People Committee

The formal minutes of the public items of business will be available at the meetings scheduled for 29 May 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 here.

KEY ISSUES RAISED

Wellbeing and Inclusion
Members considered updates across the wellbeing provision for our workforce and are keen to better understand the progress being made against the Action Plan milestones. Committee focus remains on workforce Mental Health and Wellbeing with concerns raised in respect of increases in psychological trauma. Future meetings will be used to understand the impact of interventions in this area and to understand how our workforce can be effectively supported.
There is ongoing work following a recent committee request to better understand why TRiM is only available to the workforce should they request an intervention. The Committee has challenged whether this should be opt-out or mandatory, given the prevalence of psychological absence. The next meeting will consider analysis of the causal factors which sit behind IOD and IHR cases, highlighting how many people leave because of trauma, stress or anxiety.
The Committee heard that planning is now underway for the next Staff Survey and this will be done alongside the effort being made to ensure the workforce see and feel improvement following actions taken since last year’s survey.
Members welcomed plans to report a more holistic picture of Wellbeing and Health & Safety and noted the timescales for this to be reported later this year.

Learning & Development, Talent & Recruitment, Pipeline management
Members recognise the work being done so that this Committee can consider evidence of the impact of the Your Leadership Matters and People Management Development programmes and look forward to considering insights at future meetings to ensure we have the necessary arrangements in place for a thriving and developing workforce.

The Committee welcomed a report from Police Scotland providing assurance that recruitment activity supports delivery of Strategic Outcomes, improves performance, mitigates strategic risks and closes recommendations from audits and inspections. Members were clear on their expectation that Police Scotland has suitable arrangements in place to nurture leadership talent early and develop a pipeline of leaders in both officers and police staff.

Forward Planning
The Committee is keen to consider evidence of robust forward planning, so that assurance can be given that we know what workforce we need and are maximising the resources we have available. This will also involve consideration of how those on modified duties are deployed within the organisation.
Data
The Committee aims to be able to move away from activity-based updates and consider insights from data which demonstrates how the entire workforce is supported.

CONCLUSIONS/ACTIONS REACHED

• Decisions taken in respect of two separate Pension Forfeiture cases.
• Next Committee to consider report on analysis of causal factors of Injury on Duty and Ill health retirement.
• Next Committee to consider a report with rationale for the current approach to TRiM referrals.