How are we doing?

Setting targets and measuring performance in a complex organisation involves significant amounts of data, some of which is reproduced here but all of which is published in several other formal documents. Further detail and breakdown of figures can be found in the key documents on the Constabulary website (www.cnc.police.uk). For example, the  Annual Report and Accounts shows the level of Constabulary performance against targets.

Policing Strategy

The Energy Act 2004 requires the Police Authority to publish a three year policing strategy and this, together with the Annual Policing Plan, fulfils the requirement for the Police Authority to take account of the wider National Policing Plan priorities (affecting all police forces) within the nuclear policing context. Detailed implementation plans for each year of the Policing Strategy are published in the Annual Policing Plan. Further details of these plans can also be found at www.cnc.police.uk

Within the Policing Strategy are three Key Strategic Priorities - these form the central core around which planning and performance objectives and measures are developed. Specific details are set out in the Annual Policing Plan.

Key Strategic Priorities for 2006-2009

The Key Strategic Priorities sit above all our major activities. Set by the Police Authority these headings group together those areas of activity that have been identified as being of the highest strategic importance and therefore driving and focusing our longer-term efforts. These Key Strategic Priorities are set out below, together with a summary of Police Authority progress against them over the last 12 months.

Key Strategic Priority 1:

To protect nuclear material and facilities on designated nuclear licensed sites and in transit throughout the UK and International arena, meeting the requirements of the Nuclear Security Regulator - the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS).

Major considerations for this Key Strategic Priority are:

  • Counter Terrorism & the Threat of Terrorism
  • Preventing Disorder
  • Meeting and Managing Demand
  • The threat of terrorism is now a global phenomenon requiring an international multi-agency response. Terrorist activity in the United Kingdom and elsewhere has highlighted this global issue and underlined the need to protect nuclear licensed sites and movements. Specific measures to address this threat have been agreed with the Constabulary and the OCNS. In addition, the threat of disorder and disruption has been monitored and appropriate responses and contingency plans developed. The Police Authority's strategic objective in this area of activity is to ensure the Constabulary's ability to provide an efficient and effective response that is proportionate to the assessed threat. To this end the Director of Civil Nuclear Security and a representative from the Department of Energy and Climate Change have attended almost all the Police Authority meetings over the past year; they have also attended the Police Authority strategic planning events and the Chairman and Executive Director have held regular meetings with both the OCNS and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. 

Further detail regarding achievement against the Policing Plan Objectives can be found on the cnc website and below.

Key Strategic Priority 2:

To ensure that the Constabulary is managed in a way that gets the best out of all its resources, especially staff, and demonstrates value for money while maintaining the confidence of the public.

Major considerations for this Key Strategic Priority are:

  • People Management Strategy and Workforce Modernisation
  • Recruitment, Retention and Performance Management
  • Financial Management
  • Estate and Assets Strategies
  • Information Technology Strategy
  • In many ways these represent the principal areas that are overseen by the Police Authority meeting  structure - a central feature of its corporate governance that has become fully and effectively established over the course of its first few years of operation.

In relation to the first two points above, the Police Authority is also responsible for identifying and awarding corporate bonuses - this year police staff were awarded a 4.66% bonus based on the performance of the organisation as a whole.

A further aspect of recruitment, retention and performance management involves the people who are tasked with taking forward the strategic ambitions of the Police Authority and the Constabulary. The Police Authority Senior Appointments Committee has responsibility for the appointment and conditions of service of the top team which comprises the Chief Constable, the Deputy Chief Constable, the Director of Corporate Services and and the Executive Director. Over the past year the Committee has appointed a Deputy Chief Constable, Director of Corporate Services and Executive Director.

Financial management has been tightly controlled over the past year with the Police Authority's set of annual accounts being  scrutinised by the Authority and signed off by the Authority's external auditors (the National Audit Office) in July. These accounts contain very detailed statistics of the Police Authority's financial management, control mechanisms and audit functions; they have been published separately (HC684 - available through The Stationery Office www.tso.co.uk/bookshop) and can be accessed on the Constabulary website.

During the past year the Police Authority has appointed KPMG to fulfil the role of Internal Auditor who are responsible for conducting scheduled and ad hoc audits, producing the annual Audit Opinion and assisting in such other areas as they or the Police Authority deem appropriate. The Audit Opinion and related matters can be found in the published annual accounts referred to above.

Turning to information and communications technology, the corporate IT strategy is under review and is a major project being undertaken by the Constabulary overseen by the Information Governance Panel (IGP) looking at areas such as; outsourcing contract for IT services, new IT network project and a firearms records project.

Scrutiny of all key processes, policies and procedures falls in the first instance to the Audit, Performance Review and Risk Management Committee. The Committee has extended an open invitation to the National Audit Office (NAO) to its meetings and was pleased to see representatives from the NAO at several such meetings over the past year. In relation to risk management the Police Authority has taken a proactive role over the past year, instigating a high level review of the risk management framework and working to embed a risk management culture throughout the organisation. Police Authority members have taken part in a strategic risk workshop and will provide further direction to the Constabulary in assessing and addressing areas of corporate risk. So far as performance management is concerned, the Police Authority has called for detailed reports in all areas of the Constabulary's activities over the year and has provided a clear lead as to how management information can and should be utilised throughout the organisation.

The Constabulary is subject to a range of inspection and assessment processes which act as mechanisms for continuous improvement and increased efficiency and effectiveness (for example Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, the NAO and the Office of Civil Nuclear Security). However, primary responsibility for ensuring the Constabulary's fitness for purpose lies with the Police Authority.

Finally in this area the Police Authority has held a series of strategic planning events looking ahead over the next 5 - 10 years to identify what challenges and opportunities the future will bring and how the Constabulary should be structured to meet them.

Key Strategic Priority 3:

Maintaining and improving understanding between the Constabulary, its nuclear customers, the Public, other stakeholders and the Government, including politicians, throughout the UK.

Major considerations for this Key Strategic Priority are:

  • Maintaining values
  • Improving the Quality of Service

Providing direction and leadership through its Audit, Performance Review and Risk Management Committee the Police Authority has set the tone for openness, accountability, regularity and quality of service during the course of the year. In areas ranging from organisational expenditure and human rights to individual conduct and personal responsibility the Police Authority has robustly challenged policies, practices and procedures calling - where appropriate - for detailed and prompt reports. In so doing, the Police Authority has given a clear indication of the standards to which it expects the Constabulary to operate and against which it will be assessed in the future.

One such responsibility is to promote and oversee effective partnership working with stakeholders, operating companies and local bodies and communities as appropriate. To that end, Police Authority members have participated in national stakeholder meetings held by the NDA over the past 12 months and the Police Authority has held one of its meetings in public, in Edinburgh in February.   In the coming year the Police Authority will extend that outward-facing aspect of its role, increasing the number of public meetings and other consultation/communication events.  The Police Authority strategic planning events,  involved key stakeholders such as the NDA, the OCNS and the Department of Energy and Climate Change as well as the Constabulary. The product of these events will form the basis for several significant projects over the coming year. During the course of the year the Police Authority has also organised a strategic conference held in November 2008 and further stragic and finanacial planning events throughout the year.

Clearly these key strategic areas cover a great deal of specific activity, not all of which can be reported here. Much more detail is contained in the various reports referred to above.