Home Office to ‘shape’ local accountability

The Home Office wants to be a ‘strategic shaper’ of local accountability, the Director of Police Reform and Resources has said.

Speaking at the first APA/ACPO conference in association with the Home Office, Stephen Kershaw said that he thinks “the world will look very different in a few years’ time” and that while Home Office policy is still emerging, its “instincts are pretty clear”.

He tried to make clear that the Government wanted chief constables to retain operational responsibility once directly-elected individuals were introduced and that local priorities should drive policing, but added the Home Office would want to be a “strategic shaper” in this.

“The new government is driving for more strategic and professional responsibility; moving from bureaucratic to democratic accountability and going through a process of de-cluttering,” Mr Kershaw said.

The Home Office has already asked Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Denis O’Connor, to “pull back” on the Police Performance Steering Group and consider how far the “ladder of intervention” is still appropriate. Report cards, although only recently introduced, will also be under review, as the Home Office asks how they can be more locally relevant and less about intervention, he said.

The current economic climate has made a review of pay and conditions inevitable as they comprise the largest expenditure for forces. The review will look at increasing job flexibility in and between forces and changing pay to drive the outcomes of policing, not just being a by-product.

The pension review being undertaken by Lord Hutton will first report back in September. Although quick changes are needed, the matter will still need to go through lengthy discussions with the Pay Negotiation Board and staff side.