NCJ Number
204448
Date Published
August 1999
Length
98 pages
Annotation
This research report provides the first authoritative overview of how the British police service has been preparing for the implementation of the "best-value" statutory mandate for local authorities, fire agencies, and police agencies to cooperate in the continuous improvement of local public-safety services.
Abstract
The relevant legislation requires local authorities to review all of their services over 5 years to determine whether a service is needed and if so, how it may be more efficiently and effectively provided. Authorities must publish findings from their reviews along with their planned improvements, accompanied by measures and targets in an annual performance plan. In order to determine how local police forces are preparing to implement this legislation, the current research involved three phases. A telephone survey was conducted of all 43 police forces in England and Wales during March and April 1999. Subsequently, a database of "best-value" developments was constructed and analyzed. In addition, semistructured face-to-face interviews were conducted with key personnel in local authorities and police forces in nine areas during June and July 1999. All of the local authorities and police forces were found to be involved in preparations at differing stages. In April, the authorities and forces were in the early stages of considering widely differing approaches to the implementation of "best-value" mandates, but by July their preparedness and approaches were apparently broadly converging as they began to engage in pilot reviews that encountered similar issues and difficulties. Generally, the authorities and police forces were building on existing structures, systems, and cycles, rather than adopting radical organizational changes. Invariably, forces were combining various tools and models in a "toolkit," such that each review was conducted according to the local circumstances. All police forces were using the Business Excellence Model to varying extents, usually as a self-assessment tool. Police forces tended to form central teams to oversee the daily management of the best-value enterprise. Early pilot reviews took longer than anticipated, but forces concluded that time-scales would shorten as they became more familiar with them. There was evidence that police forces and local authorities were combining their consultation and beginning to discuss joint reviews. Some difficulties encountered were the cultural implications of best value, a mismatch between planning cycles and the best-value program, lack of a force-wide involvement in best-value preparation, lack of needed data, and difficulty in applying best-value mandates to various types of police services. Future issues identified are the management of the increased work occasioned by vest-value mandates, the monitoring of action plans, how to management failures in best-value implementation, meeting the requirements of the audit and inspection regime, and monitoring and learning from other approaches. 8 tables, 25 references and appended case studies, the Business Excellence Model, and a list of forces currently piloting national process improvement projects