Key Findings

• Officer Numbers have increased this quarter in comparison to last quarter by 20.19 Full Time Equivalent (FTE). With the exceptions of Local Policing (LP) East & Specialist Crime Division (SCD) all other divisions/local policing areas recorded an increase in FTE.
• In terms of workforce proportion, LP West had the most significant increase with +0.19%, LP East had the most significant decrease with -0.30%
• Staff numbers have decreased by 6.1 FTE in comparison to last quarter and total FTE is now 5,859.62.
• The biggest increases in staff workforce proportion are recorded in Criminal Justice Service Division (CJSD) and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) (0.08%). SCD (0.12%) and Contact, Command and Control (C3) (0.07%) recorded a decrease in workforce proportion & FTE.

TURNOVER - KEY FINDING  

Officers:

• Officer Leavers are down 13.6% (203) in comparison to Q3 (235). The highest levels of turnover are attributed to Retirements for officers and the highest number of leavers are found in LP West.
• Turnover for reasons of retirement:
  • 25-30 years has decreased 0.22% in comparison to last quarter.
  • The expected turnover in officers with 25+ years’ service is around 3% of the eligible cohort. There are currently 954 officers eligible for retirement.
  • Whilst this quarter looks slightly lower than last quarter this is due to an increase of leavers in March and a consequent decrease in leavers in April thus affecting the quarterly averages. A similar pattern is seen most years for these months with officers tending to favour the end of the financial year as a time to retire. In May and June the turnover from the available cohort returned to around 3%. As a consequence, there remains no evidence at this stage of officers waiting until the pension changes in October to retire. This will continue to be closely monitored.
• Turnover rates broken down by sex shows higher rates of male turnover in comparison to females which reflects the workforce profile.

Staff

• Staff Leavers are up 7.8% (9) in comparison to last quarter, with the majority being within CSD.
• Turnover rate for staff this quarter is 1.93%, an increase of 0.11% on Q4. Male staff turnover remained constant this quarter at 0.82% whilst Female staff turnover has increased by 0.11% to 1.11%. This is broadly reflective of the workforce gender profile.
• Resignation is the most common reason for staff leaving the organisation (52%) followed by Retirement (37%). Exit interviews identify that “career advancement” and “career change” and the primary reasons for staff resignations.
• The main area for staff resignations is in C3 and Corporate Services, with 81% at Grades 5 of lower and 61% with less than 3 years’ service.
• Around 6% of all Grade 3 and 4 staff in C3 resign each year which accounts of around 2/3 of all leavers from that area. Attrition in call centre environments tends to be higher than elsewhere with it being widely reported that staff turnover in the call centre industry is around 26% annually, considerably above the national average of 15%. C3 attrition at around 9% is well below that average.

 Sickness Absence - Key Findings

• Officer absence is down 0.62% on previous quarter and currently remains at 5.21%.
• Long term absence (LTA) accounted for 59% of officer working days lost (WDL), compared to 41% for short term absence (STA)
• Staff absence is also down 0.46% on previous quarter and is currently at 6.44% at end June.
• LTA accounted for 56% of staff working days lost, compared to 44% for STA.
• The average working days lost (AWDL) for officers (3.0) and staff (3.4) has fallen for Q1 in comparison to Q4.
• The year-end AWDL for 2023/24 are projected to be 12 for Police Officers and 14.5 for Police Staff.
• Psychological disorders remain the highest cause of sickness for both LTA and STA, for police staff, with musculoskeletal issues being the reason for most officer STA.

 Availability Key Findings 

• Time off in lieu (TOIL) for officers and staff is up 0.7% from previous quarter and is 36,947hrs (5,880 hours for officers and 31,067 for staff). There is a residual amount of TOIL for staff of about 31,000 hours that has proven difficult to have an impact on for at least the last few years with the majority lying within C3 and Criminal Justice Services Division. A number of options are being considered to reduce this and informal discussions are ongoing between Resource Deployment Unit (RDU) and Trade Unions.
• For Officers the highest TOIL balance is within Operational Support Division (OSD) at 2,168.4 hours. The largest negative is within U Division (Ayrshire) where officers appear to owe 818.4 hours. U Division reported a positive toil balance in Q4. RDU are looking into why this has occurred.
• Re-rostered Rest Days (RRRD) for officers and staff are down 8.7% from the previous quarter and total 64,378 days (63,671 for officers and 707 for staff). A system to better manage RRRD’s has been recently agreed by Strategic Leadership Board (SLB) and will be introduced in September with a view to significantly reducing the balance and embed tighter controls.
• Annual leave is currently 1.75 % under-utilised to date but this is well within tolerance.