Recommendations & Areas for Development

The HMICS report (HMICS Assurance Review of Police Scotland Contact Assessment Model) contained 8 recommendations:

Recommendation 1
Police Scotland should demonstrate that the management of Local Policing Appointments ensures the public receives a consistent level of service across Scotland.

Recommendation 2
Police Scotland should broaden the training and support provided to service advisors, by including inputs from specialists, to enable them to better consider investigative opportunities, vulnerabilities and engagement within their THRIVE assessments.

Recommendation 3
Police Scotland and the SPA should capture the failure demand rate through the C3 and force performance framework and outcomes, to ensure the quality of service delivered to the public through CAM is monitored.

Recommendation 4
Police Scotland should review the working practices and training within the Resolution Teams, particularly in relation to direct crime recording, to provide a more victim-orientated approach and to reduce the number of crime reports being returned to Local Policing Divisions or to other areas for completion.

Recommendation 5
Police Scotland should take steps to ensure staff within Area Control Rooms, Service Centres and Resolution Teams are diverting incidents to partner agencies, whenever that agency is better placed to deal with the incident.

Recommendation 6
Police Scotland and the SPA should progress the engagement with Scottish Government and other strategic partners to ensure service users are being supported by the most appropriate agency.

Recommendation 7
Police Scotland must improve the resilience and capability of its core police ICT systems to ensure C3 Division staff have efficient access to the information required to perform their roles.

Recommendation 8
The SPA and Police Scotland should put in place measures to monitor progress against the areas for development outlined in this assurance review.

Areas for development

The HIMCS report also detailed 5 Areas for Development (AFD):

Service Delivery

• Police Scotland should implement a refreshed communications and engagement plan for Local Policing officers and staff, and for local partners, to ensure the CAM model is understood and that experience is being shared as required.
• Police Scotland should ensure that where Local Policing Appointments are used in more complex public protection areas of work such as domestic abuse, they should occur as soon as possible following the report of an incident. It is also essential that any such appointments are met, to avoid, where possible, the victim disengaging.

THRIVE assessments

• Police Scotland should include THRIVE training on the First Line Manager and Operational Command training courses.
• Police Scotland should ensure that when an incident is being transferred to another department, a thorough THRIVE assessment should be provided, along with the rationale for the incident being re-graded.

Demand

• Police Scotland should capture the number of incidents dealt with in their entirety by the Resolution Teams, through the C3 performance framework and outcomes, to ensure their impact on reducing demand in Local Policing is monitored.

Partnership working

• Police Scotland should establish indicators that will measure the effectiveness of its partnership working arrangements in relation to delivering CAM benefits.

Workforce

• C3 Division should seek to improve staff survey submission rates, to reap the maximum benefits.
• Police Scotland should continue to enhance a culture of learning and continuous improvement among its officers and staff.
• Police Scotland service advisors and C3 Division staff should receive enhanced mental health training, including awareness of the Distress Brief Intervention.

Response

In response to the findings and recommendations, key stakeholders within Contact Command and Control Division (C3) engaged with Governance, Audit and Assurance (GAA) resulting in an Audit Management Officer being appointed to assist. It is noted that the Review of CAM contains complexity as it cuts across several business areas, including Crime, Digital, Local Policing and Data and Performance.

Improvement Plan

A detailed Improvement Plan has been created to address the specifics of the HMICS recommendations. This plan highlights the intended actions, impacts, key considerations in terms of how Police Scotland will achieve the actions, target dates, progress updates and action owners. The detailed improvement plan has been shared with PPC members.

A shortened summary of this extensive plan can be found attached as Appendix A – Recommendation and Work stream Summary.

Timescales and Dependencies

It is acknowledged that some of the timescales may seem lengthy to members, however, this is primarily due to the complex and interdependent nature of the recommendations and action required. In addition, the delivery of the Modernised Contact and Engagement (MCE) Programme and the Contact Engagement and Resolution Project (CERP) will have a positive impact on the delivery of the recommendations. Therefore these enabling projects are key dependencies and will determine the timeline of some recommendations.

Approach

Police Scotland’s approach is to use our Product Design Framework, which focuses on the gathering of requirements, engagement with key stakeholders, design with the use of benchmarking and early policy development, followed by delivery and evaluation, using the Evaluation and Review Framework, to ensure a consistent approach to each recommendation.

Governance Arrangements

A CAM Inspection Tactical Group has been established which is chaired by the Commander of C3 Division. Membership of the group includes representation of the different business areas across C3 – Service Centre, National Systems Support, Operations, Resolution Team, Governance & Improvement, and Learning & Development – along with representatives from COS, Crime Registrar, MCE/CERP, LTD, DPU, PPCW, Corporate Services, Corporate Communications and Strategy & Analysis.

The Tactical Group will ensure the appropriate tasking and delivery of all recommendations and areas for development. Members will be responsible for reporting progress to the CAM Tactical Group on a monthly basis. The Tactical Group reports directly to ACC Local Policing North & C3.

Prioritisation Plan

A prioritisation plan of short, medium and long term actions in respect of each of the recommendations has been completed, in order that early improvements to the here and now can be made wherever possible. As acknowledged earlier in the report, some of the recommendations are dependent on the delivery of the MCE and CERP Projects.

Given these dependencies, relevant members from MCE/CERP are key members of the Tactical Group, to ensure co-ordination and due consideration of the CAM review as each of the projects progress.

Opportunities

Police Scotland recognises the opportunity that the CAM Assurance Review Recommendations presents. This includes enhanced training and support for staff, greater coordination and clarification of working practices, including partnership arrangements and utilising updated ICT systems, and will result in an improved service level to the public.

HMICS Response

On 6th March 2023, Police Scotland provided a formal response to HMICS regarding the CAM Review, along with a high-level plan of proposed action.

On 16th August 2023, Police Scotland provided a formal update to HMICS regarding the CAM Review, outlining the progress made to date.

Next Steps

The Tactical Group are now overseeing the delivery plans for each of the recommendations. Progress details are available as per 2.6 above.