R

Force Management

Statement

SUMMARY

2019

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Overview

The force area

Hampshire Constabulary serves approximately two million people, spread out over 1,602 square miles. It is

one of the largest police areas in England and Wales, and home to critical national infrastructure including

major ports, airports and oil refineries. The contrast between large swathes of countryside and the growing

cities of Portsmouth and Southampton means that the area is neither rural nor urban but a mix of both.

During summer months the population swells, with tourists arriving and bringing yet more complexity to the

job of keeping the public safe.

Clear direction and purpose

The force has a clear purpose of delivering SAFER communities. This vision is shared with the Police and

Crime Commissioner, Michael Lane, in his Police and Crime Plan. As described in Force Management

Statement 1 (FMS1), the force has identified Six Areas of Focus to deliver that Purpose. These are shown

below, alongside Mr Lane’s public priorities:

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Having a clear focus has helped to drive a significant improvement in performance.

1 More detail of Mr Lane’s plan is available from: http://www.hampshire-pcc.gov.uk/plan

This overview highlights some of the most important points from Hampshire

Constabulary’s 2019 Force Management Statement. It shows how the different teams and

departments are working to a shared vision with clearly defined performance metrics.

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High harm offences

To achieve SAFER communities, the force has set a very clear strategic direction to prioritise tackling high

harm offences. These type of offences are prevalent in the force’s Control Strategy (an evidence-based

assessment of where the threat to public safety actually sits), and there is evidence presented in this

document of a focus on high harm in departments across the force.

The force is highly productive (see page 9), but such is the level of resourcing that it is not possible to

respond to all crime. The question is: what do we respond to? This is often a very difficult decision, it can be

subjective, and the higher the demand gets the more incidents that cannot be deployed to or investigated.

The force therefore uses a THOR (Threat, Risk, Opportunity and Harm) model. Within this high harm

offences are prioritised. Unlike crimes such as lower level anti-social behaviour or car crime, the offenders

and victims of these high harm offences (e.g. domestic abuse, sexual abuse, trafficking) can be ‘hidden’

from the eyes of society.

The force has a mature and well-scrutinised approach to this prioritisation, and risk is managed effectively

with an increasing but appropriate proportion of reported incidents managed without deployment. This

approach can create disconnect between public perception of where policing should direct its finite

resources and where these resources are best used to deliver the greatest value, but it does serve to

protect the most vulnerable in our communities.

If the force received average funding (HMICFRS

assesses this would give us £41.6m more) the situation

would be different, with the ‘bar’ of what can be

responded to moving to accommodate investigation of

more low level crime.

Partnership

Force Management Statement 1 (FMS1) described the extent of Hampshire Constabulary’s partnership

work. It is one of the force’s Areas of Focus and has been established to a maturity beyond that in many

public service agencies (e.g. co-location with fire and council services, Joint Operations Unit (JOU),

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and contact teams, in addition to well-developed

relationships with universities and third sector organisations). The force continues to deliver plans to further

improve problem solving in communities. Neighbourhood teams work with partners and active citizens with

the aim being to reduce crime and offending and identify and protect people in need of help. Integrated

Offender Management and Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs are also partnership focused and aligned.

Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) work is a core component of the force response to serious violence

and protecting young people, and this is being developed and led in the partnership arena.

If Durham had the same staff ratio of

2.54 as we did they would lose 510

staff. Conversely, if we had their

staffing level per 1,000 of 3.35 we

would have an extra 1,596 staff.

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Ethical conduct and behaviours

During 2017/18, the force assessed how the Code of Ethics had been absorbed into the constabulary and

reviewed 18 months worth of complaints into its Professional Standards Department (PSD). This was

communicated to all senior leadership teams and consultation with our newly promoted sergeants and

inspectors.

As a result of this work a 5-Point Plan has been developed. This is shown above and is based on analysis of

the ethical dilemmas staff and officers in force most commonly face. The plan is being built with the support

of Unison and the Police Federation. The force’s confidential reporting system (Confide in Us) is well known.

Current activity centres on extending wider awareness of the guidance and activity that sits alongside this.

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Measuring our success

One of the force’s Areas of Focus is “Track, Assess, Learn and Improve”. Doing this well can help to

improve productivity, public service and the health and resilience of our people. When determining its

success in delivering SAFER communities, the force looks at five key metrics – Confidence, Satisfaction,

Commission rates, Outcomes, and Wellbeing.

There are three crucial pieces of enabling work that cut across everything:

Our People Strategy

The Personal Development Review (PDR)

Digital Strategy

The force PDR has been refreshed and is now focused on our officers and staff having clear operational

goals, wellbeing goals, personal development goals, and ethical compliance.

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The five key metrics: how are we doing?

1. Confidence

Public confidence in Hampshire Constabulary remains above the national average and the Most Similar

Group (MSG) of forces. Complaints against officers are the sixth lowest nationally. One of the areas in

which we can improve is engagement, and each local district now has an engagement plan, an element of

which is digital with a further roll-out plan underway of social media channels.

Internal confidence is also important, as there is an impact on morale across policing which is linked to the

nature of crime, demand and officer numbers. The ambitious force commitment on Taser is becoming a

reality, providing officers with a key tool; the use of Body Worn Video has been enhanced by better ICT

infrastructure to share content; and the force remains the leader in how it manages officer assaults with

other forces following our lead.

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2. Satisfaction

For the first time, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) satisfaction has risen to exceed satisfaction more

generally. The force has also focused specifically on understanding domestic abuse, and how it is

performing in this respect. Improvements that are being delivered by the national digital public contact team

to develop Track My capability will complement a clear drive in force to address the concerns that still exist

in terms of keeping victims informed.

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3. Commission rate

Having improved and stable crime recording information is crucial. It is only with this in place that the force

can accurately understand whether crime is actually increasing or not. The force achieved 91.3%

compliance in a recent HMICFRS inspection. This improvement was significant and the report included the

following:

“The force has strong, demonstrable leadership and a very clear commitment to get crime recording right. The strong leadership and positive approach among most officers and staff towards victims is welcome.”

With this stable base, the force is now targeting a reduction in commission rate, with a focus on reducing

those crimes that have the highest harm. The funding position of Hampshire Constabulary means that

partnership is crucial to this.

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4. Outcomes

As the adjacent diagram shows, Hampshire

Constabulary has highly productive staff and

officers. The force has focused its attention

on achieving a high level of outcomes, as

this is directly linked to both delivering justice

for victims of crime and also reducing

reoffending through the use of out of court

disposals. There is a growing evidence base

that for certain crime types these are more

effective. Delivering this strategy requires

effective commissioning of the third sector to

deliver diversionary services, the provision of

which is led by the Office of the Police and

Crime Commissioner. The high productivity

of Hampshire officers means that despite

lower officer numbers the force still competes

in line with the national average and above

the MSG of forces.

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5. Wellbeing

One of the force’s Six Areas of Focus is “Looking After Our People”. This is something that the force is investing time and money into. The constabulary was rated the most active public sector organisation globally in Virgin’s 2018 Global Corporate Challenge (GCC). Participating in this led to tangible improvement, including greater productivity. The force has also focused heavily on reducing occupational health referral times, creating a culture where officers and staff take their rest days, mental health support, and in 2019 we have a significant number of teams taking part in GCC, which is very much part of our preventative strategy on wellbeing and resilience for those working in a high-trauma environment. As complex high harm offences increase, officers and staff are exposed to a greater volume of trauma with less respite, creating a need for forces to think differently and look to best practice in other sectors.

This summary document is publicly available. The force’s full Force Management

Statement (2019) was completed and shared with HMICFRS in June 2019. This contains

sensitive information including specific details of force plans, intelligence, risks and

opportunities across all of the required categories.