Operation Glade Update

The volume and demand of Non-Criminal Complaints continues to increase with the current backlog of unallocated Complaints at 1049. These can be broken down as follows – Cat A+ (5), Cat A (311), Cat B (610) and Cat C (123).

Several positive steps have already been taken to improve the organisations handling of Complaint and Conduct matters and a full Improvement Action Plan is in place to record and drive continuous improvement across multiple areas. This is monitored and tracked via regular Operation Glade Gold Group meetings.

The following outlines some further action taken to improve the handling of non-criminal complaints since the introduction of the National Model implementation in 2021.

Departmental Restructure

On 1 May 2023 PSD restructured regional Investigation teams, creating a national Complaint Investigations Model with clear leadership for all non-criminal matters and criminal matters, removing geographic areas of responsibility. This model offers greater consistency, sharing of good practice, ability to flex resources to meet changing regional demand and streamlining processes to achieve further efficiencies.

Robust Governance Structure

As part of the above departmental restructuring, we have introduced weekly management meetings with Inspectors and a monthly tactical meeting, empowering the wider team to contribute thoughts and ideas for improvement.   This is further supported by the bimonthly Complaint Handling Working Group, a quarterly multi agency National Complaint Handling Development Group and more recently the introduction of Operation Glade – a Gold Group chaired by ACC P&A which will provide a mechanism to facilitate key discussions, co-ordinate improvements to drive down PSD backlog and enhance long term PSD complaint service delivery.

Benchmarking

Continual benchmarking has been undertaken with other UK Police Forces, the IOPC, PONI, SPSO and other public bodies to identify best practice in relation to complaint handling practices, including the examination of resource v demand. Several innovative ideas have identified which improve the efficiency of Police Scotland's Complaint Handling processes. These have been implemented on a smaller scale and their effectiveness is subject of scrutiny and evaluation through the existing governance structures.

Recognising the very similar challenges experienced within SPSO particularly, engagement is ongoing with plans afoot to schedule a workshop in December to work through measures they undertook and lessons learned by them throughout their journey.

Additional Resource – Task Force

The Task Force was conceptualised in November 2023 as part of efforts to reduce the growing complaints backlog and went live in December 2023. The premise was to secure additional staff from Local Policing and Specialist Divisions temporarily to support non-criminal team and NCARU for periods between 3 to 6 months.  Identified as a development opportunity a combination of 9 x PS/PC were initially offered as part of the initiative from Local Policing and Specialist Divisions. This resource has fluctuated however and recently increased to 11 x PS/PC, who have been allocated Cat B complaints. Training is provided and a mentoring system installed to ensure maximum support to incoming staff.

Revenue Investment Group (RIG) Bid – Civilian Investigators

The Operation Glade Gold Group submitted a RIG bid to recruit and deploy additional resources to address backlogs relating to complaints about the police and enhance long term PSD complaint service delivery.

In June 2024 this bid was approved for an uplift of 26 civilian investigators to be deployed within PSD to support efforts to reduce the backlog of unallocated non-criminal complaints.

Initial recruitment has secured 20 civilian investigators subject to offers of employment being accepted and vetting, it is anticipated this first tranche of staff will commence employment in December.

A further advert has been published to fill the remaining 6 posts.   

Overtime Contingency Fund Bid

Due to the increase in demand a bid to secure 1350 hours overtime was approved in June 2024. This was targeted at all categories of non-criminal complaints with 200 complaints being concluded.

Recently a further bid for 1750 hours overtime has been submitted for consideration and if approved it will be utilised for the remainder of this financial year. 

Revised Complaint Capture Form

As a result of the benchmarking undertaken it was identified that improvements could be made to the existing Police Scotland Complaint Capture Form.

The revised form will focus on the complainer's allegations, evidence, experiences and expectations to allow for their submission to adequately and accurately reflect their complaint. It is anticipated that this will improve the public user experience, allow for clearer identification of complaints, speed up the process and manage public expectation more effectively.

Improvements to Police Scotland Public Facing Complaint Webpage

To enhance the user experience and redirect the number of non-PSD related enquiries being submitted through the Complaint Capture Form relevant information, guidance and signposting is contained within the website to allow members of the public to either navigate the CAP process or alternatively direct their query to the correct Police Scotland business area. It is anticipated that this will create capacity within PSD.

Very early indications demonstrate that the revised form outlined above along with the improvements to the website has helped to slightly reduce non-related PSD matters coming in via those means, thus slightly reducing the unnecessary demand.   

Thematic Complaint Lead (Pilot)

Dedicated Investigating Officers take ownership of most common themes of complaints to reduce time taken to investigate due to commonality and improve response time to complainers. Themes identified are Excessive Force, Discrimination and Custody issues. This process will ensure that the dedicated SPOC can identify common learning points and best practice, ensuring this is shared. 

Early indications are that the average time to investigate and respond to these types of complaints has reduced.

Engagement Sessions  

Regular engagement sessions, targeted at PS/PI in Local and Specialist Policing Divisions, remain ongoing with the purpose of increasing confidence to, where applicable, resolve complaints out with PSD and to communicate common themes trends and learning arising from complaints.  

The above is provided as a snapshot of the activity underway to address the challenges faced within the department and in particular in relation to the demand and backlog of unallocated Non-Criminal Complaints.