Report Summary
This report provides members of the Scottish Police Authority Policing Performance Committee with the final update of the Benchmarking Short Life Working Group, detailing the key achievements of the group and outlining how benchmarking and comparative analysis is now embedded in the Police Scotland performance, underpinning ongoing continuous improvement activity.
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Background & Context
In April 2020 the Authority and Police Scotland co-hosted a discussion on performance benchmarking, bringing together experts and advisors from across both organisations as well as a number of external participants. The purpose of the seminar was to explore how the Authority and Police Scotland could develop a framework and approach to benchmarking, taking account of learning, experiences, and best practice from elsewhere.
The Committee, at its meeting of 28 May 2020, reflected on the main outcomes from the seminar, and requested that Authority staff and Police Scotland establish a multi-agency working group to produce a proposed framework. It was agreed that a more systematic benchmarking approach would further enhance the capabilities of the Scottish policing system to promote organisational learning and support continuous improvement.
The Benchmarking Short Life Working Group (SLWG) was established, meeting for the first time on 16 July 2020. A terms of reference was developed, which included the following key outputs:
• An optimal set of external data sources and measures and indicators against which benchmarking will be conducted.
• A proposed lead agency for the collection and collation of data included relative responsibilities and relationships.
• A proposed reporting frequency and format and arrangements for data quality assurance.
• A proposed supporting insight and analysis mechanism to support taking learning from the presented data.
The SLWG was chaired by Nerys Thomas from the College of Policing, with representation from the Authority, Police Scotland, HMICS, the National Police Chief’s Council’s Performance Management Co-ordination Committee, and the Scottish Government’s Justice Analytical Services.
This paper marks the completion of the extensive programme of activities completed by the SLWG to investigate and develop the delivery of a benchmarking approach, providing detail of the work carried out and the approach now agreed and being embedded as part of ongoing performance reporting to Committee and the public.
