HMICS has today (Tuesday, November 10) published its final report on its Independent Assurance Review of Call Handling in Police Scotland.

The detailed report addresses the key areas on which the Cabinet Secretary for Justice has sought assurance and contains 30 recommendations for improvement.

It develops the emerging findings of the HMICS interim report, which was published in September, and reinforces the need for Police Scotland to focus on stabilising the existing call handling arrangements before making any further changes.

The report makes it clear that the Scottish Police Authority should not approve any further stages of the call handing project until it receives independent assurance that Police Scotland is ready.

HMICS was asked to carry out this review of call handling within Police Scotland’s Contact, Command and Control (C3) facilities by the Cabinet Secretary, Michael Matheson, following the tragic incident involving the deaths of John Yuill and Lamara Bell. HMICS has not investigated the specific circumstances surrounding this incident as this falls exclusively within the scope of the inquiry being carried out by Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) and will be covered in her report to the Lord Advocate.

What HMICS has provided is a wider independent assurance of the capacity, capability and processes in all police call handling centres across Scotland. It also provides an assessment of how Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority are currently placed to successfully deliver the remaining stages of the national call handling project.

In the report published today, HM Inspector of Constabulary Derek Penman gives assurance on seven areas – the commitment of the staff to provide a quality service to the public; the current stability of staffing levels; the provision of basic processes; the effective handling of emergency and high priority calls; the effective assessment of risk and vulnerability and the new training arrangements for all new staff. While the current ICT systems are generally fit for purpose and offer basic functionality, their stability remains in question while network performance continues to affect day to day operations.

Calls are being answered quickly with 94% of 999 emergency calls currently answered within 10 seconds in the West, with 93% in the North and 92% in the East. This compares with 92% of non-emergency 101 calls currently being answered within 40 seconds in the East and West, although only 82% in the North.  An HMICS audit of calls also showed that the majority of people who rang 999 and 101 received an effective service with service advisors capturing all relevant information with a 98% accuracy rate.

Mr Penman said: “Making direct contact with the police can be a major step for a member of the public. It is essential in maintaining public confidence in policing that all calls are effectively managed and the caller’s experience is positive. While priority calls are answered quickly and result in a prompt response from officers, I found that lower priority calls can be affected by a lack of available resources to attend incidents and weak local management of calls.

“Whilst I have been able to provide some key assurances, I have highlighted a number of weaknesses in Police Scotland’s approach to the roll out of its new national call handling model. This model is a critical element in the delivery of front line policing and a key part of the bringing together of Police Scotland post reform.

“The oversight of this project has been inadequate with key risks and other issues not being identified or highlighted to senior managers. There was an initial focus on meeting deadlines and increased productivity rather than a well-managed project with a focus on customer service, good staff relations and thorough process design.”

Areas which the report identifies as needing to be addressed include improved oversight and risk management, ensuring new IT systems meet the required specification, greater national consistency in call handling and better internal and external engagement.

There is also a need for stronger financial management, as the true financial costs and savings associated with call handling have proved difficult to determine. Savings in staff costs have been offset with increased police officer and overtime costs, and there is currently no framework in place to measure all the benefits from the project.

The need for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority to look at the way they manage significant and complex change programmes in the future is also emphasised within the report.

Although the HMICS audit of calls provided assurance over the accuracy of information being recorded on systems it also highlighted inconsistencies in the way incidents are handled. It found examples of call handlers being under pressure to end calls quickly and grading of calls being dependent on resources available.

HMICS also found that some staff noted information on scribble pads rather than inputting it directly onto the system and although staff are able to bypass key ICT systems, Police Scotland has recently introduced processes to monitor and manage this.

The report noted that in line with Police Scotland’s own staff survey and previous HMICS inspections, the pace and nature of change has affected the morale of both officers and staff working in the C3 environment.

Mr Penman said: “Staff are strongly committed, in often challenging circumstances, to providing a good service to the public. This is despite many being subject to significant uncertainties about their futures and facing constant change in their working practices.

“We identified that workforce planning needs more attention to address previous weaknesses and ensure there are enough staff in place at critical stages. Initial assumptions on staffing levels were limited and there were insufficient staff in place at Bilston Glen when work transferred from Stirling and Glenrothes. This resulted in poor call handling performance. Police Scotland has however made considerable efforts to address this, with full staffing levels now in place and the grades of service for answering calls currently being met.”

As part of the review, HMICS launched its first online survey to provide the public with the opportunity to pass on their experiences of police call handling.  A total of 3826 questionnaires were completed, 46% from members of the public, 46% by police officers and staff, 2% from elected representatives and 7% by others. It reinforced information which HMICS found during its fieldwork, visits to call centres, interviews and during focus groups. Initial feedback from the survey helped inform the key lines of the inquiry for the review.

Mr Penman added: “While I welcome the commitment and progress that has already been made by Police Scotland to address many of the issues highlighted, my report makes 30 recommendations for improvement which I expect to be addressed as a priority.”

Police Scotland will be asked to produce an action plan with timescales for delivering the recommendations. This action plan should be agreed with the Scottish Police Authority and subject to regular reporting and public scrutiny.

HMICS will review how the recommendations are being progressed and carry out a further independent, statistically significant audit of call handling once Police Scotland has implemented the next major stages of its C3 project. This will provide an assurance as to whether the new call handling model is providing a quality of service to communities across Scotland.