‘Police and public being failed by a lack of funding’

10 July 2023

Officers and the public are being “failed” by a lack of investment in the service, the chair of Nottinghamshire Police Federation has said.

Simon Riley was reacting to a newly published report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) into police performance, which contained praise but also some telling criticisms.

The report, which brings together significant findings from the 2021/22 police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspection programme, found that:

• Too many forces make decisions based on poor data or insufficient analysis of data;
• Forces too often have knee jerk reactions to long term problems and don’t work proactively enough to prevent issues arising in the first place;
• First-line supervisors are critical to improving performance and developing the right culture in forces, but they are not getting the investment and support they need;
• The public is too often being failed at the first point of contact, with long call delays, in particular non-emergency 101 calls; and
• The workforce is increasingly under-resourced and under skilled, with forces not doing enough to understand why such a large proportion of its workforce are leaving and having any plans in place to tackle it.

Simon commented: “This report highlights the red flags that the Police Federation has raised with the Government over many years. We warned that austerity cuts would have consequences and policing on a shoestring would lead to a weakened service. Our colleagues are doing everything humanly possible to paper over the cracks but the fact remains that policing is a service in crisis.

“The only way to turn this around is through investment, as the Federation has been consistently calling for. We need investment in training of supervisors and officers, not only to upskill them but because this is critical for retention, and there must be a commitment to multi-year funding of forces to enable long term planning and end this hand to mouth culture.”

The report highlighted police forces’ progress in recording crime, increasing from an estimated 80.5 per cent of all crime being recorded (excluding fraud) in 2014 to 92.4 per cent at the end of 2021/2022 inspections.

However, the inspectorate found that too many forces were failing to properly understand and manage their own performance, meaning they didn’t know which issues were most important to tackle and where and how they can improve.

The Federation agrees with HMICFRS that forces too often have knee-jerk reactions to long-term problems and are unable to work proactively enough to prevent issues of public concern from arising in the first place.

National deputy chair Tiff Lynch said: “If our members are to give the public the service they deserve, then long-term, sustained investment in policing must be the Government’s top priority.

“Only proper investment in the service will allow all the service to implement the procedures and training that are vital to improving policing and regaining public confidence and trust.”

Andy Cooke, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, noted that public trust and confidence in the police are at an all-time low, urging chief constables to take heed of the findings and work quickly to rectify issues.

He said: “We found a wealth of examples where police forces are performing well. Forces must learn from each other and should consider if the positive practice described in this report can be applied in their own area.

“But the public are still being let down too often by policing, and there are several improvements that forces need to make. One of the first things forces need to do is to get better at understanding and managing their own performance. Without this, forces cannot aspire to provide the high level of service that the public deserves.”