About
The first phase of consultation officially launched in November 2014, and was throughout the Met itself. Staff, officers and senior leaders deal with a changing landscape on a day-to-day basis; reflecting on their own experiences, they articulated the challenges the Met faces, as well as where the service is performing well and where there may be opportunities for new ideas in the future.
The second phase of the consultation involved the Met’s range of partners and stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sectors. This was in recognition that the maintenance of a safe city is a partnership endeavour. As the Met prepares for further budget cuts and confronts new scenarios posed by a changing city in terms of demography and advances in technology, a strong, cooperative relationship with partners is paramount to achieving collective impact.
As part of this second phase, the RSA reached out to an extensive network of individuals and organisations connected to the Met, inviting responses to four key questions:
- How can the Met ensure that it has a trusted relationship with all stakeholders and the general public? As the threat from extremism, trans-national crime and localised crime operations is ever present and relative threats are shifting all the time, the constant enhancement and replenishment of trust is a critical public safety and crime reduction imperative.
- How can the Met better work with partners and stakeholders to ensure London’s safety? The Met faces a series of challenges that transcend a single organisation – and not just in a policing setting. The NHS (including the ambulance service), and local authorities have particular overlap. How can we work together with other public agencies, the private and voluntary sectors to meet London’s needs?
- How is the Met better able to meet and manage demand? This requires an open discussion about the expectations of what it is the Met is there to achieve, its priorities, and how it can work with London’s citizens and a range of stakeholders to achieve its goals in a manageable fashion. This includes the new threats and opportunities afforded by new technology.
- What approaches should we take to create an efficient and fit-for-purpose organisation? Here we are looking to learn from approaches taken by others over the last few years to meet financial and operational pressures. What approaches are others taking looking forward?