Decision details

The FCC Investment Business Case has been proposed to outline the investment needed for the Force Contact Centre to address the challenges it faces in creating a more resilient, high quality, responsive and consistent service. It will supplement the existing change work ongoing in the branch around replacing contact centre telephony, estates improvements, technical upgrades and business process redesign around incident grading, dispatch, crime recording, force operations and the people strategy.
It addresses the recent issues surrounding the sub optimal 999 and 101 performances - where our service has fallen way below what the public should expect of us, and the substantial amount of money spent on overtime with limited impact on performance and which is unsustainable to resource.

It looks at the resilience of the branch to handle the spikes in demand and abstractions presented by the recent pandemic and the need to review the resourcing model to meet and respond to changes in demand, such as the increase in live chat and website contacts. It also considers the high turnover of staff and sickness, plus the capacity challenges experienced in selection, recruitment, training and mentoring within the FCC.
It highlights the anticipated benefits to the public who should see an
increased satisfaction with their police force as well as the benefits to the health and wellbeing of staff, operational integrity, compliance and
financial/operational efficiencies. It also summarises the key practical
delivery considerations including any required enabling work, central support, provisional timescales and risk management, as well as projected costs.
The requested budget includes:
• an increase in call handling establishment by 42 (from 246 to 288) in
order to deliver 999 SLA.
• recruitment to 10% over establishment across Switchboard, Call
Handling, Command & Control and Crime Recording to minimise the
effect on performance of spikes in leavers (current attrition rate is 10%) or delays in on-boarding
• the creation of a senior staff post for customer contact to drive the
business forward.
• an investment into People and Development training resources to
deliver the uplift and ongoing CPD.
• It also recommends a review of pay in call handling which we
anticipate would be raised from grade C/D to E to align with the Radio
Dispatch role. Dispatch would move to a single E Grade role, aligned
to Call Handling.
• A pay review in the Customer Enquiry Unit (known as switchboard)
and proposes they might see an increase of grade from B/C to D.
Job evaluation and consultation will be required before it can be
implemented, however planning for this can be progressed immediately.

The Deputy Mayor is asked to consider the proposals set out in the FCC Business Case and approve the necessary investment to enable the FCC to address the challenges it faces in creating a more resilient, high quality, responsive and consistent service.
The Deputy Mayor is asked to approve additional funding as set out below:
1. Approve the release of £8,058,682 recurring revenue for Phases 1
(A) & 1 (B). (It should be noted, however, that the part-year recurring
revenue cost forecast for 2022/23 is £4,915,351 due to anticipated
timescales to recruit) and thereafter £8,058,682 per annum.
2. Approve the release of £228,000 one off revenue for project
resources in 2022/23.
3. Approve the expenditure of £72,613 one off capital for training
laptops and FCC door automation in 2022/23 (to be funded from
capital grant as part of the 2022/23 capital programme).

n view of the demand for 101 and 999 services into GMP and the HMIC VSA recommendations and the cause for concern, no alternative options were considered.