2026: The Year Everything Changes in Policing?
Welcome back to your first Leapwise blog of 2026! We hope you had a good break – especially readers working hard in public services where December often means higher demand, rather than slowing down. In our most recent blog – published just before Christmas – we reflected on all the ways in which Leapwise has […]
Looking Back Across 2025 – A Leapwise Year In Review
As we approach the end of the 2025, we wanted to take the chance to look back at what has been a huge year for Leapwise. We not only grew as a consultancy, delivering all kinds of impactful public sector-oriented client work, but have also expanded our thought leadership, team, and audience across this period […]
New Leapwise report – ‘Live Facial Recognition: The Case for Coordinated National Expansion’
Police use of live facial recognition (LFR) is rarely out of the headlines. In the last few months alone, we’ve seen the Home Office roll out 10 LFR vans to 7 new forces, the Met attract controversy for deploying LFR at Notting Hill Carnival for the first time since 2017, and the Government announce plans […]
A New Model for Secure Care and Custody for Children in the West Midlands – A Leapwise Case Study
One of the more high-profile challenges inherited by the new Government was the prisons crisis. With overflowing cells and poor conditions for many prisoners, a programme of early releases has taken place to try and ease the pressure. But children’s custody and care also faces profound challenges, reflecting what the Prisons Inspectorate have called “a decade of […]
Norfolk & Suffolk: Accelerating the Joint Transformation Programme – A Leapwise Case Study
As all police leaders know, funding has been squeezed for forces across England and Wales for many years. That’s created an environment in which those same leaders must carefully justify spending and seek productivity improvements with even greater urgency. However, as this case study shows, it’s still possible to create meaningful change at a time when […]
Police Reform at a Crossroads: One Year On
Labour’s 2024 manifesto wasn’t short of ambition around policing. In fact, with missions that committed to funding 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel, identifying major efficiencies, and halving knife crime and violence against women and girls, they were clearly pushing the limits of what seemed achievable. One year into the Government’s term, still further commitments have […]
A New Guide for Devolution of PCC Powers – A Leapwise Case Study
The government’s devolution agenda in England is set to transform the landscape of policing and crime governance. As part of this plan, more mayors will take on the responsibilities of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) – starting with five of the six areas shortlisted in the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme, where new mayors could be […]
Refreshed Perspective – 6 Ways to Be a Great PCC
We’re now one year on from the 4th round of elections for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales. It got us thinking about the blog we published around that time and which is just as relevant today. At Leapwise, we work with PCCs and forces across the country to try and make policing […]
Refreshed Perspective – 4 Strategic Choices for High-Performance Policing
For policing and many other public services, the reality is that demand will almost always outstrip supply. If you’re a chief constable, the force’s limited resources mean that you won’t be able to catch every shoplifter and deal with every report of anti-social behaviour, all while running critical murder and serious violence investigations. In health […]
Refreshed Perspective – Seven Pillars of Public Sector Turnaround
For all that negative stories about policing seem to get the most airtime, some pieces of good news are so big that they’re guaranteed to cut through. Case in point: the recent announcement that HMIC has decided to remove the Metropolitan Police Service from ‘special measures’ after more than two years. As the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper rightly said, it marked “an important and welcome step […]