West Midlands and Surrey lead major shared services deal

West Midlands Police has issued a tender for a seven-year shared service deal in a bid to reduce costs while developing “a more innovative and cutting-edge approach to 21st century policing”.

The force is spearheading the deal alongside Surrey Police Authority, with hopes that other police forces from across England and Wales will join.

The deal is worth between £300 million and £3.5 billion, with the upper estimate of the deal dependent on the number of police forces that join the contract.

The chosen supplier is expected to provide resources such as command and control and IT equipment and infrastructure to support the delivery of frontline policing and also deliver services including the management of ICT.

However, West Midlands Police Authority chair Derek Webley stressed that a decision will not come until after the election of the first West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC) in November.

“The final decision whether or not to enter into a contract will be made by the elected PCC, probably in early 2013,” said Mr Webley.

According to the tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union: “West Midlands Police and Surrey Police wish to work with the private sector to transform the delivery of future policing services and have interpreted transformation as integrating the best of business innovation and ways of working while preserving the integrity of the office of constable.

“The benefits of this relationship are anticipated to be: improved experience of policing services by end users; realisation of cost savings from transformation initiatives; more efficient delivery of policing services; improved access by forces and others to private sector capability; and a more innovative and cutting-edge approach to 21st century policing.

“The purpose of entering into a strategic partnership with forces is to deliver transformation across policing services. It is anticipated that the strategic partner will also directly manage some services with the forces. However, for reasons of policing specialism, operational risk and public confidence, some activities will necessarily continue to be delivered by police forces.

“The forces wish to develop a sustainable business model that maintains and improves the delivery of policing services to the public, while staying within likely future funding settlements. The forces believe that efficiencies are better achieved by taking a wider view of policing activity rather than reducing the budgets of functional units.”