DN 04/2020 Enable North Yorkshire
20 February 2020
The Commissioner has approved a formal collaboration to bring together the business support functions for North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service. Called ‘Enable North Yorkshire’, it will ensure the support functions are maximised and modernised, enabling our emergency services to operate efficiently and effectively in serving the public, and improving how local policing and fire services work together.
Background
In her Local Business Case on Fire Governance in 2018, the Commissioner set out a clear ambition to drive ambitious collaboration between the police and fire and rescue services in North Yorkshire around enabling corporate service functions in both organisations. This set out to bring together those functions to provide services to both organisations once rather than twice over, thereby driving efficiency which would greater enable and streamline administrative and frontline operations and deliver savings that could be reinvested in frontline services.
This ambition was the culmination of efforts to drive such collaboration since coming into office in 2012. In 2013, a ‘Statement of Intent’ was signed between the Chief Constable, Chief Fire Officer, Chair of the Fire and Rescue Authority and the Police and Crime Commissioner to bring together corporate support functions, but success was limited. Following the transfer of governance of the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, this collaboration has proceeded at pace.
To do this, staffing arrangements have been simplified, ensuring clear lines of accountability under a legal collaboration agreement. Each Chief Officer will employ the relevant staff, under the same terms and conditions, but on a day to day basis, they will report to a new Managing Director of Enable. The Managing Director is responsible for the efficiency and effectiveness of services delivered to the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer. The two Chiefs are held to account by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner at the Executive Board.
Enable North Yorkshire launched on 1st April 2019, and a Managing Director has been recruited. At the same time, the Commissioner implemented the first phase of a senior management review, streamlining senior leadership, by removing duplication and putting in place shared executive leadership with responsibility for the Office of Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, and oversight of the Fire and Rescue Service and North Yorkshire Police. This is the first step in the wider senior management review that was outlined in the Local Business Case approved by the Home Secretary in 2018. More widely, it fulfils the Commissioner’s pledge to increase collaboration and reduce costs of back-office support functions.
Although separate, the new Enable North Yorkshire service will provide the infrastructure to maximise the opportunities around the Transform 2020 programme, as well as ensure both services are in the best possible position to respond to future demands and challenges. This will also allow the greatest possible investment into frontline policing and fire and rescue services, protecting the vulnerable and delivering the best possible service for the people of North Yorkshire.
Decision Record
The Commissioner has approved the formal collaboration agreement under Section One of the Policing & Crime Act 2018 that will establish Enable North Yorkshire, in the spirit of the original ‘Statement of Intent’ and delivering on the commitments made in the business case setting out the benefits of a joint governance framework.
Julia Mulligan
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire
Statutory Officer Advice
Legal, Management and Equality Implications
Having read this Decision Notice and having considered such information as has been provided at the time of being asked to express this view, the Chief Executive is satisfied that this DN does not ask the Commissioner to make a decision which would (or would be likely to) give rise to a contravention of the law.
Financial and Commercial
The Commissioner’s Chief Finance Officer and S151 Officer has advised that the Service’s estimated savings are sound.
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