Back in January this year, I wrote a piece on the Normington Review of the Police Federation. I wished the Fed luck in carrying though the sensible and vital reform outlined in the report.
Four months on, there is little evidence of reform, but several high-level resignations including the officials who commissioned the review, allegations of bullying and a scathing report last week from the home affairs select committee.
As they meet for their conference this week, Fed representatives should be under no illusion that either they get serious about reform and take responsibility for change or a future government will do it for them.
Firstly, their members need a strong and effective voice. David Normington’s report incorporated a 12,000 poll of Fed members. It found that 57 per cent thought the Fed did a poor job of explaining the value of police officers to the public; 68 per cent were not satisfied that the national leadership were safeguarding their interests; 91 per cent agreed with the statement ‘the Police Federation should change’, but only 29 per cent agreed that ‘the Police Federation is able to change’.
Secondly the Normington review uncovered a real lack of financial transparency and accountability. Nationally there are reserves of nearly £30m and branches hold £35m of reserves without even getting into the extra accounts that some branches have. The national headquarters at Leatherhead are modern and well appointed. This might be perfectly reasonable for carrying out conferences and leading the organisation properly, but it is hard to reconcile the scale of income and assets with the need for 23 per cent sub increase in 2011. While membership is automatic for all police officers to the rank of chief inspector, payment of subs is not. An insider told me this week that many members are now refusing to pay their subs.
In fact, the very members that the Fed should have been protecting have been put into a career damaging position by the ludicrous decision of Fed leaders to appoint John Gaunt’s public relations company to advise them. For those who do not remember, John Gaunt was sacked by Talk Radio because his views were too offensive. There were boasts of ‘blitzkrieg’ and ‘guerrilla’ tactics from him in ‘taking on’ the government.
Did nobody reflect that there is something very disturbing about the use of those terms in respect to policing and the government? In my experience, Fed representatives were perfectly capable of coming up with robust tactics on their own. The serious charge is that anyone in leadership positions thought this was really going to be the most effective way to advance their members’ interests. In fact, far from supporting members, three officers advised by Gaunt are now under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Much damage has been done to the reputation and effectiveness of the Fed. This week’s conference needs to accept the Normington reforms.
Signing up to a new core purpose emphasising transparency, standards of behaviour and acting in the public interest with the objective of raising public confidence and working together.
Getting rid of the byzantine internal structures where national rank committees have their own staff, resources and priorities and devote effort to defending their own interests within the organisation rather than defending the interests of the members and the service as a whole.
A national chair needs to be elected by all members. The home affairs committee noted that there is not even a nationally held database of members and that ‘in recent years, chairs seem to have been enmired in interminable, internecine power struggles which would not have been out of place in a medieval court.’
The outgoing chair, Steve Williams has spoken positively about the taste for reform at the conference. I hope he is right. Because while the Home Office is currently saying that reform is for the Fed to carry out, other Tories are quite happy to sabre rattle about attacking the ability of public sector unions to represent their members. The home affairs select committee report says ‘it would be derelict of parliament and government to stand aside and watch the Fed continue to let its members down.’
This is as stark a warning as I have seen – the ball is well and truly in the Fed court at their conference. I sincerely hope that they keep their future destiny in their own hands.
———————————
Jacqui Smith is a former home secretary, writes the Monday Politics column for Progress, and tweets @smithjj62
———————————
Photo: Megan Trace