Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis, has today issued an update on the performance of 101 and 999 call handling by Staffordshire Police. The time taken to answer calls worsened over recent months because of complexities with work by the force to move from two control rooms to one.
This month Mr Ellis informed members of Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Panel that assurances given by the force leadership that performance would improve had failed to happen quick enough. He told the Panel that the lack of progress was disappointing meaning he was considering intervention from his office (OPCC) to assist police in dealing with the problem. An urgent action plan was agreed with police and weekly scrutiny arrangements around the call centre performance will sit with the OPCC until ‘significant’ improvements have been made.
Mr Ellis said: “Being able to contact Staffordshire Police in a timely way for both emergency and non-emergency calls is something the public should take for granted. There will always be differences in day to day and week to week performance depending on rising and falling demand. But the sustained worsening performance over several months was a matter of real concern for me, the public and the police.
“New measures are being put in place to plug staff shortages, include drafting in police officers on restricted duties, staff working overtime and training other police staff to deal with 101 non-emergency calls. New expertise is also being secured to undertake a root and branch review of call centre and customer service activities.
“In the meantime the priority is maintaining the moderate improvement made so far in 999 performance and ensuring continued improvement in the 101 handling. By Christmas I want to see greater progress on 101.
“This has been a difficult time for Staffordshire Police which was avoidable but things are moving in the right direction now and they will continue to do so.
“Staff involved in the contact centre have worked beyond what would normally be expected to try to get things back on track and my thanks and admiration go out to all those who have dug so deep during a difficult time. Lessons must, and will, be learned and the current governance arrangements will remain in place until the service provided improves to an acceptable level.”
