Minutes:
Mrs Ann Barnes, Chairman of the Kent Police Authority, Mr Robert Chambers, Chairman of the Essex Police Authority, Mr Mike Fuller, Chief Constable for Kent and Mr Roger Baker, Chief Constable for Essex were present for this item.
(1) Mrs Barnes said that against a background of possible Government imposed mergers, the Kent and Essex Police forces had since January 2007 been looking in detail at the opportunities for greater collaboration in order to bring about greater efficiencies and the better use of resources. This work was not about merging but looking at strengthening existing services in a collaborative way and therefore negating the need to merge. Mr Fuller said that he and Mr Baker remained directly responsible for their respective forces and to their respective police authorities. However, through the shared use of resources (including procurement) and the shared use of specialist staff and equipment the Kent and Essex forces had been working in closer collaboration on a number of cross-force operational matters. In addition, the two forces are working towards harmonising procedures around HR and IT/Communications.
(2) There are a number of key issues which the two forces working together had to address and many of the detailed issues had been dealt with through the establishment of a joint Statutory Committee which has specifically looked at issues of governance. Mrs Barnes said the advice of the Home Office had been sought on issues around governance but little had been forthcoming so the two police authorities were taking matters forward very much on their own. There had also been a number of organisational support reviews designed to challenge existing practice and look at alternative ways of service delivery. This had resulted in four core work streams being developed related to air support; marine; ports and ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) and road policing. To support this work a number of memoranda of understanding had been developed.
(3) This joint collaborative work had already produced a number of successes and these were detailed during the course of the presentation. It was said that whilst there is a clear commitment from both Chief Officer teams and the Police Authorities to take this work forward, the development of these collaboration initiatives did not in any way preclude ongoing work with others.
(4) Both Mrs Barnes and Mr Chambers acknowledged that this initiative may be seen as an example of how police authorities can work together and promoted as such by the government. Each authority also recognised that there was no guarantee against renewed attempts to merge forces. The Kent and Essex approach was based on demonstrating that strong collaboration between two separate forces/authorities was possible and could be extremely effective. Mr Hill said how much he welcomed this innovation and Mr Gilroy spoke about the opportunities this gave for significant savings through joint purchasing and procurement.
(5) Mr Carter concluded discussion by saying that he very much welcomed the presentation which had been given and said he wanted the County Council to play its part in this innovative collaboration. Mr Carter also invited Mrs Barnes and Mr Fuller to attend future a meeting of Cabinet (on a date to be agreed) in order to give a briefing on the latest policing position in Kent.