Staffordshire Police is planning to recruit 20 more call handlers due to an increase in demand.
The force received £1.7million extra Government funding earlier this year, which is being used to improve its contact centre resources.
The proposed recruitment of the new call handlers along with five control room managers will be in addition to the 15 new positions already budgeted for last year, as well as five more earmarked for this year’s financial strategy.
A report said:
“The Staffordshire Commissioner and force were notified in April 2023 that they would be receiving an additional £1.7million from the government uplift programme on a one-off basis for over recruiting police officer numbers in 2023/24.
“As this over recruitment has been budgeted for, the funding is currently unallocated and would be contributed to reserves.
“The suggested option looks to initially uplift call handling, future proofing the department to ensure we continue to meet demand and continue to improve performance, while also enhancing time and space of call takers to correctly identify vulnerability at the first point of contact and within un-resourced incidents.”
The time taken to deal with non-emergency 101 calls has been a long-running issue in the county. Staffordshire Police brought in a triage system last year to determine how calls to the service should be best dealt with.
And there has been a year on year increase of 11.14% in 999 calls over the past three years, the report stated. Current demand is “significantly higher” than predicted, with weekend demand regularly more than traditional peak periods such as New Year’s Eve.
The report said:
“While improvement has been made in the last six months – reducing average time to answer of 14 seconds – as seasonal demand is now starting to increase, contact is struggling to maintain service level below that national requirement of ten seconds.
“Clearly, the impacts of increased demand within the department are reducing the service provided and reducing the public’s confidence in the force.
“When there are increased wait times on 101, due to reduced staffing, or the increased volume seen due to failure within triage, this causes callers to abandon their call through and through frustration call 999.
“Managers are often faced with competing demands, having to balance 999 skills and 101 skills against significant demand, favouring the 999 service to ensure we respond to the most significant threat, harm and risk – however, this reduces 101 capacity and results in more pressure within the local services.
“Incidents reported are growing in complexity which is in synergy with the national picture and not unique in Staffordshire.
“The more complex the reports requires a longer period of time to effectively manage and resolve, ensuring the identification and safeguarding of vulnerability.”
In May a police performance meeting heard the force was receiving an average of 61 more 999 calls and 138 101 calls each day compared to 12 months ago.
A new ‘live chat’ service for non-urgent crimes was launched on the Staffordshire Police website earlier this year to help staff respond more quickly to calls.
“Digital demand over the last 12 months shows the department is dealing with an average of 276 digital contacts per day.
“This is significantly higher than some of our most similar forces. For example Humberside only receive six contacts per day through social media compared with 225 in Staffordshire.”
