John Shaw article
4 October 2011
The following article appeared in the Reform Journal: 'Keep calm and carry on reforming' in September 2011.
John Shaw:
How the private sector can help deliver police savings without compromising on standards
"Senior officers’ minds are focused like never before on finding efficiencies. Those of us intimately involved in delivering services to the police know this has been under discussion for at least 15 years, but only now, as budgetary pressures bite, are we starting to see what this could really mean.
As one of the top providers of services to the Government, including the Home Office and several police forces, G4S has the experience and expertise to help forces apply efficiencies to preserve or indeed increase frontline services. It’s something we’ve been doing for some time, partnering with forces like South Wales Police, where our civilian custody suite staff have enabled the force to release 54 police officers for front line duties, and saved around £1.2 million a year in running costs. If every police force in the country was to follow SWP’s lead, at least £65 million could be saved each year.
This is only a glimpse of the scale of savings to be realised if forces grasp the opportunity to reform. Work we have undertaken shows that by opening up middle and back office services to competition – services which do not need warranted officers - forces could deliver savings of between 25 and 40 per cent, even without collaboration between forces.
Serving police officers could be returned to frontline duties, to deliver the “visible policing” the public and politicians desire.
Steps are already being made in the right direction, with Lincolnshire Police Authority’s Transformation Project, a shining example.
Collaboration between forces is to be welcomed, particularly for specialist areas where resources are now being pooled on crime scene investigation and forensic services. But even here, there are greater efficiencies that could be made. For example, rather than each force running its own forensic services, a national provision, modelled on the AA, could be made available 24 hours a day, which could deliver a better service and be 50 per cent cheaper.
Why not explore what the private sector can deliver? Only by establishing what services forces need, enabling both public and private sector to compete on equal terms, and then working together to provide them, can we be sure we deliver the best value for taxpayers, a better service for victims of crime, and the right solution for our society."
John Shaw is the Managing Director of G4S Police Support Services
Contact details
- Nicola Savage (Head of Public Relations, G4S UK & Ireland): 0845 371 7173 (option 3)