- Conference
- 2014 Police & Justice Conference
- Date
- 24 June 2014
- Decision
- Carried
At conference in 2013 you will recall a motion was passed highlighting a situation that was developing in Wiltshire Police regarding the transfer of Police Staff to Wiltshire Council.
Conference will remember that the proposal was to transfer staff from the following departments of Wiltshire Police; Project Management, Information Services & Technology, Estates, Finance, Legal Services, Corporate Communications and People Services – some 225 staff in all.
UNISON pointed out to both the Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable the impracticalities and barriers that were posed by such a plan and these were dismissed out of hand as being negative and unsupportive of the Force.
Conference should note that to date only some 30 members of staff have been transferred to Wiltshire Council – five from the Force Project Team and twenty-five from IST. Both are areas that had seen a substantial lack of investment and chief officer accountability over a number of years. Estates, Finance and Legal Services were retained by the Police and Crime Commissioner – interestingly this did not form part of the transfer proposal put forward to the Home Secretary, but she didn’t appear to worry about that!
Conference will also note that there is still an intention to transfer all of the outstanding service areas to Wiltshire Council, but the senior management have at last realised that there is still a huge amount of planning and due diligence to be completed before any progress can be made.
Conference notes with concern the lack of real consultation that has taken place around this issue and differs strongly with the Wiltshire Police view that telling the local branch what will happen amounts to consultation.
Conference notes with thanks the assistance given to the Wiltshire Police & Justice branch by both the regional and national office.
Conference notes that the risk to police staff jobs continues and believes that the position taken by the Chief Constable and Police and Crime Commissioner in Wiltshire shows that they have little or no idea of the complexity of police staff roles and functions.
Conference therefore calls upon the Service Group Executive to:
1 Continue to highlight this situation across the Service Group, updating them as necessary.
2 Feedback the experiences of Wiltshire Police and Justice branch to all of the branches across the Police & Justice Service Group, highlighting the pitfalls and dangers of such transfers.