A lot of my time over the last month has been taken up with the recruitment and selection process for the four new Field Officers who will all hopefully be in post by the start of January. Existing Field Officers will have already started the hand over process and more will be explained at the forthcoming Regional Project managers meetings. As we have increased the number of Field Officers to seven, we have had to realign forces into new Field Officer Areas. This process is complete and will be introduced at the same time as the new Field Officers join us. Regional maps will be made available which will look slightly different to what you have been used to.
I have asked the Field Officers to hold discussions locally to consider how you want to meet as regional forces and for us to accommodate that as best as we can. Our regional boundaries should be seen as no more than that – forces will still be able to meet at a time and place suitable to them and this networking is a vital aspect of the Field Officers work.
A visit to Durham gave me an opportunity to discuss the forces approach to PCSOs and the work they are doing towards the nation PCSO consultation. This was followed by a 2 day Neighbourhood Improvement Workshop in Lancashire followed shortly after by a similar event in Cumbria. Facilitated by a very experienced independent facilitator – Siobhan Riordan and a senior member of the NPIA Leadership faculty - Bob Scurr, the integration of neighbourhood policing and neighbourhood management or locality working was high on the agenda for both events with senior police staff working through issues with their senior partners. We still have the capacity to run these events until the end of March next year and I have had expressions of interest from GMP and NYP. Early in the new year we will be reviewing NIWs to consider exciting opportunities to build on its success.
Over the coming months we will look at the findings of our Prevent/NHP visits, the development of the Policing Pledge and the findings of a thematic review of the HMIC inspections for Citizen Focus and NHP. Looks like a very busy end to the year!
If you would like to find out more about Neighbourhood Policing in your area, please log on to the websites below or contact your local police force.
