North Yorkshire’s police commissioner has criticised the force after new figures today revealed more than a third of 101 calls were abandoned.
Statistics for April showed 16,939 non-emergency calls were made to North Yorkshire Police.
Of that number, the average answer time was five minutes and 27 seconds.
The force has a target to answer 90% of calls within 120 seconds. Last month, 60% were picked up in time and 34% were abandoned.
At a North Yorkshire Police online public meeting today, Zoe Metcalfe, the Conservative police, fire and crime commissioner, said:
“It’s just not good enough for the public at all that we are having a 34% drop-off rate here in 101.
“I really would like to know when are we going to see an improvement.”
The meeting can be viewed here.
The criticism comes after the commissioner awarded the force control room £1.8 million a year to improve response times.
Figures for 101 calls in April. Data: NYP.
The money was earmarked to fund the appointment of 36 additional communications officers, 12 additional dispatchers, six established trainers and two additional police inspectors.
Elliot Foskett, assistant chief constable at the force, said he was optimistic the performance would start to improve.
“We would agree, we think 34% is high. You will start to see an improvement, commissioner, with those resources landing in the control room.
“I can’t stress highly enough that we monitor this every single day. Not only within the chief officer team, but at the force daily management meeting and in the local meetings in the force control room.
“I am optimistic that by the summer time as we start to get more people in and towards the end of the summer, we will should see that come down. I absolutely understand the frustration when people are hanging on the phone and trying to get through to us as well.”
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Meanwhile, Mr Foskett pointed to “massive improvements” in the force’s 999 response times.
The force control room answered 76% of calls over the last three months on time.
The figure is in stark contrast to November 2022, when just 44% of 999 calls were answered within that time frame.
However, it is still short of the police national target to answer 90% of calls in under 10 seconds.
Police tackling Ripon anti-social behaviour call for more reportsPolice have urged Ripon residents to report all anti-social behaviour amid a rise in problems with youths in the city.
North Yorkshire Police has asked members of the public to ensure all concerns are reported via the force website or its non-emergency 101 number.
A spokesperson said:
“Our Ripon officers are aware of a small number of recent incidents involving youths acting in an anti-social manner.
“These incidents have been in the Aismunderby Road and Ambrose Road areas, and the area around the Jack Laugher Leisure Centre and nearby skate park.”
The force said it has been making enquiries and identified suspects in order for officers to take action.
In the meantime, it is calling for all incidents to be added to its log.
The spokesperson reminded people to call 999 in an emergency.
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Fewer than half of 999 calls in North Yorkshire being answered on time
Just 44% of 999 calls in North Yorkshire are being answered on time, according to figures in a new report.
The report by the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner‘s office said the national target is for 90% of 999 calls to be answered in under 10 seconds.
But between November 2021 and November 2022, only 44% were answered within this time in the county.
The document also revealed that between February and December 2022, the average non-emergency 101 call answer time ranged from 4 minutes and 3 seconds to 10 minutes and 17 seconds. Unlike for 999 calls, nationally there is no imposed target for answering 101 calls.
Police, fire and crime commissioner Zoe Metcalfe has described the figures as “unacceptable”.
Her office has awarded the force control room a £1.8 million a year to improve the times.
The report, which will be debated by North Yorkshire County Council‘s police, fire and crime panel on February 6, said:
“This investment will enable the Chief Constable to fund 36 additional communications officers, 12 additional dispatchers, six established trainers and two additional police inspectors.”
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The document highlights how call volume has increased, saying:
“Nationally there has been a 16% increase in 999 calls to the police, and 2022 saw the highest number of emergency calls to North Yorkshire Police ever in one month (over 10,000 in July and August).”
The report also said the commissioner “wants the force to explore how they could deliver a long-term programme of public education and awareness about when to contact the police, and the most appropriate method for doing so”.
North Yorkshire Police usually receives over 10,000 emergency 999 calls a month.
People waiting up to an hour for 101 calls to be answered, says North Yorkshire Police
People are waiting for up to an hour for a 101 call to be answered, a senior North Yorkshire Police officer has said.
Mike Walker, assistant chief constable at the force, told a North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner public accountability meeting that the figure was “not acceptable”.
He said that the force had an average answer time of eight minutes and 47 seconds for October 2022 – four times the national standard.
The target for police force’s across the country is to answer 80% of non-emergency calls within two minutes.
ACC Walker said the long waiting times for 101 was the reason why the force’s abandonment rate was so high. This refers to the number of people giving up.
He said:
“On a daily basis we look at that from a chief officer team and I know there have been people waiting between half an hour and an hour on 101 on some days.
“It’s just not acceptable and this is why we have an abandonment rate of 20%. We should not be having more than 5% on 101.”
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ACC Walker told the meeting that Humberside Police had agreed to carry out a peer review of the force’s call handling and help them improve.
He added that the police were keen to improve the call times and return the control room to an “outstanding” rating.
Zoe Metcalfe, Mike Walker and Mabs Hussain, deputy chief constable, at the public accountability meeting.
He said:
“We know how we need to achieve that.
“It’s a question of putting the right plans in place and having the relevant discussions and then, over the next 12 months, it’s a question of getting back to where we need to be by serving the public of North Yorkshire with an outstanding control room.
“That needs to be the aim.”
Zoe Metcalfe, the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said the aim needed to be “a lot quicker than 12 months”, but added she accepted that “these things take time”.
The move comes as concerns over the length of time it takes to answer 101 calls has been a long-running concern across the county.
Ms Metcalfe’s predecessor, Philip Allott, was told by North Yorkshire county councillors last year that the non-emergency line was “not fit for purpose and it hasn’t been fit for purpose for the last eight years” and that “the phone just doesn’t get answered”.
Harrogate district people asked for views on police 101 and 999 callsHarrogate district residents are being urged to tell police chiefs about their experiences of the non-emergency 101 and emergency 999 services.
It follows long-running concerns in the district about the length of time it takes to answer the calls.
The police contact survey opened on Wednesday and runs until June 26.
The survey, run by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, will inform police forces, the Home Office and local crime commissioners on any challenges around reporting to the police.
Participants answer questions testing their understanding of emergency and non-emergency reporting systems, as well as newly emerging ways of contacting the police, like web chat, online forms and messaging over social media.
Zoë Metcalfe
Zoë Metcalfe, the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said:
“Reporting to 101 and 999 remains a challenging area of business for police forces across the country. The needs of those making contact must be understood, and we must prioritise those most in need.
“I have expressed my concerns to the Chief Constable regarding poor call handling times. The Chief Constable and I are committed to significantly improving the customer contact experience and call handling times, and will monitor performance closely with the aim to improve the service as a priority. This will also include the call-waiting times for the non-emergency 101 service.”
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Ms Metcalfe’s predecessor, Philip Allott, was told by North Yorkshire county councillors last year that the non-emergency line was “not fit for purpose and it hasn’t been fit for purpose for the last eight years” and that “the phone just doesn’t get answered”.
Ms Metcalfe will discuss North Yorkshire’s force control room’s performance in her next public accountability meeting on Tuesday.
Members of the public can submit questions in advance of the meeting via email to info@northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk. They should include their name and address.
You can take part in the public contact survey here.
Commissioner Candidates questioned: the 101 call system “not fit for purpose”
In the final of a series of articles on crime issues in the Harrogate district, candidates standing to be North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner are questioned on how they will resolve problems with the 101 call system.
Candidates battling to be named North Yorkshire’s next Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner later this week have pledged to focus on tackling the persistent lengthy 101 call waiting times that have plagued the county’s police force for years.
All of the hopefuls seeking to represent more than 800,000 residents of York and North Yorkshire in holding the county’s police to account say they would launch a review of the service or look to introduce improvements.
The force’s 101 line has regularly struggled to meet demand since it was was introduced in 2011 as a national measure to ease demand on 999, which was being used as a default when people did not know the local non-emergency number.
After a wave of complaints over lengthy call waiting times and large proportions of callers hanging up, in 2015 the then commissioner, Julia Mulligan, issued a review of the 101 service.
After continuing issues in 2018 she announced a £3 million upgrade of the Force Control Room, the recruitment of 32 new full-time staff and new training and tutoring facilities, the cost of which was met by increasing residents’ council tax.
In September, ahead of making controversial comments about women’s safety and resigning, the previous commissioner Philip Allott was told by North Yorkshire County councillors the non-emergency line was “not fit for purpose and it hasn’t been fit for purpose for the last eight years” and that “the phone just doesn’t get answered”.
Labour
Asked about the how she intended to tackle the force’s 101 issue, Labour candidate Emma Scott-Spivey, said she intended to rebuild the frontline, which meant giving police and fire services “all the tools they need to keep us safe”.
“My parents were police officers, dedicated and hard-working public servants. I am a student paramedic working with emergency services day in day out. I know how important it is that our emergency services are properly resourced. Repairing the damage done by chronic government cuts is the biggest challenge the commissioner faces.”
Liberal Democrat
Liberal Democrat James Barker said improving the 101 service would be a top priority as it was crucial in ensuring resources were deployed appropriately.
He said:
“I know that a digital channel has been opened so that incidents can be reported online, but I would want to look in detail at why there continue to be issues with the 101 service and what steps need to be taken to make it more reliable.”
Read more:
Conservative
Zoe Metcalfe, the Conservative candidate said she would use all the commissioner’s powers to get to grips with what is a “crucial” service.
She said the public money spent updating the service had not resolved the long telephone waits people experience/ If elected, Mrs Metcalfe pledged to “take a forensic look at what the issues are and work alongside the police to resolve them”.
Independent
Keith Tordoff, an Independent candidate said the longstanding 101 problem appeared “a straightforward issue with demand versus supply”.
He said:
“The supply of staff to answer the phone is simply too small. If we could reduce demand by encouraging other forms of reporting, such as the internet, that might work, but in principle really we just need more people to answer the calls. If elected I would review the operation of the 101 reporting system with a view to improving the service, looking particularly at recruitment.”
Women’s Equality Party
Women’s Equality Party candidate Hannah Barham-Brown added:
“I’ll be looking into this further and seeing how to best improve the service by speaking to the hard working staff who monitor the 101 phone line, as well as the residents who have experienced issues.”
A police commissioner has told how fewer people going away on holiday this year has seen the force’s phone lines being deluged “with everybody complaining about each other”.
Philip Allott, North Yorkshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said as a result of the pandemic on some days last month the force got record numbers of 999 and non-emergency 101 calls, even more than they do on the traditional busiest days of the year, such as New Year’s Eve.
Mr Allott was responding to fresh criticism of the force’s 101 line by elected community representatives at a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council’s corporate and partnerships scrutiny committee.
North Yorkshire’s 101 line has regularly struggled to meet demand since it was was introduced in 2011 as a national measure to ease demand on 999.
Despite Mr Allott’s predecessor Julia Mulligan launching a string of initiatives to increase capacity, the meeting heard South Selby division Cllr Mike Jordan claim “the phone just doesn’t get answered”.
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Eastfield and Osgodby division member Cllr Tony Randerson said those staffing the 101 line needed more training because when residents did eventually get through they were given useless or misleading information.
He said:
“A resident of mine was on the phone 20 minutes waiting for a response about antisocial behaviour. When he got a response he was told ‘it’s not a police matter, go to your council’, which is unbelievable.”
‘It’s not fit for purpose’
Cllr Randerson called on the commissioner to press the Home Office for a complete overhaul of the 101 system.
He said:
“It’s not fit for purpose and it hasn’t been fit for purpose for the last eight years.”
Mr Allott said the situation had been exacerbated by far fewer people going on holiday and neighbours irritating each other.
He said:
“So you’ve got a record number of people complaining about each other. The pandemic has created a lot of these record call numbers at a time when nobody else is willing to pick these calls up.”
He added the 101 number was being used for a spectrum of non-policing issues.
Call for funding to be tripled
Mr Allott said the police were having to deal with time-consuming calls over matters such as potential suicides and noise, which were the responsibility of the NHS and council environmental health officers.
He said:
“The police will do the enforcement, but what we can’t be is a sticking plaster for everything.
“Unfortunately there is an expectation that the police and the 101 number are the number of last resort and the reality of it is unless we triple the funding it can never be that.”
Mr Allott said cutting the length of time 101 callers faced was “the number one thing on my agenda”, that more staff were being trained and yet more staff were needed.
He added he was investigating introducing software to the force’s website which displays call waiting times so non-urgent callers could then chose to phone back later. In addition, software which can model what the call situation will be like at specific times to enable the force to better manage demand peaks is also being examined.
He said when the force launches Home Online next month, people will be able to report issues such as antisocial behaviour on its website and demand for 101 should ease.