Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME
An outsourcing
journey
Neil Rhodes describes his force’s early
experience of strategic partnership
Neil Rhodes is Chief Constable
of Lincolnshire Police
On 1 April 2012 Lincolnshire
Police commenced a 10-year
strategic partnership contract
with G4S. This £228 million, multiservice
contract is larger than any seen
in the policing sector and paves the way
for how British policing services could be
delivered in the future.
The contract is for 10 years, extendable
to 15, which is of sufficient length to
enable other forces to take advantage of it
in the future and still have enough time to
realise several years of value.
Already one of the leanest forces in the
country, the Comprehensive Spending
Review (CSR) meant Lincolnshire Police
needed to lose £19.7 million from its
£120 million budget over four years.
Among the ways it sought to do this
was stripping out basic command unit
boundaries and adopting a whole force
model, allowing economies of scale to
be realised, and engaging in regional
collaboration with other forces in the
East Midlands with the creation of a
joint major crime capability, an organised
crime function and a multiple force
forensic capability.
However, this alone would not close
the gap, nor prevent the need for the
cutting of officer numbers and the
probability of significant police staff
redundancies, and so, in early 2011
Lincolnshire Police embarked on its
procurement of a partner from the
private sector to help achieve the
necessary savings.
An additional factor for the force was
that savings from any such partnership
needed to be realised within 12 months,
requiring an expedited procurement
process delivering a viable future-proof
contract with a private sector company
within 12 months; a process that
normally takes two to three years from
gun to tape.
Procurement process
In March 2011 Lincolnshire Police
published its contract notice in the
Official ournal of the European Union
(OEU). At that time it represented the
widest scope ever placed by a police
organisation and covered not just support
services, but operationally focused ones
too, such as custody services, the force
control room and criminal justice
Other forces were invited to sign up
to the OEU notice, meaning they could
access the contract directly, without the
need for a lengthy procurement process,
and 10 forces did so. Other forces
and organisations may also access the
contract through one of the signatories.
Over the months that followed the
initial interest of some 130 companies led
to 12 outline submissions from interested
parties that were swiftly narrowed
34 | POLICING UK