Notts Police Authority Arses and Elbows Mix-Up

You gotta love the NPA. One minute they're proudly announcing the appointment of an expensive new 'change management' team*, a new Deputy Chief Constable and two new Assistant Chief Constables (the latter meaning an increase from two to three in total), someone has to come along and point out how they've got it all wrong.

At NPA's recent 'Finance and Business' committee meeting, a report was considered that said, in no uncertain terms, that compared with similar forces, Notts Police was somewhat top heavy. Overburdened with senior officers and not enough beat coppers. Too many chiefs not enough indians, that sort of thing. Here's a quote -

"The Force’s Business Information Pack produces analysis of the rank mix of the Force. This shows that a comparable MSF would be structured significantly differently from Nottinghamshire Police. A comparable MSF has approximately 50 more PC’s with lower numbers in all other more senior ranks.
 
The Business Support Team presented a paper at the February Best Use of Resources meeting showing that if the rank mix was akin to that of the MSF, an extra 45 – 60 PCs/DCs could be recruited. Alternatively, the same total Officer Establishment could be maintained for significantly reduced cost."

Oh. 45-60 extra coppers is quite a few.

We haven't got the minutes yet so we have yet to find out what JoCo and his mates made of this heresy.

*We've pointed out before that the new change manager Alan Given is one of JoCo's mates but it also includes a new 'head of Consultation and Communications' who in turn is Steve Youdell, a mate of Alan Given's.

And yet NPA already employs a Communications Policy Officer. How much 'communicating' do they expect to be doing?

And while we're here, a big hat tip to Alan a Dale who spotted that 'independent' NPA member Steff Webber may well be connected to a Steff Webber who happens to work at NCC as an Interim Area Manager in St Anns. She doesn't actually mention this in her NPA profile. St Anns is, of course, Jon Collins' manor.

I wonder who she voted for in the recent election for the Chair of the NPA?

Update - Here is the Post's take on this. Funny, I was sure they wrote about this last week but when I tried to look for it I couldn't find it. Unless I'm developing psychic powers...

Notts Police Authority Meeting Today

There is a further meeting of NPA today to discuss, amongst other things, the appointment of Alan Given to the 'Change Manager' post. This should have been decided at the previous meeting but members got the jitters over his contract.

The main bit of extra info that seems to have come out is that NPA are only getting 184 days for their £143k which seems to imply a four day week. That works out to £780/day.

However, there is a further report before the meeting which, for the first time as far as I can see, actually mentions the two assistants due to be appointed. These posts are a Head of Policy Development and a Head of Consultation and Communications. The 'Post' has reported that these posts have been 'earmarked' for former CDP bods Steves Spear and Youdell.

These are the two that I chickened out of naming last week. I hear whisperings that Mr Spear is not universally popular and it seems that wherever Alan Given goes, Steve Youdell is only a few steps behind.

The 'Post' also reports NPA member Prof Simon Holdaway's own disquiet about the processes being used to shoehorn JoCo's mates into powerful roles at NPA.

Update - 'Post' reports that Given is formally appointed, with his contract to be reviewed at 6 months. Also his two sidekicks agreed but their posts to be externally advertised at 6 months.

Police Squad

They Have No Budget*

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But They're Doing It Anyway

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They're Gonna Turn This Police Authority Upside Down and There's Nothing Those Darn Pencil Necks Can Do About It**

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Jon Collins and Alan Given Star In...

Terminator: Change Management (But The Police Authority Has Got to Want to Change)

*True, there's no actual budget to pay Given and his two mates, it's going to come out of reserves.

**JoCo appoints Given to the Change Manager post when he has no power to do so. You see if anybody calls him out on it.

All Those Recently Appointed to Notts Police Authority Please Step Forward - Not So Fast Mr Given

Well, first Alan Given is appointed as 'Change Manager' for NPA and then the 'Post' reports that he isn't. Not quite anyway, as the NPA decided only to agree his appointment 'in principle' pending further details of his employment contract.

Except that, technically, it won't be an employment contract because he isn't going to be employed directly. NPA will in fact be entering into a contract of service with 'Given Performance Ltd', Mr Given's 'executive coaching and performance improvement' company. I'm sure this wasn't a factor in the decision but that is of course, a nicely tax efficient arrangement for him, nice work if you can get it.

But back to this business of whether he has been appointed or not. According to JoCo's Change Management Board's Terms of Reference, appointments to senior positions remain within the gift of the NPA itself and is not delegated to the CMB. So why did the CMB go and appoint a new Change Manager and announce it on the NPA website? And, considering Given left his post at the CDP at the end of March, the above apparent uncertainty presumably means he's jobless and engaged in a bit of voluntary work for the community, how public spirited! Although, being in the Collins inner circle, I suspect he'll be ok in the end, and of course NPA is bound to agree his appointment eventually which was presumably the purpose of JoCo's fait accompli.

Another little thing. The 'Post' mentions that Given is also going to get two assistants who will be paid a further £110k between them. Now these posts were not mentioned in the committee paper on Given's appointment that was presented to the NPA. So, not content with attempting to bounce the NPA into appointing his mate, JoCo then said "Oh, I forgot to mention, I've appointed, sorry, what I meant to say was, please will you consider appointing a couple of assistants to help in this great task that is called change?"

Funnily enough I've been told who these assistants will be but I'm not really into naming them until it's made public, as it could get a bit sticky. For now, let's just say that their background will do nothing to dispel the 'jobs for the boys' accusations.

PS. The NPA also ratified the decision to boot out Lib Dem PPC for Sherwood Jason Zadrozny for not attending enough meetings. Not attending meetings is a bit of a political glass house for JoCo, hope to have more on that soon.

How Much? Pt 58

The 'Post' has today revealed that Alan Given (see previous post) is to be paid £143,500 pa in his job as 'Change Manager' at Notts Police Authority. That just about puts him up there with a Corporate Director at the City Council, give or take a lunch or two.

Again Collins was wheeled out to do the PR in a carefully thought out masterstroke which should nip in the bud any persistent rumours that he was behind a shoe-in for one of his mates.

Slightly alarming is the news that this is the same salary package that he got as Chief Exec of the Crime and Drugs Partnership, which as far as I can see, is little more than a talking shop designed to keep some of the shadier deals away from the relatively* open and accountable NCC committees.

The CDP is not exactly the most open of organisations. If you look on its website there's prescious little information about its governance and finance. They don't even publish the minutes to their own meetings, you have to go over to the NHS Nottingham City website to find any of those and I couldn't find a complete set there.

*And I do mean RELATIVELY