Sustaining value for money in the police service

Released 20 July 2010

Summary [Download full report below this summary]

Sustaining value for money in the police service cover

After a decade of increases in spending, police services will need to cope with less money. This report from the Audit Commission, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Wales Audit Office proposes that around £1 billion could be saved without cutting services to the public.

Forces need to work together in order to help each other and identify potential savings through collaboration.

They also need to start with a threat, harm and risk assessment. The assessment will help them to make decisions by linking policing priorities to resource management.

A transformational approach, adopted by some of the police forces identified in the case studies, can deliver greater savings. This involves using the best workforce mix, leadership that can drive organisational change and working effectively with local partners.

A pack of supporting tools for police forces, police authorities, community safety partnerships and overview and scrutiny committees has been developed alongside the report. This includes:

Challenge questions for police authorities (PDF, 391kb) - the questions and example responses help police authorities challenge the current savings and efficiency arrangements in police forces and agree improvement priorities.
Self-assessment questions for police authorities (PDF, 357kb) - the questions help police authorities judge how well they can apply the messages from the joint report.
Self-assessment questions for police forces (PDF, 428kb) - enables forces to begin using the efficiency tool targeting improved efficiency and value for money. Forces are helped to spot strengths and weaknesses in their current savings and efficiency arrangements.
Efficiency tool for police forces (external link) - this tool on the Improvement Network (external link) uses the ten characteristics of police efficiency and case study good practice to enable forces to self-assess their improvement needs and develop an action plan. The tool is for the whole force and for basic command units.
Self-assessment questions for community safety partnerships (PDF, 247kb) - helps community safety partnerships assess how well they are providing value for money and identify areas for improvement.
Overview and scrutiny of community safety partnerships (PDF, 254kb) - the questions help overview and scrutiny committees assess how well community safety partnerships deliver value for money and meet local objectives.
Realising savings and performance benefits tool (PDF, 387kb) - a special tool designed for those responsible for savings and efficiency programmes. Understanding, and then realising, business benefits is part of the transformational approach to sustain savings across the whole life of a programme.