Kent Messenger Opinion

The latest scandal involving Kent Police, just like the one four years ago, is symptomatic of a culture of target chasing not only within the force but across the public sector.

While we should make no excuses for these low standards which leave vulnerable victims at risk and give rise to a feeling of helplessness and isolation across communities, it’s not surprising.

Kent Police should never have found itself in this position back in 2013 and certainly shouldn’t be in the same position again and urgent action must be taken but it would be even more worrying if this isn’t simply the tip of a very large iceberg.

When a service finds itself stretched but is still under pressure to meet increasingly unachievable targets the powers that be will find a way to solve the problem.

If an under-pressure ambulance trust is told to attend 90% of serious incidents within however many minutes, it’s likely you’ll soon see a fall in the amount of serious incidents they are getting called out to.

Similarly if a school teacher is told 70% of his pupils need to achieve a certain level of literacy it wouldn’t be a shock to see the ‘no-hopers’ getting left behind.

But the impact isn’t only external, the amount of pressure put on individual staff to perform is unbearable and results in a great deal of stress and consequently many dedicated individuals no longer enjoying their jobs.

In teaching alone, a record 25% are quitting the profession within three years and that figure is rising.

So the issue is wider than just financial cuts, as if that isn’t enough, and the way we assess success of certain services is long overdue a complete overhaul.

We should be scrutinising public services more than ever, not simply to uncover poor standards but to expose far more deep-rooted issues stemming from central government.