Progress to date

As reported previously the key initial milestones are set out below, each with a progress update along-side them.

Spotlight on priorities: The Estates Masterplan

The purpose of the Estates Masterplan is to assess every building across the Police Scotland Estate and categorise each into a strategic theme of “retain and invest”, “retain and maintain” or “dispose” (in categories of: Less than 12 months, 2 – 5 years, and 6 – 10 years). Of course, any buildings identified for “Disposal” would require all necessary consultations with employees and wider stakeholder groups, such as staff associations, and public consultation, to be undertaken in line with due process before they were declared surplus and disposed.

The categorisation of all buildings across the Police Scotland Estate will enable the organisation to establish a strategic understanding for each building that encompasses both Policing operations and estate management which will form the basis of the organisations’ future investment requirements to deliver a fit for purpose estate that enables the needs of modern policing, in a safe and sustainable manner.

A four-stage process outlined in Figure (i) below has been developed to deliver the Estates Masterplan.

Stage 1 of the Masterplan was completed in March 2024 and shared with key Police Scotland and SPA stakeholders, including SPA Resources Committee members.

Stage 2 of the Masterplan is underway and includes the “Voice of the Customer” (VoC) phase with inputs from operational stakeholders to develop our understanding of their requirements and optimise our strategy. Initial meetings have been held with 9 stakeholder groups ranging from Custody, and Productions to Fleet and Local Policing.

The approach to this stage is outlined in more detail at Figure (ii) MP2 Approach.

The feedback so far has been positive and informative in helping to identify the requirements for the future operations / requirements for these stakeholder groups and as the approach outlined above is followed, a draft report and recommendations will be available circa August 2024 for socialisation with stakeholders.

Following feedback from the draft, a final version of the Stage 2 outputs will be completed and shared circa October 2024.

The output of the Stage 2 process will be key in supporting the development of the funding “ask” to stakeholders and Scottish Government in Autumn 2024, as the organisation seeks to demonstrate a longer term financially sustainable position and clearly articulates the capital requirements to ensure that its estate is fit for purpose to enable modern policing to support our communities across Scotland.

The final stage of the Estates Master planning process will include setting the Annual Implementation Plan for the Estate, determining capital programmes of work and where funding will be directed into the Estate to support our objectives.

Spotlight on priorities: The Estates Asset Management System:

Functional and non-functional technical requirements have been gathered to define what is required from an Estates Asset Management (EAM) system, from a business and technical systems perspective.  Given that the system will be cloud hosted outside Police Scotland, this emphasises the importance of the Digital and Information Management aspects and these are being actively worked through and finalised.  The security classification of information to be hosted on the system will strongly influence both the procurement route selected and the level of security and controls that are required to be applied by the selected system and vendor.  In turn, this may also impact the deployment timescale i.e. inclusion of sensitive information would necessitate a fundamentally different, and more complex, procurement route.

Market research and early engagement has identified several viable procurement routes, including standard service offerings available for purchase under the Crown Commercial Services G-Cloud platform.  This was further refined, and two suppliers were approached to provide demonstrations to inform stakeholders’ knowledge of what was available in the market and feed into the procurement strategy.  This engagement provided further assurance that the standard service offerings could meet functional requirements.  One of the potential vendors already provides a similar service to another Public Sector Organisation and we have also seen a detailed demonstration of how they use their EAM system, which has been a valuable experience.

Police Scotland/SPA governance procedure and Change Process guidance has been followed, to develop a Potential Project Assessment (PPA) and, after gaining approval, subsequently drafting a Business Justification Case (BJC) which had been presented at two governance forums, culminating in the approval granted from Police Scotland’s Change Board on 4 June.  This then allows the recognition as a formal project, allocates a defined budget and now allows us to formally complete the work on the sourcing strategy.   This will include finalising any definitions to ensure that the proposed procurement solutions meet all of Police Scotland’s technical requirements, including information security/assurance requirements.

Following the established governance, the approved BJC timeline anticipates the following milestones:

Gate 3 – Business Case/Design Complete: June 2024
Gate 4 – Solution Build Complete:  mid – December 2024
Gate 5 – Go/No Go System Deployment: mid-January 2025

It is important that data are cleansed and assured before populating the new Estates Asset Management system.  To this end, resource has been invested in not only assuring the accuracy and completeness of the data but also in establishing clear governance around aspects such as ownership, change control, ongoing maintenance, and review protocols.  Prior to approving the data for upload to the new EAM, the following actions are being undertaken:

a review of the data records that are appropriate for inclusion.
assignment of data guardians with responsibility for reviewing the completeness and accuracy of the data.
a second-tier review of data, using techniques such as sampling and triangulation to provide assurance.
documentation of the assurance processes and findings prior to data owners’ sign off for upload.

Following assurance of existing data, procedural guidance will be developed around how data quality will be maintained in BAU.  This will set out responsibilities, change control protocols, retention of evidence / documentation, analytical review, sampling for verification and evidencing of same.

Assumptions:

As part of this detailed planning process, further consideration will need to be given to resourcing and budget requirements to support the delivery of this work, as well as the timing of any associated governance processes.

Governance and Reporting

Progress on the delivery of the work packages outlined for each of the CI initiatives will be monitored through existing governance arrangements as outlined in the Estates Governance structure. 

Key items, or items requiring further discussion or decision will be shared with the National Estates Board and other Police Scotland and SPA governance forums as relevant.