People Committee

The formal minutes of the public items of business will be available at the meetings scheduled for 25 February 2025. These will also be published on the SPA’s website. A full recording of the public items of business taken at these meetings can be accessed at here.

KEY ISSUES RAISED

Wellbeing and Inclusion
Q2 Wellbeing Report & Action Plan update

Members welcomed good progress across the wellbeing provision for our workforce and Police Scotland are encouraged to prioritise work to further develop and improve in this important area.
A specific area of interest for this committee is the rationale for not allowing officers and staff to self-refer to Occupational Health. The Committee has asked for an explanation of the rationale for self-referral not being an available option for the workforce. This, along with evidence of how this approach compares with other forces/organisation will be discussed at a future meeting of the Committee.

Policing Together Update Report
The progress and clear commitment to date is welcomed by the Committee who recognise cultural and behaviour changes take time however, Members are keen to understand how the Policing Together work is being driven through the organisation so that both the workforce and public see and feel the changes. Members expect to consider robust evidence of impacts of change and improvements in future Committee reporting.

SPA Report on Ill Health Retiral and Injury on Duty approvals
The Committee is satisfied plans are in place to process IHR and IoD cases within an acceptable timeframe and there are no unnecessary delays. The ongoing action to provide details of the underlying reasons and causal factors is expected to report to the February meeting.

Staff Survey Results
There was discussion, support and constructive challenge during the consideration of the results. Views from Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority, Forensic Services, Staff Association and Trade Union were heard.
The Chair welcomed the level of transparency in the reporting and acceptance of the areas for improvement. This is recognised by the People Committee as a clear demonstration of the Chief Constable’s commitment to acting upon the survey results. Attendees agreed that changing culture is not easy and will not be achieved quickly and that a whole system approach will be essential to drive the improvements and to change the culture as necessary.
Going forward, scrutiny will focus on understanding how the next steps will support the workforce in all three organisations to drive improvement with assurance sought that any improvement plans are aligned to Business Plans and Operation Evolve. The Committee recognise that these results are in accordance with what the Staff Associations and Trade Unions have previously stated as how their members feel and the Committee therefore expect to see evidence that the staff voice is being considered in the development of the improvement plans which must result in the workforce seeing and experiencing change and improvement.

Strategy, Policy, and Planning
Q2 Workforce Dashboard
Attendees and Members welcomed the transparency of this report and agreed the data will be key to understanding the areas of good practice and any areas of concern. Future reports will include further details on absence.

Pension Forfeiture
An update on two ongoing Pension Forfeiture cases was considered.

VR/VER Closure Report
The Committee require evidence that there is robust management of workload where posts have been deleted. Assurance is being sought that effective steps have been taken to mitigate impacts on remaining workforce and that work has stopped where a post no longer exists

Pay Update
Recognising a further update would be provided at the November Board, Members considered a verbal update on the latest developments in the ongoing pay negotiations for both officers and staff.

Health & Safety
Q2 Health and Safety Report

The committee recognise the importance of near miss reporting and discussion focused on what can be done to promote the need to report and remove any barriers to reporting so that this valuable data can be collected and used to improve circumstances for officers and staff. Various steps to improve near miss reporting were welcomed and Members hope to see the impact of these steps in future reports to Committee.

Your Safety Matters

Transparent reporting of data and the effort to reduce ‘out of card’ officers was welcomed by Members however, as previously stated, this is not an acceptable position. The Committee was provided with absolute assurance this was a priority area for Police Scotland and it is anticipated the issue would be resolved by March 2025 by which time the organisation will be in a strong position around officer training compliance. The Committee sought and received an assurance there had been no incidences where operational officers had not been able to be deployed because they were out of card.

As no assault on any officer or staff member is ever acceptable, the Committee was disappointed to see a reported increase for the year. Members were keen to understand what was being done to educate the public about how unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated. To allow improved analysis and insights the Committee has asked that future reports provided a disaggregation of assault data so that the officer and staff split is clear.

Forensic Services H&S Update

Following a verbal update at the last meeting of the Committee which provided details of engagement with the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) regarding a concern that had been raised directly with them regarding the use of Fast Blue B, the Committee welcomed the assurance that the comprehensive and detailed responses and evidence provided by Forensic Services to HSE had been reviewed and the HSE was fully satisfactory and the matter had been closed.

CONCLUSIONS/ACTIONS REACHED
• Further committee discussion required to explore rationale for officers and staff not being able to self-refer to Occupational Health. Comparisons with other forces/organisation to inform these discussions.
• Future Quarterly Workforce Dashboard Reports to build on improved insight reporting and provide disaggregated data for specific areas to allow further analysis of how individual business areas compare with the entire organisation. A list of areas for future focus to be considered by the committee.
• Next Health & Safety Report to provide analysis of any underlying reasons for a higher level of ‘non-assault injuries’ RIDDORS in this category.
• Future your Safety Matters Reporting to provide disaggregated data on assaults for officers and staff.
• This committee to consider evidence of effective management of workload following deletion of posts and assurances to be provided that robust steps have been taken to mitigate impacts on remaining workforce.