Northumbria Police - 38 PCSO jobs saved
A North East police force has scaled back plans to axe the majority of its community support officers.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed in March that 136 Police Community Support Officer (PCSOs) posts at Northumbria Police were set to be slashed due to budget cuts, leaving only 60 remaining across the entire force area.
The move was criticised by trade union Unison, while police and crime commissioner (PCC) Kim McGuinness was accused of dodging public accountability over the job losses.
But it has now been announced that an extra 38 of those at-risk posts will be saved. Officials confirmed on Wednesday that “additional grant funding for recruitment has been secured, allowing the force to save more PCSOs than it had previously thought possible”.
While Northumbria’s PCSO numbers will still be sliced in half under the latest plans, Ms McGuinness said having 98 rather than just 60 left after the cuts would put the force “in a much better place”.
The Labour politician, who is running to be the new North East mayor, said: “We’ve evaluated neighbourhood policing plans in great detail and taken valued feedback on board. To my relief – we have good news – we secured funding for recruitment which thankfully means our PCSO numbers can take less of a hit than we feared. We are now in a financial position where we can retain 38 more PCSOs than we thought.
“We still need more police officers, and police staff supporting them, but, until Government funds our police force properly and gives us back our cops, we are in uncertain times. Many people and their families are impacted by this. And we still have £10m we need to save through efficiencies.
“Like so many others, I really value what our PCSOs bring to local communities and being able to keep nearly 100 in post means we are in a much better place.”
41 of the initial 136 PCSO jobs under threat were vacant posts earmarked for deletion, while the force promised to offer alternative roles to those facing redundancy.
In interviews last month, new chief constable Vanessa Jardine pledged to review Northumbria’s plans for neighbourhood policing as she promised a more visible presence on the region’s streets.
While PCSO numbers are being cut, the force has said it will divert an extra 134 police officers into its frontline teams – a move that has not been affected by the decision to save more PCSO jobs.
Ms McGuinness added: “On another positive note, with smashing targets for recruiting more police officers and now retaining more of our highly valued PCSOs, people can expect to see more of those in uniform out on the streets preventing and fighting crime in their area. As best we can, the chief constable and I will keep delivering the visible policing the people of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear expect and deserve.”
The PCC argued in March that force bosses “simply don’t have the resources to both increase police officer numbers and keep all PCSOs”.
She was the subject of a complaint from Newcastle Lib Dem councillor Greg Stone, who alleged that she was “failing to comply with her duty of accountability”.
He claimed there had not been proper scrutiny of the force’s budget cuts, as details of the job losses were absent from recent financial reports sent to councillors.