In a decision which Chairman Councillor Dave McLuckie has described as ‘of critical importance in maintaining and improving the service to our local communities—and with major implications for policing nationally’, Cleveland Police Authority has today agreed on a multi-million partnership for the delivery of a wide range of support services.
At its meeting this morning the Authority agreed to select the major business services organisation Steria as its partner for the ten-year £175million contract. Services covered by the agreement include information technology, call handling, criminal justice and business services including finance, human resources and procurement.
Major points of the partnership 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.
In a report from Authority Chief Executive Joe McCarthy and Chief Constable Sean Price, members were told that the bid from Steria would deliver £50million in savings over the ten years—and the company would also be setting up a major service in the area, offering the prospect of further investment and employment opportunities.
Said Councillor McLuckie “Whilst this is a very significant development—certainly the first of this scale in the country—it is in many ways a natural progression from the partnership approach we have been developing over a number of years...for example the Private Finance Initiative which delivered some of the best buildings and facilities in the country, the partnership agreement for custody services which resulted in both a more efficient service and released police officers for operational duties and the development with Steria of the CUPID mobile technology service for officers on the beat.
“We have not gone into this development lightly—from the very start we have scrutinised every aspect with the very clear view that we would only go ahead with a partnership if it could be shown to deliver a better service, generate significant savings—and protect the interests of staff.
“The result of the very detailed assessment process has demonstrated that all those objectives can be achieved. Take for example the quality of service to the public—in their bid Steria have made clear that it can make significant improvements in the way in which calls from the public are handled..such as the introduction of a ‘customer call back’ system to check if people are satisfied with the service they have received...and arrangements for people to provide information via email and text.
“Under the partnership agreement it is clear that calls will continue to be handled from the Force control room, which will remain based at our Force headquarters—and the response to emergency calls will remain under the control of the Force.
“The savings of £50million which Steria will deliver would be welcome at any time but are critically important as we approach a situation where, in common with the rest of the public services, we know we will be facing significant cuts in Government funding over the coming years.
“We want to ensure that, despite the grim financial situation, we are able to maintain—and even enhance—our front-line services and the savings generated through the partnership will make a significant contribution to achieving that aim.
“I do understand that staff affected by the partnership will feel a degree of uncertainty, but I firmly believe that this is a development which offers them protection of their jobs, conditions and pensions at a level probably available to no other group of workers on Teesside—and perhaps nationally—and I take pride in the fact that we have been able to achieve that protection for the full ten years of the contract at a time when many other authorities are seeking major job cuts..
“Steria have also made clear that, as a result of gaining this contract, they will be setting up a shared service in the area which offers the prospect of further employment opportunities for local people—and, dependent on the company gaining further business, additional cash benefits for the authority.
“In recent years we have proved that partnership working produces real benefits for the Force and our service to the public and we are convinced that the decision we have taken today is the right way forward for ourselves—and will be seen as highly significant by the rest of the police service.”
Chief Constable of Cleveland Police Sean Price said: “It’s clear that we need to make huge savings in the future and the only way we can achieve this without losing jobs is by working with a private sector partner.
“Steria’s expertise will help us protect our people’s jobs and improve services to local communities.
“It’s also important to re-iterate that the 999 and non-emergency call functions will remain at Cleveland Police Headquarters, and incidents will continue to be commanded by police officers.
“This partnership will also help us put Cleveland Police ahead of the game when it comes to national issues, such as the Information Systems Improvement Strategy (ISIS), which looks to join up all police forces to a single IT system by 2015.”
John Torrie, Chief Executive Officer of Steria UK, commented, “We feel proud to have been selected by Cleveland Police Authority and we are looking forward to working in a true partnership with them to deliver even better services to the citizens of Cleveland.”