Colleagues

Please follow the link at the end of this e-mail to read the Police Minister Nick Herbert’s recent speech on how forces should deliver the 20% cuts being forced on them by the Government. You will be very concerned at what you read. Please bring the speech and this e-mail to the attention of all your members.

In his speech he Minister is adamant that there will be no turning back by the Government on the level of cuts announced. His speech states that forces must deliver the cutbacks by:

1.       Improving front line functions

2.       Spending the minimum on other functions

3.       Making transformational change in areas like collaboration, national procurement frameworks, reforming pay and conditions and by privatising large parts of police force functions

UNISON understands that the Home Office has recently written to all forces to inform them of the need to privatise more services and faster. UNISON suggests that you ask your chief/police authority for a copy of the minister’s letter on this.

In his speech the Minister claims that the general public doesn’t care who works in the ‘back’ and ‘middle’ offices of police forces; it’s only police officers that matter. Here is the extract from his speech where he makes this unfounded assertion: 

Because what matters to the public is the frontline - the police officer who is there for them, patrolling the street, responding to a 999 call or investigating a crime.  The public does not see the back or middle office which supports the officer who helps them, and they do not mind who runs those functions.  What they do want these functions to be as lean as possible so that the visible and available policing which they particularly value is protected and indeed enhanced.  They want their officers to be crime fighters, not form writers.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/speeches/city-forum 

UNISON is adamant that the Minister is wrong when he discounts the loyalty and public sector ethos of our members who work to support front-line policing. If the Minister really believes that private sector workers on the national minimum wage will deliver what our members do, he is mistaken. All the evidence from previous privatisations in the public sector is that you get a worse service at higher cost. Many forces which are now struggling with the millstone of PFI debt can testify to this.

Next week in Parliament we launch our ‘Cut Crime – Not Police Staff’ Campaign. Most branches are now registered to attend the event and we intend to use the occasion to challenge both the need for such harsh cuts to policing and Nick Herbert’s assertion that no-one cares who supports front line policing. UNISON will be writing to Nick Herbert to strongly challenge his unfounded claims about police staff.

Ben Priestley

National Officer

Letter below to Nick Herbert MP from Ben Priestley sent in response to above.

Rt. Hon. Nick Herbert MP

Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice

Home Office

2 Marsham Street

London SW1P 4DF

10 February 2011

Dear Nick

Speech to City Forum: 25 January 2011

I am writing to take issue with some of the assertions made in your recent speech on police funding to the City Forum on 25 January.  In the speech, in the section dealing with privatisation, you claim:

‘Because what matters to the public is the frontline - the police officer who is there for them, patrolling the street, responding to a 999 call or investigating a crime.  The public does not see the back or middle office which supports the officer who helps them, and they do not mind who runs those functions.  What they do want these functions to be as lean as possible so that the visible and available policing which they particularly value is protected and indeed enhanced.  They want their officers to be crime fighters, not form writers.’

I wonder what evidence you have that the public does not mind who runs the so-called ‘back or middle office’ of police forces?  Police forces across the UK rely on the dedication, experience and public sector ethos of our police staff members. Ask any chief constable whether he or she can rely on our members to turn out in an emergency without being asked, and you will get the same message of support for their loyalty and commitment.  Ask any member of the general public who has contacted the police in an emergency and been reassured by one of our call-handler members and you will get the same message.  Our members are caring professionals and not just cogs in a machine to be sold off to the private sector.

By setting up an apparent divide between police officers and police staff, your speech threatens to damage all the work which has been carefully undertaken over the last ten years to try to build a one-culture police service.  Police officers can only deliver on the beat because they are backed up by our members in police stations, in control rooms, in custody suites and so-called ‘back and middle offices’.  And don’t forget that, as well as police staff, 17,500 police officers in England and Wales work in ‘back and middle offices.  Are their jobs also undervalued by the public and ready for privatisation?

I was struck by the complete absence in your speech of any mention of workforce modernisation – a critical transformational element for any police force building efficiency and effectiveness.  Are we to understand that this government has turned its back on modernising the workforce, as a means of delivering transformational change in the police service, as set out in the HMIC’s 2010 Report ‘Sustaining Value in the Police Service?

To sum up, it is traumatic enough for our members to be told that their jobs are under threat and the services they provide to the public likely to be withdrawn, but telling them that the public don’t care whether they, or some private sector minimum wage-slave, provide the support for police officers is simply wrong and a slight on their dedication, loyalty and public sector ethos.

I hope you will reconsider your position and send a more positive message to our members at this very difficult time.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Ben Priestley

National Officer

Police and Justice Service Group