BRIEFING NOTE
THREE FORCE
STRATEGIC
ALLIANCE
BRIEFING NOTE
THREE FORCE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
PURPOSE
Three force strategic alliance
Purpose
This briefing note provides a high level overview of the work being undertaken to assess the potential for a
three force Strategic Alliance between Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire police forces.
Background
In August 2015 the three Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables for the respective forces
made the decision to explore the feasibility and viability of a potential three force Strategic Alliance.
In October 2015, a small team was formed, including experienced senior, operational Police Officers, with
subject matter experts from IT, Human Resources, Finance and elsewhere, in order to commence a scoping
exercise in relation to this.
The team, led by an independent programme director, was commissioned to consider a proof of concept, to
be presented to the Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables, which made comment on any
proposed Strategic Alliance, in terms of viability:
1. Operationally
2. Financially; and
3. Politically.
The concept and rationale for commissioning this work was to explore the potential for the creation of a
single policing model for all three forces, with an intention to introduce unified leadership, a single way of
working, uniformity in systems, training, policy and procedures, to ensure a consistently high quality standard
of service across the three force areas.
The focus of the work is not about a force merger. It is about protecting the quality of local policing services
in each force area, from maximising efficiencies and optimising business practices alongside the retention of
each force’s local identity.
It is based in part on a presumption that an Alliance offers greater resilience, more opportunities for
integration and consistency, which in turn will provide the public of the three geographic areas with the best
possible service, given the operational and financial constraints of the present and the future.
Governance
The systems of governance created to support and provide oversight to this work is two tiered, as follows:
Design Authority Meeting
This meets on a fortnightly basis and comprises a Programme Director, the three Deputy Chief Constables,
and three Chief Executives from the Office of Police and Crime Commissioners, with attendance from
members of the programme team and others as required. The frequency of meetings is designed to allow key
delivery decisions to be agreed in a timely fashion to allow progress to be made rapidly where required.
This group provides a focus on agreement for streams of work and the allocation of resources, as well as
acting as a monitoring function for agreed strands.
The Deputy Chief Constables and OPCC Chief Executives provide the appropriate level of oversight in order
to be in the position to make clear recommendations for the primary decision-making body, the Strategic
Alliance Programme Board.
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Three force strategic alliance
Strategic Alliance Programme Board
This Board is constituted of the three Police and Crime Commissioners and three Chief Constables (the
“Sponsors” of the Programme).
The constitution is based on the concept of six equal partners.
In addition to the sponsors, board meetings are attended by the programme director, members of the Design
Authority and others as required.
The Board is the primary decision-making forum in the overall governance of the programme.
Governance is underpinned by a set of 22 agreed design principles, attached as Appendix A.
Current position (as of January 2016)
The Strategic Alliance work can be described in five broad parts or phases.
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Phase 5
Scoping and outline business case (“proof of concept”)
Full business case
Design
Implementation
Optimisation
Since the inception of the programme team in October 2015, work has focused on Phase 1, with an
outline business case for the proof of concept presented to the Strategic Alliance Programme Board on 17
December 2015.
The decision of the Board on 17 December was that the three key viability tests outlined above were met
sufficiently to progress to Phase 2 and the development of a full business case by Spring 2016.
While the Alliance work is categorised into five distinct phases, some of these at this time will run elements
of Phases 2 and 3 in parallel with each other. Notably this will include elements relating to contact and
demand management (Force Control Rooms and associated functionality), Enabling Services (Finance, IT,
HR, Estates and Facilities) and NICHE optimisation (NICHE is a regional IT replacement programme that will
be “live” in all five East Midlands forces by June 2016). NICHE covers custody, crime, intelligence and case
management systems providing all five forces with a standardised IT platform in this regard, that can be used
to streamline and standardise operating processes and systems across the region/Alliance forces.
The programme team is currently producing additional material to inform the full business case. This includes:
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production of a legal collaboration agreement
leadership appointments
consideration of the selection of a strategic partner
programme set up and development; and
stakeholder engagement.
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Three force strategic alliance
Appendix A: Design Principles
1. Protecting our communities from harm will be the primary focus of the Strategic Alliance.
2. Concept design will focus on an end state model for the year 2019/20.
3. Any transition plans will be built from the 2015/16 year end predicted position.
4. To meet the scale of the financial challenge required all options including productivity, pay rates
(via locating jobs in lower cost areas of region), procurement, working with commercial partners
(including outsourcing), income generation and reduction in physical assets will be considered
(excluding off shoring of jobs overseas).
5. A Strategic Alliance Board will be jointly chaired by the PCCs and will include Chief Constables,
with each partner having an equal voice.
6. The Strategic Alliance will seek to maximise the benefits of integration.
7. The working assumption is that the Strategic Alliance will include all resources below the rank of
Chief Constable.
8. Existing collaborations are assumed to be unchanged operationally until the scale of the
programme is understood. However it is recognised that the potential for further efficiencies will
be examined in conjunction with existing partners.
9. Three forces will share a single vision, mission and values statement within the Strategic
Alliance.
10.The three forces and OPCCs will have a common approach to policing (i.e. contact
management, response policing, neighbourhood policing, crime investigation, etc.) and will
follow the same policies, procedures and be delivered in the same way across the Alliance.
11.The three forces and OPCCs will aim to reduce, minimise or remove duplication of effort (e.g.
PSD, CMD, Custody) unless there is a legal, regulatory, cost benefit or clear service penalty for
communities in doing so.
12.Neighbourhoods will still be the bedrock of service delivery, policing services will be delivered
under common standard operating frameworks.
13.The Alliance will implement an integrated Chief Officer Team for decision-making.
14.The Alliance will implement a lean organisational structure with wide spans of control and
appropriate tiers/layers with delegated decision-making (Gold, Silver, Bronze principles).
15.Transparent selection of the right people (forces and OPCCs) based on capability will be made,
whether that is from internal or external sources.
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Three force strategic alliance
16.Implementation of a single people services framework and more importantly a single use
and interpretation of HR policies and procedures including the consistent application of an
effective performance management process and workforce/succession planning.
17.Designing of efficient JNCC processes in collaboration with the Staff Associations and Trade
Unions.
18.A shift in emphasis and agreement to ensure the utilisation of self-service to its maximum effect
(internal).
19.Investment in physical locations to be minimised with reduced estate enabled by mobile and
agile working.
20.Physical locations to be reviewed to ensure they are in the most appropriate area to provide
optimal mix, service and cost. Considerations will focus on community requirements for
policing, skills availability, labour cost and premises.
21.The Alliance will consolidate on to single technology platforms, contracts and suppliers across
the three forces including communication, command and control, Wide Area Network with
common standards and no firewalls.
22.Existing and future collaborations/partnerships with other organisations, partners and
stakeholders will be fully considered.
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