- Conference
- 2015 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2015
- Decision
- Carried
Conference welcomes UNISON’s Police & Justice report, “’Home Guard’ Of Police Support Volunteers To Fill In For Police Cuts”, published in October 2014, which shows the disparity between police forces in England and Cymru/Wales in their use of Police Support Volunteers (PSV), the roles they are asked to undertake and the extortionate cost of PSVs in some forces.
The College of Policing is now responsible for the use of PSVs in the police service in England and Cymru/Wales, the responsibility sitting within its “Citizens in Policing” portfolio. One of the aims of the “Citizens in Policing” programme states that PSVs are used to add value, rather than replace the work carried out by paid staff. But, by highlighting the disparity in the use of PSVs between forces and the roles they are asked to do, the “’Home Guard’ Of Police Support Volunteers” report suggests that some forces are, at the very least, stretching the interpretation of this aim to the limit or ignoring it completely.
Of particular concern is the use of PSVs in roles like, for example, front counter/enquiry office, training and vetting and in some forces operational roles which should be done by paid police staff who have been trained and vetted to do the job and can be held accountable when/if things go wrong. PSVs are often moved into roles “under the radar”, usually on the whim of a local area/district commander as a way of, perhaps, re-opening a front counter, closed because of cuts in staff but now wanting to be re-opened due to lobbying from the local community. This means there has been little, if any, consultation with the local UNISON branch about the roles PSVs are asked to undertake and it is only sometime later that the branch officials come to hear about it.
Some forces stated, even before the election, they were planning on doubling their use of PSVs. With the election of a Tory majority government the prospect of further cuts to police staff numbers is real and worrying which can only mean the use of PSVs will be much greater than forces had stated. Indeed, one force, North Yorkshire, seems to have taken the use of PSVs a step further by having a volunteer, ‘contributing his time freely’, “Chief Officer of Citizens in Policing”, who will sit on the force’s chief officer team alongside the Chief Constable (CC), Deputy CC and Assistant CCs – a worrying prospect as this can only mean this force wants to greatly increase its use of PSVs – and in a force that already has one of the highest uses of PSVs in terms of hours worked.
The “’Home Guard’ Of Police Support Volunteers” report highlights many of the issues and concerns Police Staff branches have about the use of PSVs by their force. These issues and concerns will only be exacerbated when Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) and CCs have their budgets are cut yet again by the Tory government and in trying to address the inevitable cuts in staffing look to PSVs to fill the gaps.
Conference accepts that now the time is right to review the use of volunteers across forces, vetting practices and released volunteers due to issues of tenure.
With the likelihood of an increase in the use of PSVs, the disparity in their use between forces, with some more keen on their use than others, and the inconsistent way in which PSVs are used by some forces ie. the roles they are asked to undertake, conference calls on the Service Group Executive to:
1) work with the College of Policing in publishing up to date and comprehensive guidance on the use of PSVs by forces including a list of acceptable/non-acceptable roles PSVs can undertake;
2) issue interim guidance and advice to Police Staff branches on how to pro-actively counter the inappropriate use of PSVs in their force, especially in roles once done by paid police staff, prior to any guidance being forthcoming from the College of Policing to PCCs and CCs;
3) highlight in the media the extortionate cost of PSVs in some forces as a way of trying to reduce their use at the expense of paid Police Staff.
4) Undertake a piece of work which identifies numbers of Volunteers in each Force area, roles performed by Volunteers, including those in specialist areas;
5) Submit freedom of Information requests to ascertain how many volunteers have been subject to misconduct procedures, including how many left prior to misconduct investigation;
6) what vetting procedures are undertaken in relation to volunteers?;
7) report back to this conference in 2016.