If You Pay Peanuts....

The shape of things to come?....

"Westshire Constabulary PLC today went into liquidation. This was after a a run of mishaps and blunders that could not be investigated due to privatisation of the organisation. Due to the loss of confidence in the board by shareholders and the glaring media spotlight, share prices plummeted and insolvency practitioners were called in...."

The above is of course fiction but could be accurate in the future as West Midlands and Surrey Police constabularies are inviting bids from security companies to carry out particular types of jobs usually done by police officers such as investigating crimes or patrolling neighbourhoods.

Claiming that money is tight after the budget slashes, these constabularies believe that this is the way forward for saving money and increasing front line presence.

Is it the way forward though?

In my humble opinion, no, it isn't.

Private companies such as G4S are answerable to the shareholder, where the constabulary is answerable to the public.

That means that the security company will put one thing only at the front of their agenda and that's "Profit" for its shareholders.

This could mean cutting corners as other companies in PPP to save money possibly affecting safety of those working with and working for the company. Reduced wages, reduced equipment all to save on costs.

I have never been a believer in contracting out to other companies. Yes I appreciate it creates business and therefore employment opportuniities but you need to look at the broader picture.

Take hospitals as an example, cleaning used to be done by the ward nursing staff. Nurses were responsible for the cleanliness of their ward and they were cleaned to within an inch of their lives. As a result, viruses such as MRSA were not in existence.

Give the contract to a cleaning company who's one sole aim is to make money and you could find that wards are quickly dusted due to there not being enough cleaning staff or mopped with an old dirty mop as buying a new one will effect budgets.

You only have to look at the failed Public-Private Partnership of London Underground to realise just how dangerous this move can be.

The collapse of Metronet in 2007 cost us, the tax payer £410 million. Who's to say that this would not happen again? No one dreamed it would happen to Metronet and them winning the contract with Tube Lines was like the Golden Goose.

Has anyone thought of asking the tax paying public what they think of this and do they have their permission?

So let's ask?

You have been burgled, who would rather arrive to investigate?

A police officer, duty bound by law to investigate? The police officer would have been fully trained, experienced and have knowledge of forensic procedures.

Or a security guard who's company will want them to check it out as quickly as possible as they have three guards off sick and it's costing them to send a substitute guard subcontracted from another company?

Who do you want to see patrolling your streets?

A fully equipped police officer who can not only arrest a person breaking the law but deal with the investigation when necessary?

Or a security guard who cannot arrest, will not be fully equipped and in some cases may not speak much, if any English?

Once you start cutting costs to improve efficiency you effect the quality of service.

West Mids and Surrey are claiming that it will help protect the frontline during cost cutting restraints.

How?

If security guards are patrolling the streets, how is that protecting the front line? In my opinion, that's a significant cut back.

Also, how is it a better option for saving money? and who's decision will it be that one neighbourhood will get police officers and another will get security guards?

If that neighbourhood is paying the same contribution from their Council Tax towards policing, I would want a refund or a significant reduction as you are not getting a police service.

It's a cheaper option and from my experience of many things, quantity isn't quality.

The company, once it's landed a contract over several years, may suddenly find that they need to put their prices up a significant amount to keep up with other businesses alike.

The constabulary may well then find themselves in the middle of a price battle that spirals out of control. In several years time, the contract could cost more than having actual police officers doing that job.

That's when it will go full circle.

You see, this is my point. If I buy a cheap garden shed from a budget supermarket that sells other products as well as garden furniture, I may be making an initial saving but in the long run it will show why it was so cheap when the wood rots and the roof falls in and I have to buy another one or pay out a lot of money to repair it.

If I bought from a company that specialises in garden furniture, yes, it will be considerably more expensive than the cheaper option but it will last several more years and will not need much money to keep it maintained.

I know that the police are not perfect and I would be a fool to claim that they are but if you invest the money back into proper policing you will get results even if it costs more in the short term.

This is why I believe policing should remain with the police and let the guards look after the shops.

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Your Attention Please!

This blog entry is the email I received this morning and it brings me no joy to post this tonight for you all but it needs saying.  This is from DC Simon Steele the Chairman of the Constables Branch Board and serves with Sussex Police.  This message needs to be sent far and wide people so, copy, paste and send to all your colleagues!  Even send a copy to your local MP.

Dear Colleagues,

For those of you that are not aware The Police Federation held their Annual Conference in Bournemouth between the 16^th and 19^th May 2011.

I don’t apologise for the length of this document. You have a right to know all that has happened over the past week. Please read it in its entirety. YOURS and YOUR COLLEAGUES FUTURE are at stake and we need your support. Please feel free to forward this email internally to all of your colleagues. Now more than ever we need to stand as one.

This report is intended to update you on all the relevant points and issues that were discussed last week. It will also give you an insight as to what the Federation are doing to protect your pay and conditions.

Firstly let me make this abundantly clear, the next twelve to eighteen months are going to be the most financially challenging period that you will have faced in your lifetime. This is not scaremongery, this is not spin this is FACT. You will not like what I am about to say and you need to prepare for the tough months that follow.

On Monday I attended the Eve of Conference Meeting.

The Olympics.

The key dates for policing the London Olympics next year are 1^st May 2012 to 16^th September 2012.  The opening ceremony will be on 26^th July 2012.

Policing of the Olympic Torch Run will be conducted on a regional basis with mutual aid provided where necessary.

Each Force has been told of its Olympic Commitments in respect of Officer Number’s and specialist skills. (Apparently).

PFEW has issued guidance to Chief Officers suggesting they set an overall 7% restriction on leave during the Olympic period. Individuals with caring responsibilities should be given priority when leave is allocated at peak periods. Further support has been requested in terms of approaching schools regarding removing children classes during term time.

The more specialist the role you perform, the more likely you WILL be subject to restrictions on taking leave during the Olympic period.

The PFEW will support a minimum of doubling of the normal carry over allowance without prior approval i.e. 10 days or 80 hours. (I guess in Sussex’s case doubling nothing leaves nothing but I would hope a degree of flexibility will be offered and I will update you when a decision is taken).

The mutual aid pattern will be:

Day 1 Travel to Accommodation Venue,

Days 2 - 6 deployed on an 8 hour tour of duty with a minimum mandatory 4 hours overtime period (12 hour day)

Day 7 return to Force area.

It will then be down to each individual Force to manage returned officers rest days.

Two main accommodation sites have been identified. The vast majority will be housed at Hatfield University in Hertfordshire (subject to on going contractual negotiations).

The main accommodation for mutual aid to Dorset is a mobile home park on the outskirts of Weymouth.

Onto the gloomy bit!

The Economic Outlook.

To say that the economic outlook is gloomy is somewhat of an understatement.

We are now 18 months out of the longest recession since 1930. It has been the deepest recession since World War 2.

It lasted 1.5 years through six quarters. (Quarter 2 - 2008 through to Quarter 3 - 2009).

The cumulative loss in national income and output over this period amounted to 6.4%.

The economy has been stagnant for the last 6 months. It fell back 0.5 % in the final quarter of last year and this 0.5% loss was recovered in the first quarter of this year.

The economy is predicted to grow slowly this year and next year.

Inflation will be high and running ahead of pay. There will be severe cuts in expenditure and investment will remain weak.

The government are pinning their hopes on strong growth in exports but the truth is the gap is still growing.

The labour market is weak with unemployment standing around 8%.

Given the weak economic recovery it is likely that employment will start to rise again soon.

In the 20 years up to 2006/7 public spending averaged about 40% of GDP. Government receipts also averaged around the 40% of GDP mark.

HOWEVER in 2009/10 spending increased to 48% of GDP and receipts totalled 37% of GDP resulting in the government borrowing 11% of GDP to make up the shortfall. This is known as the Public Borrowing Requirement (PBR). In 2009/10 this stood at 11%.

The Government debt (Accumulated PBR) stood at 71.3% of GDP in 2010.

In the June 2010 budget government announced their intentions to raise 113 billion pounds to combat the government’s debt deficit. 29 billion from tax increases and 84 billion in expenditure cuts. This includes 18 million (11 million initially) in benefits cuts and 63 billion in spending cuts.

Cuts in departmental budgets (other than health and overseas aid) amounts to a 19% cut in real terms over 4 years. 2011 to 2015. (Labours planned cuts would have amounted to 12% in real terms).

Police funding is to reduce by 14% by 2014/15 in real terms.

Central government funding is to reduce by 20%.

In real terms the reduction will be greater than 20% as the governments Inflation assumptions are unrealistic and too low.

The cuts are concentrated on the first two years so over the next 18 months we are all going to start to feel the pain.

These savings are going to be achieved by a saving in back office functions, modernising pay and conditions (Winsor Review), an increase in pension contributions (Hutton Review) and by reducing Police Numbers.

Effects of the Winsor Review Part 1. (REMEMBER THESE ARE PROPOSALS AND HAVE NOT YET BEEN IMPLEMENTED)

Abolish incremental Pay Progression from September 2011.

This will affect 55 - 60% of Constables.

On completion of training Constables will lose two increments amounting to a loss in wages of £3,186.

Don’t forget that you will lose the first increment in both years 1 and 2 meaning the cumulative loss will be £4,695 over the two years.

Pay Point 5 will result in a loss of £1,671 and a cumulative loss of £2,556.

This one recommendation will generate savings of £250 million over the next two years.

The abolition of CRTP will mean that 35 - 40% of Constables will lose £1,212 of pensionable pay saving 145 million over 2 years.

The abolition of SPP will affect 43% of Constables with an average payment in 2010 of £1203 and will affect savings of £175 million.

The reduction in casual overtime from time and a third to plain time will result in 82% losing a further £422 from your pay packets.

Replacing double time with time and a half for working rostered rest days will affect 65% of you with an average loss of £273.

The introduction of an interim Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance will benefit only 33% of you and amounts to £1200.(Non Pensionable).

The On Call allowance of £15 for each session beyond 12. (The downside to this is that The Chief Constable could instruct every single officer in the Force to provide 12 periods of on call cover during the course of the year without it costing the Force a single penny.)

Tow Winsor estimates that if implemented his recommendations will save the government 485 million.

You will not get a pay rise either this September or next September as a result of the Public Sector Pay Freeze. We are told that “We are all in this together” and yet the private sector experienced the pay freeze during the recession and at a time when inflation was in the negative so effectively real pay for the private sector rose. The pay freeze in the private sector lasted for one year and NOT two. Subsequent pay awards have made up some of the lost ground.

We are about to experience our pay freeze at a time of high inflation. The Bank of England predicts inflation at 6% for the remainder of this year and 4% for next year. The BoE persistently under estimate these figures so the likelihood is that these figures may in fact be worse than predicted.

Increased pension contributions are extremely likely with 3% rises recommended.

There is a likely reduction in real disposable income in excess of 10% over the next two years. For an officer earning £35,000 a year this equates to a reduction in pay of around £3,500 . (I did say you wouldn’t like what I had to say).

Unemployment is likely to increase due to the fragile state of the economy and there will be an increase in numbers looking for jobs due to welfare cuts.

A final word of warning, if you haven’t got the message yet - The next two years are going to be very, very tough and you need to start budgeting now for this difficult period.

A recent Federation survey revealed the following: From over 42,000 police officers who responded to the online survey, a 98 per cent said that morale has fallen owing to planned police budget cuts, the possibility of a reduction in police officer numbers, possible changes to terms and conditions. Meanwhile, 86 per cent of police officers believe cutting police officer numbers will have a detrimental effect on crime levels. As a result of the reduction in police officer numbers 78 per cent of respondents believe their workload has already increased or will increase in the future and 91 per cent of police officers believe there will be a decline in service delivery due to planned budget cuts.

At the Constables Central Conference the chair Julie Nesbitt called on the Home Secretary to reject the proposals to freeze incremental pay and scrap the CRTP. She accused the government of being dishonest when they say cuts are needed to protect officer numbers. She also accused ACPO of attempting to become more powerful than it is today.

Policing Minister Nick Herbert attended conference on Tuesday and was attacked from all sides. He was asked by one delegate “If crime goes up as a result of a reduction in Police Numbers will you tender your resignation”. Like almost every other question he was posed he failed to answer it satisfactorily. He appears to hide behind refusing to answer “hypothetical questions” as he uttered the same response when asked if he would make the findings of any future arbitration panel binding, as his party had promised whilst in opposition.

Chairman of the Sergeants committee John Giblin asked “Is it not too late to call off your pack of hounds, return them to their kennels and do the right thing before others cry havoc, and let loose their dogs of war”.

Mr Herbert defended the governments decision to spend billions of pounds on foreign aid stating the money was “saving lives” across the world.

It is clear that those in the Home Office do not wish to listen to officers concerns. There appears little willingness to engage on their part and both Nick Herbert and Theresa May avoided the many difficult questions that were posed of them. It will be particularly difficult to influence a government that has thus far shown no desire to listen and they are using the public debt to legitimise their actions.

The highlights of Conference week for me were the key note speeches by our Chairman Paul McKeever and Home Secretary Theresa May.

Paul McKeever gave a quite brilliant speech in which he systematically dismantled the Home Secretary. For 40 minutes he spoke without notes, without auto cue and he did not let the Home Secretary off the hook for one minute. I have copied a link below which you can cut and paste into your browser and see the contents of his speech in its entirety. I would strongly urge you to read it especially if you care about your future.

http://www.polfed.org/Paul_McKeever_conference_speech_2011.pdf

Mid way through the speech he switched to a recorded video message from David Rathband the PC who was shot by Raol Moat. He told the Home Secretary how much he earnt last year (£35,000) before posing the question “Do you think I’m worth it - Home Secretary).

Our Chairman accused her of being absent without leave at a time when Liam Fox had been fighting and winning to get the cuts in the defence budget lowered .Theresa May did not fight our corner and remained silent.

Paul McKeever received a three minute standing ovation following his speech and the Home Secretary took the floor to complete silence, endured complete silence throughout her speech before leaving the stage to complete silence. She was left in no uncertain terms how angry the rank and file officers are with her and her government.

If you wish to see the Home Secretary’s response you can find it on the Federation website. Its fair to say she came out fighting, all guns blazing and like another famous Conservative female it is abundantly clear that this Lady is also “Not for turning”. We have a fight on our hands to protect our rights, our pay and conditions and it is vitally important that we all stick together over the coming months.

Ian Rennie our General Secretary and Chief Negotiator on the Police Negotiating Board also addressed conference and started by attacking the absence of ACPO Chief Sir Hugh Orde who was otherwise engaged in Canada. He was also critical of Tom Winsor who also declined an invitation to attend conference and explain his proposals for reform of the Police Service.

He emphasised that the Winsor recommendations would have a negative effect on female officers and “could make them an endangered species in policing”.

Mr Rennie highlighted the fact that the removal of CRTP would result in officers being £800 a year worse off in their retirement. Mr Rennie reiterated that Windsor’s report contains little or no evidence to support recommendations. Mr Rennie was further critical of ACPO and damned them for expecting us to pay an annual fee as a membership subscription at the same time that they supporting a reduction in our pay and conditions. He called for ACPO to stand up and support those people they purport to lead.

The phrase “More for less” has crept into the Police Service recently and Mr Rennie highlighted the point that the only thing that you get for less is in fact “LESS”.

He too called for a Royal Commission in Policing, a theme that was repeated throughout the week but apparently falling on deaf ears.

On Thursday we held our annual general meeting and two significant motions were passed at conference.

The first has instructed the Joint Central Committee to write a letter to ACPO stating that the PFEW have no confidence in them to act in the interests of British Policing. As you are no doubt aware ACPO have remained silent of late and appear reluctant to stand at our side in protecting our pay and conditions.

Secondly a motion was proposed to deal with the issues of lawful orders and the motion instructed the JCC to seek changes in this regulation so that the words Lawful Order are replaced by the words Reasonable Request. The motion also calls for the right to challenge such decisions at an employment tribunal.

The Treasurer Martyn Mordecai reported a further welcome drop in expenditure and he assured Conference that he intends to continue to drive costs down further. He has reported that there is no need to increase Federation Subscriptions next year which in this current climate should be applauded.

On a personal note I thought that it was a hugely successful week. It was exactly the response I was looking for from the Federation. Mr McKeever was undoubtedly the star of the show. The delegates that attended Conference were challenging and forthright in their views and have left both the Home Secretary and Police Minister in no uncertain terms how angry we are about this unprecedented attack on the Police Service. Paul McKeever has shown to me in this past week that he has started the fight back to protect our futures and the future of The Police Service. He has shown to me that he is up for the fight and we now place our trust in Ian Rennie as our chief negotiator of the PNB to secure the best deal that he possibly can at the negotiating table.

Negotiations of the PNB start in earnest this week and there is a table of meetings scheduled to take place between now and the 26^th July which is the deadline set by the Home Secretary. If no agreement can be reached then a failure to agree motion will be tabled and the matter will be referred to the Arbitration Tribunal for them to decide on the outcome. The Home Secretary will then have two options - accept or reject the proposals. She has the power to impose all of Tom Winsor’s recommendations but she has been put on notice that this would be a particularly dangerous path to follow.

One thing is clear and that is there will be NO winners. We are all going to have to sustain some pain over the coming months.

Prior to Conference Ian Rennie asked you all for a “call for assistance”. We need your support, now more than ever. Please continue to lobby your MP’s. Please continue to call for a Royal Commission in Policing. Please continue to support the fight for fair pay and conditions.

Over the coming months I will continue to keep you updated on developments. If any of you have any ideas as to how you would like to see the Federation respond over the coming months please let me know and I will pass your views on. What would you like to see the Federation in Sussex doing over the coming months? We are here to represent you so please give us your views.

If any of you would like to become a Federation Representative then please let me now as we still hold some vacancies.

Ensure that your voice is heard over the coming months and remember one thing “WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER”.

Detective Constable Simon Steele CS597,

Chairman of the Constables Branch Board

Detective Constables Federation Representative

Sussex Police Federation.

UKUnCut March 26

Today I have met some wonderful people. People I would not have thought that my job as hated as it can be at times would have crossed my path or touched me in ways that my job has done before.

I'll be honest with you from the off. I hate policing demos. We always end up the target for hate. A tool of the government to throw bottles and stones at. We get screamed at that we are breaching civil and human rights never mind the fact that they've been throwing missiles at us for hours.

Today, was different in so many ways.

I met people who are in the same boat as us. Facing an uncertain future, facing massive cuts and exploitation by a government that not only are threatening our very existences, have lied to us all.

I met a family with their young Son on the way there who had travelled a hundred or so miles to show their support for everyone of us facing cuts be them doctors, nurses, teachers, fire brigade even Union of boilermakers.

I spoke with them for some time and they thanked us for helping them demonstrate safely and that they know we face an uncertain future but cannot demonstrate with us.

I became worried for them, as I had heard no issues on my radio of trouble but soon as they had gone from sight, the trouble began.

These anarchists can only be described as mindless thugs hell bent on destruction, hijacking any reason just to have a fight.

These people did not represent any of those I saw today. Decent, hard working folk who are concerned not only for their future, but their children's futures and their children's children's future.

To those I did manage to speak to I thanked. I thanked them for demonstrating a worthy and just cause and to prove that us decent hard working people will not just go gently into that good night.

I thanked them because I could not join them. They were our voice today too and they did us proud.

However to those who set out to destroy that message today by destruction.

Shame on you!

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Stand and Deliver!

Well, it's Budget day today and we have experienced the usual "Robbing of Peter to pay Paul"

There was a mention of public sector pensions and George Osborne accepts Hutton's review of the pensions contributions.

I guess that means it's going ahead and we're all doomed.

Well, the government are claiming we are living longer and therefore contributions must rise to accommodate the short fall but what with everything else on the increase, inflation, food costs, job loses and fuel rising who would want to live longer?

Oh wait, fuel increase has been frozen.  Well hallelujah, we are saved! There was me thinking that we had the most expensive fuel costs on earth and there is Osborne stopping the 1p increase until at least 2012.

The problem is, it's not 1p, it's 1 penny plus VAT and 1 pence above inflation so you will not find your fuel pumps only going up by 1p.

I finally received my letter today from my local MP to whom I wrote with regards to the Winsor and Hutton reports.  The letter I received was not impressive.  But what do I expect from a Tory fat cat who is probably claiming for two houses and a moat to be regularly maintained whilst her husband sits and watches porn all at our expense (allegedly)

The letter which she could have sent via Twitter,as it was that short, basically stated that Winsor has to find cuts in the police service and during these hard times we all have to take a large bite of the shit sandwich kindly brought to us by those wearing Gordon Gekko braces, drinking coffee somewhere in one of the City's banks.

As for the pensions, well, sorry but once again, we are all having to save and this is the best way (apparently) to make cuts.

I am going to reply in a similar manner and suggest they freeze Parliamentry expenses for MP's for the next 5 years as that will save a fortune in public money being wasted and see how she responds to that.

After all, Ken Clarke was being paid a small fortune today and yet he fell asleep during the Budget.  And Yes I can say he did fall asleep and no allegedly too, as it was noticed by Ed Milliband, TV cameras, The Telegraph and bookies who have paid out at 16/1.

If they dock him pay for the length of time he was asleep during PMQ's and Budgets there would be enough to run a hospital for a year.

I ask you, what other career can you be paid and sleep during your shift?

....Ok, who said "Fire Fighter" ? Right, Get out!

This Saturday sees a demonstration in London TUC, Unison etc with regards to the cuts.  I bet many of us that are policing it would actually like to be there protesting with them, I know I want to be but I'm having to make sure that Whitehall doesn't end up looking like Tripoli after dark if the idiots who ruined the Student protests turn up again.

So if you are attending, please play nicely people.  Get your point across and leave without destroying anything.  Remember that there are others who are looking after your demonstration who agree with everything you're demonstrating about.  The main differences being, we can't voice it on Saturday and we can't go on strike.

Problem is, with fuel prices soaring, cost of train fares rising beyond a joke etc etc

.....Who's going to be able to afford to actually go?