Police chiefs fear Government cuts could lead to downsizing of West Midlands force
Police chiefs in the West Midlands are predicting swingeing cuts would be “hugely significant” to crimefighting and could lead to a “large downsizing of the workforce”.
With cuts of up to 25 per cent being proposed to Government departments, police could be faced with the task of radically redrawing the make up of the force.
A report has revealed that senior West Midlands officers forecast its current £583 million budget could be slashed by anything between £94 million and
£131 million by 2014/15.
The basic financial model drawn up by the force and shown to the ruling Police Authority is the first time senior officers have hinted at how harsh the impact of any cuts could be.
It came in the week the Chief Inspector of Constabulary said police forces could shave up to £1.15 billion – 12 per cent of the national police budget – by making simple changes to improving productivity and cutting costs.
But in his report Valuing the Police, Sir Denis O’Connor warned anything deeper than that “would almost certainly reduce police availability unless it were prioritised over and above everything else the police did”.
The leader of the West Midlands rank and file officers said it was now time for a debate over what the public wanted from its police service, a highly visible reassurance pounding the beat or one capable of quickly responding to calls for help.
“First and foremost we are an emergency service,” said Andy Gilbert, chairman of the West Midlands branch of the Police Federation.
“We don’t want to see anything taken away from the frontline resource, but we’ve got to define what the frontline is.
“As a service we may have to say to people; ‘You’ve got a choice, do you want lots of yellow jackets walking the streets or an emergency service there when you need it?’”
West Midlands Police has already had £7.5 million taken from its budget this year and is looking to save another
£50 million through its restructure, known as Programme Paragon.
But the expected cuts go beyond efficiency savings already identified, and will have led to concern about how savings can be made without damaging the service to the public.
The largest share of the budget, at about 80 per cent, is spent on staff and if cuts of the magnitude identified are needed, police acknowledged the axe would fall on them.
The Financial Horizon Update report to the Police Authority stated: “The financial modelling shows the potential impact on the force and policing in the West Midlands from the possible reductions in Home Office funding is likely to be hugely significant.
“The force and authority recognise the budget is highly geared to supporting officers and staff, and the effect of a reduction in funding of the order shown in the modelling will be to require a large downsizing of the workforce. In turn, this will mean developing a clear set of policing and other priorities, as reductions of the proposed levels will affect the overall levels of policing that can be delivered.”
Uniformed police officers cannot be made redundant, which presents a problem in how quickly the workforce could be slimmed down.
If the savings were to be made over a longer period, insiders have predicted a recruitment freeze of up to four years ,which would allow the number of sworn officers to drop organically by not replacing those retiring or quitting.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “The report is aimed at keeping Police Authority members up to date about grant reductions imposed on the force this year and the possible implications of the Chancellor’s June Budget statement.
“Until the results of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review are made public in October, the size of further reductions in funding remain unclear and difficult to comment upon.
“The discussion document shows we are alert to the significant financial challenges ahead and that difficult decisions will have to be made.
“It also recognises that savings have been and will continue to be identified through the Programme Paragon restructure, but that these savings alone are unlikely to be sufficient to deal with the anticipated reduction in funding.”
