[C]umbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner Peter McCall has welcomed HMICFRS national report into police leadership, where Cumbria Constabulary are praised for best practice in a number of areas.
As part of its annual PEEL inspection, HMICFRS inspectors examined the degree to which leadership is understood within policing, how forces work to develop leadership, and how well leadership is displayed by a force. Leadership is inspected at all ranks and grades
Commenting on the report, Peter McCall said: “This is excellent news that the hard work and leadership of Cumbria Police has been recognised for best practice no less than three times in this national report covering all forces in England and Wales.
“This latest report confirms previous ones in the last two years grading Cumbria Police as Good across the board and highlights examples of excellent leadership in a number of areas, namely: Developing a focus on wellbeing; Improving promotion selection processes; and most importantly Understanding Vulnerability and how to deal with this including investigations.
“Regarding ‘Understanding Vulnerability’, the Report uses the force as an example of good practice, stating the they ‘found senior leaders communicating their strategy of protecting vulnerable people in many ways’, citing the recent ‘Keep me Safe’ project. The project has a multi-stranded approach to ensure that everyone, officers, staff, volunteers, know their responsibilities around safeguarding.
“In terms of developing a focus on wellbeing, the Report highlights a number of positive examples, citing the regular Wellbeing Board chaired by the DCC, and the ‘valuing individuals’ group. Supervisors that the assessors spoke to said they were actively encouraged to do what they can to maintain a better work-life balance, for instance, ensuring they take their allocated rest day.
“Whilst there is always more to be done and the force can never afford to be complacent, it is absolutely right that they have credit and recognition where it is due. This report is produced by HMICFRS, the experts who inspect every force in the country, it is therefore a great testimony to the hard work, dedication and professionalism of every member for Cumbria Constabulary to be recognised in these important areas. I hope the people of Cumbria will wish to join me in publicly congratulating the Chief Constable, our police officers, PCSOs staff and volunteers for the great work they do every day to make Cumbria one of the safest counties in the country.”
Deputy Chief Constable Michelle Skeer, Cumbria Constabulary, said: “We welcome the positive findings from the latest HMICFRS Peel Effectiveness report on Police Leadership. Cumbria Constabulary was referenced as best practice in the three areas of: officer wellbeing, improving our promotional selection process and for our work around identifying vulnerable people.
“We pride ourselves on being a forward-thinking organisation that works hard to put systems in place to best support officers and the public.
“As positive as this report is we are far from complacent. We will continue to seek and implement new processes to further improve our service to the public.”
