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Minutes:
A question from a member of the public had been received:
This discussion relates to the setting and monitoring of targets for the Wiltshire and Swindon Police organisation, specifically related to the 12% increase applied to the 2019/20 precept charge
It seems that the Home Office guideline is that the police organisation not set any forward looking quantitative targets of what it is expected to achieve. but to measure past performance of what has happened.
It alsoseems thatthis philosophyis setout asguidelines, and,whilst adheringto these guidelines for Home Office purposes it does not preclude the organisation setting forward looking quantitative targets for its ownpurpose.
There is an argument that measuring historic performance in the current form is necessary, but not sufficient. The current measurement seems to be comparative to the organisations own past performance and that of peer organisations. By example, both base indices could be poor, the comparison could show excellence, and yet the actual performance delivered in real terms could be poor. The true value of retrospectiveperformance measurementis greatlyimpaired unlessit isrelative toprior set quantitative and objective forward-lookingtargets.
Setting this aside for the moment.
In March 2019 the organisation applied a 12% increase in the precept charge. The rate of inflation at that time was 1.9% and has remained average 1.9 year to date. The precept rate increase was 6x the rate of inflation.
The increase was justified on increasing police headcount by 50 operational
personnel. (reference: Wiltshire Police and Crime Panel -Thursday 7 February 2019)
There appears to be no record of any discussion that established a commitment as to what improvement in crime statistics was intended to be delivered from this increased precept charge and consequential increase in headcount. Related to the preface observation; there was no commitment made to any quantitative objective(s) that were intended to be delivered as a result of this increase.
Further, by relying on a retrospective measurement philosophy it would appear not to be possible to determine if any change in performance is a result of the increased resources or performance of the underlying resources.
It is recognised that the income of the organisation should keep pace with inflation, or change if so determined by the Home Office and central Governmentfunds
However, it seems unreasonable to increase the precept charge by a factor of 6 without contemporaneously committing to quantitative performance targets intended to be delivered as a result of the increased revenue. A singular target of adding 50 headcount bears no relationship to any intended outcome of operationalperformance.
There follows 2 recommendations
It seems that, in addition to adhering to Home Office guidelines, the organisation could also set forward looking quantitative targets. Doing so would then give context to the justification for any extraneous preceptcharges.
It is requested that the Committee seriously consider applying this Philosophy.
Any future increases in the precept charge, by a rate greater than the rate of inflation, should contemporaneously carry a commitment to forward looking quantitative performance targets intended to be delivered as a result of the increase.
It is requested that the Committee seriously consider applying this philosophy where a precept charge greater than the rate of inflation is being considered and applied.
Points made by the OPCC in response:
· The PCC and Force had an embedded performance review culture having moved away from a target driven approach.
· As a consequence of the 2019/20 precept increase, the Commissioner would be delivering the 41 additional police officers. The additional money also secured a new Digital crime team which focused on online fraud and child sexual exploitation, as well as a £500,000 funding boost to crime prevention with a particular focus on early intervention targeting those at risk of committing crime in future.
· The Chief Constable, the Police and Crime Panel regularly track performance, both retrospectively and on a daily ongoing basis
· The Police and Crime Panel reports clearly set out the resources that would deliver the priorities including increasing the availability and deployability of police officers in communities.