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Derbyshire Constabulary has improved but there is much more to be done, the police inspectorate has said.

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PEEL 2021/22 – An inspection of Derbyshire Constabulary

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded Derbyshire Constabulary’s performance across nine areas of policing and found the force was ‘adequate’ in four areas and ‘requires improvement’ in five areas.

HMICFRS said the areas requiring improvement are responding to the public; investigating crime; protecting vulnerable people; building, supporting and protecting the workforce, and
strategic planning, organisational management and value for money.

His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Roy Wilsher recently said:

“I recognise the current leadership’s work on improvement, but I have some concerns with aspects of the performance of Derbyshire Constabulary in keeping people safe and reducing crime. There are areas where the force still needs to improve. I do not underestimate the difficulty caused by the constabulary’s legacy issues, such as a lack of policy, governance, and performance scrutiny.

“We spoke to many staff who said they felt disconnected from the organisation and it is not proactive about wellbeing and support. The constabulary should improve how it manages the training and development of its workforce – staff need to know what is expected of them, to feel included and make sure the public are treated fairly.

“We found a lack of clarity regarding responsibility within the constabulary’s governance and there is inconsistency across the constabulary when it comes to measuring performance. This means the constabulary is not always able to measure performance forcewide and whether it is making progress against force priorities.

“While I acknowledge the good work officers and staff have already carried out in other areas to keep the public safe, I look forward to monitoring the force’s progress towards addressing the areas I have identified for improvement.”

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PEEL 2021/22 – An inspection of Derbyshire Constabulary

Notes

1. In 2014, we introduced our police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach and this year has seen the most significant changes yet.
2. We are moving to a more intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years. We have also changed our approach to graded judgments. We now assess forces against the characteristics of good performance, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
3. We have also expanded our previous four-tier system of judgments to five tiers. As a result, we can state more precisely where we consider improvement is needed and highlight more effectively the best ways of doing things.
4. However, these changes mean that it isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded this year with those from previous PEEL inspections. A reduction in grade, particularly from good to adequate, does not necessarily mean that there has been a reduction in performance, unless we say so in the report.
5. More information about the new PEEL assessment framework 2021/22 is available on our website.
6. For further information, please contact the HMICFRS Press Office on 07836 217 729 or HMICPressOffice@hmicfrs.gov.uk (e-mail address).