined sentence of over 50 years imprisonment for the 14 members of a regional, criminal car gang.