Op Talla - Background

In June 2022, as the final coronavirus restrictions were lifted, the Chief Constable approved the stand down of Operation Talla structures and directed that an organisational wide debrief should be conducted to examine Police Scotland’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to identify learning and to understand what the pandemic meant for people across the Service.

All police officers and staff were asked to contribute their views and experiences as part of this debrief which was led by SMARTEU in line with an agreed terms of reference.

The formal debrief examined Police Scotland’s response to the pandemic following the outbreak from March 2020 up to and including June 2022. The methodology was a simple and broad set of five questions which were hosted on the Citizen Space (CS) platform.

The consultation guidance issued expressly highlighted that no issues were excluded from the consultation and that responses should capture any topics across the whole pandemic response that can reflect internal , external, community, home life or any other matters. 

The questions were:
What did we do well in response to COVID?
What could we have done better in our response to COVID?
What changes to policy, procedure or practices should be retained?
What changes to policy, procedure or practices should be reviewed?
What was the most valuable learning experience in response to COVID and for what reasons?

The consultation received 294 online responses comprising individual and team submissions representing the views of over 5300 of our people. These responses were collated and formulated into a debrief report containing 15 recommendations and 6 practice observations. The Report was presented to Police Scotland’s Strategic Leadership Board in March 2023 who approved the delivery of the Report’s Recommendations.

The Report highlights Police Scotland’s ability to adapt and respond to unprecedented challenges through the provision of effective personal protective equipment and COVID tests, to the implementation of agile working supported by ICT and adapted working practices. Communication and operational guidance also feature prominently as does the changes made to response protocols, absence management and the provision of individual and family support throughout the pandemic, all of which contributed to the maintenance of effective service delivery.

By identifying what went well and what we could have done better, the report provides details on our peoples experiences and feelings on how pandemic and our responses contributed to personal safety and wellbeing and their ability to continue to respond to the public’s demand for service. Through the honesty and openness of feedback, the report was able to identify key areas for development and learning that can be taken forward through maintaining identified best practice and preparing for future challenges.

Delivery of the recommendations has commenced through an organisation wide Short Life Working Group (SLWG) chaired by Chief Superintendent Governance, Audit and Assurance. The progress on delivery will thereafter be reported through the ACC Professionalism and Assurance Strategic Group.

Working closely with SMARTEU, identified recommendation owners have reviewed the full background and expected outcomes for each recommendation to ensure that this meaningful and impactive learning is delivered through organisational change and incident planning.

Delivery of the recommendations has commenced through an organisation wide Short Life Working Group (SLWG) chaired by Chief Superintendent Governance, Audit and Assurance. The progress on delivery will thereafter be reported through the ACC Professionalism and Assurance Strategic Group.

Working closely with SMARTEU, identified recommendation owners have reviewed the full background and expected outcomes for each recommendation to ensure that this meaningful and impactive learning is delivered through organisational change and incident planning.

The majority of the recommendations have been directly aligned to ongoing or delivered work streams such as implementation of the National Hybrid Working Guidance, development of the Force Mass Mobilisation Project, the Virtual First Training Project and completion of the Contact Assessment Model rollout. The recommendations that align directly to major incident response planning have been raised as actions for the Major Incident Tactical Governance Group to ensure delivery is coordinated across the organisation.

One key theme that was highlighted by our people throughout the report was the availability and use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). A broad range of responses on this subject has been included in the Report and as members will be aware, this is an area where we have been focussing our efforts to ensure that our officers and staff continue to receive the best available PPE in all circumstances where its use is required to keep themselves and the public safe when responding to incidents.

One recommendation whilst fully supported by Police Scotland, requires the support of our justice partners as it relates to the retention of government legislation for the remote granting of warrants. Our Justice Reform team are pursuing all relevant options to retain this provision that came in to effect during the Pandemic.