A Briar Patch?

Apparently, we are to be reorganised again. Farewell to PITO and hello to the new post-Bichard National Police Improvement Agency.

It was not originally clear whether the PNC would be one of the functions of PITO that would become part of NPIA, but apparently a decision has been made that we will move across rather than revert to the Home Office or do something else.

But the staffing levels seem rather odd: PITO has an establishment of 500, and NPIA will have one of 1500. Which is fine until you hear that the things NPIA is to take over have a current complement of about 3000.

There should be some scope for reductions in duplicated functions - NPIA will need only one HR department, for example, rather than the 3 or 4 that currently exist. But even so...

ISTM that they'll be looking to get rid of:
(a) people who don't cost NPIA or PITO much if anything to get rid of,
(b) people who would be expensive to keep because they're long serving and at top of pay grade,
(c) people with skills in about-to-be-obsolete systems who will require retraining, and particularly
(d) older people in (c) whose retraining would have a limited payback time.

So as a 50+ AP who's been in PITO for 20+ years and whose early retirement costs would fall on the pension scheme rather than NPIA or PITO, I suspect I'm looking at early retirement in April 2007.

This isn't all bad: I was expecting to get an offer of early retirement in late 2008 or early 2009 in anticipation of PNC2 being decommissioned, so I'd set things up so I can survive that. Moving the date forward a couple of years will be a pain - for example, the mortgage comes off fixed rate and drops the early repayment penalties in May 2009 - but it's doable.

But it may kill the idea of going to LA for an extended time in August and may kill it entirely. And Japan would probably be out of the question :-(

But, as briar patches go, it may be uncomfortable. But I wouldn't have to commute into London by car any more...

A Briar Patch?

Apparently, we are to be reorganised again. Farewell to PITO and hello to the new post-Bichard National Police Improvement Agency.

It was not originally clear whether the PNC would be one of the functions of PITO that would become part of NPIA, but apparently a decision has been made that we will move across rather than revert to the Home Office or do something else.

But the staffing levels seem rather odd: PITO has an establishment of 500, and NPIA will have one of 1500. Which is fine until you hear that the things NPIA is to take over have a current complement of about 3000.

There should be some scope for reductions in duplicated functions - NPIA will need only one HR department, for example, rather than the 3 or 4 that currently exist. But even so...

ISTM that they'll be looking to get rid of:
(a) people who don't cost NPIA or PITO much if anything to get rid of,
(b) people who would be expensive to keep because they're long serving and at top of pay grade,
(c) people with skills in about-to-be-obsolete systems who will require retraining, and particularly
(d) older people in (c) whose retraining would have a limited payback time.

So as a 50+ AP who's been in PITO for 20+ years and whose early retirement costs would fall on the pension scheme rather than NPIA or PITO, I suspect I'm looking at early retirement in April 2007.

This isn't all bad: I was expecting to get an offer of early retirement in late 2008 or early 2009 in anticipation of PNC2 being decommissioned, so I'd set things up so I can survive that. Moving the date forward a couple of years will be a pain - for example, the mortgage comes off fixed rate and drops the early repayment penalties in May 2009 - but it's doable.

But it may kill the idea of going to LA for an extended time in August and may kill it entirely. And Japan would probably be out of the question :-(

But, as briar patches go, it may be uncomfortable. But I wouldn't have to commute into London by car any more...