Financial Resources
Jump to a section: Finances | Investment Programme | Value For Money Statement | Procurement Statement
In order to achieve the level of service West Mercia seeks to achieve we have to manage our resources effectively.
Finances
The planned budget for 2010/11 is £203.6 million after use of reserves. The 2009/10 budget figures are shown for comparison.
| 2010/11 | 2009/10 | ||
| £m | £m | ||
| Employee costs | 184.9 | 183.0 | |
| Premises | 8.7 | 8.3 | |
| Transport | 6.3 | 6.4 | |
| Supplies and services | 23.3 | 23.0 | |
| Capital financing | 3.2 | 2.0 | |
| ------------------- 226.4 | ------------------- 222.7 | ||
| Income | 21.0 | 22.2 | |
| ------------------- 205.4 | ------------------- 200.5 | ||
| Less use of reserves | 1.8 | 2.9 | |
| ------------------- 203.6 ------------------- | ------------------- 197.6 ------------------- |
The budget is derived from the following sources:
| 2010/11 | 2009/10 | ||
| £m | £m | ||
| Government Grants | 124.9 | 121.8 | |
| Council tax | 78.7 | 75.8 | |
| ------------------- 203.6 ------------------- | ------------------- 197.6 ------------------- |
Investment Programme
During 2010/11 we plan to invest £17.1 million in capital projects as part of a programme of improvements and asset replacement which were approved in earlier years. New investments in 2010/11 are Information Technology projects for the Command and Control system and the Operational Data Store.
Value for Money Statement
West Mercia has a strong record of delivering value for money. It has consistently featured in the highest scoring group of police forces in the Audit Commission's evaluation of Police Use of Resources (PURE).
It is anticipated that by the end of the financial year 2009/10 West Mercia will have achieved £57.1 million in efficiency savings since 1999. This is the equivalent of effectively funding 120 police officers per year which gives an indication of the scale of the achievement.
The 2010/11 budget contains further cash reductions of £2 million following a Strategic Resource Leverage process which resulted in an overall reduction of 42 posts but no reduction in the number of operational front-line police constables (i.e. officers deployed in local policing, response policing or local CID roles). These reductions represent 1.28% of the pay bill and a further £2 million of reductions will be achieved by a review of non-salary budgets in order to make cash releasing efficiencies.
The Force has instigated a comprehensive review entitled Futures Review, to identify a path towards a more lean and flexible organisation. The results of the design phase of the review are intended to improve performance whilst eliminating the funding gaps identified in the Medium Term Financial Plan.
Within both the comprehensive review and normal business, West Mercia will seek to;
- Conform with the aims of the NPIA's Information System Improvement Strategy (ISIS).
- Continue to support the Government drive to bring police service procurement within national frameworks. West Mercia achieves 38% of contracts let under collaborative arrangements against an overall average of 22% and, therefore, West Mercia already achieves upper quartile performance. During 2010-11 national framework agreements for a further six significant areas of procurement will be implemented.
- Introduce further process improvement work and reductions in bureaucracy. West Mercia has invested in the national standard IT system for Human Resources. This system is called Origin and it will be the basis for a range of process improvements based on the management of officers' duties and self service. The 2010/11 capital programme includes financial provision for investment in the Operational Data Store (ODS). The ODS is intended to manage all information, simplify process for users, eliminate errors in data, seek only the information required and then re-use that information across all systems. Once implemented ODS will facilitate the efficient and effective introduction of mobile data for operational officers.
- Review Overtime payments. The 2010 Government White Paper ‘Supporting the Police to Succeed' encourages forces whose overtime expenditure exceeds 4% of the pay bill to improve workforce organisation and management procedures. Those forces above 4% have a reduction target and, in this context, West Mercia's 2010-11 budget has a 2.8% level of overtime.
- Further develop collaborative working. The Police Authority has approved a five year Regional Collaboration Strategy with Staffordshire, Warwickshire and West Midlands. The strategy signals a wish to introduce harmonisation of policies and to develop collaboration of both operational and support functions while preserving local policing services which will be delivered and managed locally. The objective is to improve effectiveness of service delivery in a cost efficient way.
- Review Business Support Functions. The 2010 Government White Paper ‘Supporting the Police to Succeed' is encouraging forces to move towards a level of less than 7% of the workforce being employed in business support functions. The Futures Review is seeking to achieve a structure which is centrally managed but locally delivered in order to meet this objective
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Forecast Cash Efficiency Savings 2010 to 2014
| Workstream | Project | Delivery Date | Cashable Savings | Productive Benefits of Delivery |
| Deployment | Strategic Resource Leverage | 2010/11 | £2m | Improved deployment & economy from revised workforce mix |
| Deployment | Review of non-salary budgets | 2010/11 | £2m | Maintained frontline services through identifying cash releasing efficiencies in other budget areas |
| Futures Review (Territorial Policing) | April 2011-13 | £1.0m over three years | Increase Local Command Team focus on meeting the needs and aspirations of local communities | |
| Futures Review (Protective Services) | April 2011-13 | £1.7m over three years | Concentrate governance and delivery of all 10 protective services. | |
| Futures Review (Customer Services) | April 2011-13 | £2.4m over three years | Provision of a seamless service to victims & witnesses | |
| Futures Review (People Management) | April 2011-13 | £3.2m over three years | Economy of scale through centralised provision | |
| Futures Review (Corporate Resources) | April 2011-13 | £1.5m over three years | Economy of scale through centralised provision | |
| Overtime | Police Overtime | April 2011-13 | £0.06m | Working towards a corporate response shift pattern |
| Procurement | Review of non-salary budgets | April 2012 | £0.6m | Demand side improvements reducing overall costs |
West Mercia intends to learn from the new benchmarking tools which are becoming available, for example, the Value for Money Profiles and Police Objective Analysis and to progress the initiatives in the 3-year cash efficiency savings plan detailed above.
For the 2008-11 efficiency plan period, the annual 3% efficiency requirement produced an efficiency target of £20.7m over 3 years. At the end of the second year, 2009, 73% of this target had been achieved with £14.3m of efficiency savings analysed as follows:
| £m | |
| Previous years' efficiencies in excess of target requirement. These met the Home Office definition of ‘cashable' | 6.3 |
| Redeployment of posts to meet new needs or to reduce costs. These are also effectively cash releasing | 3.0 |
| Budget cash reductions to offset other increases | 3.6 |
| Productivity improvements | 1.4 |
| -------- 14.3 -------- |
Cash releasing efficiencies and re-invested cash efficiencies drawn from the review of armed response policing together with the 2010/11 Strategic Resource Leverage process will fulfil the remaining requirement for the CSR07 (Comprehensive Spending Review) Period Efficiency Plan.
Procurement Statement
The "Best Value and Planning Guidance for Police Authorities and Forces 2003" requires the inclusion of a statement on procurement to confirm that the Authority is abiding by guidance in relation to staffing matters.
The Authority's Standing Orders under Contracts provide for awarding contracts on a value for money basis and we use a standard approach to evaluation which takes account of both quality and whole life costs. Evaluation models are tailored to each exercise and tenders follow the Authority's Tendering Procedures.
For all major contracts that involve staff transfer, compliance with the ‘Code of Practice on Workforce Matters in Police Authority Service Contracts' is part of the contract documentation. During 2009/10 there were no contracts awarded which involved the transfer of Police Authority staff.
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