Chair’s annual report: chair outlines key issues for new Chief

21 February 2025

The chair of Northamptonshire Police Federation has outlined the key issues he wants the new Chief Constable to tackle.

Sam Dobbs has briefed Ivan Balhatchet on the matters affecting members and the Force in general, including demand, response, and leadership and stability.

This is all outlined in his latest annual report, which outlines the work of the Federation in 2024 (see below for link).

Sam said that the demand on members and the increasing pressures they faced is an ongoing area of concern for the Federation.

New Northamptonshire Police Chief Constable, Ivan Balhatchet.

He said: “Over three years, we have been assured of work to assess demand so that resources can be allocated to the right places and so decisions can be made in every case as to posting where demand requires.

“We are still not convinced that the Force fully understands the complexity of the demand. The previous attempt to assess it resulted in unrealistic outcomes that we couldn't meet with our current resources.

“Simply put, if we don’t have enough staff to meet demand, shifting people around won’t solve the problem.

Challenging

“This has led to challenging and fruitful conversations with both the Chief Constable and the Commissioner.”

Sam asked for reassurance that the right number of officers were in the right areas to help meet demand.

The branch shared its concerns about issues facing response officers including the pressure and expectations on them.

It said that ‘the issue of pressures on response sergeants is identified as a risk on the Force risk register’.

“And we fully supported this conclusion,” said Sam, adding: “We continue to seek reassurance that the 12-hour shift pattern is not disproportionately damaging to officer welfare and wellbeing, given continuing issues with response officers being kept on beyond their 12 hours.

“We urgently need to identify whether this is down to the shift pattern itself, the impact of the nighttime economy or the way it is being managed.

Leadership

On the issue of leadership and stability, the Federation said it ‘looked forward to the reversing of the many temporary ranks and postings’.

Sam said: “It must be accompanied by fair processes so that it is not a given that long-standing temporary promotions are just made permanent.

“We have been very patient with the ‘needs must’ argument, but this needs careful handling by the Force leadership.”

Other areas of priority Sam highlighted with Ivan include Force funding, tutoring, and the Domestic Abuse Investigation Unit (DAIU).

Sam shines a light on the work the Federation had been doing to raise awareness of Force funding issues with previous Northamptonshire MPs and Danielle Stone, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).

“We need to reach out to our new MPs,” said Sam, adding: “We have been delighted with the interest taken with by the Commissioner in the interest raised.”

Feedback

He also emphasised the low staffing and pressures faced by the DAIU, and said that feedback from officers ‘continued to worry us and the Force’.

Sam continued: “We have canvassed and fed back views to the Force leadership, to the Chief Constable at a Federation Council meeting, and the Detective Superintendent attended a later Council meeting to hear comments from his teams via a Fed Rep.

“The changes to the DAIU – staffing, enforced moves and allocation policies – came into play at the beginning of January, and the leadership commissioned the Federation to contact staff directly in February for direct and candid feedback on the effect of the changes, which we have committed to do.

“This is also a risk area for the Force, as domestic abuse was highlighted as an area for improvement in our last HMICFRS Inspection and will be re-inspected in the follow-up to the Peel process.

“Based on our feedback, the Deputy Chief Constable visited the department to calibrate our findings and has echoed the Federation’s concerns.”

The branch highlighted the need for ‘consistent and quality tutoring’ for student officers.

Support

There have been too many occasions when student officers have too many tutor constables, Sam said, adding: “And we should not underestimate the toll on tutors.

“We have participated in the consultation on how tutoring student officers might change and have shared concerns about how student numbers affect staffing levels and our service to the public, with various implications and ramifications.

“That's why we support a more hands-on, traditional approach, allowing officers to gain experience in different areas of policing.”

Sam ended with: “The new Chief Constable has been very responsive to dealing with some lingering grievances and temporary promotions outside force policy, as well as discussing pressures on Federation representatives.

“Above all, the main thing is that we all agree that everything we do is about driving up the trust and confidence in policing within our county.”

Read more about the branch’s briefing for the Chief Constable and about its wider work in the chair’s annual report, which is available to download now here.