£120,000-a-year director to take charge of Northamptonshire's non-front line police and fire business

A new £120,000-a-year Transformation Director will handle a combined £26million infrastructure budget for Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue.

The county's police, fire and crime commissioner Stephen Mold says cash for the new job has come from savings within his department.

Human resources, ICT, vehicle fleet, estates and finance will all come under the new director's watch to support delivery of front line emergency services.

Chief Constable Nick Adderley, said: “It is inefficient for two emergency services to have different premises, different HR and back-office functions, when the work we do, is so closely connected in the same County.

“Through the work of this role, we can significantly improve the functionality and effectiveness of the services that in turn help us deliver improved front line services across both Police and Fire and Rescue.

“For some time now, both police and fire have shared a joined-up governance structure.

"It, therefore, comes as a natural step that as the work continues to create further efficiencies and better practice."

Northamptonshire Police spends £23million of its total £130m budget on enabling services. Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service has a budget of £25m, of which £3m is allocated to non-front line departments.

The two emergency services are already collaborating in several areas and have both been overseen by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner since January 2019.

A full merger has consistently been ruled out but Darren Dovey, the county's chief fire officer, said: “Since moving to the governance of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, we have created a stable platform that has allowed us to improve the service we give to the people of Northamptonshire.

"But after a challenging few years of under-investment, we need more capacity in our enabling services to take those next steps forward.

“Bringing the support services together will give us the resilience and capacity that we need and I see this new role as vital to making the further improvements in the front line that we want to see.”

The director of transformation post has been funded from savings made by a restructure in the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, so will have no impact on the budget of either police or fire services.

Mr Mold said: “Combining the services that support police and fire makes good sense, it will give a consistent and high-quality service that is efficient and affordable in the future.

"Providing improved support will also free up the chief officers of both services to focus on front line delivery of policing and fire services."