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1.1 Executive leadership
1.1.1 The approach and example of an organisation's leaders can create a clarity and unity of purpose within the organisation and an environment in which the organisation and its people can excel. This chapter considers how the force executive and other senior managers within the force inspire, promote and support excellence in the achievement of the force's objectives.
1.1.2 There are two chief officer posts in the force, an assistant chief constable (designate) who is known by the title, deputy chief constable and the chief constable. In most UK police forces, including the smallest there are normally three Chief Officer posts. Central Scotland is unusual in having two. Parliamentary legislation and regulation often make a chief officer directly responsible for specific operational decisions and a full involvement with the wider policing issues through Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland Committees also creates significant demands on the small team.
1.1.3 The two chief officers are supported by a team of senior police officers and support staff who meet as an executive group. This group includes the force's 2 chief superintendents who are in charge of the operations division and operational support division respectively. Also on the executive group is the superintendent, head of the human resources department and the finance officer who is a senior member of support staff. These individuals comprise the main policy making group within the force.
1.1.4 In support of that group there is a Force Policy Implementation Team (FPIT) which meets monthly. Chaired by the detective superintendent, this team includes the force's 3 area commanders (all superintendents) the superintendent in charge of operational support services, the chief inspector in charge of the policy, strategy and quality unit and the deputy head of personnel.
1.1.5 The purpose of the FPIT was discussed during the inspection and there were mixed views among senior staff whether the members of this team should instead be part of the executive group. At present the remit of the team is to ensure that matters agreed at executive level are implemented. HMIC suggests that given the size of the force the respective roles of those two groups be the subject of review to determine whether this structure is the most efficient and effective.
1.1.6 HMIC found that senior managers throughout the force are closely involved in a wide and diverse range of activities, within the force itself, within the community at force and area level and in the local communities within each of the force's command areas.
1.1.7 In particular, both chief officers have a high leadership profile within the force and the community. The chief constable has been instrumental in the development of much partnership working, which is firmly embedded within the force. For example he has chaired the Forth Valley Substance Abuse Team for several years, maintaining the original recommendation of the Drugs Task Force that representation be at chief officer level.
1.1.8 Pending the new chief constable taking up his appointment, the deputy chief constable will be the acting chief constable from Mr Wilson's retiral on 30 April 2000. He will then himself retire in August 2000.
1.1.9 The force executive receives monthly briefings on the progress of the force's best value programme. At a recent meeting the executive considered the service review schedule and the resources committed to this work. It was found that the demands placed on staff to meet this schedule were unrealistic and some work has now been postponed to a later date. Each service review team includes operational police officers and a superintendent as auditor. Some staff are of the opinion that resources would be saved in the long term if a centralised specialist team was formed to lead with this work.
1.1.10 One of the areas of executive leadership which HMIC would encourage the force to develop is the post of director of intelligence. There is a debate in force whether this post should be at executive level, detective inspector level or somewhere between. While this is a matter for the force to decide it is the view of HMIC that the post needs to be at a strategic level and held by someone with sufficient executive authority to control, direct and fund a cohesive and co-ordinated intelligence strategy. This is discussed further in chapter 6 at paragraph 6.4.
1.2 Command Areas and Responsibilities
1.2.1 Rationalisation of the (then) three-division command structure took place in 1998 when the Traffic and Operational Support Services Division merged with the Crime Management Services Division. This resulted in the current two-division structure. A reduction of one chief superintendent's post was managed through natural wastage. The role of superintendents within the force was also reviewed in 1998 resulting in the current position where there is a superintendent in charge of the three command areas, crime management services and human resources.
1.2.2 Command area boundaries are conterminous with those of the unitary authority areas of the Stirling, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Councils. This is seen by the force as a powerful mechanism for collaboration and co-ordination.
1.2.3 Since the 1998 re-organisation, further progress has been made in the of some CID and community safety functions to area commanders. This gives local commanders day to day supervisory responsibility for detective officers who had previously been under the direction of a centrally controlled criminal investigation department (CID). Appropriate protocols have been put in place. HMIC found that operational commanders generally welcomed the new arrangements although there were some reservations expressed at area command level and within crime management services about how effective they were. It was acknowledged however, that the new arrangements needed time to settle. HMIC will consider the lessons from the monitoring and evaluation of the change at the next Review Inspection.
1.2.4 Following the merger of the divisions (para 1.2.1) the detective superintendent is now the most senior detective officer in the force. This officer now has a wide range of responsibilities including the strategic overview of major crime investigation and crime matters impacting on the force. He is supported by a detective chief inspector, now the only detective chief inspector in the force.
1.2.5 Despite the devolvement of some aspects of crime management and criminal investigation to area command, the detective chief inspector still retains an overview of the work of the force's four detective inspectors. There is one detective inspector in charge of drugs and surveillance, one in charge of support services and two others covering the territorial command areas of Falkirk and Stirling/Clackmannanshire respectively. The detective chief inspector shares an on-call rota with the two detective inspectors based in command areas. One of these three posts would undertake the role of senior investigating officer in the event of a murder or other serious crime. The duties of the senior detective officers are discussed further in paragraphs 1.3.8 to 1.3.10.
1.2.6 The entire force structure was reconsidered again at a workshop for senior managers held at the Scottish Police College in December 1999. This resulted in some further areas for potential re-alignment being identified and a review of all force activity was underway at the time of the inspection. Once that review is complete, the force will give further consideration to re-aligning its management structure.
1.2.7 A recurring issue is the difference in volume of work dealt with by the Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannan command areas.
1.2.8 The force's current command structure has been designed to provide conterminosity between force and local authority area boundaries. While this offers a number of benefits it will be necessary to give regular attention to this issue to ensure operational efficiency and effectiveness. The union of the Stirling and Clackmannan command areas would result in a command area comparable to the existing Falkirk command area. Such a proposal would require consultation within and outside the force followed by active management of the change. The target outcome would need to be a measurable improvement in effective and efficiency across a range of functional areas.
1.3 Rank Structures
1.3.1 The two remaining chief superintendent posts in the force are the heads of the operations division and operational support division respectively.
1.3.2 The chief superintendent, operations division, is the line manager for the three area commanders (superintendents) and maintains an oversight of the management of the three command areas. Within the three command areas, there are twelve local command units. The local command units at Bannockburn, Callander, Dunblane, Denny, Stenhousemuir, Maddiston, Bo'ness, Grangemouth, Alloa and Tullibody are led by inspectors. The two largest command units at Falkirk and Stirling are led by chief inspectors.
1.3.3 The post of chief superintendent operations division (as a member of the executive group) is seen by senior colleagues as having an important role in maintaining the profile of front-line operational policing within the force. It is also a responsibility of this post-holder to maintain consistency in the application of force policy throughout the three command areas and to ensure a corporate approach to internal and external matters affecting the force.
1.3.4 The three area commanders (superintendents) and the head of operations division (chief superintendent) share "on-call" responsibilities and one of these officers would take charge of any major incident or incident involving firearms arising in the force area.
1.3.5 The detective chief inspector shares an "on-call" rota with two of the force detective inspectors. These officers would undertake the role of senior investigating officer in the investigation of murder or other serious crime.
1.3.6 The chief superintendent, Operational Support Division, is responsible for the management of all support services and is the line manager of the detective superintendent in charge of Crime Management Services and the chief inspector in charge of the Traffic Department.
1.3.7 At the time of the (then) Review Inspection in 1998, HMIC recommended that the force executive review rank structures to ensure that they are the leanest that supervisory and management resilience will allow, thus maximising financial resources. (Recommendation 2, paragraph 1.21).
1.3.8 This inspection found that rank structures are lean, particularly within Crime Management. As noted at paragraph 1.14 there is a detective superintendent post supported by one detective chief inspector. In the event of major incidents or major crime investigations requiring a senior investigating officer (and taking account of the need for a review capability) this situation might challenge the resilience of the force. While detective inspectors will take charge of some murder (and other serious crime) investigations, the detective chief inspector is expected to undertake the role of senior investigating officer in an investigation which is likely to be protracted in length or complex in nature.
1.3.9 In cases managed by a detective inspector, the detective chief inspector will perform the role of reviewing officer. HMIC received comment to the effect that officers undertaking the role of senior investigating officer in major crimes might be less well supported under the current arrangements. The force recognises this issue of resilience. The chief superintendent, operational support division is active in the strategic and supervisory aspects of the management of crime management services but the new post does not contribute to the force's resilience of senior investigating officer capacity in the same manner as the former post of detective chief superintendent.
1.3.10 The past CID experience of two of the area commanders is relied upon as being supportive. The force has a senior detective officer currently detached on central service and his return to the force in the near future might enable the force to address their concern in this respect and allow best use to be made of the available experience.
1.4 Local Command Units
1.4.1 There are twelve local command units within the force area, ten under the command of an inspector, and the two largest, at Falkirk and Stirling, led by chief inspectors. Working relations between these inspectors and local community groups including community councils, community safety panels and area forums were described in positive terms.
1.4.2 It was recognised within the force that responsibility for special constables should be devolved to a greater extent to local command units. At present special constables receive support and training from the training department but there is a view that more local ownership and control would enhance their operational deployment and effectiveness.
1.5 Community Constables
1.5.1 HMIC noted that great importance and considerable reliance is attached to the role of community constables within command areas across the force. Leadership is expected of these officers in areas including providing high visibility foot patrols within local communities, liaison with schools, local clubs and community groups, the provision of support for neighbourhood watch schemes and participation in local crime prevention panels. The attendance of these officers at local forums and community councils is a reflection of their important role within these communities where on the majority of occasions they are the sole representatives of the force. HMIC found that local unit commanders looked to these officers to be pro-active in their approach to local problems at a time when the tendency towards a reactive approach to the daily demands placed upon the force was a theme repeated at interviews with staff.
1.6 Human Resources
1.6.1 HMIC found evidence of leadership and direction being set by staff within the human resources department of the force. The staff of this department have had a key role in the production of the force business plan and the supporting human resource strategy which is still being developed. Management information within this department is improving and there has been significant analyses undertaken in a number of areas including an analysis of abstractions within the force and a training needs analysis in respect of the IT skills of every officer in the force.
1.6.2 Staff in the department made clear links between personnel issues and operational policing and there was clear vision of how the human resource strategy should support, yet be an integral part of the force business plan. Positive comment was received by HMIC about the force's staff development programme from staff at all levels throughout the force.
1.6.3 As well as developing the leadership skills of officers identified as having potential for promotion, the development programme is designed to facilitate effective succession planning for police posts within the force. It was described as a "cradle to grave approach" to staff development and not simply a selection system for promotion. Following the force's rejection of assessment centres for promotion the programme was introduced as a more holistic method of assessing an individual's skills and qualities and potential for the next rank. The factors taken into account include performance review reports, performance on training courses, capability when undertaking an acting rank, skills levels and an assessment of the officer's work ethic.
1.6.4 In the course of the inspection officers were seen who were undertaking acting duties or other developmental placements as part of the programme. Although comments were generally positive, disappointment, either as a result of not getting on the programme or getting on and not being promoted, is an aspect which requires careful handling by management.
1.6.5 The special constables interviewed described the positive support from and general communication with the human resources staff and the training inspector in particular. Human resources staff however are considering greater devolvement of management responsibility for special constables to area command level and this is discussed further in chapter 4, paragraph 4.7.
1.7 Devolved Resource Management (DRM)
1.7.1 The 1998 Review Inspection recommended that the force pursue an early movement towards the introduction of a greater degree of devolved management of resources to command areas.
1.7.2 In 1999, a project team was set up to manage the implementation of devolved financial management. This dealt first of all with project definition and high level planning, then set up two sub-projects to look at a resource allocation model and management information issues. At the time of the inspection visit it was evident that the implementation targets were in danger of slipping.
1.7.3 Area commanders and heads of departments had expected to receive devolved budgets for their command areas from the start of the 2000/2001 financial year. Office managers in command areas have received training in the management of devolved budgets and were to be responsible for assisting area commanders within the management of local budgets.
1.7.4 However it transpires that devolved financial management is unlikely to progress to the extent envisaged by the next financial year. While it is still intended to devolve some financial responsibility to area commanders and heads of departments from April 2000 this is likely to be restricted to a very small proportion of the budget and will certainly not involve any staff costs. Staff expressed some concern that it is now over a year since they received this training.
1.7.5 HMIC understands that some refresher training is planned but suggests that DRM should be followed through on a more vigorous timescale.
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