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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In common with other public services, the police operate in an environment where performance is closely monitored to ensure that communities receive a level of service which represents and provides value for money. The current level of spending on policing in Scotland is £1 billion, with governance of each force provided by a tripartite arrangement of the chief constable, the police authority and the Scottish Executive. The introduction of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 formalised a Best Value framework which enabled police forces (and police authorities) to be held to account for the delivery of continuous improvement. Further accountability in relation to resource management currently applies, in keeping with the introduction of the Scottish Executive's Efficient Government initiative, whereby the Scottish police service must contribute its share of efficiency savings during the 2005-2008 spending review period.
Demonstrating good performance in a policing context is a complex matter if one is to consider the wide spectrum of police work, from public order and road safety to international terrorism. When one further considers the commitment involved in community planning and the advancement of community well-being, the task of determining the overall performance of an individual police force, the overall performance of the Scottish police service as a whole or the individual contribution to performance made by a force to achieving outcomes in the joint advancement of community safety in its local area becomes more difficult. Of course, a simple view of police performance has traditionally been focused on recorded levels of crime and over recent years there has been a relatively steady fall across Scotland, notwithstanding the recent effects of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard. However, it would be wrong to consider this particular trend as being the single, most relevant indication of police performance at national or local level. Such an issue needs to be considered in context.
Indeed, the subject of performance management in general and the range of words and phrases used to discuss it are themselves often misunderstood and HMIC has taken the opportunity to examine the basis for performance management, its terminology and its applicability to policing in Scotland. In this regard, it identifies 5 common building blocks which provide a useful core template against which the state of performance management in the Scottish police service can be assessed:
- leadership
- planning and priority setting
- ownership and accountability
- review
- meaningful data capture and analysis.
Throughout the inspection, HMIC found many individual examples of good practice currently demonstrated in each of these areas. Particularly with regard to leadership, ownership and accountability and review, HMIC found evidence of strong visible strategic leadership, positive developments in internal structured accountability and well established internal performance review and public performance reporting arrangements. In contrast, HMIC found some evidence of processes for communicating organisational priorities to front-line operational officers and those for reviewing performance of support departments, to be underdeveloped.
However, it was in the areas of planning and priority setting and meaningful data capture and analysis that HMIC found substantial scope for development, mainly at a national level.
The National Intelligence Model ( NIM) has become firmly established as a policing model to support and drive operational policing. HMIC found that forces were at different stages of fully integrating the NIM within business planning arrangements, an annual cyclical process which, in general, has become well-established across all forces and involves local consultation, indicator setting and performance review. These arrangements vary across forces but HMIC has identified a number of examples of noteworthy practice in this area.
Public debate at a national level, however, considers policing across the whole of Scotland. In that regard, police performance is measured collectively and individually by focusing on a range of national priorities and measures of accountability established by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland ( ACPOS), the Scottish Executive and the Accounts Commission. While consultation arrangements exist to inform the identification of these measures, HMIC was struck by the limited relationship and connectivity that existed between the priorities identified by each body. In addition, it is difficult to establish the rationale for the identification of these particular suites of measurements, none of which extends to encompass performance measurement across the full range of policing activity.
HMIC identifies substantial scope for improving the process of priority setting, particularly at a national level. This report offers some principles, including full integration of the NIM, which would enable ACPOS and, therefore, the Scottish Executive and the Accounts Commission, to develop a fuller strategic oversight of policing. Engaging each in a single strategic steering group, would enable a co-ordinated approach to performance measurement and reporting for the Scottish police service to be established.
It is suggested that a systematic, co-ordinated and transparent process for priority setting at a national level, which allows for stakeholder consultation, enables public input to be incorporated and is driven jointly by local demand and available evidence, be established. Such a process would allow, for example, community issues, such as anti-social behaviour, to be balanced more easily with high level concerns, such as organised crime, when establishing national priorities.
However, HMIC recognises that establishing a systematic approach to performance monitoring which meets the needs of all partners, will require a fundamental review of existing performance indicators and targets and the processes for identifying these.
Currently, the development of electronic systems within forces which provides timely and robust performance data is in its infancy. HMIC is, however, aware of consideration being given by a number of forces to develop such an arrangement and it recommends the early introduction of IT support in this area which maximises the potential to hold and access meaningful information in a common manner across all forces. Such a development would help to provide clear reliable data which can be used to measure performance both locally and nationally. This in turn could assist in identifying local and national priorities, and contribute to the aim of performance management within the Scottish police service to secure continuous improvement in the delivery of its services.
HMIC had difficulty in assessing the extent to which the Scottish police service had embraced a performance culture. It saw fine examples of processes which contribute to effective performance management in all forces. Of course, the idea of performance in a policing context must always be considered with caution to ensure that good performance, translated to mean the attainment of a specific target, does not get in the way of good or even ethical policing, perhaps where there is a need for justifiable discretion.
Much has been achieved in developing performance management but, if meaningful progress is to be achieved in considering the performance of the Scottish police service, then ACPOS and its partners need to build on existing relationships and work together to provide a co-ordinated outcome. While this will naturally develop with the increasing sophistication of performance measurement in a community planning context, it is important to progress with this work now.
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