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HMICFRS published their latest templates and guidance on 23rd December 2021 for Police Forces around Force Management Statements (FMS 4). For some, this would be viewed as mandatory reading for the festive period. For others, however, the document could easily have been misplaced under the inevitable piles of cards and wrapping.
What is the Force Management Statement (FMS)?
The FMS is an annual self-assessment given by chief constables to HMICFRS. The statement is broken down into several areas:
- The force’s expected future demand
- An overview of the workforce and how this capability is likely to change
- A view of the associated risk along
- An overview of the financial perspective of the money required to undertake these activities.
For FMS 4, Forces have been encouraged to focus on their key priorities while emphasising future thinking and planning.
What’s changed?
This is now the fourth year in which forces have been required to undertake the FMS process. There is recognition from HMICFRS that the standard of submission has improved over the period; while also acknowledging that there are considerable variations in the submissions received.
- Gone are the requirements for much of the descriptive information and particularly, the long inventory of assets and resources
- Additional focus on ‘major events’ including focus on the effects of the pandemic, the policing of protests as well as the impact of Police Uplift
- The capacity, capability and initiatives undertaken by Roads Policing are areas that received particular attention. This was possibly not surprising given the findings around reductions in capacity and capability from the “Roads Policing: Not optional – an inspection of roads policing in England and Wales” published in July 2020.
- Some degree of standardisation as to the way analysis is provided, which should help with understanding. This includes the formatting of financial data, as well as provision of both the period and volumes that percentage changes apply to
Methodology
HMICFRS have chosen not to be prescriptive on which Strategic Risk Assessments frameworks to use or on methodologies for forecasting. Instead, these are left to the individual forces to determine which approach is the most suitable. We’d expect that this is something that would be welcomed, particularly in the area of demand forecasting where the most recent historical data is likely to be greatly influenced by the impact of the pandemic with forecast requiring bespoke formulation. However, the effect of each Force adopting its own approach will undoubtedly hamper efforts to compare and contrast.
Summary
Overall, the guidance provides some changes from previous years, prioritising forward-planning along with a specific focus on areas such as Roads Policing, which have not been so prominent in previous FMS.