"Cleveland Police Authority is ’performing well’, according to an independent inspection report released on 2nd September 2010 by the Audit Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).
On a scale from one to four the joint inspection team assessed the Authority’s performance as 'THREE', which represents GOOD PERFORMANCE.
According to the HMIC and Audit Commission press release:
"The Police Authority's job is to make sure that local people have an efficient and effective police force. It should hold the Chief Constable of Cleveland Police to account on behalf of the local community.
Cleveland Police Authority is performing well overall. It provides strong and visible leadership and works well with the Force. It listens to local communities and ensures their concerns are given equal weight with regional and national objectives in setting the Force’s priorities and targets. This has helped Cleveland Police to become one of the top performing forces in the country over the past few years. In 2009 the Force recorded the lowest number of crimes for 19 years.
The report shows that the Authority is not afraid to take difficult decisions and is committed to securing value for money. Cleveland’s spending on policing is high but the Authority has set challenging targets to release savings in coming years. It is too early to assess whether they are enough to meet future financial challenges.
Authority members challenge performance and hold the Chief Constable to account for most areas of policing. But scrutiny is limited in some more complex areas of policing, such as terrorism, serious crime and other major challenges to public safety – referred to as protective services.
The Audit Commission’s Philippa Corner, spokesperson for the joint inspection team, said:
‘Cleveland Police Authority has forged a strong, but independent, working relationship with the Chief Constable – supporting the Force and challenging it to improve. It has enjoyed much success in ensuring the Force focuses on residents’ concerns, alongside many other regional and national priorities. As a result, it has helped to deliver real improvements to policing for all communities within Cleveland.’
Strengths include:
Robust and effective leadership.
Taking difficult decisions to drive improvement and secure the longer term transformation of services.
Understanding local communities and vulnerable groups and listening to their views. Acting on local concerns to ensure policing priorities reflect locally identified needs.
Actively promoting diversity and wider community engagement and ensuring that policing services are accessible to all.
Holding the Chief Constable to account for delivery of objectives, priorities and results.
Areas for improvement include:
Improving challenge to important areas of policing such as protective services.
Ensuring the Executive Office has enough capacity to support members in the future.
Achieving impact from plans to improve value for money.
Following today’s report Cleveland Police Authority will plan what it needs to do to improve its services to meet the changing needs of its communities."
Cleveland Police Authority was inspected by the HMIC and Audit Commission on 14-18 June 2010 with the results and final report published on 2 September 2010.
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