Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME
“Many developments cannot be
predicted at the outset. Principles
have to be baked into the contract
as to how the parties will deal
with future challenges.”
to five. These remaining five major
national companies and consortia of
companies came on site at Lincolnshire
Police Headquarters on 31 May 2011,
and, following eight weeks of dialogue,
submitted detailed proposals for costed
solutions.
The submissions were evaluated in
early August, after which the authority
approved a second stage of dialogue with
the final two consortia G4S supported by
Capgemini, and Steria with Reliance.
These companies then engaged in an
intensive period of due diligence and
commercial negotiation with the police
as two separate, legally binding contracts
began to be built with the parties. As
contracts would ordinarily be built post
negotiations and after the selection
of a preferred bidder, this innovative
approach not only saved considerable
amounts of time and procurement
costs but, more significantly, allowed
the maintenance of competitive tension
right through to the close of dialogue in
November.
Following the submission of the two
companies’ final tenders and a detailed
evaluation process, G4S was selected
as preferred bidder in December 2011.
After a period of clarification and
finalisation, Lincolnshire Police signed
the contract with the company in
February 2012.
A risk identified early in the process was
that working with a partner would distort
the working style of the Lincolnshire
Police. The culture and values of the
organisation encapsulated in our PRIDE
(Professionalism, Respect, Integrity,
Dedication, Empathy) programme were
shared with bidders, together with our
model of neighbourhood policing.
A very firm steer was given that we
would examine potential partners’ bids
and organisational culture carefully indeed
to ensure a high degree of compliance
that they would gel with us.
During the selection process, as the
contract was being developed, a number
of safeguards were put in place and
eight key objectives defined between
the authority and partner to provide
an overriding requirement for the
contractor to continually deliver service
improvements.
Future proofing
In a 10-year contract many developments
that will take place cannot be predicted
at the outset. Principles have to be baked
into the contract as to how the parties
will deal with future challenges and
future developments, defining a winwin
approach and a genuine spirit of
partnership.
As part of the final submissions both
bidders had been asked to include three
types of projects they wished to pursue:
costed, convincing and conceptual.
As the titles suggest, these were three
levels of proposals ranging from a
fully-costed business case through to a
concept for a future project. All of these
were part of the final evaluation as the
organisation sought to identify future
improvements and savings the companies
could supply.
This provision provided an obligation
for the partner not only as final tenders
were submitted, but also an obligation
to continually propose and submit
new projects each year throughout the
contract term, allowing the force to
transform where it deemed advantage
could be gained.
The partner is also required to prepare
a raft of organisational strategies, in draft
form, for approval, including: estates and
assets, finance, ICT and people strategies
over the three- to five-year policing plan
period and all submitted projects must
feed into these strategies.
In terms of performance management
the contract has secured commitments
from G4S to attain and sustain service
delivery within the top quartile when
compared against other forces, in terms
of the back-office business services the
partner must achieve; and sustain upper
quartile performance when benchmarked
against best industry practice, including
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