Serious concerns over Lincolnshire Police’s performance

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded Lincolnshire Police’s performance across eight areas of policing. It found the force ‘requires improvement’ in four areas and is ‘inadequate’ in four areas.

HMICFRS found the standards of investigations had deteriorated since its previous inspection. The force needs to improve how it allocates, supervises and carries out investigations to make sure victims are getting the support they need. They also raised concerns that the force isn’t effectively managing registered sexual offenders and needs to have a greater understanding of the risk and make sure there is appropriate capacity and capability.

Inspectors said the force has made several improvements in the force control room, including increasing staffing levels and improving training and its systems. However, despite being raised in its previous inspection, the force still isn’t attending incidents as quickly as it should or meeting its own targets.

The inspectorate also said that the force is not aligning its resources effectively to meet its demand, which is a major contributor to the issues it faces. The force needs to understand its demand better and have an operating model to manage this effectively and efficiently.

Following this inspection which took place last year, the inspectorate moved Lincolnshire Police into an enhanced level of monitoring in December. This process provides additional scrutiny and support from across the policing sector to help the force make improvements. Since then, the force has developed improvement plans and HMICFRS is working closely with Lincolnshire Police to focus on improvement.

His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher said: “I have serious concerns about Lincolnshire Police’s performance in keeping people safe, reducing crime and providing victims with an effective service, particularly on how well the force investigates crime and how quickly it attends incidents following calls to service.

“Since our previous inspection, investigation standards have deteriorated. The force needs to improve its management of investigations to achieve better outcomes for victims of crime.

“Lincolnshire Police receives one of the lowest levels of central funding in relation to its population in comparison to other forces in England and Wales. This has created a growing gap between the force income and expenditure, which has caused a budget deficit. But improvements to processes can still be made despite the budget pressures.

“While the force had a saving plan, this didn’t address several areas of inefficiency. These inefficiencies are increasing its operating costs and worsening its budget deficit. This growing resource gap put pressure on the force’s ability to effectively manage its demand and provide a level of service which the public would expect. The force has undertaken a priority-based budget process to start to address these inefficiencies.

“Due to these concerns, I am in regular contact with the chief constable and have given Lincolnshire Police specific recommendations that set out the areas it needs to focus on. We will continue to work closely with the force to monitor its progress against these important and necessary changes.”

Responding to the report, Lincolnshire Police’s Chief Constable Paul Gibson said: “The concerns raised in this report are not new to us because we were made aware of the Inspectorate’s findings at the end of last year and we have been working closely with HMICFRS in the months since. The report reflects additional details of the causes for concern that have already been publicly reported.

“I fully accept the majority of the findings within the report, and since coming back as chief constable, I have been working hard to improve the issues raised, which are starting to show considerable progress.  I am absolutely confident that with the correct resourcing, Lincolnshire Police will continue to enhance the service we deliver to our communities and will go from strength to strength. It is also worthy of note that the Inspectorate has recognised that demand outstrips our resource, which goes to the heart of the perennial funding challenges we face, while also identifying several areas of good work.

“In response to this inspection, we have introduced a bespoke programme of work to address some of the areas of policing that that have been highlighted in the report, with staff dedicated to these service improvements, and considerable progress already being made to transform the force. This has been implemented while simultaneously continuing to perform well in numerous areas that matter most to the public.

“Our programme of work includes, but is not limited to, the establishment of a new unit to improve investigations; introducing training and processes to ensure we are positively addressing any incident attendance delays, which is already delivering improvement; recruitment of additional staff through redeployment into the team that manages violent and sexual offenders; revision of our performance frameworks, which is already delivering improvements, completion of Victim Needs Assessments, which now stand at 87 per cent; progression of refresher training for FCR and frontline staff; improved supervision of crime; an independent audit of our strategic planning that will be reported back to the Home Office; and the sign-off of our strategic financial plans.

“In addition, last month we were offered and have accepted a £5.7 million financial support package from the Home Office who have accepted that we are an outlier in how we are funded. Along with PCC Marc Jones, we have had regular and meaningful engagement with the Policing Minister, the Home Office, local MPs and other stakeholders for some months now, for which we are grateful, and this funding means we will not have to significantly reduce our number of police officers or police staff for at least six months.

“Part of this package is specifically aimed at maintaining our neighbourhood policing services and our PCSO numbers and it remains our ambition to secure a long-term, sustainable agreement that addresses our chronic underfunding. The Home Office have given assurances they will continue to work with us to collectively seek a solution.

“I would also point out that we are still protecting the public effectively in so many areas, which goes to the performance point I made earlier. Nationally, we charge and summons to court more people as a proportion than many other police forces across the country; we achieve the most rape convictions of all forces, which speaks volumes about our investigations and file quality; we are first nationally  for the speed with which we answer our 999 calls; we also come top for finalising a case at a magistrates’ first hearing, which means swifter outcomes for victims and their loved ones; are second in the country for both our hate crime and domestic abuse conviction rates; and 4th nationally for our 101 wait times.

“We prioritise our actions to detain wanted suspects based on threat, risk, and harm, and we have been recognised by the inspection team for doing a good job of investigating the most serious crimes, which include violent assaults. Our local teams continue to problem solve and engage with communities to tackle neighbourhood issues, which was recognised positively in this assessment, particularly in respect of tackling antisocial behaviour and rural crime effectively, and we focus on the crimes that will cause the most harm to people in Lincolnshire. It is also notable that national crime data ranks us as being the 12th safest county in the country, having been ranked 15th previously, and crime is reducing in the county. All of this is set against a backdrop of a force made up of dedicated and hardworking staff, demonstrated in the very fact that our officers carry one of the largest workloads when compared to other forces, yet still achieve all these positive outcomes. In short, we continue to do a good job across many areas to keep Lincolnshire safe. That said, I do not underestimate the requirement to improve in the areas highlighted within the report and remain absolutely committed to doing so.”

He added: “I welcome the ongoing scrutiny and support by HMICFRS. The Engage process affords a collective responsibility on the force and, critically, wider police stakeholders to determine a sustainable solution for resourcing the force and assisting with improving performance. We are working with the College of Policing on many exciting projects, such as implementing ‘enhanced video resolution’ which allows us to engage with victims and deal with some crimes via video, allowing much greater efficiency and swifter responses to calls for service.

“Whilst improvements have and will continue to be made rapidly, there is a limit within the finance and resources we are allocated. Without any further financial assistance, I will have to start to reduce the numbers of officers and staff in the organisation by around 20% from October this year. Whilst I do not want to portray that this is just about money, it is important that I am transparent with the public in sharing this stark position. My ambition for the force remains strong, and my confidence to deliver is high, but a fair level of resourcing, more equitable to most other forces, will be necessary to reach the standards of public service that I know we are capable of, and the public rightly expect.

“Lincolnshire’s residents and visitors deserve a fairer deal regarding the policing they receive. Lincolnshire Police is a good organisation with so many proud people dedicated to public service. We just need to be given a fair chance to invest and improve services that is equitable to other forces, to allow us to deliver good services that the public, and HMICFRS, quite rightly expect.

“By continuing to work with the Inspectorate, and other external stakeholders, I will ensure we keep delivering any further changes that will be of benefit to our communities.”