His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has published its findings from a recent revisit to Staffordshire Police to review progress around vulnerability and victims.
It follows concerns that were raised during its initial Victims Service Assessment in January 2022 around how police identify and assess vulnerability at the first point of contact and how they carry out effective investigations and provide victims with the support they need.
The force was then placed into the engage phase of HMICFRS monitoring and staff and leaders have been working hard to improve performance and address the causes of concern.
HMICFRS repeated its assessment in December 2022 to measure progress made against the recommendations in its original report. It found that efforts to improve are clearly moving in the right direction and they are seeing improvements across many areas.
However, there is more to do around attending emergency incidents within expected timeframes, producing quality investigation plans for every crime and ensuring that supervisors scrutinise investigations.
Therefore, HMICFRS has confirmed that the force will remain in the engage phase for now and it has provided a full breakdown of the review’s findings, which are available here: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/news/news-feed/staffordshire-police-has-improved-but-more-to-do/
Chief Constable Chris Noble, said: “I am pleased that HMICFRS has found that we have made progress, and noted improvements in many areas. However, they and I recognise there is more to be done.
“The engage phase monitoring provides us with a positive opportunity to be supported by HMICFRS and other national policing bodies and enables us to regularly share our progress on the areas for improvement, as we are doing now.
“Within investigations, we have been heavily focused on improving how we work and freeing-up time for our officers to dedicate to quality investigations. In the coming months, a crime admin bureau will be created to remove some of the administrative burden currently placed on officers, giving them more time on the frontline.
“Our training efforts will continue at pace. Having delivered masterclasses to hundreds of sergeants across the organisation, we are now looking to roll-out bespoke training to all constables and investigative officers to help push up standards and share best practice.
“We will also continue to invest in our Force Contact Centre, recruiting more members of staff to enhance our service.
“A LiveChat function on our website has just been introduced to provide a quality service to the public, freeing up more staff to respond to 999 calls when required and helping us to identify and prioritise our service to the most vulnerable people.
“We remain focused on further improving our response to emergency and non-emergency requests for assistance, continuing with our triage function to direct those calls that can be dealt with by partner agencies or other means, and using analytical software to better predict seasonal patterns and help us to meet anticipated demand with more intelligent resourcing.
“Many of our plans will not be possible without the support and guidance of key partners and stakeholders, but I am confident that together we can achieve our aims of protecting victims, safeguarding the vulnerable and preventing crime to secure safe and confident communities in Staffordshire.
“We have a proud and recent history of being one of the best performing forces in the country – and I’ve made it clear to my staff and the communities we serve that we intend to be back in that place and delivering the service that Staffordshire deserves.”
