Home Office circular 004 / 2008

Policing plan regulations 2008 (guidance)

Dear Chief Officer/Chair of police authority

1. This circular provides guidance to police authorities and chief officers on the policing plan as provided for under section 6ZB of the Police Act 1996 as inserted by the Police and Justice Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”). This provision and regulations provided for under this will commence on the 14 March 2008 and apply to all plans issued on or after that date.

Legislation

Section 6ZB of the Police Act 1996

2. Requirements under section 6ZB of the Police Act 1996 (“the 1996 Act”), as inserted by the Police and Justice Act 2006):

• policing objectives should be consistent with the strategic priorities determined by the Home Secretary under section 37A of the 1996 act

3. Before determining policing objectives, a police authority shall:

a) consult the relevant chief officer of police

b) consider any views obtained by the authority in accordance with arrangements made under section 96 of the Police Act 1996

4. A draft of the policing plan required to be issued by a police authority shall be prepared by the chief officer and submitted to the police authority for it to consider. The police authority shall consult the chief officer before issuing a policing plan which differs from the draft submitted by the chief officer.

5. The chief officer, when exercising independent direction and control of the force, must have regard to the policing plan. The chief officer would be expected to consult with the police authority if operational considerations require him/her to deviate in any significant way from the Policing Plan.

Policing plan regulations 2008

6. The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision supplementing the requirements set out above in the 1996 Act. Regulations were made on 6 February 2008.

7. Under these regulations police authorities must consider any of their own performance targets, any matters relating to the efficiency and effectiveness arising out an inspection or raised by the Home Secretary, any direction given to the police authority by the Home Secretary, CDRP (or CSP) strategies and LAA local improvement target before issuing the plan. The plan itself must set out:

a) the police authority’s expectations for the local police force: what it is expected to deliver in the three years covered by the plan in terms of both national and local policing priorities, the resources expected to be available, any planned increases in efficiency and productivity and how the force’s performance will be measured and judged. 

b) any action taken or action that it plans to take to address the findings from audit and inspection reports, or following directions from the Home Secretary.

c) how they are exercising their duties as responsible authorities under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to consider the priorities agreed by local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (Community Safety Partnerships in Wales) in determining the policing contribution to be made to the three year CDRP plans and, in England only, Local Area Agreements. The regulations do not detract from the duty on police authorities to contribute to the development Crime and Disorder Plans

d) information on planned increases in efficiency and productivity and how the force proposes to meet any target set for increased efficiency and productivity

e) information on collaborative working between the local police force and other forces, and any proposals to consider collaborative working arrangements between forces, should be included.

f) any planned improvements in the delivery of protective services, and how those improvements will be delivered

g) out-turn information for Statutory Performance Indicators (SPIs) in their policing plans. This will be in the abridged Best Value Performance Plan 2008/09 to be published by 30 June 2008. The guidance in this paragraph only applies up until 2008

8. The following paragraphs contain guidance of how to best fulfil these requirements.

a) collaboration – details of arrangements in place for collaborative working between the local police force and other forces must be included in the plan. To achieve this, the plan should take an account of any examination made of opportunities for collaboration and an explanation of decisions taken as to whether these would be pursued.  The examination of opportunities for collaborative working should be an ongoing process and this account should reflect how the authority and the local police force ensure its continued consideration

b)  resources, efficiency and productivity – assumptions made about the resources expected to be available over the three years to implement the policing plan must be included in plans. Planned increases in efficiency and productivity should also be included over the three year period of the policing plan and they should be just as much part of the planned resources available for delivering priorities as expected levels of funding or staffing. To best achieve this the trajectory of planned efficiency and productivity increases over the years covered by the plan will show how the force and authority intend to meet the efficiency and productivity target. In setting out the overall approach to efficiency and productivity (output increases, cost reductions, or combinations of both), the policing plan should say how account has been taken of the approaches to improving efficiency set out in the police service efficiency and productivity strategy. Planned changes to the size, composition or strategic deployment of the workforce or to working processes should be summarised, setting out how they will increase efficiency and productivity and what contribution this will make to the delivery of priorities. Measures should be in place to demonstrate that the planned outputs or outcomes linked to planned efficiency or productivity gains have been achieved (i.e. that  the quantity of outputs has been maintained or increased and that quality has been maintained). The planning for efficiency and productivity gains within a policing plan may be part of the evidence taken into account by the Audit Commission in making judgements about arrangements to secure value for money within the Police Use of Resources Evaluation. Plans should include how any efficiency and productivity strategy for the service has been taken into account

c) inspection findings – Matters arising from audits and inspections must be included in the plan. This should be a summary of any key or important recommendations made by HMIC and how the authority has responded.  This includes its plans to ensure that it meets the agreed standards for protective services

d) protective services – improvement plans for protective services must be included in plans and these should include information on the following:

i) the results of local assessments undertaken of the levels of threat and capability in the protective services, including relationships with other forces

ii) work to be undertaken under the plan, including the decisions made on prioritisation

iii) resources allocated to deliver the plan, identifying new or existing resource and include shared assets

iv) details of how plans are to be delivered, including governance arrangements and details of any MOUs and SLAs

v) the measures in place to review and ensure that those plans are sufficient to make appropriate improvements in high need areas by 2009 and meet the national standards by 2011

vi) details of how they plan to ensure they are able to provide agreed support to existing regional and national initiatives. 

Police forces and authorities should consider the need to protect any information relating to protective services which it would not be in the public interest to reveal because it would inhibit the prevention and detection of crime. Where necessary information should be included in a separate part of the plan with appropriate security restrictions.  Such a decision is at the discretion of police forces and authorities. 

e) Local Area Agreements – Under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which commences in April 2008, police authorities will be under a legal duty to cooperate in determining LAA targets and to have regard to the targets. This will mean including these targets in policing plans. Communities and Local Government have published draft guidance titled “Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities Statutory Guidance: Draft for Consultation”, available at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/550804 (new window). Although the guidance is published in draft form, it will still be useful for police authorities to be aware of this when planning their approach to the new provisions, albeit the regulations do not formally require that local improvement targets be included in the policing plan for March 2008. Authorities should also be aware that the guidance may change as a result of the LAA consultation. A final version of the statutory guidance will be published in May 2008. From June 2008, LAAs will be the only place where central government can set targets for outcomes delivered by local government on its own or in partnership.  In order to achieve consistency between LAA targets and policing plans it is important that police authorities work with CSPs and CDRPs to ensure that the various plans take account of each other.

f) Workforce/staffing matters – police authorities will still be required to produce outturn data against statutory performance indicators for the plan produced at the end of the financial year 2007-2008. In taking account of the workforce issues that arise in procurement under best value, authorities will need to recognise:

i) the connection between good quality services and handling of workforce issues and that neglecting relevant workforce matters in order to drive down costs can have adverse effects on the desired quality and value for money of the service

ii) the necessity of achieving the appropriate balance between considerations of cost and quality. It is unlikely that either a purely cost-driven or an unjustifiably expensive service will represent best value

iii) that a transparent, open and fair procurement process is essential to attracting bids that provide the optimum combination of whole life cost and quality. All decisions should be based on objective criteria that are justifiable in terms of the performance of the service specified under the contract. Authorities should therefore have clear procurement strategies, procedures and written policies for evaluating tenders

iv) the emphasis on continuous improvement within best value and the implications for how strategic contracts in particular are structured

v) the relevance of equal opportunities to the delivery of contracts

vi) the importance of handling TUPE well, so as to allay workforce reservations about transferring to new employers

Procurement decisions by police authorities should take proper account of workforce issues. Officers, staff and unions should be involved in the option appraisal stage, and where there is a decision to outsource, officers, staff and unions should be involved in the selection process and in the subsequent detailed work around the transfer. Where TUPE applies, the current employer is obliged to make information available to workers’ representatives and the new employer and to consult workers’ representatives on matters relating to the transfer.

Police authorities must have due regard to the provisions set out in the following sections of the 2003 statutory ‘Best value and planning guidance for police authorities and forces’:

Appendix E: Handling of Workforce Matters in Contracting

Appendix F: Code of Practice on Workforce Matters in police authority Service Contracts.

g) Issue and publication – the policing plan must be issued before the beginning of each financial year, i.e. by 31 March and published before the 30 June in such a manner as appears to the authority to be appropriate. The plan should be made accessible to local communities. 

Non-statutory guidance/best practice

9. The paragraphs below set out matters that should be included in a policing Plan for best practice:

a) consultation – details of the forms and types of consultation undertaken, how this has influenced the authority’s decision-making and choice of local priorities and contact details for feedback

b) costing – authorities should use activity analysis to explain as far as possible the projected costs of meeting national and local priorities, as well as give details of major expenditure

c) accessibility – information about any proposals to increase or change public accessibility to policing services 

d) reassurance and visibility – information about steps being taken by the authority and force to increase directly visibility and reassurance. This may include, for example, use of Police Community Support Officers

e) equality and human rights – authorities and forces should draw attention to their equality schemes, compliance with Human Rights Act 1998 and other diversity initiatives and how local people can obtain them

f) quality of service commitment – how police authorities will meet their quality of service commitment to secure and maintain high levels of satisfaction with their service that meets the needs of individuals and communities

Development and modification of policing plans

10. Although the statutory requirement is for the chief officer to prepare a  draft of the policing plan and to submit it to the police authority for consideration, effective plans are more likely to be developed through continuous dialogue between the force and the authority. The police authority ultimately ‘owns’ the plan, and it is their role to test and challenge the draft plan to ensure that it is fit for purpose, has considered all the matters set out in guidance, is within the resources anticipated, meets strategic aims, reflects consultation with local communities and the style of policing appropriate to the area, and has adequately balanced national and local priorities.  The police authority must consult the chief officer, either before amending any draft policing plan submitted by him/her or before modifying any existing plan, and this, too, is clearly best done through involving key people in both authority and force  as the plan is being developed, or as soon as it becomes obvious that modification is required. Likewise, the chief officer will consult with the police authority if he/she feels that the existing Policing Plan ought to be adjusted in any way.

Publication

11. The policing plan containing all the relevant information set out at paragraph 7 above must be ‘issued’ before the beginning of the each financial year. This is different to being ‘published’ (see below). ‘Issued‘ means that the final content of the plan, including information about local priorities must have been approved by the police authority and be available to the public. 

12. The copy of the policing plan which is ‘issued’ and ‘published’ should be sent to the Home Secretary. This can be through a web link, hard copy or CD-Rom.

13. For the plans published in 2008 only, the policing plan should be ‘published’ by 30 June, once complete out-turn data about performance for the previous year is available and has been included in the Plan. The final out-turn data may necessitate some minor adjustment to the targets that have been set in the plan, but other than this, the plan should not require additions or significant changes. The publication requirement in the regulations provides considerable discretion as to how and in what format the plan is published. The policing plan needs to be an accessible document and police authorities should consider producing different versions and formats of the plan appropriate to their local situation.

Other plans

Best value performance plans

14. HOC 004/2007 set out the remaining requirements under the Best Value and Performance Plan, following the disapplication of many aspects of best value legislation as a result of the Police and Justice Act 2006. Transitional provisions[1] mean that police authorities must publish an abridged BVPP, setting out SPIs until the financial year ending 31 March 2008. In practice, this means that the out-turn information about SPIs for the year period 2005-2008, will need to be included in the policing pan for 2008/09 and published by 30 June 2008.

Local Area Agreements

15. Police authorities in England should co-operate with other local authorities in agreeing LAA targets, as of April 2008 this will become a formalised legal duty under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. Police authority functions in themselves are outside the scope of LAAs, but LAA targets must be considered when in partnership with local government. Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships will also feed into the LAA process.

Crime and Disorder Plans

16. As noted in paragraph 6 above, Chief Officers and police authorities will need to contribute to the development of Crime and Disorder plans.

Reporting requirements

Police authorities

17. Police authorities are required to produce an annual report as soon as possible after the end of the financial year (under section 9(1) of the Police Act 1996). The report must be published in “such a manner as appears to (the police authority) to be appropriate” and a copy sent to the Home Secretary under section 9 (3) and (4) of the Police Act 1996. The annual report must include an assessment of the extent to which, during that year proposals have been implemented, and things have been done, in accordance with the Policing Plan.

18. Police authorities are still required to produce local policing summaries under section 8A of the Police Act 1996 (introduced by section 157 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005).

Chief Officer’s Annual Report

19. Each chief officer is required to submit to the police authority, as soon as possible after the end of the financial year “a general report on the policing during that year of the area” and to arrange for the report to be published “in such manner as appears to him to be appropriate” (section 22 (1) and (2) of the Police Act 1996).

Publishing Reports

20. Both the police authority and the chief officer have discretion over the way in which their annual reports are published. For example, they may be published as separate documents, or published together under the same cover, or indeed published together with the policing plan. 

21. Many authorities and forces currently choose to publish their reports jointly. This is acceptable, provided that police authorities ensure that they clearly identify within the document their comments on:

• the performance of the force
• the extent to which the policing plan, including the objectives and targets set, have been met

22. Police authorities annual reports should contain the out-turn data, even where it has not been possible to include this within the plan in the time available.

23. Copies of the 2006 act and explanatory notes are available from the Stationery Office and on-line at www.opsi.gov.uk/acts2006/006048.html

Yours sincerely

Richard Clarke
Head of Police Reform Unit

[1] Contained in ‘The Police and Justice Act 2006 (Commencement No.2, Transitional and saving Provisions) Order 2007 (No 709 (C.30))

Attachments

• Richard Clarke Electronic Signature.doc (Microsoft Word file - 100kb)

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