002/2016 – Approval to submit funding bids to the Police Innovation Fund 2016/17 – 21 January 2016

Executive Summary and Recommendation:

The Police Innovation Fund (PIF) was set up to provide funding for innovative ideas to make policing more effective.   Written bids for the 2016/17 PIF must be submitted by 4^th January 2016.

North Yorkshire Police seeks the Commissioner’s approval to submit three bids to the PIF.  These are:

1. A bid to support North Yorkshire Police’s co-location with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority at Ripon.
2. A bid for funds to create a national Citizens in Policing website. This “proof of concept” bid will test the appetite for a collective solution to volunteer recruitment across the police service, and also establish how such a site might improve public understanding and engagement in the Citizens in Policing agenda.
3. A bid for funds to create a technology link between a Special Constabulary records management system and the National Police Coordination Centre.

Approval is also sought to support the following bids which are being submitted by other organisations:

1. Promoting secondments across the police service – led by the Metropolitan Police Service
2. Supporting Expansion and Quality of Volunteer Police Cadet programmes across the UK – led by National Volunteer Police Cadets
3. Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement for Humberside, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire – led by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside

Recommendation
That the Commissioner approves the submission of the bids submitted by North Yorkshire Police and by other organisations as detailed above and the subsequent progression of the bids if they are successful, including the required funding.

Decision

Police and Crime Commissioner decision: Approved

Signature:

Date: 21 January 2016
Title: Chief Executive Officer

1. Introduction and Background

The PIF has been established to incentivise collaboration, support improved police ICT and digital working and enable Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and the Chair of the Common Council’s Police Committee to invest in other innovative delivery approaches with the potential to improve policing and deliver further efficiency in the future.

For the 2016/17 bidding process, the PIF will work in two main ways:

• Supporting Proof of Concept bids: funding genuinely new, early stage but high potential ideas to develop into fully worked through solutions
• Supporting Implementation Ready bids: funding fully formed initiatives to bring innovation to life more quickly.

Bids must be submitted to the Home Office by 4^th January 2016 and it is anticipated PCCs and forces will be notified of successful bids by the end of March 2016.  As in previous years, bids will be assessed against the published criteria and for 2016/17 the following criteria applies:

• Improves outcomes for the public through innovation
• Enhances collaboration and will have an impact at a bigger scale
• Will be delivered and sustained
• Delivers efficiencies
• Have PCC/Partner co-investment

Successful bidders will receive funding by means of a grant paid in arrears, on receipt of the necessary supporting information.  This means that forces should expect to have funding available to meet costs before payments can be made by the Home Office under the terms of the grant.

The development of the NYP PIF bids has been overseen and directed by the Executive Group.  Expressions of interest were sought from throughout the force and submitted to the Executive Group on 16 October 2015.  The Executive Group reviewed the expressions of interest received and provided direction for three bids (detailed in section two below) to be progressed for recommendation to the Commissioner for submission for the 2016/17 funding round.  

2. Matters for consideration

1. Implementation Ready Bid – A bid to support North Yorkshire Police’s co-location with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority at Ripon.

The Commissioner has approved the re-location and co-location of officers and staff from NYP at Ripon and Boroughbridge police stations with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority (NYFRA) in a new purpose built facility on the existing NYFRA site in Ripon (Decision Notice 010/2015 approved 23 September 2015).  NYFRA approved the co-location with NYP in Ripon at their executive meeting on 23 September 2015.

This will support the close partnership and collaboration working between the two organisations and the current strategic direction of the NYP Estate.  NYP has an Estates Strategy that seeks to ensure that the Estate is managed as a corporate asset.  It ensures that the Estate is proactively managed and maintained, that statutory responsibilities are met and that space is utilised based on requirements for the specific function.  This in turn ensures our people have the accommodation they need, that teams are not ‘over accommodated’, supports estates rationalisation and Agile working thus supporting a sustainable NYP.

2. Proof of Concept Bid – A bid for funds to create a national Citizens in Policing website 

This “proof of concept” bid will test the appetite for a collective solution to volunteer recruitment across the police service, and also establish how such a site might improve public understanding and engagement in the Citizens in Policing agenda.

The website will also include the Employer Supported Policing (ESP) scheme incorporating the 114 organisations currently registered

According to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations/Civil Society Almanac (2014), approximately 12.7m people engage in volunteer activity at least once a month in England.

Whilst this is a large number of people, a scan of the marketplace confirms that there is a considerable amount of competition amongst not-for-profit/third sector organisations to attract committed volunteers, and many organisations (particularly national charities) have developed sophisticated recruitment mechanisms to ensure that potential interest in volunteering is effectively captured and converted, wherever or whenever that interest is generated.

The ESP scheme will also benefit from greater visibility in order to nurture effective partnerships between  employers, their staff, police and communities.

The police service is operating in this marketplace – but less strongly than it might.

Police volunteer vacancies are most commonly advertised on each Force’s own website and social media channels.  However, in comparison with “paid for” roles, the recruitment process is often less well developed, and there is no clear mechanism for volunteers to register their skills and interests and receive information about possible future opportunities that could suit their abilities.  As a result, the police may lose potential volunteers.

The NYP Police Chief Constable holds the national police portfolio for Citizens in Policing (CiP).  In November 2015, North Yorkshire Police commissioned a piece of research into attitudes on Citizens in Policing with a consumer panel of 1,001 adults (aged 18+) across England and Wales.

The results of the research highlighted two key facts:

• There is a lack of public knowledge about the breadth of volunteering opportunities in the police service
• Fifty percent of those surveyed would look for information about volunteering opportunities on a national Citizens in Policing website, listing all vacancies. In fact, no such website exists.

The purpose of the PIF proof-of-concept bid is to create a national Citizens in Policing website and run it for a 12 month period.  This will test the viability of a collective solution to raising awareness of Citizens in Policing as a concept, and developing a sound recruitment/registration of interest mechanism.  Delivering the bid will involve collaboration across all Forces, and will show whether such a site can be successful at filling the gaps highlighted by the research.

If funding is approved, the site will provide the following information and functionality:

• Multi-media information about the role of Citizens in Policing, and the different areas of volunteering
• A “jobs” section to allow Forces to submit details of their volunteer vacancies (through an administrative section) so that all current volunteer vacancies would be collected in one national portal in a similar format
• An “email alerts” sign-up. This section would allow members of the public who are interested in volunteering to define the geographical area, type of vacancy and number of hours they are interested in, and to receive email updates automatically when vacancies fitting these criteria are uploaded
• A web-chat facility staffed within set hours, linked to an email-back facility if the question needed to be answered locally
• A local links page to direct interest in specific Forces to the relevant pages of that Force’s website, so there is a clear link between national and local online information.
• Support material for forces when promoting the ESP scheme

The proposal is for two years of funding.  In the first year we would engage with stakeholders, contract the web developer and build the portal to the point of completion.  In the second year we would run the site as a live portal, in order to test the concept fully.  The project would end with an evaluation of the potential future for the site, and an assessment of sustainability.

In making her decision, the Commissioner is asked to consider the following points in relation to the national Citizens in Policing website bid:

• The proposed website will provide a recruitment/interest capturing service that is specifically focused on the police service – as such it is innovative and unique. However there are other non-sector-specific services that provide the same functionality (for example VInspired provides a free volunteer role advertising service aimed only at 16-25 year olds, Do-It provides a paid-for volunteer advertising service for all ages and employer types, and there are numerous commercial recruitment sites for the not-for-profit sector).  The national police site will therefore be putting the (grant supported) police site in direct competition with these other services.  However, the fact that our research showed there was a gap in the market suggests that the needs of potential police volunteers are not being adequately met by these other services.

• Delivering the project will be challenging, as it requires buy-in from police services across England and Wales, as well as other partners, who all currently have their own unilateral arrangements for information about Citizens in Policing and volunteer recruitment. A considerable degree of effort will therefore be needed to engender the collective approach required for the site to work.  For this reason the proposal is for a proof-of-concept, to see whether this level of collectively can practically be achieved. 

3. Implementation Ready Bid A bid for funds to create a technology link between a Special Constabulary records management system and the National Police Coordination Centre.

The NYP Police Chief Constable holds the national police portfolio for Citizens in Policing (CiP).  Through a multi-agency delivery group he is leading a number of initiatives that will review and reinvigorate the harnessing and value of, and for, volunteers in policing by:

• Refreshing the national CiP strategy to drive the provision of the desired policing service to the public and meaningful, rewarding opportunities for volunteers
• Developing a comprehensive CiP website that drives recruitment, deployment and retention of policing volunteers (See PIF Bid 2 above)
• Commencing with the Special Constabulary, extending the visibility of volunteers in policing across all forces through a link between the DutySheet records management system and the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC).

A policing volunteers’ service specification is being finalised as the basis of the new strategy and delivery plan. This reflects the principles of wider social action namely people coming together to help improve their lives and solve the problems that are important in their communities. It also makes a strong link to the potential contribution volunteers can make to the Strategic Policing Requirement capability.

One of the other initial tasks will be to get a fuller understanding of current resources committed to CiP, commencing with the Special Constabulary. Visibility of volunteers and their more comprehensive deployment is an important aspect of contributing to the National Policing Requirement.  An accredited, nationally agreed role profile will be established then, for those forces using the DutySheet records management system (34 to date and more anticipated), those profiles will form part of the NPoCC quarterly data returns.   An ICT solution is required to link DutySheet to NPoCC’s Mercury system thus avoiding the need for double-keying of data.

These returns provide a reliable picture of resources which can be interrogated to show the distribution of and any changes in accredited expertise. Once embedded this may be extended to the wider policing volunteer groups so the national picture, in its entirety, emerges and may be added to the whole policing effort.

4. Information on Bids Submitted by other Organisations

The following bids have been submitted by other organisations and seek the support of the Commissioner in order for them to be progressed:

a.) Promoting secondments across the police service
This bid is led by the Metropolitan Police Service and provides the opportunity to partner with other participating forces and the College of Policing in a two year pilot secondment project.  Specifically the force commits to the following:

• Affording a select number of Chief Inspectors, Superintendents and Chief Superintendents (and staff equivalents), as determined by the force, to submit applications to advertised secondment opportunities during the 2 year pilot period.  Indicatively up to 10% of those holding such rank or role.
• To match fund 50% of the remaining staff costs after the host organisation contribution where a suitable secondment is identified and the force agrees upon release.
• To assist in the identification of potential partner organisations

b.)Supporting Expansion and Quality of Volunteer Police Cadet programmes across the UK
This bid is led by the National Volunteer Police Cadets and aims to roll out a Digital platform with an integrated data collection process to participating forces, whilst supporting the delivery of a national adult leader training programme to save in police officer time and resources.  This will assist in providing key savings in implementation and also assist with the collection, analysis and use of cadet-specific data demonstrating positive outcomes and trajectories of involvement.

Key benefits are discernible through the VPC programme’s ability to successfully engage young people from diverse and vulnerable backgrounds.

c.) Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement for Humberside, Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire
This bid is being led by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside.  Evidence shows that that the reoffending rate of offenders where alcohol plays a part in their offending is consistently higher than the reoffending rate of all reoffenders. Transdermal Alcohol Monitoring Technology is being piloted in London (MOPAC) and in Northamptonshire and enabled through Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirements ordered at pilot Magistrates’ Courts.

It is intended to deliver a local pilot in three Magistrates’ Courts, Grimsby, Boston and Scarborough. Drawing lessons learnt from MOPAC, it is intended to broaden the offender cohort to include all offenders (where the order is appropriate) including those involved in Domestic Violence.

3. Contribution to Police and Crime Plan Priorities

The recommendations in this Decision Notice are offered on the basis that they will fully support the Police and Crime Plan priorities as follows:

• Cut Crime and Anti Social Behaviour
• Transforming the Organisation – Improving Efficiency & Productivity
• Partnerships & Commissioning – Valuable Partnership Working
• People First
• Affordability – Business Planning

4. Implementation and Resourcing Implications

Timeline:

• Police and Crime Commissioners are invited to submit bids by the deadline of 5pm on Monday 4^th January 2016 via the online portal.
• Police and Crime Commissioners and forces will be notified of successful bids by the end of March 2016.

Financial implications: 

If successful the financial implications of these bids for the Commissioner are to fund the following proportions of the total initiative cost as detailed below: 

PIF Bid	Project total cost	Proportion of PIF of bid requested	Proportion of cost met by NYP if PIF bid successful
1.  Co-location with NYFRA at Ripon	£2,127,360	£957,313	£0 (Due to partner funding)
2.  A national CiP website	£204,644	£99,821	£104,823
3.  ICT link for a Special Constabulary record management system	£77,000	£38,500	£38,500
4.Promoting Secondments Across the Police Service	£161,350	£29,379	£29,379
5.Supporting Expansion and Quality of the Volunteer Police Cadet Service	No costs incurred for North Yorkshire
6.Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement	£602,470	£301,235	£11,180.70

5. Consultations Carried Out

Name (Collar Number)	Department	Comments
	Office of the PCC
	Financial Services
	Local Policing
	Beyond Local Policing
	Human Resources
	Joint Corporate Legal Services
	Corporate Communications
	Property and Facilities
	Information and Communications Technology
	Transport
	Joint Corporate Commissioning and Partnership Services
	Procurement
	Organisation and Development
	Information Management

 6. Compliance Checks

The PIF bids being submitted on behalf for North Yorkshire Police have been through the following compliance checks.  PIF bids submitted by other organisations are required to follow their own internal processes.

Financial Implications/Value for money: 

Chief Constables Chief Finance Officer Comments: 

I have reviewed the three bids and am satisfied that the figures included represent a reasonable estimate of the costs of the projects.  The figures for the NYFRS co location bid are in agreement with the DN previously approved.

Legal Implications: 

Having read this report and having considered such information as has been provided at the time of being asked to express this view, the Acting Force Solicitor and Head of Legal Services is satisfied that this report does not ask the PCC for North Yorkshire to make a decision which would (or would be likely to) give rise to a contravention of the law.

Human Resources Implications:               

I note the content of the decision notice and also the PIF bid forms that relate and would make the following comments:-

Implementation Ready Bid – A bid to support North Yorkshire Police’s co-location with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority at Ripon.

As detailed this bid will provide an opportunity to maximise the benefits of collaborative working and allow the development of technological enablers and new ways of working within this joint location.  Any merging of teams should be managed through supportive change management and engagement activities.

Proof of Concept Bid – A bid for funds to create a national Citizens in Policing website 

This bid provides a unique opportunity to develop a new marketing and promotional hub for all police services across England and Wales to promote the increasing opportunities available for volunteering in policing. This facility would provide valuable and consistent information about the range of volunteering roles in the police service and could act as a portal to direct applicants to their local force in a similar fashion to ‘policecouldyou’ does now for regular officer vacancies.

During design and creation of such a site consideration would need to be given of current recruitment routes and practices within forces and the development of a standardised application form may be beneficial to provide clarity for potential applicants who wish to apply. I would recommend that if successful, the proof of concept development could focus and replicate the ‘policecouldyou’ model which provides a one stop shop of information for members of the pubic that wish to know more but then acts as a portal to direct potential applicants to their force of choice to progress their application directly.

The scope of the development should be clearly defined from the outset of the project as a ‘Citizens in Policing’ website would indicate this could include cadets and potentially Special Constable recruitment also.  There is mention of providing a webchat facility but it is not clear how this facility will be provided and by whom at what costs.

Implementation Ready Bid A bid for funds to create a technology link between a Special Constabulary records management system and the National Police Coordination Centre.

The inclusion of Special Constables into the National Police Coordination Centre database is an important step and a significant indicator of their value and increasing role in the policing family.  This bid seeks to provide the means by which the currently collated information about the numbers and availability of this valuable resource is provided to the central information hub for use in coordination of activities across the country.

The proposal identifies that the ‘Duty Sheet’ database currently used within 34 forces as a deployment tool, could be linked to provide automatic updates of the currently available cohorts of Special Constables within forces across the county.  The Duty Sheet system provides a source of deployment information in a number of forces which is potentially ready to go once a link is developed.  This system however should not be confused with current ‘people management’ systems within forces such as ORIGIN which would still provide a single point of truth in relation all other people management information.

The proposal to introduce a standardised role profile should also take account of the Police Professional Framework which is utilised by many forces.

Public Access to information

As a general principle, the Commissioner expects to be able to publish all decisions taken and all matters taken into account when reaching the decision.  This Notice will detail all information which the Commissioner will disclose into the public domain.  The decision and information will be made available on the Commissioner’s website.

Only where material is properly classified as Restricted under the Government Protective Marking Scheme or if that material falls within the description at 2(2) of The Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) Order 2011 will the Commissioner not disclose decisions and/or information provided to enable that decision to be made.  In these instances, Part 2 will be used to detail those matters considered to be restricted.  Information in Part 2 will not be published.

All decisions taken by the Commissioner will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Part 2

Is there a Part 2 to this Notice – No

If Yes, what is the reason for restriction – The information included in Part 2 is properly classified as Restricted.

Report Information

Author : Maria Earles

Head of Department: Head of Organisation and Development

Executive Group Sponsor : Joanna Carter

Date created: 24.12.15

Background documents:

I confirm that all the above advice has been sought and received against this and any associated Part 2 information and I am satisfied that this is an appropriate request to be submitted for a decision

Signature:  Maria Earles

Date: 24.12.15