HMICS Annual report 2024-25

The aim of this inspection was to assess the state, efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of road policing arrangements in Scotland. The resultant inspection report is based on a comprehensive review, which involved engaging with specialist road policing officers and local policing officers across Scotland. We also met with partners and other key stakeholders. We were particularly grateful to have the assistance of charitable organisations who support vulnerable road users and people who have been affected by serious road collisions. We visited other UK police services, highlighting best practice from other areas. The report outlines key findings and we found some very positive partnership working arrangements (we were particularly impressed by the professionalism and commitment of the road policing officers we engaged with). Our recommendations are intended to strengthen the partnership approach to road safety and road crime, so that Scotland’s roads are made safer.

The aim of this inspection was to assess the state, efficiency and effectiveness of the police response to missing persons in Scotland. This comprehensive review involved engaging widely with police and partners through interviews, focus groups and onsite visits. Further inspection activity included a review of calls made to police service centres and an audit of the national missing persons application used by police to record incidents and guide investigations. Our key findings highlight the very positive police practice found during our inspection and our recommendations are intended to contribute to the ongoing efforts of police and partners to achieve better outcomes for missing people and their families.

The aim of this strategic review was to assess the state, efficiency and effectiveness of the SPA in fulfilling its core role and meeting its statutory obligations, based on a self-evaluation conducted by the SPA. These obligations are to:

• maintain the Police Service
• promote the policing principles
• promote and support continuous improvement in the policing of Scotland
• keep under review the policing of Scotland
• hold the Chief Constable to account for the policing of Scotland.

In developing HMICS’s scrutiny plan in 2022, we committed to engaging with those working on the frontline to better understand the experience of officers and staff who directly provide service to our communities. This was intended to be a short, sharp focus where the voice of the frontline could be heard directly; a ‘frontline focus.’ This intention formed the basis of our inspection design, which focused on engaging with those on the frontline (across different geographical and business areas) who deliver services to the public, 24/7, 365 days a year. During our inspection, it became clear from conversations with officers and staff that a light touch approach was not sufficient, and that we needed to do more to reflect their views. As a result, this report maintains the focus on the frontline, but in more depth than initially intended.

Since the publication of the last annual report, work has progressed at pace on joint scrutiny of adult support and protection (ASP) services. These joint inspections, led by the Care Inspectorate in collaboration with HMICS and Healthcare Improvement Scotland, form part of a national inspection programme that seeks to focus on whether adults at risk of harm within a specific geographic partnership area are safe, protected and supported. This culminated in the production of an overview report, which was published in August 2023. This report provides a national baseline of how effectively partnerships are ensuring that adults at risk of harm are safe, supported and protected.

The overview report also provides the platform for a second phase of the programme, which began in August 2023 and is expected to be completed in July 2025. This phase has identified four priority areas of focus for the joint scrutiny team, as follows.

• Year 1 - Revisit those partnerships that were previously inspected in 2017-18. This will provide an updated national picture of the partnerships inspected during that initial phase and allow for an assessment of whether progress and improvements have been made during the interim period.
• Year 1 - Working with scrutiny partners and ASP partnerships, develop a Quality Improvement Framework (QIF) that will support an improved and more consistent national approach to self-evaluation across a number of key areas relating to adults at risk of harm.
• Year 2 - Review of improvement plan progress in those partnerships where areas for improvement identified during the initial inspection outweighed strengths.
• Year 2 - This workstream, which has been led by HMICS and supported by scrutiny partners, is working with voluntary partnership areas (and using the newly developed QIF) to explore and evaluate the delivery of early interventions and preventative approaches within ASP arrangements through a supported self-evaluation approach. We will consider the impact of these key tenets, and the associated overlay of trauma-informed approaches, to understand how service delivery influences outcomes for adults at risk of harm.
• A report will be completed in August 2025 for consideration by government, stakeholders and scrutiny partners as to the future progress of inspection of ASP.

HMICS has continued to work with the Care Inspectorate, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and Education Scotland, completing three inspections over the past year.

The remit of these joint inspections is to consider the effectiveness of services for children and young people up to the age of 18 who are at risk of harm. The inspections look at the difference community planning partnerships (statutory partnerships including local authorities, health, policing and other service delivery bodies) are making to the lives of children and young people at risk of harm, and their families.

As per previous years, the inspections cover specific geographical areas and perform a key role in supporting services for children and young people. The partnership areas inspected in the current reporting period are published on the Care Inspectorate website.

In addition to the geographical inspection work, the Scottish Government requested that the Care Inspectorate lead a strategic review, supported by HMICS and other scrutiny partners, of the experiences of children and young people living in cross-border placements (i.e., placed in residential care settings in Scotland from other UK jurisdictions). HMICS supported this strategic review by engaging with key police partners to report on the impact of cross-border placements. It this report was published on the Care Inspectorate website.

HMICS and Healthcare Improvement Scotland conducted a baseline assessment of healthcare in custody in 2022/23. Following the publication of this report, agreement to fund and implement a scrutiny programme delivered by both agencies was sought and agreed.

We found from our initial assessment there was a concerning lack of service in some custody centres. This is concerning and leads in some places to a basic service, where those brought into custody are simply delivered safely to the exit door of a police station or the court. Such low levels of service do not meet the needs of many of those who are brought into custody, and the opportunity to deliver service, or referral for service, to the large number of people with mental health or substance abuse challenges must be taken.

We fully support such a preventative approach and, as a result, our inspections will be shared with Community Justice Scotland at an early stage, to ensure that there is an understanding of the pathways and mechanisms in place in local areas to support the most vulnerable on release from custody.

It is our intention to conduct a review of the findings from the existing reports during 2025 and use this to attempt to influence improvement through sharing the lessons learned across the Police Scotland custody estate and with all service providers of healthcare in the police custody arena.