FURTHER DETAIL

On 30 November 2023, both the People Strategy and the SWP were approved by the Police Authority Board.

Within the People Strategy three key objectives were approved:

We prioritise wellbeing and keep our people safe, protected and well equipped.
We support our people to be confident leaders, innovative contributors, and influencers.
We support our people to identify with and demonstrate Police Scotland’s values and have a strong sense of belonging.

And, within the SWP three key outcomes were approved:

We structure our workforce to create capacity and efficiency.
We are clear on the skills, capabilities, and experiences we need.
We attract and retain suitable talent.

Appendix A details the People Strategy objectives and SWP outcomes.

Since December 2023 work has been developed to determine the key activity, together with associated timelines, to support the delivery of the People Strategy and SWP.

Development of Priorities/Timelines Beyond Year One

This work has sought to map out priorities for the three-year cycle of the People Strategy and SWP, however the focus of this paper is on outlining Year One priorities.

As well as considering key priorities areas within the People Strategy and SWP implementation plans, particular consideration was given to the Year One priorities in Police Scotland’s Annual Police Plan 2024-2025. Appendix B and C outline our People Strategy and SWP Year One priorities.

The plan over the three-year cycle of is being developed to consider and support:

• The 3-year service and organisational transformation programme
• Steps required to streamline activity across Policing Together, People Strategy and SWP
• The need for future iterations of the SWP
• Updated Equality Outcomes (due for review in April 2025)
• Responses to audits/inspections
• The ability to respond to insights from the Workforce Dashboards

Local delivery

To support divisions and departments in the delivery of the People Strategy, SWP and Policing Together implementation plans, an organisational People Plan recording and reporting template has been developed. Additional reporting will be required at a corporate level e.g. progress on Annual Policing Plan.

The template will allow for nationally agreed outcomes and associated activity to be locally prioritised and thereafter mapped in terms of progress to demonstrate the local difference made in support of the strategic objectives. In addition, accountability for day-to-day people management is also captured by way of mandatory baseline reporting of associated data and metrics.

By bringing all three strategic plans together it enables divisional and departmental customers to visualise how each fit together and the synergies they create. This demonstrates progress from previous iterations which were captured separately and distinctly with various reporting requirements confusing our colleagues. This approach will support consistent reporting practice and harmonised understanding of progress made against our plans, as well as identifying local anomalies which may require to be addressed.

A critical challenge and risk to the successful implementation and embedding of outcomes is the scale and complexities of the activities across the organisation.

A first iteration of this template has been developed and further work will be undertaken to work with business areas to incorporate existing local activities from current People Plans. The final populated People Plans will be implemented during summer 2024.

The evidence of progress will be aggregated to an organisational level and will be reported to the newly established People Board, the SPA People Committee and Board.
 
Key Outcome Measures/Evidence to Support the Assessment of People Strategy and SWP Impact

The first iteration of Workforce Dashboards have been developed with the key focus of aligning relevant measures to the People Strategy objectives and the SWP outcomes. Compared to previous reporting this approach places a greater focus on outcome focused analysis and insight and will ensure the ability to report and track progress and impact.

As part of an iterative approach to improvement the key next steps in relation to the Dashboards are to ensure full alignment between the dashboards and the workforce metrics contained within the Performance Framework and seek to address system related gaps/barriers preventing effective and efficient outcome focused measurement and reporting.

Further Iterations of the SWP.

As the SWP was approved on 30 November 2023, the immediate focus has been on developing an approach to implementation and measuring delivery and impact.

However, the commitment was made that the SWP would be iterative in its approach: DIAGRAM

It is recognised that this is a journey for Police Scotland and an assessment will be made at the beginning of 2025 as to the impact of the SWP within the context of:

• The evolving strategic context and transformation journey of Police Scotland
• External drivers e.g. employment market, legislation and regulation, risk assessments etc
• Budget settlement.

To strengthen internal governance and oversight of delivery and impact, an internal People Board was established in May 2024 with the remit on strategic people matters:

• Ensuring that Police Scotland has appropriate workforce related strategy, policy and practice that is consistent with cultural change and delivery of our workforce strategic commitments.
• Responsibility for effective execution of workforce related strategy, policy and practice. Additionally, the Board oversees performance and delivery against workforce strategies and plans.

This Board will report to the Strategic Leadership Board, People Committee and Authority Board.

Next steps

• Continue the development of the new Workforce Dashboards to ensure they continue to develop maturity in respect of evidence and outcomes of delivery and impact.
• Ensure that organisationally we recognise a degree of flexibility and adjustments in the implementation plans in circumstances where a review and reassess of commitments is appropriate e.g. in the event of new organisational proprieties, evidence, recommendations etc.
• Revisit whether any further amendments are appropriate to the SWP at the end of 2024 (next report on progress to People Committee).