Annex A

POLICE, FIRE AND CRIME PANEL REPORT

Meeting Date	21 January 2025
Report Title	Briefing Paper: Enable Review – Support Services Transformation

Information should be accessible for all. If you require this information in a different language or format, please contact the Police, Fire and Crime Team at info@northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk.

Purpose of this report

This report provides an overview of the outcomes and ongoing activity following the Enable Review of Support Services for North Yorkshire Police (NYP), and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS).

Background

EnableNY was originally established as a collaborative Support Services model for NYP and NYFRS. It was set up at pace without some of the in-depth analysis or consideration of gaining optimal efficiency. Over time, performance issues and perceptions of unfairness emerged, particularly due to differing terms and conditions for staff and a lack of flexibility to meet operational demands; a self-service model did not provide an agile service to the front-line services it was designed to support. In 2024, an independent review by Practice to Progress (P2P) and further internal analysis highlighted the need for structural reform. On 6 June 24, under direction of new Police, Fire and Mayoral Combined Authority leadership teams the task was to “identify structural options for support service delivery”. The review focused on five key functional areas: Finance, People Services, Information Communications & Technology (ICT), Transport & Logistics, and Estates and used the following seven elements as the framework: Leadership, Strategy, Structure, Systems, Processes, People, Culture and Governance.

The Design Principles of the review were as follows:

a. Provide agile Support Services that enable the delivery of policing and fire capabilities that mean the people of York and North Yorkshire are kept safe and feel safe (Leadership, Strategy, Structure, Systems, Processes, People, Culture and Governance).

b. Job Roles must be at the appropriate level with no grade inflammation; we must empower our personnel to deliver the roles for which they are appropriately skilled and trained (Leadership).

c. The design must be Proactive and not Reactive in order to meet the Operational intent; we must be outputs focused and agile to meeting the emergent demands of blue light organisations (Strategy).

d. No growth where it is not needed; operate within the current finance and people envelope and only create additional posts where it is necessary to deliver business outputs (Structures).

e. No duplications where roles already deliver elsewhere in the services; our support services personnel deliver technical and professional roles which should not be duplicated elsewhere (Systems).

f. No overlaps or cross-cutting and re-role posts where necessary; perform a role once and perform it well (Structures).

g. Trust in the functions that they know the right way to deliver the options; empower our professional support service personnel at the right level and avoid matter being escalated to higher levels where they should be dealt with at another level, by subject matter experts (Leadership & People).

h. Where there are opportunities, the leadership and management costs are appropriate, this creating the right amount of leadership not additional leadership where it is not required (Structures & Processes).

All this is underpinned by People,Culture, and the strict adherence to Governance. The Support Services are part of the operational structures of policing and fire and are accountable to both Chief Officer Teams. The Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer are in turn, held to account by the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime as part of the governance, as set out in more detail under section 2 below.

The resulting business case recommended a mix of Part-Collaborated and Part-Sovereign models tailored to the needs of each function, with implementation aligned to the annual budget cycle. The revised model is endorsed by both the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer and was approved by the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire & Crime at the March 25 Strategic Oversight Board. Consultation on the revised organisational design models took place during Summer 2025, culminating in agreement of the new structures in September 2025 and October 2025 (for Transport & Logistics). Activity is ongoing to resource these structures.

Activity Update

1. What changes were taken forward following the review?

· Structural Changes: The review recognised that the previous structures under EnableNY were incompatible to deliver proactive and effective operational outputs for both police and fire. It also highlighted that EnableNY was under invested when it was created. Structurally, the review proposed the adoption of a part-collaborated, part-sovereign model for Finance (which includes Procurement and Purchasing and Pensions and Payroll) and People Services, with a fully collaborated model for ICT, Estates and Transport and Logistics. This new model, which was subject to Staff Consultation, came into being on 1 September 2025 for most Directorates and for Transport & Logistics on 20 October 2025. Recruitment for new or adjusted posts is currently ongoing. All new personnel employed in collaborated roles will be employed on NYP contracts. Personnel carrying out sovereign roles for either fire of police will be employed on contracts of those organisations. The simplification of contracts for those in joint roles mitigates against the different terms and conditions personnel are on when carrying out the same or similar roles.

· Branding: The ‘enableNY’ or ‘Enable’ brand is no more. Functions are now referred to by their functional output such as ICT or People Services and when referring to the collective (all Functional Areas) it is known as Support Services. The functions are fully nested within the police and fire organisations they support and are not a separate “entity” as EnableNY was previously perceived. Additionally, all jobs have been assessed to ensure their grading is appropriate to the output of the role. This creation of new or revised roles was about ensuring roles were delivered at the right level, not by introducing more senior roles. As such, the bulk of the new roles are in lower grades. Overall, 19 new posts have been created or moved into Support Services as a result of the review. Across the Functions, job titles have been standardised to ensure they reflect the professional roles performed.

2. What is the current governance structure and how is its effectiveness assessed?

· Governance Structure: The collaboration is governed by the monthly Support Services Steering Board (SSSB), jointly chaired by the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer. SSSB oversees all collaborated elements, reporting on joint programme and project activity. The Mayoral Combined Authority Statutory Officers also attend. The SSSB oversees all collaborative activity. Matters that relate specifically to police or fire, for example personnel, finance and budget setting, are governed for police through the Chief Officer Team Board and, for fire, through the Strategic Leadership Board. This reflects the principle that the functions work for and to the respective police and fire service and are not a combined entity in themselves, as was the perception of EnableNY.

· Escalation: Matters requiring Strategic Oversight Board approval are escalated from the SSSB or the respective Chief Officer/Strategic Leadership Boards for single-force/service activities.

· Assessment of Effectiveness:Effectiveness is monitored through regular reviews including Monthly Performance Meetings, updates to SSSB, alignment with operational priorities and quarterly performance reviews into SOB. The governance model is designed to ensure accountability, transparency, and responsiveness to evolving need; the Support Services functions are accountable to the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer for their outputs, in the same way as they rest of their organisations are.

3. What benefits have been realised following review of the programme?

· External Validation: It is worthy of note that His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) have, in the last year, conducted inspections of both NYFRS and NYP. The inspection of fire highlighted improvements in the Support Services functions, notably in the area of “making the best use of resources” moving from inadequate to good, “getting the right people with the right skills” moving from inadequate to good and “managing performance and developing leaders” moving from requires improvement to good. This represents one of the most significant improvements for a Fire and Rescue Service in a single inspection cycle.

While the police final report is expected in Spring 26, the initial verbal feedback from HMICFRS indicates a comparable improvement in the support services functions with the Inspectorate having little concern over the outputs it delivers and it being on positive trajectory, which was not the case for previous inspections. Alongside the HMICFRS inspections, assessments by our internal auditors have highlighted “substantial assurance” in areas such as recruitment and selection, equality and diversity and governance.

· Operational Impact: The previous model of EnableNY was designed as a self-service model. The creation of a proactive Support Services has freed up uniformed officers in both Police and Fire for frontline duties by reducing administrative burdens. Once recruitment is complete and the new posts are resourced (likely towards the end of the financial year due to recruitment and vetting clearances) Police and Fire operational personnel will see the full benefits.

· Regionally aligned service delivery: The restructured model has moved or created posts that are regionally aligned across the county in the core hubs of Scarborough, York and Harrogate, rather than posts mainly located at the Joint headquarters in Northallerton. This includes:

• the creation of local ICT hubs to better support local operational teams replacing the visiting ICT Surgery Team, who previously visited these sites once a week, with permanently located teams. This will result in better service delivery at a local level, along with a significant decrease in operational officers travel time to return to HQ for ICT matter, which will now be dealt with at a local level.
• The realignment of Estates Surveyors to be regionally based, again at Scarborough, York and Harrogate, as well as HQ Northallerton, who are responsible for all building in their region, will play a significant part in the modernisation and planning of our future estate and also supports operational teams on a daily, rather than visiting on an ad-hoc basis;
• The restructuring of the delivery of Human Resource Business Partner (HRBP) activity to be regionally and functionally aligned, with named HRBP working alongside operational commanders to deliver their Workforce Plan and be the first point of contact for all HR matters at the local level, significantly reducing the need to operational personnel to self-serve and deal with multiple individuals on similar matters. This is a significant organisation design change to better support front line activity and deliver the workforce plans for both police and fire;
• In addition, for NYFRS, the creation of a Fire Professional Standards department, housed within People Services, as function that did not previously exist;
• The movement of Learning & Development (new Police Officer training) back into People Services, where it sat prior to the creation of EnableNY, to sit in alongside our Leadership and Inclusion training bringing all non-specialist training into one area.

· Resilience and Flexibility: The new model provides greater resilience, avoids multiple single points of failure, and develops subject matter expertise across functions.

· Service Improvements: Enhanced efficiency, improved service delivery, better compliance, and increased asset value are being realised, particularly in Estates and ICT.

· Cultural Change: The move away from the enableNY brand and towards integrated Support Services is fostering a more unified organisational culture with the functions viewed as a central and pivotal part of policing and fire and not as a separate entity.

· Investing in the functions has already delivered benefits, some of which are highlighted below. As posts are recruited and resources established, further benefits will be delivered:

• Moving the entire ICT Wide Area Network for Police and Fire from Virgin Media to NYNet with minimal operational input, competitively procured and contracted in record time;
• Replacing Body Warn Video for the entire force, including docking kiosk upgrades resulting in better user experience, quality of data and evidence capture to support investigations and prosecutions.
• ICT able to install improved radio coverage at York Designer Outlet.
• Implementing a new Fire & Rescue Data Rescue Platform;
• ICT designing and delivering ‘Atlas’ a system to significant improve the process and speed of DBS check, a system now being rolled out by other Forces, highlighted as Best Practice with HMICFRS and the foundation methodology of which is being use to develop similar tools for other security and multiple platform checking tools;
• Enhanced ICT and Transport & Logistics support to the Langdale Moor incident, providing better connectivity, agility, servicing and maintenance;
• In in-house ICT development and delivery of Blueprint, a streamlined process for officers and police staff investigators to prepare case files resulting in improvement in case file quality, improvement in the time taken to prepare files for court and reduce errors. This is already praised by our wider Criminal Justice partners and naturally will support delivering a better outcome to victims of crime;
• A reduction in long-term sickness and modified duties across both police and fire by the introduction of a focused review, roadshows and education across the county, aligning the HRBPs and specialised People Operations personnel with operational leaders;
• Proactive Trauma Informed Training delivered by the specialised Wellbeing Team, now being used as a benchmark by other forces;
• Recruitment activity at almost every level of police and fire with one joint recruitment team carefully balancing the peaks and troughs of the two organisations, adopting a renewed targeted recruitment approach and attracting an unprecedented number of applications to all posts and bulk recruitment; graded as “substantial reassurance” by the internal auditors;
• Upgrading of the Police Human Resource and Duty Management system;
• The creation of Resourcing Books for all police and fire teams to better understand and own, at the local level, the headcount and, in addition, their budget from a financial perspective. This is created through the close alignment of HRBPs wand finance accountants;
• A significant improvement in financial management of both police and fire budgets, previously highlighted by HMICFRS as an area of concern and now praised as extremely well managed;
• Cashable procurement savings of c.£900k in 25/26 and a budget saving of £110k in the capital programme through smarter and including joint procurement. This will only improve as new contracts come into being;
• Consolidated accounts produced for NYP, NYFRS and the YNYCA for the first time;
• The refurbishment of Ripon joint Police & Fire Station, vastly improving the standards and sustainability of the building, creating a new public front office and installing a new Voluntary Attendance suite enabling video interviews and negating the need for officers to have to travel and conduct such interviews at other stations;
• Through our restructured Estates team model, the Estates Support Technicians have invested in ‘Degafill’ to fill potholes across our broad estate, saving us thousands of pound each year in external contractors conducting these repairs and allowing them to completed quickly, thus supporting the preservation of not only our sites but vehicles on those sites, in particular when responding to emergencies;
• Improvements to the estates at Malton Fire Station with windows repaired and repainted, walks repaired and internal spaces updated;
• Improvement made across all our custody facilities;
• Awarded the National Police Estates Group Best Project for Acer House, the new victims centre in York that opened in 2025;
• The creation of a new dedicated Video Recorded Interview facility in a discrete, welcoming, safe and secure location in Northallerton, managed and delivered by the regionally aligned Surveyor working direct with the Criminal Justice team and wider partners;
• The removal of a significant amount of asbestos, across multiple sites, a legacy of years of fiscal underinvestment across our estate;
• Upgrades to LED lights and sensors across multiple sites, notably in Masham and Filey Fire station;
• The installation of an air source heat pump onto Harrogate Police Station;
• Using in-house specialist skills and knowledge, improvement to our remotest site – Lofthouse Fire Station – at minimal costs to the public purse but delivering maximum value to Fire personnel there ahead of the harsh winter season;
• The replacement and configuration of aging Public Order Carriers with state of the art carriers now capable of meeting the most strategic public order requirements;
• The replacement of a significant proportion of our grey fleet vehicles with modern, more efficient vehicles;
• The introduction of telematics in the majority of police vehicles, daily monitored by Transport & Logistics who, working with operational commanders continually pivot the fleet to meet operational demand. The installation of telematics in some fire fleet is imminent.

4. Are there identifiable savings as a result of the work (not including historic projects such as HQ re-location)?

· Cost Savings: The review recommends investment (total uplift of £696,660 split £182,690 NYP and £513,970 NYFRS) needed to reinforce the growth for fire (or both) was ultimately required to deliver the needs of a modern service, as opposed to the reduced pre-review model. It also identifies opportunities for cost savings through optimised property management, energy conservation, and effective joint procurement. Activities carried out in the short time since the review was implemented include a new joint contract for Buildings Maintenance works for the c.100 buildings across the police, fire and joint estate delivering much improved response times for maintenance matters, along with improvements to the estate. In addition, the estates team have contracted for, facilitated and will deliver by the end of the financial year solar panels on five buildings across the estate. This could not have been delivered without having restructured the estates team. This will deliver savings to the revenue spend on utilities with plans for additional buildings in subsequent financial years.

· Efficiency Gains: Streamlined processes and modernised systems are expected to reduce administrative costs and improve financial sustainability, though the primary focus is on reinvestment for improved service rather than direct cashable savings. By the end of the financial year, Fire will be on the same financial management system as Police. The Mayoral Combined Authority will also move onto the same financial management system in the subsequent financial year(s), creating a much more efficient accounting methodology.  

5. What plans are there for greater collaboration?

· Collaborated Models: ICT and Estates have moved to fully collaborated models, with shared teams and resources. Further collaboration will be considered where it is in the interests of best value, service delivery and public outcomes.

· Support Services Steering Board (SSSB):The new board drives further collaboration, monitors joint activities, and identifies additional opportunities for shared working.

· Continuous Review: The phased approach allows for ongoing assessment and evidence-led expansion of collaboration, as funding and operational needs evolve. In addition, Support Services will continue to work with Police Forces and Fire & Rescue Services regionally and nationally where opportunities for collaboration exist, as well as at the macro level with Blue Light Commercial and harnessing opportunities from the Home Office-led Police Reform programme, for fire, with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for other central government initiatives.

6. Are there areas where it has been determined there actually needs to be sovereignty rather than join-up (and why)?

· Finance and People Services:Certain elements require sovereignty due to distinct systems, statutory requirements, or operational needs (e.g., separate accounting for police and fire, specific HR support). The alignment of Human Resource Business Partners with the areas of business they directly support is pivotal in the delivery of the Strategic Workforce Plans for both Police and Fire.

· Rationale: Sovereignty is maintained where collaboration would not be cost-effective, would compromise compliance, or would fail to meet the specific operational demands of either service.

Lisa Stitt

Assistant Chief Officer

North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service