FEATURE
A FRESH APPROACH
In September 2020, the Police and Crime Commissioner and West Mercia Police started a process of procurement transformation to enable greater efficiencies, unlock innovation, drive digitisation and generate cost savings. The Access Group tells us how it supported them on the journey.
The West Mercia Police force (WMP) covers 2,860 square miles in the West of England, providing police services to the areas of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and the Wrekin, and Worcestershire. This is the fourth largest police area in England and Wales, with its workforce serving 1.19 million people in a primarily rural setting with only a relatively small number of urban areas including Hereford, Worcester and Telford.
The WMP contracts and procurement department provides the force with specialist support in all aspects of buying supplies and services. It uses a mixture of contractual arrangements ranging from small simple orders to large scale tendering projects.
In September 2020, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and WMP started a process of procurement transformation to enable greater efficiencies, unlock innovation, drive digitisation and generate cost savings. The aim was to learn from the past and make improvements rather than starting with a blank piece of paper. As John Campion, West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner said: “This journey has been about getting the most out of the process, not about fixing a gaping chasm.”
Jon Strelitz was brought in as Head of Contracts & Procurement and his ambition is for his team to contribute to WMP being the most efficient police force in the country. His remit includes the promotion of an improved infrastructure to provide value for money, a development path for staff to reach their potential and the creation of a network of
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partners, public and third sector agencies working alongside the police force to help establish a safer community.
“We’re a support function offering professional support to the organisation in terms of commercial and procurement services,” explained Jon. “This encompasses categories of spend such as fleet, ICT, facilities management, financial services, uniform and equipment, HR, forensics - traditional and digital - healthcare, custodial and commissioning work. It is supporting the business in adherence to public procurement regulations, ensuring governance and transparency in terms of how we award contracts to our suppliers.”
With the right people with the skills required in place backed by PCC Funding, the WMP procurement team needed to be equipped with the right tools to adapt and change so that they deliver value, transparency and compliance.
New challenges As part of the new processes, the PPC and WMP brought the FM & Estates Services in-house in April 2021, with a brand- new team formed to manage the large property portfolio of Police and Fire assets. A need was also identified for an integrated CAFM platform which gave full control and management of reactive and planned maintenance visits, statutory compliances and risk management.
The PCC and WMP also wanted a financial solution that enabled high levels of control of building maintenance costs guidelines. The technology partner selected was
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