Home Office NDPB offers £120k for first police-productivity tsar

Recruitment campaign launches for inaugural director of Centre for Police Productivity
The National College of Policing, in Warwickshire Photo: Google Maps

By Jim Dunton

13 Jun 2024

The College of Policing has launched a recruitment campaign to find a director to lead its new Centre for Police Productivity, which is being created as part of the response to the government-commissioned Policing Productivity Review.

It is offering £120,000 a year for the successful applicant, who will be a civil servant as the College of Policing is a non-departmental public body of the Home Office.

While the college is now more than a decade old, the Centre for Police Productivity is a direct response to the productivity review, which reported in November. The centre is due to be set up this autumn.

The productivity review proposed measures such as improving the quality and consistency of data, reducing the number of officers engaged in back-office duties, and better use of technology to free up around 38 million police hours every year.

Home secretary James Cleverly said the figure was equivalent to an additional 20,000 officers on the nation's streets.

The March Spring Budget cited the Centre for Police Productivity's creation as part of a £230m investment in piloting police-technology schemes such as facial recognition, automating the triage of 101 calls and deploying drones as first responders.

The funding was the largest non-NHS element of a wider £4.2bn package aimed at boosting public sector productivity set out by chancellor Jeremy Hunt at the time.

According to the job advertisement for the new Centre for Police Productivity, the director will have an annual budget of £8m and a team of around 30.

Chief constable Andy Marsh, chief executive of the College of Policing, said the productivity-director role was a "unique chance" to design and establish the new centre "from the ground up".

"You'll set the strategic vision and lead a talented team in delivering innovative data management, analytics capabilities including a policing data hub, and hands-on support for forces to improve practices and performance," he said.

"You'll manage substantial resources to achieve rapid, demonstrable results. Collaborating closely with the college's executive team and board, you'll translate strategic priorities into impactful programmes that shape the future of policing."

Marsh added that the college was looking for a "visionary leader who champions ethics, integrity, diversity, equity and inclusion", and who would foster a culture of continuous improvement.

The College of Policing is based at Ryton-on-Dunsmore in Warwickshire. However, the job advertisement says the director can work remotely – although regular travel to policing locations in England and Wales is required.

In addition to the £120,000 salary, the role attracts an annual contribution of £32,400 towards a civil service pension.

The job is advertised as permanent, although serving senior police officers are also able to apply for it on a four-year-secondment.

Applications close on 25 June.

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