Cleveland Police extend Steria shared services deal

Cleveland Police Authority (CPA) has extended its outsourcing deal with business services provider Steria, now moving operations into a shared services centre in Stockton to save an additional £9 million. 

Sean Price, chief constable at Cleveland Police, added: "The extension of the partnership with Steria allows us to continue our vision of putting people first by safeguarding jobs and protecting front-line services. We are under no illusions about the challenges of the Comprehensive Spending Review and the millions that we have to save, but both the Force and the Authority are committed to reducing crime."

The outsourcer already manages the force's control and back office functions including finance, HR and payroll, but now assumes responsibility for the preparation of criminal case files and the newly combined risk and operational planning unit, which oversees safety, emergency and event planning. 

Peter Race, chair of CPA, said: "When we embarked on the partnership with Steria we set ourselves the key objectives of delivering better services to the public, generating £50 million savings over ten years and maintaining a strong front-line service. The benefits generated by this partnership have helped us weather the pressures so far and this latest development will help us extend the benefits even further."

The extension of the original contract is a significant development. "The remit of Steria's work with Cleveland goes beyond non-core and back office, to include more strategic activities such as the control room, and support for the preparation of criminal case files," notes John O'Brien of research firm TechMarketView. "This is an interesting aspect to this partnership, since it allows Steria greater ability to transform the end to end business processes for the client, while also helping them to commit to greater savings."

O"Brien sees the Cleveland deal as a good example for other authorities, but admits that interest from police forces in this sort of arrangement has been slow to materialise.

"Despite the challenges faced by the Police cutbacks we have yet to see another force turn to BPO," he admitted.