Policing | A Thin Blue Line

A recent study by the Police Federation highlighted that successive budget cuts since 2010 had led to 22,000 fewer officers and that the "once revered British model of policing is currently on its knees and facing extinction".

The unyielding axe to public spending has now spanned best part of a decade, an epoch where public sector leaders have been forced to consider ever-more inventive ways to do more with less, yet still deliver core services to their communities.

As a company that works with more than 40 per cent of all British and Irish police constabularies, Crown Workforce Management has experienced this impact first-hand and helped them in developing organisational delivery mechanisms to put their people in the right place at the right time, albeit with a lighter presence.

It is a quandary that faces all public sector executives, how can we do more with less? When lean management is on the brink of emaciation, can we undertake further organisational change that will allow the ‘machine’ to continue to operate without breaking down completely?