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Who is Patrick Holford?He is a popular nutrition expert. He is British and is best known for his numerous nutrition books, with The Optimum Nutrition Bible being his most well-known book.He is also well-known for creating the Insitute of Optimum Nutrition, from which he retired in 1998.Is he a nutrition expert?Patrick Holford originally obtained a degree in experimental psychology. He was particularly interested in the development of mental health issues. He became aware of Dr Pfeiffer and Dr Hoffer, both of whom claimed to successfully treat various mental health issues using nutritional therapy.This sparked an interest in nutritional therapy within him, and a few years after his graduation, he founded the Institute of Optimum Nutrition. Here, he researched nutritional approaches to assisting depression, schizophrenia, ADHD and eating disorders.The Institute of Optimum Nutrition grew and began offering training events and even qualifications for other people to study there and qualify as nutritional therapists. The ION is now one of the most well-respected membership organisations for nutritional therapists and produces regular magazines for practitioners and the public.Food For The Brain FoundationPatrick Holford has maintained his strong interest in mental health issues and the combination of these issues with nutritional therapy.He is the Chief Executive Officer of the Food For The Brain Foundation, which promotes the use of nutritional therapy to support mental health.British Association for Nutritional Therapy (BANT)He is a Fellow of the British Association for Nutritional Therapy (BANT). This organisation is a membership and regulatory body for nutritional therapists.CriticismLike any practitioner at the edge of developing new and often controversial ideas, he has share of critics.His philosophy can be boiled down to the idea that, through optimum nutrition, we are more able to deal with the problems and challenges our body may face.While this may be a philosophy that is criticised by some people, it is neither an unusual nor new idea. Indeed, if we glance through a history book from any world civilization, we will quickly stumble across an old belief that a particular herb or plant was beneficial for health.Books by Patrick HolfordHe is the author or co-author of over 30 books, including the very popular titles below:The Optimum Nutrition Bible
Optimum Nutrition for the Mind
Optimum Nutrition for Your Child
100% Health
Say No To Diabetes
500 Health and Nutrition Questions AnsweredHere is a full list of all books by Patrick Holford.

Apple nutrition facts: Apples are a good source of vitamin A and C and ward off colds and infections. They are powerful blood purifiers and benefit the blood and lymphatic systems.Apple juice is a wonderful cleanser, great for a weight loss diet and useful as a general tonic.One medium size apple as around 100 calories.Grapes, fresh pineapple and kiwi fruits are fabulous for your skin. Grape nutrition facts:Grapes are often used in elimination and weight loss diets because of their powerful cleansing action and their ability to stimulate the metabolism. The high magnesium content promotes good bowel movement and proper kidney function.Grape juice is also a good blood and liver cleanser and eliminates unwanted uric acid from the body. Grapes are high in potassium, which aids kidney function, strengthens the heartbeat and keeps the skin looking fresh and healthy.Grapes are well known for cleansing the system. Dark grapes are high in iron, which makes them good blood builders. A hand full off grapes on your weight loss diet is a good snack.There’s around 100 calories in 1 cup of grapes.Pineapple nutrition facts:Because of their high vitamin C, content pineapples are considered to be a protective fruit. The juice is good for reliving constipation and poor digestion and the combination of vitamin C. Acids and enzymes make pineapples highly eliminative and a great boost for detox diets.Pineapples can also be used to soothe sore throats. Beta-carotene, folic acid, potassium, iodine, calcium and magnesium are some of the nutrients found in pineapple. Kiwi nutrition facts:Kiwi contains twice the amount of vitamin c than oranges. They are also rich in potassium, which helps to stave off colds and flu. Kiwi fruits should be firm but not hard. Lemon and Lime nutrition facts: Lemons and lime are very high in vitamin C. They contain up to four times the amount of citric acid as oranges or grapefruit.This high citric acid content is very good for getting rid of toxins. Lemons are also good for soothing sore throats and are widely used for colds and flu. Mango nutrition facts: Mangoes are one of my favourite. They are rich in beta-carotene, vitamin C and potassium. The riper the mango the more beta-carotene it will contain. They are great blood cleansers and bodily disinfectants and can be helpful to throw off body odour. Orange nutrition facts: Oranges are one of the richest sources of vitamin C. they help to protect against a variety of conditions, from colds and flu to heart disease and strokes that gives them very high health ratings. Their nutrients help prevent premature wrinkles and saggy skin.When juicing peel the skin but leave the pith on as this is where all the good nutrients are. Other nutrients include vitamin A and the b-complex vitamins, bioflovonoids, pectin, amino acids, potassium, zinc and phosphorous.Vitamin C helps the body to absorb iron, so a glass of orange juice a day can actually double the amount of iron available for use in the body. The high citric acid content in oranges is the most effective in cleansing the gastrointestinal tract and eliminating toxins and acid waste in cells. For this reason, orange juice is often included in eliminative diets. Banana nutrition facts:Whenever I’m shopping and I feel hungry the first thing that comes to mind is a banana. Everyone I know likes their bananas a little different. I like mine ripe with freckles on, some like them soft and very sweet, others when they’ve just turned. If you boil them when they’re green you will get more iron from them at that stage.Bananas are very nutritious, they contain vitamin C and dietary fibre. They have no fat or cholesterol. The vitamin C that they contain helps the body defend and heal against infection.Potassium is the mineral in bananas that builds muscles. Having a banana before taking part in any physical exercise will give you that instant boost and energy.The body burns off calories from carbohydrates more easily and quickly than calories from protein or fat. They are free from sodium and very rich in potassium. A banana and a glass of water can keep you going for two hours before feeling hungry.1 medium banana has around 100 calories. Pear nutrition facts:Pears have a high content in vitamin c and B vitamins and the minerals potassium, phosphorus and iron, pear juice is good for the digestive system, and helps to normalise the bowel. It is a valuable addition to elimination diets because of its mild diuretic and laxative effects. Pears are one of the best urinary and gastrointestinal cleansers because of its high level of pectin. Strawberry nutrition facts:Strawberries are also a good source of vitamin C, beta-carotene potassium, calcium and iron. With their cleansing values they are good for eliminative diets too. They are very high in sodium, it helps keep you youthful, and their content in potassium is also good for the skin. Potassium and iron helps to strengthen the blood. The high levels of beta-carotene and vitamin C helps to keep of colds and fights infections and to prevent cancer and heart disease. Peach nutrition facts:Peaches are a good source of beta-carotene. They also contain vitamin C some of the B vitamins and minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium and sodium. Peach juice is wonderful for alkalinising and cleanses the intestinal tract and encourages good bowel movement. Drinking pear juice will improve your skin and eyesight and help prevent against cancer and heart disease. Apricot nutrition facts:Apricots are exceptionally high in beta-carotene compared with all the other fruits; therefore they stand out as cancer fighters. They can help prevent cancer of the lung, oesophagus, stomach, bladder and throat, and their high Vitamin C also protects against colds and flu. Blackberry nutrition facts:Blackberries, a rich source of vitamin C with good amounts of beta-carotene, B vitamins, vitamin E, and the minerals potassium, calcium and magnesium, which makes them invaluable in cases of heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure and premenstrual tension.Blackberries also have a high iron content, which makes them one of the finest blood builders. Mixes well with prunes. Cranberry nutrition facts: Cranberry juice is used for its healing properties as a natural diuretic and urinary tract cleanser. Cranberries are a source of vitamin C, beta-carotene, quinine, iron and potassium. The quinine helps to maintain the health of the bladder, kidneys and prostate and has been found effective in preventing prostate cancer. The high vitamin C and beta-carotene content helps ward of colds and flu in the winter months. Grapefruit nutrition facts:Grapefruit belongs to the citrus family, which includes lemons, oranges, limes, tangerines, clementines and sultanas. Grapefruit is also high in vitamin C are good for warding of colds, and helps prevent bleeding gums.Grapefruits are also a good source of beta-carotene, phosphorus, calcium and potassium. High levels of pectin are found in the white pith. It’s known for controlling cholesterol levels and helping with digestive problems.Bioflovanoids are also found in the pith and have a protective effect on vitamin C anti-inflammatory properties and protect blood vessel capillaries. Prune nutrition facts:Prunes are a variety of dried plums and are widely used as a natural laxative. Prune juice is just as potent as the whole fruit and a much healthier way to treat constipation than using synthetic laxatives. Raspberry nutrition facts:Raspberries are good cleansers especially of mucous and catarrhal conditions. They are natural astringents and can help sort out stomach problems and gum disease Raspberries are high in vitamin A and C and provide useful amounts of potassium, calcium and magnesium, which make them invaluable in cases of heart problems, fatigue or depression. A raspberry juice cocktail before meals stimulates the appetite and aids digestion. Papaya nutrition facts:The one thing that distinguishes papaya from the other fruit is its amazing digestive properties. Papayas are rich in papain, a protein- digesting enzyme, which is so effective that it is used in meat tenderisers and digestant.It’s good for stomach ulcers and fevers and many people believe papayas are a great rejuvenator, combating premature ageing. Also they have the ability to restore a healthy balance of intestinal bacteria, after the use of antibiotics.It makes an effective laxative and cleanser to the liver, kidneys and intestines and has the ability to dissolve excess mucus in the body.Papayas are rich in beta-carotene vitamin C and E and the minerals calcium, phosphorus and iron. Melon nutrition facts:Melons belong to the same family as cucumbers. They both have a cooling effect on the body. Melons are an excellent fruit for juicing because of their high water content, which makes them first class diuretic, and good kidney cleanser and skin purifier.As in many other fruit and vegetables most of the nutrient lie in the flesh right next to the skin, so be careful not to lose this part when peeling. There are many varieties of melons to choose from including cantaloupe, honeydew, galia and watermelon. Cantaloupes are the most nutritious and are high in beta-carotene, vitamin C and digestive enzymes.They are highly recommended by the American Cancer Society as a healthful agent against intestinal cancer. Watermelons have the highest water content and are great natural diuretics as well as being packed with skin-enriching minerals such as zinc and potassium.Melons should be eaten alone or on an empty stomach as it ferments very quickly in the stomach.

Background

Police funding has risen by £4.8 billion and 77 per cent (39 per cent in real terms) since 1997. However the days where forces have enjoyed such levels of funding are over.

Chief Constables and senior management recognize that the annual cycle of looking for efficiencies year-on-year is not sustainable, and will not address the cash shortfall in years to come.
Facing slower funding growth and real cash deficits in their budgets, the Police Service must adopt innovative strategies which generate the productivity and efficiency gains needed to deliver high quality policing to the public.

The step-change in performance required to meet this challenge will only be achieved if the police service fully embraces effective resource management and makes efficient and productive use of its technology, partnerships and people.

The finance function has an essential role to play in addressing these challenges and supporting Forces’ objectives economically and efficiently.

Challenge

Police Forces tend to nurture a divisional and departmental culture rather than a corporate one, with individual procurement activities that do not exploit economies of scale. This is in part the result of over a decade of devolving functions from the center to the.divisions.

In order to reduce costs, improve efficiency and mitigate against the threat of “top down” mandatory, centrally-driven initiatives, Police Forces need to set up a corporate back office and induce behavioral change. This change must involve compliance with a corporate culture rather than a series of silos running through the organization.

Developing a Best in Class Finance Function

Traditionally finance functions within Police Forces have focused on transactional processing with only limited support for management information and business decision support. With a renewed focus on efficiencies, there is now a pressing need for finance departments to transform in order to add greater value to the force but with minimal costs.

1) Aligning to Force Strategy

As Police Forces need finance to function, it is imperative that finance and operations are closely aligned. This collaboration can be very powerful and help deliver significant improvements to a Force, but in order to achieve this model, there are many barriers to overcome. Finance Directors must look at whether their Force is ready for this collaboration, but more importantly, they must consider whether the Force itself can survive without it.

Finance requires a clear vision that centers around its role as a balanced business partner. However to achieve this vision a huge effort is required from the bottom up to understand the significant complexity in underlying systems and processes and to devise a way forward that can work for that particular organization.

The success of any change management program is dependent on its execution. Change is difficult and costly to execute correctly, and often, Police Forces lack the relevant experience to achieve such change. Although finance directors are required to hold appropriate professional qualifications (as opposed to being former police officers as was the case a few years ago) many have progressed within the Public Sector with limited opportunities for learning from and interaction with best in class methodologies. In addition cultural issues around self-preservation can present barriers to change.

Whilst it is relatively easy to get the message of finance transformation across, securing commitment to embark on bold change can be tough. Business cases often lack the quality required to drive through change and even where they are of exceptional quality senior police officers often lack the commercial awareness to trust them.

2) Supporting Force Decisions

Many Finance Directors are keen to develop their finance functions. The challenge they face is convincing the rest of the Force that the finance function can add value – by devoting more time and effort to financial analysis and providing senior management with the tools to understand the financial implications of major strategic decisions.

Maintaining Financial Controls and Managing Risk

Sarbanes Oxley, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Basel II and Individual Capital Assessments (ICA) have all put financial controls and reporting under the spotlight in the private sector. This in turn is increasing the spotlight on financial controls in the public sector.

A ‘Best in Class’ Police Force finance function will not just have the minimum controls to meet the regulatory requirements but will evaluate how the legislation and regulations that the finance function are required to comply with, can be leveraged to provide value to the organization. Providing strategic information that will enable the force to meet its objectives is a key task for a leading finance function.

3) Value to the Force

The drive for development over the last decade or so, has moved decision making to the Divisions and has led to an increase in costs in the finance function. Through utilizing a number of initiatives in a program of transformation, a Force can leverage up to 40% of savings on the cost of finance together with improving the responsiveness of finance teams and the quality of financial information. These initiatives include:

Centralization

By centralizing the finance function, a Police Force can create centers of excellence where industry best practice can be developed and shared. This will not only re-empower the department, creating greater independence and objectivity in assessing projects and performance, but also lead to more consistent management information and a higher degree of control. A Police Force can also develop a business partner group to act as strategic liaisons to departments and divisions. The business partners would, for example, advise on how the departmental and divisional commanders can meet the budget in future months instead of merely advising that the budget has been missed for the previous month.

With the mundane number crunching being performed in a shared service center, finance professionals will find they now have time to act as business partners to divisions and departments and focus on the strategic issues.

The cultural impact on the departments and divisional commanders should not be underestimated. Commanders will be concerned that:

o Their budgets will be centralized
o Workloads would increase
o There will be limited access to finance individuals
o There will not be on site support

However, if the centralized shared service center is designed appropriately none of the above should apply. In fact from centralization under a best practice model, leaders should accrue the following benefits:

o Strategic advice provided by business partners
o Increased flexibility
o Improved management information
o Faster transactions
o Reduced number of unresolved queries
o Greater clarity on service and cost of provision
o Forum for finance to be strategically aligned to the needs of the Force

A Force that moves from a de-centralized to a centralized system should try and ensure that the finance function does not lose touch with the Chief Constable and Divisional Commanders. Forces need to have a robust business case for finance transformation combined with a governance structure that spans operational, tactical and strategic requirements. There is a risk that potential benefits of implementing such a change may not be realized if the program is not carefully managed. Investment is needed to create a successful centralized finance function. Typically the future potential benefits of greater visibility and control, consistent processes, standardized management information, economies of scale, long-term cost savings and an empowered group of proud finance professionals, should outweigh those initial costs.

To reduce the commercial, operational and capability risks, the finance functions can be completely outsourced or partially outsourced to third parties. This will provide guaranteed cost benefits and may provide the opportunity to leverage relationships with vendors that provide best practice processes.

Process Efficiencies

Typically for Police Forces the focus on development has developed a silo based culture with disparate processes. As a result significant opportunities exist for standardization and simplification of processes which provide scalability, reduce manual effort and deliver business benefit. From simply rationalizing processes, a force can typically accrue a 40% reduction in the number of processes. An example of this is the use of electronic bank statements instead of using the manual bank statement for bank reconciliation and accounts receivable processes. This would save considerable effort that is involved in analyzing the data, moving the data onto different spreadsheet and inputting the data into the financial systems.

Organizations that possess a silo operating model tend to have significant inefficiencies and duplication in their processes, for example in HR and Payroll. This is largely due to the teams involved meeting their own goals but not aligning to the corporate objectives of an organization. Police Forces have a number of independent teams that are reliant on one another for data with finance in departments, divisions and headquarters sending and receiving information from each other as well as from the rest of the Force. The silo model leads to ineffective data being received by the teams that then have to carry out additional work to obtain the information required.

Whilst the argument for development has been well made in the context of moving decision making closer to operational service delivery, the added cost in terms of resources, duplication and misaligned processes has rarely featured in the debate. In the current financial climate these costs need to be recognized.

Culture

Within transactional processes, a leading finance function will set up targets for staff members on a daily basis. This target setting is an element of the metric based culture that leading finance functions develop. If the appropriate metrics of productivity and quality are applied and when these targets are challenging but not impossible, this is proven to result in improvements to productivity and quality.

A ‘Best in Class’ finance function in Police Forces will have a service focused culture, with the primary objectives of providing a high level of satisfaction for its customers (departments, divisions, employees & suppliers). A ‘Best in Class’ finance function will measure customer satisfaction on a timely basis through a metric based approach. This will be combined with a team wide focus on process improvement, with process owners, that will not necessarily be the team leads, owning force-wide improvement to each of the finance processes.

Organizational Improvements

Organizational structures within Police Forces are typically made up of supervisors leading teams of one to four team members. Through centralizing and consolidating the finance function, an opportunity exists to increase the span of control to best practice levels of 6 to 8 team members to one team lead / supervisor. By adjusting the organizational structure and increasing the span of control, Police Forces can accrue significant cashable benefit from a reduction in the number of team leads and team leads can accrue better management experience from managing larger teams.

Technology Enabled Improvements

There are a significant number of technology improvements that a Police Force could implement to help develop a ‘Best in Class’ finance function.

These include:

A) Scanning and workflow

Through adopting a scanning and workflow solution to replace manual processes, improved visibility, transparency and efficiencies can be reaped.

B) Call logging, tracking and workflow tool

Police Forces generally have a number of individuals responding to internal and supplier queries. These queries are neither logged nor tracked. The consequence of this is dual:

o Queries consume considerable effort within a particular finance team. There is a high risk of duplicated effort from the lack of logging of queries. For example, a query could be responded to for 30 minutes by person A in the finance team. Due to this query not being logged, if the individual that raised the query called up again and spoke to a different person then just for one additional question, this could take up to 20 minutes to ensure that the background was appropriately explained.

o Queries can have numerous interfaces with the business. An unresolved query can be responded against by up to four separate teams with considerable delay in providing a clear answer for the supplier.

The implementation of a call logging, tracking and workflow tool to document, measure and close internal and supplier queries combined with the set up of a central queries team, would significantly reduce the effort involved in responding to queries within the finance departments and divisions, as well as within the actual divisions and departments, and procurement.

C) Database solution

Throughout finance departments there are a significant number of spreadsheets utilized prior to input into the financial system. There is a tendency to transfer information manually from one spreadsheet to another to meet the needs of different teams.

Replacing the spreadsheets with a database solution would rationalize the number of inputs and lead to effort savings for the front line Police Officers as well as Police Staff.

D) Customize reports

In obtaining management information from the financial systems, police staff run a series of reports, import these into excel, use lookups to match the data and implement pivots to illustrate the data as required. There is significant manual effort that is involved in carrying out this work. Through customizing reports the outputs from the financial system can be set up to provide the data in the formats required through the click of a button. This would have the benefit of reduced effort and improved motivation for team members that previously carried out these mundane tasks.

In designing, procuring and implementing new technology enabling tools, a Police Force will face a number of challenges including investment approval; IT capacity; capability; and procurement.

These challenges can be mitigated through partnering with a third party service company with whom the investment can be shared, the skills can be provided and the procurement cycle can be minimized.

Conclusion

It is clear that cultural, process and technology change is required if police forces are to deliver both sustainable efficiencies and high quality services. In an environment where for the first time forces face real cash deficits and face having to reduce police officer and support staff numbers whilst maintaining current performance levels the current finance delivery models requires new thinking.

While there a number of barriers to be overcome in achieving a best in class finance function, it won’t be long before such a decision becomes mandatory. Those who are ahead of the curve will inevitably find themselves in a stronger position.