Cleveland Police Authority’s ground-breaking partnership agreement for the delivery of a wide range of support services is generating enormous interest across the whole of the police service.
Representatives from over 20 authorities and forces took part in an ‘open day’ event organised by the Authority and Force to explain how plans for the partnership were developed and the potential benefits—including generating significant savings, protecting jobs and improving the service to the public.
Authority Chair Councillor Dave McLuckie and Chief Constable Sean Price were joined at the briefing by senior figures from Steria, partners in the £175million ten-year contract for the delivery of services including information technology, call handling, criminal justice and business services including finance, human resources and procurement.
Said Councillor McLuckie “We always expected that other authorities and forces would be interested in the partnership because it is the first of its kind in the country—and because right across the country everyone is looking at ways in which front-line services can be maintained during a period of severe financial pressures.
“The very fact that so many authorities and forces thought it worthwhile to attend the open day demonstrates that we really have led the way in showing how partnership working can enable us to do things better and more efficiently.
“Of course the partnership with Steria is not our first move into partnership working—we used the Private Finance Initiative approach to provide some of the best buildings and facilities in the country, working with a private sector partner for the provision of custody services released more officers for front-line duties...and, of course, Steria were partners in the development of our CUPID mobile technology system for officers on the beat.”
Major points of the new partnership with Steria include:
- £50m of savings over the ten years of the contract to help protect frontline policing.
- A guarantee for the full ten years of the contract, protecting current terms, conditions and pension rights plus a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies for all transferring staff—in total around 470.
- 999 calls will continue to be handled from the Force control room, which will remain at Force headquarters with responses to calls remaining under the control of the Force..
- Steria will set up a shared service centre in the area with the prospect of further job creation.
Steria is a major international company providing services to clients in the public and private sectors. It employs 18,300 people working across 16 countries and in recent years has been in partnership with Cleveland Police in the development of the Force’s state-of-the-art mobile technology system.