Admin and finance jobs face axe as police look for £15m savings

DOZENS of back-office jobs look set to go at Humberside Police as part of its £15m money-saving programme. Staff will be offered retraining and redeployment with redundancy as a final resort. The force is a year into the Choices programme and so far has saved £3m.

Supt Phil Davies, who is leading the force-wide project, the force was looking at "up to triple numbers" in terms of job losses, as a worst-case scenario.

Areas affected include business support, human resources, financial management and support services and administration. But Supt Davies insisted there will be no "slash and burn" as the inevitable screw is turned on public funding in the coming years.

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"There will be voluntary redundancies at some point. Voluntary is the only plan we have.

"There is going to be no slash and burn. This is so anti-slash and burn it's unbelievable."

The superintendent, who last year was head of criminal investigations in the East Riding, said there were no plans to reduce the overall number of police officers: "We don't expect to have any drastic change in numbers. Regardless of tightening our belt there's a finite resilience floor."

Savings at Humberside include replacing "archaic" 20th century paperwork to deal with the hundreds of different claims made for mileage and overtime with electronic systems.

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Supt Davies said forces were having to be more financially efficient and in future forces in Yorkshire would have to work closer together to cut costs.

"If we are trying to be more financially efficient we have to think more like a business and less like a traditional public service.

"It makes sense if you buy in bulk; you always save money. If police forces operate together to procure IT contracts, vehicles and helicopters you have more power in the market-place to get a quality product.

"I am sold on the idea that senior cops have to be business managers as well as operational managers."

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Savings won't come off ratepayers bills but will be ploughed back into projects like the new headquarters on Clough Road in Hull and into cash reserves.

Chief constable Tim Hollis has already agreed to streamline the force's command structure, by downgrading, merging and deleting a number of senior posts, including three inspectors and five constables in D division, which covers Hull, to make a saving of 813,962.

The posts will go through natural wastage as officers retire or move on. Supt Davies said they had decided against one of the recommendations, deleting a chief officer's post, in order not to jeopardise the force's improving performance.

"It's not going to happen at this time," he said. "The chief's stance is that we will review it again in a few years."

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The most controversial aspect of the cost-saving measures so far has been the axing of the 1,500-a-year bounty payments to special constables, which will save some 1m over four years.

In spite of the decision being enforced earlier this month former police authority chair Colin Inglis is continuing his protest against the move.

At this week's meeting of Hull Council, he is calling on colleagues to support a motion asking for the police authority to be given the final say over the axing of the payments.

Coun Inglis insists the decision shouldn't be left to the "direction and control" of the chief executive but "be determined by members of a police authority accountable to the people."

If his motion succeeds a letter will be sent to Home Secretary Alan Johnson on the issue.