Progress against the plan

Our Change Programme Plan sets out the high-level delivery milestones of the Forensic Services Change Programme. 

The Change Programme continues to track green for the majority of key milestone activity:

• The National Tasking Unit and new ways of working in Search & Recovery Scenes were successfully delivered and continue to embed within the organisation, resulting in improved utilisation of our Scene Examination resource. When considering performance in relation to the tasking of lower priority incidents, there has been a reduction in the timeliness of deployment of scene examination staff to these incidents since the implementation of the new unit. While much of this relates to the availability of the deployable resource, there is a post implementation review ongoing to consider the implementation of the Tasking Unit and any further improvements that are required to maximise the benefits being delivered. In addition, an external review of our tasking and deployment processes is being completed on 1^st and 2^nd February 2024 by colleagues from the Metropolitan Police.
  
  
• The Forensic Operations Lead role continues to embed within Forensic Services and with our partners. Positive feedback has been received from colleagues in Police Scotland regarding the new role and the benefits of this will continue to be assessed over the coming months.
  
  
• All of our people have now transitioned to their new contracts and role profiles reflective of the new operating model structure. The final management and team alignment will be completed over the next two months so that from April 2024 the full structure will be implemented. Further work streams will continue to optimise workflows across the organisation and to ensure that the benefit relating to flexibility, responsiveness and improved career progressing can be realised.
  
  
• The initial management development training programme for our new Capability Team Managers is now complete. Collective sessions on role remits, responsibilities and matrix management have been held for all our managers prior to the launch of the training needs analysis (TNA) activity. Outcomes of the training needs analysis will underpin a management development programme which will better support and develop our managers as people and performance focused leaders in our new operating model.
  
  
• Development of the Full Business Case (FBC) for our core operating system continues to progress. The procurement exercise to secure professional services to support the full business case build is now complete and kick off introductions have commenced with the supplier (Ignite) to progress with the Full Business Case.
  
  
• Challenges in securing the level of investment required for full resourcing of our operating model have impacted on the timelines for implementation. Prioritisation and planning activity for re-investment of savings resulting from the efficiency plan & benefits realisation continues. Implementation timelines will be refreshed once complete.