As Cleveland Police Authority battles to protect front-line services in the face of major cuts in Government spending, it has agreed to examine the potential for further savings through its ground-breaking agreement with private sector partner Steria.
Already a wide range of support services are being delivered through the partnership—the first of its kind in the country—and today Authority Chair Councillor Dave McLuckie said it made ‘common sense—and financial sense’ to examine the potential for delivering other services through the agreement.
Under the existing terms of the agreement with Steria the partnership will deliver £50million in savings over the ten years of the contract, as well as improving services and protecting the terms and conditions for transferred staff, including a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies.
Part of the agreement involves the transfer of a number of ‘back office’ activities, previously undertaken by police officers, to the civilian staff now employed by Steria, and today Authority members were told that a significant number of other roles—some currently undertaken by police officers and others by police staff— had been identified for potential civilianisation and transfer to Steria.
Said Councillor McLuckie “We know that in the next four years the funding from Government will be cut by 20 per cent or more, but we are determined to do everything possible to protect front-line policing on our streets and in our communities even though it is clear that overall police numbers will have to be reduced.
“That means maximising the number of officers available for the front line and that can only be achieved by reducing the number involved in other support activities which can be undertaken by civilian staff.
“We are committed under the agreement with Steria to transfer at least 70 police officer roles, but against the background of unprecedented financial challenges, we need to consider whether we can go further.
“That is why we have now approved for work to be carried out to examine whether it is possible to extend the scope of our agreement with Steria and what benefits that might bring, both financially and in terms of maximising front-line policing resources. Certainly the initial assessments suggest the potential for significant additional savings.
“We have always been clear that the interests of our staff have to be a top priority and, of course, the agreement with Steria provides for the protection of the terms and conditions of transferred staff, together with a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies for the length of the contract. Those same protections would apply to any other staff who might be transferred if we did agree to extend the scope of the agreement.”
The Authority will consider a further report on the potential for extending them agreement in February.