Fishburn Hedges

05.09.2011

In preparation for the new political season, last week the Prime Minister had one of his regular sessions with his advisers to discuss strategy. As his team gathered in Downing Street to plan their approach for the coming months, they would have been wise to leave plenty of time to discuss police reform.

The fall-out from the riots, the ongoing News International saga and the implementation of "the most radical reforms to policing in at least fifty years", together with the prospect of a forthcoming parliamentary battle over elected police commissioners, will ensure that attempts to reform the police will stay in the political spotlight over the coming months. 

And if that wasn’t enough, Ed Miliband has already signalled his intention to force a vote on cuts to the police budget which the Labour Party claims could lead to a reduction of 16,000 officers. 

While others, such as Andrew Lewin, have argued that it’s inevitable the Government will have no choice but to u-turn on police cuts, the Coalition is sticking to its guns. 

Ministers argue that the riots show the case for police reform is more urgent than ever and that what matters most is not the total number of officers employed, but the number deployed. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and Nick Herbert, the well-regarded policing minister, highlight that only 12 per cent of the police are performing frontline roles at any time.  There’s scope for significant back-office efficiency savings and reductions in red tape, so they believe.  A point that was reinforced by new research launched by Policy Exchange today

David Cameron is determined to drive through change in what he believes is the last great unreformed public service.  As the Government develops its strategy for taking forward its police programme, they can draw on a wealth of experience from across the public service reform agenda. 

In just over a year, we’ve seen Michael Gove accelerate the academies programme and launch free schools, Chris Grayling roll out the flagship welfare-to-work scheme, the Work Programme, and Andrew Lansley seek to drive through change to the health system, albeit with much less success. 

The dramatic pace of public service reform shouldn’t be surprising. It’s one of the Coalition’s top two priorities alongside fixing the economy, and spending wisely is an integral part of that. And the Prime Minister has been rightly concerned to learn from the mistakes of the Blair premiership by making the most of his political capital to drive through reform early in the first term.

As Team Cameron updates its strategy for police reform, here are some lessons they would be well-minded to remember:

1)    Sell the story behind your reforms – One of Andrew Lansley’s biggest mistakes has been failing to repeatedly and effectively articulate ‘why’: why his health reforms are necessary and why they should take the shape that’s proposed. Lansley was so preoccupied with being revolutionary and talking about where he saw the NHS going, that he forgot to talk about where it’s coming from. That’s a mistake that can’t be repeated.

2)    Don’t lose sight of the public – The Coalition has got a mountain to climb to keep the public on side.  A poll commission for the Evening Standard before the riots showed that two thirds of the British public believe crime will rise because of cuts to police funding, and only just over a quarter believed that efficiency savings can prevent the need for frontline savings. But polls also show that the public believe that public services are not being delivered efficiently.  The Prime Minister must link police reform to the wider debate about delivering more efficient services, and he must get on the front foot by making the case early and often.

3)    Keep the profession close. Large sections of the police are not going to like reform, but keep them at arm’s length at your peril.  Ironically, Andrew Lansley, the embattled Health Secretary, was frequently criticised for being too close to the health professions in opposition, and yet it is was when they felt his contentious health reforms were imposed on them without consultation that the reforms ran into real trouble.

4)    It’s not all about legislation. A Bill needs to be passed to get elected Police Commissioners up and running, but legislation should only be used as a last resort - whatever the temptations for politicians to be able to state that they’ve acted by introducing a law.   Legislation soaks up a huge amount of time and political energy, and it can be a focal point for opposition.  Ironically, the vast majority of the Government’s health reforms could have been implemented without the Health Bill.

5)    Get the politics right. One of the other reasons the Government is struggling with its health reforms is because the Liberal Democrats turned on them.  Ominously for the Coalition, there are already real signs of Lib Dem discomfort with elected commissioners, and police cuts are never going to go down well with the Tory grassroots.  Team Cameron needs to ensure that the Lib Dem leadership are truly on board.  They also need to invest time in engaging with their own MPs, or there are going to be some very major challenges ahead.

6)    The first steps are often the hardest.  During the early stages of a reform programme, established processes and bureaucracies need to be continually challenged. When the Coalition took office, there were just over 200 academy schools, which had taken the Labour Government ten years to set up.  This flagship Blairite reform that enjoyed Conservative backing encountered strong opposition in its early days from sections of the education establishment (and from within parts of the Labour Government itself). With these early battles won, Michael Gove has been able to turbo-charge the academies programme, so there are now more than 1,000. In a remarkable political achievement, Gove has also overseen the creation of 24 free schools in just over a year - and that includes passing the legislation. This early progress suggests the policy could really take hold.

7)    Stay the course.  Don’t assume that once you’ve started implementing your measures that the job is done.  David Blunkett, a former Home Secretary, talks about the need to keep your foot on the accelerator of reform. As soon as you remove it, you lose all of the momentum that’s been built up.

8)    And finally, prepare for a marathon. Above all, the day-to-day business of reform is about more than announcing a new law, or introducing policy statements. It’s about working with managers and employees to drive through and embed change, both organisational and cultural.  And effective communication is a vital part of that.

Posted by Rory Scanlan