Police: PCSOs invited to put names forward for redundancy as belts tightened

POLICE Community Support Officers face being among the first casualties of job cuts which could see hundreds of civilian members of North Yorkshire Police facing the new year on the dole.

The PCSOs were part of the extended police family that Labour saw as a quick-fix to crime, but were widely criticised as ineffective. They are classed as civilians and can therefore be made redundant, unlike regular officers.

Now they are being invited to volunteer for redundancy along with other police staff as North Yorkshire Police gear up for the announcement today of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review.

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North Yorkshire Police currently has 1,547 regular police officers who cannot be made redundant because they are employed by the Crown, not the police authority, which also means they are not allowed to strike. But North Yorkshire Police Authority is the boss of 1,427 civilian staff, including the PCSOs, whose jobs can be axed. Because the force is facing a possible 25 per cent budget cut there is speculation up to 350 jobs could be at risk.

Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell said: "The announcement of the voluntary redundancy scheme will enable individual staff members to consider if the time is right for them to move on from North Yorkshire Police.

"This in advance of us having to invoke compulsory redundancies once the full impact of the comprehensive spending review has been assessed.

"Some people may feel that such a move, in advance of knowing the detailed outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review, is not necessary. As Chief Constable I have previously indicated that I have no doubt that we, as an organisation, will need to be smaller if we are to balance our books over the coming years."

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Police Authority Chairman Jane Kenyon said: "Sadly, with the scale of expenditure reduction we expect to see and with 86 per cent of North Yorkshire Police spending being people, it is inevitable that staff numbers will need to reduce, although we are committed to maintaining front line policing as much as we can.

"It is our intention to achieve this with as little pain to individuals and the organisation as possible."