The problems with public service

1. The problems with public service Looking back looking forward d.baigent@anglia.ac.uk 0845 196 2326 Available from http://fitting-in.com/z/aa/problemsinpublicservice Username = fitting in Password=service

2. www.fitting-in.com • Go to the z at the bottom of the page • User name is fitting in • Password is dave

3. NEED TO PREPARE • To read and research for your job interview • Treat an interview and a job application like a module on your degree. • Filling in an application form and attending an interview is not something that you should ‘wing.’ • Look past why you want to take up a particular occupation to what that being in that job actually involves. • To identify the core values of that organisation and understand them from an academic point of view • Then you can offer something different to your prospective employer. • There are many ways of doing this – for public servants this is made easy because the Freedom of Information Act makes information much more accessible. • For example this means that the police and fire service have to publish their plans for the next year. Looking up these plans allows you to recognise what the employers are seeking to achieve – their aims and objectives. • Then you can research, just like a module on your degree, so that you are well informed about what an organisation is likely to want from you. • More importantly, you can show that organisation that you understand their role and how you fit into it.

4. CHALLENGES IN THE PUBLIC SERVICES • The public service ethos to provide an efficient service to help the public • How is efficiency provided • Who or what defines efficiency • Government • Public Service Managers • Public Service workers • The public • The economy

5. Since Thatcher, perhaps even Callaghan there has been an increasing focus on what the government does and how it spends its money – despite a staff reduction from over 7 million in 1979 to 5 million the public sector continue to use around 40% of gross domestic product (Farnham and Horton 1999). • Change has largely occurred through a reappraisal of economic/political ideology. Increasingly since 1978 there has been a move away from the welfare model provided by Keynesian Economics to a contract model; this model is based around neo liberal market forces. In short, New Public Management has become the norm, reducing the public sector’s emphasis on Keynesian Welfarism (Farnham and Horton 1999). • Politics has moved from the corporatist consensus of Heath and Wilson to market models introduced by Thatcher and refined by Blair in his Clintonite ‘third way’. • Human Resource Management, Total Quality Management, Service Provider, Community Involvement, Customer, Best Value, have become buzz words in the management of public services. • Everything has been aimed at Efficiency • However there are different views on a definition for efficiency • For neo liberals the view is that by making people more accountable, turning Chief Officers/Executives into budget holders rather than budget spenders efficiency will improve. Much of the public sector is now contracted out in real terms, or market tested against pseudo markets. • The hope that this will lead to better management, more accountability and better performance. • For those still tied to the Keynesian ideals of the state providing – efficiency means higher spending and greater emphasis on service at the point of delivery. • The public service ethos to provide an efficient service to help the public

6. Professional Managers • Chief executive of West Midlands ambulance service NHS trust, Barry Johns is not only one of the most experienced managers in the NHS - pound for pound, he is also one of the best paid. He earned £103,000 in pay and benefits in 2001-02, for running an organisation with a turnover of £45m. • For every £1,000 of the trust's turnover, £2.34 went on Mr Johns' salary. • "Every day 1,100 people will call 999 in the West Midlands area and want an effective response. That's a big responsibility. "I'm accountable for the trust's performance; if it all goes wrong it's me who will stand or fall." • Manages around 1,600 staff, 400 vehicles and 45 ambulance stations and other facilities. In 2001-02 it dealt with more than 285,000 999 calls, up 9% on the previous year, and achieved government performance targets for speed of response to life-threatening cases. • It also carried out more than half a million non-emergency patient transport journeys. • Butler, P. (2002) ‘Wednesday September 25, 2002The Guardianhttp://society.guardian.co.uk/salarysurvey/story/0,,795281,00.html

7. POLICE • POLICE AUTHORITY HAS 17 MEMBERS • 9 elected councillors, 3 magistrates, 5 independent members • Principle duty to provide an efficient and effective police service • Consulting with the community to determine local policing objectives • Monitor and Revue performance • Set and monitor the budget • Develop a policing plan • Publish an annual report

8. Political intervention • Record police numbers - up over 5000 between 2001 and 2003 • The introduction of Community Support Officers to work alongside the police, who offer reassurance and practical help on a wide range of issues in many communities – over 1200 are expected to be in place by April this year • Cutting police bureaucracy to allow the police to spend more time on the streets. • On the spot penalty notices that help curb anti-social behaviour. • A six per cent in funding increase of £566 million for policing in England and Wales in 2003/4.

9. BEATING BUREAUCRACY – BLUEPRINT TO PUT BOBBIES BACK ON THE BEAT • RECORD POLICE NUMBERS ANNOUNCED • A new blueprint to take officers out of the station and put them back on the streets, will make the best use of a record 129,603 police officers, Home • "A staggering 250 forms are in regular use by front-line staff. These forms can be repetitive, too long and even redundant. In one case officers spent 41,250 officer hours a year filling in a stolen vehicle form which is no longer needed. • "This keeps officers in the station rather than out on the streets. The record numbers of police officers I am announcing today will only be effective if we breakdown the unnecessary bureaucracy they face. • Reference: 256/2002 - Date: 17 Sep 2002 11:30

10. WORKING WITH COMMUNITIES • Community support officers • “Police staff were once known as "civilians" and viewed by the public as little more than traffic wardens and typists. But today they account for a third of all the force's personnel and cover a wide range of professional and technical expertise, such as fingerprint experts, forensic investigators and station inquiry officers. Many of the 80,000 police staff are in higher management positions. • The process of upgrading the skills of police staff to free up officers from routine duties - previously called civilianisation and now "workforce modernisation" - has been gathering pace. The potential has been explored by the Home Office, with a £13m fund to support 10 pilots around England and Wales, covering custody management, neighbourhood policing and investigations. The two-year programme is due to end this autumn” (Pollock 2006).

11. FIRE SERVICE • Political intervention • Change is proving more controversial than Cambridgeshire fire bosses can possibly have feared. • As president of the Chief Fire Officers' Association, it is Tom Carroll's job to articulate the difficulties, hopes and fears of fire service bosses across Britain. • As Cambridgeshire's chief fire officer, he has more than enough experience of all three. • The modernisation programme is cutting frontline jobs and emphasising the service's focus on community fire safety programmes, as well as replacing 46 fire control centres currently managing the country's brigades with nine regional centres. • But, although the bosses insist change is vital to ensure the fire service keeps pace as a relevant and effective force in the 21st Century, the reform has been fought tooth and nail by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). • Mr Carroll said: "The challenges facing the modern fire service are different from those of the past. • "Natural phenomena such as the devastating floods in Boscastle and York, and the deliberate and cowardly acts of terrorism inflicted upon the people of London, show we're right to change the way we plan and work together. • "These fresh challenges need fresh approaches and our practices must be reviewed to deliver a service that best protects the community whilst demonstrating value for money. • "Because these changes are about delivering a better service based upon real risk, it is a deep disappointment the FBU has failed so far to engage and collaborate as full partners in the modernisation agenda. • http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/region_wide/2005/11/08/a92206f9-5f90-4c3b-85d2-c7c4baa44cd2.lpf 21-11-05

12. TRYING TO SUPPRESS THE EFFECTS OF PROBLEMS RATHER THAN PREVENT THEM CHASING THE OUTCOME NOT THE CAUSE • “The heart of the problem is that the system makes a set of assumptions about the behaviour of regular offenders - that they are making rational calculations about their behaviour, that they are worried about getting caught and being punished. • Those assumptions may apply to the law-abiding majority, • but they are overwhelmingly false in relation to thelifestyle criminals who commit 80% of recorded crime: patrols don't inhibit them, detectives don't catch them, prisons don't deter them.”(Davies 2003)

13. Bit like asking doctors to stop road accidents as a way of preventing injuries. Its not their job. • And so it is for policing, the fire and health service. • Trying to suppress the effects of problems rather than prevent them • Difficulties that society could largely stop. • Often the failure of politics rather than the failure of the public services

14. An example • We can still catch a glimpse of the lamplit pavement where he lay with his blood pooling over the kerb and on to the Tarmac. ..The inspector in the van says they never caught the people who did it. …And that's how it is. The inspector knows it. Any police officer of any rank knows it. What you see on The Bill is not what you get in real life. Most of the time, most criminals get away with most of their crimes. …The Home Office knows it too. They crunched together their best statistics and analysed 100 typical offences and then they worked out how many of them had been brought to justice (a conviction, a caution, or being "taken into consideration" for sentencing). And the answer was ... three. …To put it the other way around: as far as we know, from the best research available, 97% of offences are never brought to book. • Taken from Davis, N (2003) ‘The war on crime: at the frontline’, Guardian, 10-7-03. • http://www.guardian.co.uk/criminaljustice/story/0,,996533,00.html

15. CULTURE • Evidence collected by HMIC suggests that junior officers, as immediate service deliverers, may only rarely be involved in developing policing plans and only rarely consulted in their preparation. Their exclusion from this management process is reinforced by the frequent failure by senior manage­ment to communicate to them thereafter. This is surprising, since senior management depend entirely on those officers for successful implementation of their strategies. In the absence of effective communication, the planning process might become little more than an elaborate bureaucratic exercise that fails to influence policing on the ground. The introduction of managerialism, therefore, appears in a number of police forces to be a top‑down process reflecting a strong hierarchic, organisational culture. This is perhaps best summed up by HMIC's reference to a planning process which 'illustrated an historic culture instilling compliance at a junior level rather than active participation' (HMIC, 1998c). • (Loveday 1999)

16. Informal Culture • Mayo (1949) recognised the power of informal culture • Maslow (1987) recognised that individual had needs • Baigent (2001; 2006) recognises how public service cultures are very conservative. • Celebrating white working class masculinity – “the way real men do things”

17. THE CONTROVERSIAL NATURE OF POLICING We all want a police service but no one wants to be caught by them • Driving • Drugs – problems both internal and external • Drinking • Soon to be smoking • Welfare work • Social agency of last resort

18. Police do their best • Police officers are not necessarily convinced by the arguments • and this is not always recognised by managers • The real experience of police officers not listened to – nor moderated by training • Sexism, Racism and Homophobia remain problematic areas that effect policing

19. CPS STATEMENT REGARDING THE SHOOTING OF JEAN CHARLES DE MENEZES ACPO President Ken Jones said: • "The decision by the CPS has been reached following a detailed and exacting process. We acknowledge that this has been a very difficult time for the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, and our thoughts and sympathies are with them today. It has also been a difficult time for communities and for the officers involved and today's decision means we can move ahead and look to the future. "The climate in which the police are operating today is complex and unprecedented. The police service has a duty to protect life and the law provides police officers with the ability to use reasonable force under Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act. ACPO guidance exists to minimise risk and to assist all police officers through difficult operational decisions as to what is reasonable force but never overrides the legislation. The interim review of the existing tactics, supported by the IPCC, was examined by the ACPO Police Use of Firearms Committee. The revised tactics remain in place today. We now look ahead to the findings of the IPCC, which we hope will allow us to further improve, learn lessons and develop those tactics."ACPO does not have a 'shoot to kill' policy. We have developed tactics that are necessary and proportionate to the very real threat of mass murder perpetrated by suicide terrorists." • Downloaded on 28-9-06 from http://www.acpo.police.uk/pressrelease.asp?pr_guid={b191f269-c957-45a0-9d19-bc527476aaea}

20. GAY COP VICTIM OF 'INSTITUTIONAL BIAS' • Brian Paddick, the police commander moved from his job last week after tabloid revelations about his private life, is a victim of institutional homophobia, according to the body representing Britain's gay police officers. • The Lesbian and Gay Police Association claims Paddick was subject to the same 'drip, drip, drip' of prejudice which Sir William Macpherson found that black police officers faced during his 1999 inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. • Ben Summerskill, Observer Sunday March 24, 2002

21. RELIGION • Christian police association and the gay and lesbian association are locked into an argument about equal treatment for gay police officers • A jewish police officer is concerned about having to stand guard at an Arab Embassy

22. Ali Dizaei Face up to the figures Monday September 18, 2006Guardian • When, almost 40 years ago, the first criminal justice statistics began to show gross disproportionality against black and ethnic minorities, many commentators claimed that the figures were either skewed or that young black men had more propensity to commit crimes. • The reality cannot be sidestepped so easily today, when the overrepresentation of young black men in the criminal justice system (particularly with regard to cannabis prosecutions) has been revealed. It is already known that the most likely drug user in Britain is a young white male in the AB or C1 socioeconomic group, yet new stop-and-search figures show that young black men are much more likely to be stopped and to be prosecuted for drug offences. • The black community, on the other hand, makes up only 2% of drug users but accounts for 16% of those incarcerated. • Now the truth is plain to see. Law enforcement agencies target black and ethnic minorities while trawling for suspects, and are influenced by the wrongly assumed criminal histories of these communities. These assumptions are pervasive and deeply ingrained in the culture of those who deliver justice - the results are overmonitoring and preoccupation with the black community, which inevitably draws proportionately more young black men into the criminal justice net. • Second, disproportionality is more than a statistical inconvenience: it is linked closely to the creation of distrust, and challenges the legitimacy of policing. Therefore, it must be understood that addressing black overrepresentation is an operational imperative rather than mere political correctness. • http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1874656,00.html on 18-9-06

23. CHIEF CONSTABLE RESIGNS OVER SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS • Tom Lloyd, the Cambridgeshire chief constable, resigned last night amid claims that he got drunk and sexually harassed a woman at a police conference. Mr Lloyd, 53, who faced severe criticism over his force's investigation of the Soham murders, resigned the day after issuing a public apology for his behaviour at the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) event in Birmingham last month. • Police sources said the married father of four was "extremely inebriated" after a five-hour drinking session at the Crowne Plaza hotel near the NEC conference venue on May 17, and pestered the female official with suggestive comments, asking her to accompany him to a hotel bedroom. • Rosie Cowan, crime correspondent Thursday June 2, 2005 Guardian http://chief-constable-news.newslib.com/story/3218-1891257/

24. Bibliography • Davies, N. (2003) 'A 190-Year-Old Lesson: Chase The Cause, Not The Criminal,' Guardian, London. • Loveday, B. (1999) 'Managing the Police, in S. Horton and D. Farnham (eds) Public Management in Britain', Basingstoke: Palgrave. • Pollock, L (2006) 'All in the line of duty: Pilot schemes give police staff a more influential role in the fight against crime' Guardian.