Further Information

Mental Health

The Authority remains focused on the challenges presented to policing in responding to vulnerability related calls for service, with a specific commitment to supporting work to understand and address the demand related to mental health. Following our successful conference of December 2022, focused on mental health, vulnerability and policing, work has continued across Police Scotland, the Authority and Scottish Government to deliver on commitments made at that event and identify further areas of work.

As part of Police Scotland’s focus on strengthening the partnership response to mental health demand, a workshop session took place on 22 November 2023 with a range of key stakeholders to explore current models of response and the contribution of all relevant agencies in responding to individuals in distress or crisis. This workshop session, along with wider work underway, will inform our collective response to the recently published HMICS review of Policing Mental Health in Scotland.

Blue Light Collaboration

In May 2023, the Authority and Police Scotland reported to the Board on the proposals to review options for closer collaboration between emergency services. It was agreed that professional services would be sought to deliver an outline business case exploring options for greater collaborative working.

Since then, a competitive procurement process has been undertaken with PwC LLP appointed to undertake the business case development. This work will cost £263k which is being fully funded by the Scottish Governments blue light collaboration funding and comes at no cost to existing Authority budgets.

This work has commenced and is expected to report in early Spring 2024. It is also being scrutinised by a dedicated oversight group with Board representation from Alasdair Hay, supported by Authority staff.

Corporate Benchmarking

Following an input from the Authority to the Association of Police Authority Chief Executives (APACE) AGM in July 2023 this year, we commenced a corporate benchmarking exercise to gather information from policing oversight and governance bodies with a view to informing a comparison of practice and performance. The initial stage of the exercise sought basic information from all policing oversight bodies in the UK, such as organisation’s size, core functions and governance structures, to allow us to identify similarities between comparators as well as understand any differences. We received a very positive response to the initial stage of the process and are now working to identify groupings of similar bodies, to inform further information gathering and lessons learned activity. This exercise underpins strategic Outcome 5 of the Authority’s corporate strategy, which focused on our commitment to continuous improvement and learning and is being sponsored by the Jane Ryder, Authority Vice Chair.

Community Confidence Project

The project, which aims to better understand the drivers of confidence in policing within different communities is nearing the end of its final delivery year with work focused on evaluation and sharing of lessons learned. Tom Halpin, Authority Member, as chair of the group, has led the steering group discussions on the legacy of this project and the longer-term actions which may be implemented from lessons learned in our four project areas. We have already seen positive outcomes from our work, with Perth & Kinross Council creating a specific community warden post in the Letham area following the engagement exercise undertaken with Council staff in the local community. The project is also drawing interest from other policing jurisdictions, with a visit planned from West Midlands Police and PCC to learn more about the model used by the project and our learning to date.

Recent Conferences and Events

On 14 November 2023, the Authority contributed to the Mackay Hannah conference 'Scotland’s public and third sector bodies: delivering good governance in tough times' which included inputs on leadership, change and organisational health as well as accountability, transparency, and good practice from learning. Authority staff member Amanda Coulthard delivered a session on good service user relations during challenging times which covered listening to and learning from stakeholders, ensuring engagement is core to all plans and building relationships between organisations and communities.

The Scottish Association for the Study of Offending (SASO) annual conference took place on Thursday 16 November 23 in Glasgow, chaired by the Honourable Lord John Scott. The conference focused on exploring alternative options in the justice system and included an input from Police Scotland on arrest referral work in Highland. The Authority, as a member of SASO Council, also participated in a panel session chaired by Dr Hannah Graham.

Scottish Public Service Awards 2023 - Voluntary Sector Partnership Award

The Scottish Police Authority and Who Cares? Scotland have been shortlisted for the Voluntary Sector Partnership Award at this year’s Scottish Public Services Awards. The nomination recognises the Authority’s collaborative work with WC?S to publicly advocate for action to reduce inequalities through system wide activities to enhance the life prospects of those who have experienced care. Further details can be found on the Authority’s website.

Board Member Recruitment

The Scottish Government anticipates launching a recruitment process for new Board members in early 2024. The process will be conducted by the Governments Public Appointment Team, independently of the Authority.

The Authority is expected to support this process with engagement and outreach activity to promote vacancies to a diverse group of individuals. The Chair and I have already met with a number of individuals/organisations with a particular focus on those from, minoritized communities who are not currently represented on the Board.

Board and Committee Calendar 2024/2025

The calendar of meetings for the Authority and its committees for the financial year from April 2024 until March 2025 is appended to my report. These dates have been set following engagement with members, Police Scotland and Forensic Services and take account of reporting requirements and internal governance.