Background

The reporting of management information both internally and to SPA Committees has had a variety of formats since the formation of Police Scotland and has changed to respond to and reflect the expectations of Senior Officers, Directors and SPA Board Members.

Currently, a ‘one size fits all’ approach is adopted whereby the Strategic Workforce Planning monthly/quarterly/annual People Management Information is shared at Departmental, Executive, Board and SPA Committee level. It is acknowledged that this often lacks associated insights and that commitments to action in light of data are not given due prominence in reporting to SPA.

Work has been underway to make available a suite of dashboards updated on a monthly basis to allow senior managers and business partners to track all significant people data without the need to refer to monthly publications or bespoke reports. The monthly/quarterly/annual publications summarise the data within these dashboards picking out areas of particular interest such as absence, availability, demographics, duty and modifications. Diversity and inclusion data has been reported separately from these publications and has tended to be presented annually and in line with statutory commitments.

In light of the above, Police Scotland are currently conducting a review of all workforce related Management Information to determine data utility, availability and scope for automation as well as reporting improvement. This work will also seek to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement to better meet expectations. SPA People Committee requests for data are being considered as part of that process to ensure regular and useful reporting of key trends and insights and we are exploring opportunities for enhanced benchmarking of data with other UK police service workforce data.

As part of this work, we are also developing key metrics and indicators of progress against the outcomes and commitments within the ‘Policing Together: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy’ to enhance existing reporting of EDI workforce data and insights. All of this work is being progressed alongside the development of our annual Performance Framework.

The Chartered Management Institute and Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development guide Valuing your Talent sets out a framework for reporting People Data which helps employers better understand the impact their people have on the performance of their organisation.

In terms of benchmarking, we are engaging with the College of Policing in England and Wales and are sharing products and thinking to develop practice. The significant work that has been done to improve the data presented both internally and externally across policing in England and Wales is being considered further and engagement and collaboration will continue.