Best Value in policing - Joint Best Value audit of policing in Scotland

Recommendation 1: Strategic direction

2026 provides a timely opportunity to realign the strategic planning landscape and clarify priorities. Policing should:

• In the next 12 months clearly set out the overall direction and priorities for policing in the Strategic Police Plan. This plan must be outcome-focused, specific and measurable – supported by defined success measures and baseline data (see Recommendation 2) – and based on clear prioritisation shaped by stakeholder engagement.

• In the next 18 months review the status of supporting (‘enabling’) strategies and plans and refresh those still relevant to ensure they fit well together to deliver the Strategic Police Plan.

Recommendation 2: Performance management and reporting

Policing should improve performance management and reporting to clearly demonstrate progress towards the achievement of strategic outcomes (set out in the Strategic Police Plan, 2030 Vision and Forensic Strategy 2025-2030). In the next 12 months policing should establish:

• strategic success measures which are outcome-focused with clear targets and timescales to track impact and pace of change

• cost and performance baselines against which progress of the next stage of reform can be monitored and reported. Over the course of these strategies policing should monitor and report progress against all strategic outcomes (identified in Recommendation 1) in a way which supports transparency and scrutiny and helps policing demonstrate continuous improvement.

Recommendation 3: Governance

In the next 12 months the SPA should review the governance arrangements to ensure the right information is discussed in the right committee, with a view to supporting more effective scrutiny and reducing duplication of discussions.

Recommendation 4: Medium-term financial planning

In the next six months policing should complete its update of the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP), aligned to current strategic priorities and outcomes.
Over the course of the MTFP policing should keep it under review and refresh it when required.
The MTFP should support prioritisation of service delivery and demonstrate a financially sustainable model for policing. In doing so, it should clearly set out the scale of service demand, the cost pressures and the options to address these.

Recommendation 5: Workforce planning

Policing should make demonstratable progress with workforce planning. As a minimum, in the next 12 months:

• Police Scotland should update its strategic workforce plan to include the capacity and skills required to deliver its strategic outcomes and manage future service demands. Scenario planning is to be part of this.

• Forensic Services should monitor and publicly report progress against the objectives set out in its strategic workforce plan. Demand forecasting and scenario planning should be kept under review to better understand the
workforce size, capacity and skills required in the future.

• Policing should demonstrate clear alignment between workforce plans and the MTFP (Recommendation 4).

• Police Scotland should put enhanced arrangements in place to better manage workforce absence and those on modified duties so that workforce resilience and wellbeing is improved and available resources are used effectively.

Recommendation 6: Transformation

Policing should implement its transformation and estate modernisation activity at pace to deliver the next phase of police reform. In the next six months policing should:

• complete and implement the new framework for reporting on the benefits and impact of change. In doing so, it should establish timescales, costs and organisational benefits for all its transformation activity and clearly report on the impact of change

• embed effective governance and management arrangements to enable the prioritisation of improvement actions – including transformation and estate modernisation activity – across policing.

Recommendation 7: Continuous improvement

In the next six months policing should work together to establish a coordinated approach to drive continuous improvement and embed the principles of Best Value in
all it does. This must build on the self-assessment results and the recommendations made by this audit. As part of this:

• Police Scotland and Forensic Services should set out how they will use their Best Value self-assessment results to support plans for improvement.

• Policing should develop arrangements which effectively share and facilitate organisational learning and support professional development for officers and staff.