The release of the PEEL report renews the long-standing pressures of austerity and the dangers undue cuts can cause to a service’s ability to meet demand. Mark Darby, Alliantist CEO, argues that what is needed is reform not continual salami slicing. The PEEL report is daunting with potentially significant repercussions. However it does come with an opportunity to improve efficiency in the day-to-day working of services in order to respond to evolving threats and help reduce future demand.
Threats posed to demand capacity mean that efficiency must improve for all. There is the need to meet increasingly complex demand despite reducing resources. For areas where further reductions in workforce are no longer possible, improvements to efficiency through transformation are all the more imperative.
“Necessity is the mother of invention”
Austerity and inefficiency is certainly a problem but one which can draw out the best in policing, and its partners, through more effective collaboration. What is needed, in order to overcome the issue, is a reform of daily routines and working practices. The solution lies in bringing multiple information and processes together into one place and making collaboration a part of everyday work, internally and externally.
A powerful cloud platform such as pam has the ability to help drive change in routines across a number of key areas and ensure the workforce are suitably equipped for the future. Examples include:
- Improved use of resources – pam’s cloud infrastructure means less need to travel, or more effective engagement when working remotely or by mobile. It also cuts through bureaucracy to free up time by reducing and focusing meetings; efficiently coordinating work. Built in governance, audit and reporting to reduce admin and presentation effort to produce minutes, highlight reports and so on means a chance to concentrate time on what you are trying to achieve, not waste it on how.
- Make better decisions – Working together from one place ensures everyone gets the same information. Less time spent chasing and administering also means more eyes on the work issues and wisdom of the crowd…..
- Enhance connectivity throughout law enforcement – One of the 5C’s of policing is connectivity and with pam, it means automatic connectivity to all police forces, and their partners working over secure government networks. It means driving down the cost of collaboration and sharing resources across force boundaries quickly and easily.
Overcoming the constraints of austerity to produce an even better service is a difficult challenge but it can be done; indeed it has to happen. pam was built in collaboration with forces and their partners; bringing more forces and agencies into the platform will help drive out further inefficiency and can lead to even lower costs for all agencies. Contact the pam team for more information.