HER MAJESTY'S CHIEF INSPECTOR OF CONSTABULARY FOR SCOTLAND REPORT FOR 1998/99

Special Constabulary

29.. A report on the Special Constabulary, prepared for the ACPOS General Policing Standing Committee was presented to Police Advisory Board for Scotland in December and approval secured for the recommendations. Discussions are progressing with the Scottish Executive in respect of a special constable's conditions of employment, amendment to existing recruiting literature, the requirement for legislative change and the financial implications of these.

30. The overall number of special constables fell during the year, as the following table shows:-

Despite this reduction in numbers from the previous year, special constables continue to make a considerable contribution to policing in Scotland. The more rigorous demands imposed by health and safety legislation and the requirement for officer safety training continues, to some extent, to impact on the numbers retained. However this approach will in the long-term protect the value of the magnificent support provided by special constables and should enhance it. Some community policing relies heavily on the number and quality of the volunteer special constable, as exampled by Northern Constabulary.

Staff Associations/Unions

31. As part of each inspection representatives of staff associations and unions are seen. In all forces a good relationship exists between force executives and staff representatives. This is the result of good and regular consultation and Chief Constables should be credited for the efforts made in ensuring full consultation is carried out. Notwithstanding the current position all involved agree that more can always be achieved.

Support Staff Council

32. The Police Support Staff Council was established in 1996 as a national negotiating body for Scotland at which trades unions, police authorities and chief officers would be represented. Its work is concentrated on developing national conditions of service for support staff appropriate to the police service as distinct from local government, reconciling support staff pay negotiations to the same yearly cycle as that relating to police pay and addressing other important matters such as discipline, call-out arrangements and career development.

Training - Scottish Police College

33. Unique in the United Kingdom, the Scottish Police College provides all national core training requirements on a single site and is the holder of both the Charter Mark and Investors In People awards.

34. The College has voluntarily accepted the principles of Best Value and encompasses them within its policies. The College is fully committed to and working toward costing activities and benchmarking them against other organisations.

35. Where it has been shown that courses can be more effectively provided at the Scottish Police College, every effort has been made to do so. Analyst Training, Query Using Extended Search Technique (QUEST), Comparative Case Analysis and Facial Identification courses, all held within Crime Management Division, saved Scottish Forces some £75,200 this year. Within Probationer Training Division, the provision of Officer Safety Training and Investigative Interview Technique Training in-house, provided savings of £5,500. An Open and Distance Learning Authority Course was also provided in-house at a saving of £54,000. Within Management Development Division, Search Management and Data Protection inputs were given at a saving of around £24,500. In addition, Prison Service Officers and Army Officers filled places on some apposite courses this year, strengthening the links the College has with outside organisations.

36. To ensure that staffing levels within the College remain in line with the required ratios for students and appropriate to the environment in the wider service, regular reviews have been undertaken. Issues such as de-layering of rank structures, civilianisation and redistribution of workload have been explored and a full report submitted to the Board of Governors. Decisions arising from the approach have helped to meet rising demand with no increase in resources.

37. With a view to ensuring best practice in its purchasing activities, the College has become part of a Scottish Office Procurement Management Group. This will enable the College to reinforce the principles of Best Value in its arrangements with suppliers.

38. As part of the initial pilot during 1998, the Police Information Net for Scotland (PINS) Unit assisted Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary in developing their force-wide corporate Intranet. This work was undertaken with the minimum of expenditure and provided that Force with substantial savings when compared with commercial equivalents.

39. Further assistance has been provided in document conversion and Intranet development to Lothian and Borders Police, Fife Constabulary and Northern Constabulary. Work is ongoing with Grampian Police to convert their Force Standing Orders into an Intranet format. Assistance is also being given to Central Scotland Police to convert their Major Incident Chemical Control procedures into an electronic system and an approach has been received from the ACPOS Emergency Planning Officers Group to convert a Scottish Emergency Planning Manual. These arrangements have again provided savings to forces and are an extremely cost effective way of using College resources in support of Forces.

40. In February 1999, the PINS Unit designed and developed the Scottish police web-site under the domain www.scottish.police.uk. This site was generated through work of the ACPOS Internet Working Group and provides a gateway to the individual web-sites for all eight Scottish Forces, Scottish Criminal Records Office and the Scottish Police College. Every operational police station in Scotland has been listed on the site with electronic links from each to the relevant force web-site. The entire site was produced at no cost to Scottish forces and again represents a significant saving when compared with commercial rates.

41. Version 3.0 of the Police Information Net for Scotland was released in March 1999 and included many enhanced features including a newly simplified index for Traffic Legislation as well as case law and a new range of flexible learning materials. During March, the PINS system was nominated in the Government Computing Magazine Innovation Awards in the category 'Inside the Public Service'. These awards are made on an annual basis and are supported by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, the Cabinet Office's Central IT Unit and the Department for Trade and Industry, amongst others.

42. The nominated projects are judged on criteria reflecting the innovation in the use of information age systems, clear improvement in quality service, collaboration across organisations and value for money. PINS was considered in relation to the police response to the challenge faced through providing legal information in an ever changing and evolving society and the associated provision of value in terms of cost of the system. The innovative combination of information and training materials incorporated into a web based system also formed part of the consideration of the shortlisting panel.

43. The Scottish Police College is committed to benchmarking its activities. To assist in the process of benchmarking, substantial work is being carried out within the College on Process Mapping. By detailing all the processes carried out within the College and costing them, the College will be able to compare its processes against the best in each area and establish exactly where improvements and savings can be made. Co-operative agreements have already been entered into with the Metropolitan and Western Australia Police Services and informal work is also being carried out with the Police College of Finland and the Garda College at Templemore. Through all of these projects, the College will ensure that its excellent reputation is retained by implementation of best practice.

Training - In-force

44. While a significant part of in-force training relates to probationer training a great deal of effort is expended on officer safety, equal opportunities, health and safety, investigative interviews and IT. In line with devolved resource management HMIC has noted a move towards giving divisional commanders greater responsibility for training staff and training provision and this seems appropriate given the impact training has on abstractions.

45. It is vital that forces do not duplicate the provision of facilities at the Scottish Police College and in this regard the college manages on behalf of ACPOS, the open and distance learning packages used by forces. There are now a total of 102 available to Scottish forces in a number of different formats.