Cleveland Police take outsourcing step

Cleveland Police Authority has selected Steria as its partner for delivery of its control room, community justice and back office functions through a shared service partnership. The company said that the £175m, 10 year contract will deliver £50m in cashable savings. The move is significant in that the police service has so far been slow to adopt the outsourcing model for the management of internal services. The partnership will become effective on 1 October, with Steria delivering services such as call handling, support for the preparation of criminal case files, and shared business services covering finance, HR, payroll, commissioning and fleet management. David McCluckie, chair of Cleveland Police Authority, said: "It is important to stress that this is a genuine partnership – Steria will work with us in providing services, but the control of responding to calls from the public will remain firmly with the force – and the control room will remain at our force headquarters."