We are delighted that Gordon Scobbie joins us as Associate today. Over the past few months clients have been asking us about how to use social media and technology to connect with the communities they serve. Gordon has joined us to bring the expertise we need to help clients make this connection.
Gordon is an experienced leader and innovator with almost 33 years of experience in policing, criminal justice and partnership working. He has a strong track record of delivering performance in operational and executive roles, supported by an academic background at Masters level and a career long commitment to continuous professional development. He has a passion for leadership, as well as a commitment to developing others through coaching, mentoring and acting as a supportive role model. He has been an innovator throughout his career, recently holding two national portfolios in policing at the executive level where innovation is pivotal to delivering successful outcomes. Since 2009 Gordon has been the national police executive lead for social media and digital engagement as well as sitting on the ACPO 'Policing Futures' Board, with a particular focus on technology and innovation in policing.
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PCC update: Weekly round up: 12th October 2012 The curly sandwiches have all been eaten, the beer has all been drunk and everyone has a cold. It must be the end of party conference season. A post conference headache is par for the course, but Police and Crime Commissioner candidates can be forgiven for reaching for the painkillers having been bombarded with (well-meaning) advice from groups who want a particular policy implemented or an "investment" made. Crest have documented the policy announcements that were made by national politicians elsewhere, and so this update focuses on two of the topics that received significant attention at the Conservative party conference, held earlier this week in Birmingham. (more...)
Read this week's update here.
Weekly update for PCC candidates - Friday 24th August
In this update: coverage of the PCC elections and the challenge facing independents, how we are helping building an effective office for prospective PCCs and the Royal College of Policing.
Coverage of the PCC elections and emerging independents.
This was the week that interest in PCC elections spluttered into life like a bank-holiday weekend barbecue. The BBC covered the elections with numerous packages (on the World at One, the Today Programme, and BBC Breakfast) with other pieces in the print media. Coverage focused on the warning from the Electoral Reform Society that polls in November could have 'record low turnout' (that was challenged), the Oath of Independence and the relationship between PCCs and Chief Constables.
(more...)Richard Edwards joins Crest Advisory as an Associate today. Richard Edwards is an award-winning journalist, who after a decade at the highest levels of British media, now advises individuals and organisations on media and communications skills. He specialises in police and home affairs issues, where he has wide-ranging experience, and offers training and consultancy across the modern spectrum of broadcast, press, digital and social media. (more...)
During the week in which Bill Bratton declared that Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are "a tremendous opportunity for collaboration", the Gloucestershire Chief Constable resigned, citing an inability to work with a PCC. In this newsletter we discuss the reasons why PCCs will need to break out of established ways of doing things to create new partnerships. We also note increasing interest in 'procedural justice' and highlight what our clients have said about how we have helped them. (more...)
This week we explore the reasons why campaigners need to tell compelling stories, and why commercial leaders need to draw on powerful anecdotes. And following responses to last week’s post (http://bit.ly/yvzb2Z), we share an example of data visualisation. We also highlight reactions to the Winsor Review, the Electoral Commissions' concerns and the pitfalls that await the private sector when they bid to transform services. (more...)
CREST ADVISORY PCC BULLETIN - Friday 9th March The number of PCC candidates tweeting - now more than 25 - started a series of conversations with clients about the importance of social media. Before too long, we were discussing the enormous increase in the amount of data available to the police and their partners. Without the appropriate tools for organising, managing, and sifting through this tsunami of data, police may be drowned rather than helped. What implications does an exponential increase in data have for the police, communities and PCCs? And in a week in which the media has been full of comment about the involvement of private companies in policing, might private partners be most useful as analytical experts? (more...)
CREST ADVISORY PCC BULLETIN – FRIDAY 2nd MARCH This bulletin contains the best of this week's comment about PCCs, an illustration of the changing nature of campaigning, discussion about the developing relationship between the public and the police, plus some news about an addition to our team. As more candidates declare questions remain about how much resonance PCC campaigns are having with ordinary voters. Crest Advisory has commissioned exclusive polling to establish the level of public awareness about the PCC elections - results will be included in a subsequent newsletter. (more...)
CREST ADVISORY BULLETIN - FRIDAY 24TH FEB: PERSONALITIES AND POLICY As the interest in the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections increases there has been much discussion about the background of the candidates who have put their names forward. But the first of a series of PCC conferences, a speech by the Police Minister to the APA conference on Wednesday discussing the impact that PCCs will have, and decisions about the precept have all begun to focus attention on policies that PCCs might pursue from November. PERSONALITIES and POLICY The most succinct round up of the developments this week comes from the Economist magazine (here: http://www.economist.com/node/21548265). The article focuses on some of the higher profile contests, but also makes interesting points about turnout: “What matters more than what party bags which job is turnout…But November is an electoral graveyard in Britain and the contests have yet to capture the popular imagination....If PCCs cannot claim any great electoral mandate, the reform will look pointless at best. Especially if some of them...prompt an outflow of seasoned chief constables. So much will depend on how well the PCCs run their shows. Critics have long fretted that they will tend towards more authoritarian policing styles, on the ground that this is what voters think they want. But another outcome is equally likely: that PCCs will drive forward the shift toward sharing facilities, outsourcing and bringing in private partners that is already beginning to transform policing as budget cuts bite.” The Huffington post alleged that there was dis-statisfaction with candidates in Government (here, complete with errors: Tim Collins is still planning to stand:http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/02/21/tory-police-commissioner-massive-disappointment-number-10_n_1291369.html?ref=tw). It is true that both the Conservatives and Labour have extended the deadlines for applications for candidates and that the Police Minister, Nick Herbert, continues to call for “big candidates”. (“It is a big job and we want big figures to put their names forward. It might be people who are involved in political parties, or who may have run big organisations in business or the public sector.”) And despite initially not encouraging PCC candidates, the Lib Dems will put up a couple of candidates after all (including in Northamptonshire). But despite this, there are still seven force areas with no declared candidates. One particularly interesting contribution to the debate about PCC’s impact has been Andrew Morley’s article on PCCs’ likely impact on partnership working, here: http://tinyurl.com/7yrkkmy. Andrew's points about monitoring and evidence are especially well made, "The loosening of national performance management regimes provide opportunity for PCC’s to take fresh look at what monitoring arrangements they need and critically for what purpose...This might require a recalibration of the relationship between the operational and academic sides, with academics being given real time and unfettered access to operational data and also relying less on flagship project evaluations but instead using the data to pitch for funding from other sources." Andrew also asks how PCCs might drive innovation by: "ensuring that activity is consistent with the evidence base…identify[ing] if something is having a positive impact, and [understanding] the arrangements for scaling up activity." For those candidates who have declared, campaign websites are springing up. Local media interest has allowed proactive candidates to start their ‘conversation’ with the electorate. And this start of campaigning has forced candidates to make early choices about how to deal with the issues that matter to their communities and these assessments are being translated into policy pledges and mini-manifestos. But despite local interest many candidates have been frustrated (if unsurprised) by the media’s attention on Lord Prescott’s campaign. The ‘debate’ between Lords Blair and Prescott on last Sunday’s Politics Show (here:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17089924) was the media event that generated the highest number of emails in the Crest inbox as other candidates ask how to raise their profiles so that they can have the opportunity to explain what the reforms mean in their area. FUNDS This week many Police Authorities decided whether to accept a government grant equal to a three per cent increase in the policing precept element of council tax in return for a council tax freeze – at least 20 police authorities to have declined the grant - and PCC candidates will now have a better idea of the funds they will have available in their first year in office. More details, from the Police Professional magazine, are here: http://www.policeprofessional.co.uk/news.aspx?id=14044
