ASSOCIATION OF POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONERS
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job Title: Director – Police IT
Reports to: The PCC IT Board
Grade: TBC – based on experience
Date: June 2014
Purpose
The PCC IT Board is working to achieve the following outcomes:
· Improve efficiency, effectiveness and interoperability in relation to police ICT by supporting and enabling greater collaboration between forces
· Create the conditions for PCCs to have greater ownership and control of national police ICT contracts, allowing them to be accountable to the public for expenditure
· Create opportunities to bring together PCCs’ strategic objectives with new developments in technology, enabling shared learning and development, and joint procurement where possible.
The Police ICT Director will be responsible for bringing together the work of a range of local and national stakeholders to put in place a coordinated strategy and programme plan and drive its delivery. The aspiration is to design and build a ‘centre of excellence’ in police ICT that can provide an ‘intelligent customer’ function on behalf of PCCs. Putting in place a delivery model for a long-term central capability will need to be achieved in parallel with driving the delivery of a number of small projects to demonstrate benefits and test business models.
Key Areas of Responsibility
The Director will act as the senior officer supporting the PCC IT Board and later the Police IT Company Board of Directors (should a company be established). Responsibilities are split into following main areas:
1. Develop a Police ICT strategy on behalf of the Police ICT Board, the development of which should take account of the strategic priorities and aspirations of PCCs, as well as the end-to-end context of cross-governmental ICT strategy
2. Work with a range of national and local stakeholders to establish a comprehensive and coordinated delivery plan to achieve the objectives of the Police ICT Board, maximising the use of existing resources to drive delivery of the plan and commission additional resources where necessary.
The programme plan should include two parallel and interdependent streams of work:
3. Design a central capability (potentially in the form of a Company) to deliver the strategy based on delivery models that are tested through the delivery of projects on an incremental basis. The development of a central capability would include:
a. Recruit and lead a new team that will work with PCCs, forces and the Home Office to establish the new company;
b. Develop optimum governance arrangements, including a Board of Directors;
c. Develop funding models and form a sustainable business model for agreement with the Board of Directors; and
4. Coordinate the delivery of projects aimed at testing delivery models that can deliver strategic outcomes. These projects will include the following:
a. Achieve greater PCC ownership and control of national police IT infrastructure:
i. Work closely with the Home Office to ensure PCCs play a major role in the development of systems which stay in the Home Office
ii. Develop and manage a plan to transfer the ownership of a number of contracts from the Home Office to the PCC ICT Board
b. Identify immediate opportunities for greater collaboration between forces in relation to police ICT, including:
i. Putting in place mechanisms to enable opportunities for collaboration to be identified
ii. Enable practice and learning to be shared
iii. Provide practical assistance to support collaboration
iv. Provide expert client-side support in the procurement process
In the coordination and delivery of the programme plan, the following should be achieved:
5. Maximise the use of existing resources (eg within national partners and local forces) and commissioning and managing additional resources when required.
6. Develop, monitor and evaluate clear success criteria that link the delivery of projects to the strategic outcomes, ensuring that that the concept of a central resource is tested and proven.
7. Develop and manage the delivery of a comprehensive stakeholder engagement plan, including engagement with suppliers and industry partners to ensure delivery models are achievable.
Person Specification
We are seeking a high-performing Director with a proven track record in the delivery of complex change management programmes, ideally in the context of the use of technology to meet customer needs in complex markets. An individual with the imagination, standing and drive to establish a new company, develop reliable revenues, reduce the cost of police IT for forces and help deliver the technology services that modern policing needs.
The Director will have experience of policing which they can combine with commercial expertise to bring entrepreneurship and innovation to the police IT market. The Director will need experience in start-up companies, have demonstrable skills at overcoming the risks of failure and have the acumen to head off problems early and ensure a viable marketing strategy and business plan.
You will be in a senior position with responsibility for meeting financial and other performance targets and have the ability to engage successfully with PCCs, senior officials, the police market and other senior partners at the highest level both nationally and locally.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- Requires a proactive, self-starter with excellent communication and negotiation skills, capable of working at all levels of an organisation to deliver necessary outcomes.
- Experience of implementing complex transformation programmes at the national level.
- Sound political judgement and awareness.
- Experience of managing complex stakeholder needs and coordinating resources
- Exceptional advisory and influencing skills necessary as the role achieves results through others – often at a very senior level within stakeholder agencies.
- Digitally literate and capable of effectively engaging with technical staff, suppliers and stakeholders to define the best approach to service design to achieve business/user objectives.
- Strong knowledge and awareness of the economic and market environment within which police IT is delivered.
- Experience of innovative approaches to procuring services, and of managing relationships with suppliers.
- Ability to work under pressure and to respond quickly to changing circumstances and to tight timetables.
- Ability to operate at a senior level with Government, policing and industry to achieve outcomes on behalf of others.
- Understanding of corporate governance and of Companies Act requirements.
- Awareness and understanding of industry standard security issues and processes.
Security clearance required to CTC level