Public Service Sector Alliance partnership

There is a wonderful new partnership between the public sector, including the CTCC and the newly formed Public Service Sector Alliance partnership.

This wonderful new entity is going to reduce the costs of running several large public service systems within the health-care, education, local council, Police and Fire Service. Efficiency savings in all areas, pay awards, expenses, budget reductions and pension contributions will all be in the firing line over successive financial review periods.

This is the next step, in the really big plan, following on from centralised communications centres to log calls and dispatch the ‘right unit for the job’, reduce inefficiency and make the services better able to stand up to scrutiny and accountability following established business strategies. It is the right move to provide an effective and affordable solution to today’s problems, apparently.

This partnership will, it is claimed,  make huge savings in the administration, management and supply of essential supplies and equipment for the public service sector. The regional committees formed to mass order and save wads of budget cash seem to disagree on most of what they discuss with individuals wanting to be seen to be having the major influence to satisfy their own egos and build the next part of their career development portfolio. Regional uniforms, regional vehicle fleet, centralised maintenance, cross border alliances, shared resources etc, etc, etc. The list is endless and can be applied to almost anything. Perhapsregional custody suites will also be on someones agenda. Perhaps we will stop arresting people if the quota has been reached and carry over some TIC’s for a quiet month ?

From the 1st of the month our pay has been transferred into the giant that is the  Public Service Sector Alliance partnership.

All of our requisition for supplies from leads, dog bowls and even patrol fleet will now be under the tight monetary policy control of the Public Service Sector Alliance partnership. The spin tells us this will be somehow better. It does not say who will benefit from this being better.

Suddenly all of our computers and our other resources are no longer those of the CTCC, but now belong to the Public Service Sector Alliance partnership.

The projected huge savings will equip the CTCC and all its other partner organisations under the control of the Public Service Sector Alliance partnership to provide an affordable service that will meet the demands they will face and ensure that a top level and highly professional strategic service is provided and will be affordable, sustainable and provide value for money. This is going to make our communities safer and reassure the public.

Already we have seen problems with pay across the new partnership.

Already we have seen problems in getting kit issued or purchased.

Already we have seen problems with accounting for how and why we need kit.

We have had several major crime enquiries and the Traffic Department are investigating higher than usual serious or fatal collisions. I have no idea how the unexpected rise will fall into the big plan. I expect there is some form of contingency plan just in case.

Those who control the purse strings have their own agenda. They also appear to have insufficient administration staff, computers and planning to ensure a smooth transition into the new partnership world.

To save money under the cloak of appearing to give more for a lot less.

Needless to say, I suspect that somewhere, someone will be making a nice little earner out of this and those who are able to balance their own books will be able to get something by way of performance bonuses.

For those at the bottom of the food-chain, the ones who are repeatedly reminded that they are the ones who all this is in place to support, appear to be a tad sceptical and some even doubt that this will improve things one bit.

For the counters behind their desks or those who control the purse strings maybe.

For the people who actually supply the service where it matters, be it in a hospital ward, a classroom, putting out fires, Policing the streets, emptying dustbins or the myriad of other dedicated local authority front-line service deliverers………………I suspect not.  

As the mission statement says, We are working together towards our vision.

What they should be saying is, we will roll you over and make your job just that little bit more difficult and expect ever more for ever less. You are professional and care about what you do so you are easy pickings and have to play by our rules.

Even more of the 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, growth industry where workplace environment, car parking spaces and a good canteen are the orders of the day.

For the Policing side of this wonderful public service thing, I remember when there was a canteen in almost every Police Station with staff who worked for the Police and were not in a contracted out service to save costs.

The front-line deliverers are the ones who provide the service, no matter what that happens to be. They are the ones who do the business and take the flak when the ‘customers’ are pissed off because someone feels that someone has failed to deliver.

Those who make the rules do not play by those rules because they have somehow evolved to be above and beyond the same critical spotlight. Their mistaken views of how important they are overtakes the responsibilities of their role which has no direct link towards service delivery of the chosen area. Add to this having comparable perks and conditions that mirror those of top industry warlords, from office, executive car, parking space and even possibly a nice expenses package to reflect their status.

The non-Police staff who occupy these prestigious and lucrative positions pass on their mirror images to the high ranking Police officers who operate in an environment that loses touch with the realities of front-line service delivery all too quickly.

They are unable to measure service sector productivity so dream up ever increasing ways of targeting things that allow them to benchmark what they decide they understand without accounting for all the things that they cannot measure because they are outside of business models.

If an officer puts in X amount of process per shift, puts in X amount of intel per shift, puts in X amount of stop & search forms per shift and issues X amount of producers per shift, that officer is deemed to be hitting all the right targets and is doing an productive job in line with the necessary strategic forecasts.

Another officer, who is perhaps snowed under with crime enquiries he has been allocated by someone behind a desk who cares not about this officer’s workload but only to hit their own targets, is unable to issue anything resembling X amount of anything because of crime enquiries is deemed to be under performing.

Don’t expect targets, measuring and statistics to go away or reduce because they simply won’t. There is no other way of micro-managing the resources from behind a desk apart from getting those resources to submit stats before a decision is made about how long the shafting stick is going to be before it is used. This will justify the position of those who count to those who manage and allow for ever increasing numbers of resources to be essentially removed from front-line service delivery in the name of counting and managing.

Targets, business strategies, constant measuring and often duplicated statistics are the only way forward for those who have never provided the service or are so long out of circulation that have lost touch with how things have moved away from what they may have done for only a relatively short time in their chosen career.

Targets…………….you can’t beat’em.

The Public Service Sector Alliance partnership, the way forward for those who understand the bigger picture.

Reduction in hot air.

As the financial noose gets ever tightened by the people who count and measure things at the CTCC, the cuts are spreading and the efficiency savings being made add a few extra quid into the funds for more essential and important things.

The counters might have saved enough money to hit their own targets and offer the hand of financial support to their chosen friends in the right places.

As various departments within the organisation struggle to hit budget targets, as well as all the other targets of things that are measured, the wonderment of essential spending investment continues.

At the newly refurbished and well appointed Robert Peel House, the daily grind of the ESSO minions have raised an issue of no chips available for dinner.

An investigation appears to have shown that the extractor system is not up to the job of sucking out all the hot air over the chip pans so the chips will remain off the menu unless an ‘investment’ is made towards a new air extraction system upgrade.

About £50,000 should just about cover it.

Great news if you like chips.

Consequences & Responsibility

It seems like our elected political masters know who to look after when things get a bit tough. Despite their hammering over abuses of the lucrative and thoroughly lifestyle supporting expenses, for which they have operated within the rules of course, they have decided to reward those who approved this expenses financial windfall for them.

With everyone being forced to tighten their belts, local councils having to cut budgets for just about everything after losing tax payers money in dodgy foreign bank ‘investments’, as well as financing who knows what, I was a little surprised to see in the media that pay rises for some of the lucky few are well above what everyone else is told they need to accept to ensure that everything is affordable in these bleak times.

An 11% rise for the most senior Commons official, Malcolm Jack, means he now earns more than Gordon Brown. His pay rose from a £170,000-£175,000 band to £190,000-£195,000. He also got an increase in benefits in kind from £20,000 to £25,000.

Director of Resources Andrew Walker’s salary rose from a band of £115,000 – £120,000 to £125,000 – £130,000.

The increases were reportedly approved by a senior pay panel, but they come at a time when others in the public sector are seeing their annual salary rises restricted to about 2%.

They’ll be ‘investing’ in some scheme or other next. Pity there is no mention of consequences and responsibility.

Police Dog Handler facing prosecution.

A Nottinghamshire police dog handler is facing prosecution after two dogs died when they were left in a car. The German Shepherdswere left in the handler’s car at Nottinghamshire Police headquarters on June 30.

Temperatures approached 30C that day in Arnold on the outskirts of Nottingham. On the afternoon the officer had gone into the station, with his car allegedly parked a short distance from a new £300,000 kennels complex.

The officer in question has been suspended and an internal inquiry is being conducted. 

The RSPCA said: “Legal proceedings will be brought against the Nottinghamshire police officer for causing unnecessary suffering to the two animals.”

Cheaper by the dozen.

To make the CTCC (City Town and County Constabulary) Dogs section more efficient (to save money) the leadership elite has decided after consultation with our neighbours at the NCC (Neighbourhood and Corporate Constabulary) to amalgamate our two Dogs sections.

By combining the two sections it is deemed to be a far better use of the staffing, fleet and dogs to produce a more dynamic (cheaper), efficient, responsive (cheaper) and cost effective (cheaper) support to make our communities feel safer.

This is not simply about saving money (making it cheaper) but is responding to the combined corporate needs of all our partners and offers a more financially viable (cheaper) and sustainable (cheaper)  dog support service.

The combined numbers of operational handlers will be reduced by 12% to make the joint CTCC & NCC canine support partnership a far more responsive (cheaper) and effective (cheaper) entity.

The reduction in officers will result in real term efficiency savings (cheaper)in vehicle fleet, fleet maintenance, dog food and veterinary charges, uniform and other stores/requisitions and allow for better allocation of the efficiency savings towards better targeted and strategic aims that will make our communities safer and offer a more sustainable specialist support provision. There will be additional resource savings by a reduced level of bureaucracy, administration and buildings/estates demands. The level of leadership will remain at the current levels to ensure a smooth transition and ensure that the importance of the aims of the venture are reinforced, given effective direction and remain fit for purpose.  

Costs for the implementation of the relocation plan will be met out of the efficiency savings and be phased into operation during the next financial review period.

The senior finance review committee will meet to discuss the various phases of implementation and a consultation document will be drawn up to keep all staff fully aware of the progress of this innovative partnership venture.

The new CTCC & NCC Canine partnership, as it will be known, will continue to deliver a highly specialised and valuable support resource to the communities of both partnership agencies and fully support the Policing aims of the organisations. The leadership of both the CTCC and NCC have  welcomed and fully support the close corporate liaison this forward thinking and important decision has brought.  No answers yet to new location costs, increased travel costs and more travel to new location, changes to kenneling to name but a few. Less dogs to cover the same geographical area.

More efficient, effective, financially sustainable ?

But definitely not cheaper ?

Police Dogs die in vehicle.

Well after this, and this,  some of the other media headlines and some of the comments put onto the news forums and elsewhere, as well as some of the messages I have seen, it seems that all Police Dog Handlers are now viewed as the scum of the earth in some areas.

Get one thing straight.

This is extremely tragic news.

Not for the person or persons involved, not even for the Police Force involved, but for the dogs.

No dog deserves to lose its life stuck inside a overheated van, if this is what actually occurred.

However, there are many things I do not yet know.

How long the van was left and its position in relation to shade or cover ?

Was the vehicle a dog van or a private vehicle or a vehicle suitable to carry dogs in (fitted with a secure carrier or cage) ?

Were any doors or windows left open ?

Were any doors or windows closed and if so for what reason ?

Did the vehicle have air conditioning and was it left on ?

Why was the vehicle left for a length of time to allow this to happen ?

Had any of the dogs had any history of respiratory illness ?

These questions have not yet been answered in a public forum and yet seem to have been judged already.

Irresponsible actions that lead to this type of tragedy cannot be condoned and if a lack of care or neglect can be proved the person or persons responsible should be punished for what has been allowed to occur.

This will be of no consequence to the unfortunate dogs and will go some little way to show that the Police are liable as anyone else for what they get wrong.

This will be enough for some and will never, ever be enough for others.

Dogs handlers are seriously caring about the welfare of their dogs.

I have assumed that this is without question, clearly I might be wrong in this case because of the outcome of Tuesdays events.

All Police officers engaged in the training, care and welfare of our dogs will feel very uncomfortable about this.

It is not because of the media coverage, or the negative impact caused by comments and statements from experts, nor the chance given to anti-police elements to have another opportunity to put the boot in again.

It is because of the death of two dogs in a way that simply should not happen and should have been avoidable.

Until I know more I cannot offer any other comment.

Trust me on this, every Police dog handler, and I mean every single Police dog handler in the country, wants to know what happened and how it was allowed to happen. Simply because it should not have happened.

Please feel free to continue to put up your comments.

Cool heads and kind hearts.

The cool heads in the cool air conditioned offices of the elite leadership team of the CTCC have made a serious decision.

They have considered all the facts, they are highly paid to make important decisions like this,they have to consider the public and corporate image negative impact strategy as well as the fact that the weather has got rather warm of late. Despite being well into the morning towards lunchtime.

Will the troops look the part and still give the correct and professional corporate image ?  What about those trendy designer sunglasses ?

OK then, they can take off their ties.

Great news.

For those who do not have the luxury of an air conditioned office or the comfort of an air conditioned car (when it is working) this is a small relief from the sticky and uncomfortable heat and an opportunity to remove the body armour for a while until the next call.

I feel sorry for the military in Iraq & Afghanistan where the wearing of life preserving equipment is essential and the temperature is considerably hotter.

Suddenly life doesn’t seem too bad.

Cats are like this…….

Education before incarceration.

To compliment and expand on the educational workshops where a driver who contravenes a red traffic light or is caught speeding can receive three hours of chit chat without the points added to their driving licence, the CTCC has come up with a great new engagement initiative to try to reduce the repeat instances of domestic harmony imbalance that require Policing intervention with the introduction of  community workshops instead of attending court to get bound over to be of good behaviour or a caution for a minor offence or have the allegation withdrawn and no proceedings take place despite the work involved in admin and preparation.

A fictional CTCC spokes person said, “Education before incarceration will be the way forward. The time saved by officers deployed for endless hours in custody units, taking statements that are later retracted as well as the saving in administrative hours incurred will allow for our officers to be better utilised by being deployed on other relevant and strategic targets or intelligence led operations and therefore making our communities safer” 

This should go someway towards raising the profile of the CTCC and widening the strategic involvement within the community.

AVAILABLE NOW – EVENING WORKSHOPS FOR MEN ALL WELCOME

Note: due to the complexity and level of difficulty, each course will accept a maximum of eight participants. The course covers two three hour sessions spread over two evenings on a weekday, a supper will be provided, as will instructions as how to take supper from its packaging without a woman to hold it for you.

Topics covered on this course include:

DAY ONE TOILET ROLLS – DO THEY GROW ON THE HOLDERS? Roundtable discussion.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LAUNDRY BASKET & FLOOR Practising with hamper (pictures and graphics.)

DISHES & CUTLERY; DO THEY LEVITATE/FLY TO KITCHEN SINK OR DISHWASHER BY THEMSELVES? Debate amongst a panel of experts.

REMOTE CONTROL Losing the remote – Helpline and support groups.

LEARNING HOW TO FIND THINGS Starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down whilst shouting – Open forum.

DAY TWO EMPTY MILK CARTONS; DO THEY BELONG IN THE FRIDGE OR THE BIN? Group discussion and role play.

HEALTH WATCH; BRINGING HER FLOWERS IS NOT HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH PowerPoint presentation.

REAL MEN ASK FOR DIRECTIONS WHEN LOST Real life testimonial from the one man who did.

IS IT GENETICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SIT QUIETLY AS SHE PARALLEL PARKS? Driving simulation and anger management.

LIVING WITH ADULTS; BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR PARTNER Role playing and slideshow.

HOW TO BE THE IDEAL SHOPPING COMPANION Relaxation exercises, meditation and breathing techniques. Also a brief session on how to incorporate shopping and watching sport on the same day.

REMEMBERING IMPORTANT DATES & CALLING WHEN YOU’RE GOING TO BE LATE Bring your calendar or PDA to class, NOT your secretary.

GETTING OVER IT; LEARNING HOW TO LIVE WITH BEING WRONG ALL THE TIME Individual counsellors available (male counsellors sadly unavailable-none passed training course.)

Good Nightjack.

It seems that the demise of the Nightjack blog has come to pass and the world of the Police blogosphere will be a sadder place as a result.

Thanks for the excellent writing and the insight into how at least part of your world turns.

Many of your regular readers will miss your literary offerings and I will join them in wishing you well, now that the Nightjack blog has gone into storage or retirement.

There was some good recognition for the Nightjack blog paid from various areas including  the Independent,BBC’s Paul Mason  and Iain Dale after Nightjack won the Orwell Prize, or perhaps I should say swooped in and seized the award.