This assurance review has been directed by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice following the tragic incident involving the deaths of John Yuill and Lamara Bell.
It sits alongside the independent investigation directed by the Lord Advocate and being conducted by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) into that specific incident. It should be noted that HMICS has not investigated the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident and does not offer any specific comment on why a telephone call made to Police Scotland on Sunday 5 July 2015, which reported their car was off the road, was not followed up.
These are matters exclusively within the scope of the PIRC inquiry and will be covered in detail within her final report to the Lord Advocate.
What our review provides is a wider independent assurance of the operation, systems and processes in place within police Contact, Command and Control (C3) centres across Scotland.
The background to this review, the objectives and methodology are outlined within the Terms of Reference, which were published on 22 July 2015. An Interim Report, published in September, provided an update on the progress of the review, including a summary of our activities, emerging findings and key areas of interest where further assurance would be sought. At that time, we made one interim recommendation to Police Scotland on the future direction of police Contact, Command and Control centres across Scotland.
The Cabinet Secretary for Justice clearly set out expectations of the areas to be reviewed by HMICS, namely:
- the capacity of the systems and the human resource available within the control centres to manage, receive, answer and prioritise calls;
- the capability of the systems and the suitability of the training provided to those who manage, receive, answer and prioritise calls; and
- the process within the control room to ensure that all calls are handled and dispatched appropriately.
We sought to meet these expectations by objectively assessing the state, efficiency and effectiveness of the processes for call handling within Police Scotland. Our terms of reference also set out that we will examine the underpinning elements of leadership and governance, planning and process, resourcing, training and performance in order to assess daily business, the impact of restructuring to date and the wider change programme.
This is our final report which details our methodology and approach, explains the call handling process and outlines our key findings, conclusions and recommendations for improvement.
As part of the review, HMICS launched its first online questionnaire and its Topline Results can be found below
HMICS acknowledges that this review is being undertaken whilst Police Scotland continues to pursue reform on a national level. The complexity and challenge of such change is recognised.
Number | Recommendation |
|---|---|
1 | Police Scotland should commission further work to identify and reduce failure demand. This should include marketing and public communication around appropriate use of 999 and 101 numbers, targeting high volume callers and working across all Police Scotland divisions and with external partners to reduce demand and improve performance. |
2 | Police Scotland should review and identify any learning around 999 call performance that can be taken forward into the planning and governance of Stages 5, 6 and 7 of the C3IR project. This should include continued proactive engagement with BT to monitor 999 performance immediately prior to and during the implementation of these critical stages. |
3 | Police Scotland should develop a balanced performance management framework for C3 Division which aligns to both organisational and divisional strategic objectives. This should include qualitative, cost and outcome measures. |
4 | Police Scotland should review and standardise its C3 complaint handling processes as part of Stages 5 and 6 of the C3IR project. This should promote the consistent recording of quality of service issues and focus on identifying learning and improvement. |
5 | Police Scotland should consolidate and stabilise its staffing, systems, procedures and processes in both the East and West service centres and area control rooms. While this is being progressed, detailed planning for the previously agreed end-state model should continue, with consideration given to accelerating the recruitment of staff and early commissioning of the North Area Control Room in Dundee. |
6 | Police Scotland should articulate a clear vision for its Contact, Command and Control (C3) service and develop an overall strategy for customer contact. This should involve engagement with communities and key stakeholders and lead to the publication of standards of service. |
7 | Police Scotland should appoint an experienced and qualified programme manager with immediate effect to manage the remaining stages of the C3IR project. It should also ensure that key project board members are appropriately trained and experienced. |
8 | Police Scotland should continue development of its Contact, Command and Control (C3) leadership and governance arrangements in order to ensure clear delineation and accountability between the C3IR project and ‘business as usual’. |
9 | Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority should urgently review and strengthen their overall approach to programme governance and establish transparent processes for commissioning independent quality assurance reviews for critical stages of all major projects. This should initially focus on improved governance and scrutiny over the C3IR project and independent quality assurance over Stages 5, 6 and 7. |
10 | Police Scotland should continue to review its risk management process within C3 Division including a review of existing C3IR project and corporate risks. This should also include the development of a separate ‘business as usual’ risk register. |
11 | Police Scotland should strengthen its commitment towards programme and project management and the management of cultural change. It should mainstream its improvement approach into existing project and ‘business as usual’ planning and review its use of Gold Groups. |
12 | Police Scotland should develop a workforce planning model which supports the C3 strategic vision and provides an evidence based assessment of required staffing levels. |
13 | Police Scotland should review the use of staff at the Information Resources Unit for call handling to ensure that effective support and training are in place to maintain skills, awareness and understanding. |
14 | Police Scotland should develop a training strategy for C3 Division which is supported by an appropriately skilled and resourced single national training unit. |
15 | Police Scotland should further develop its approach to communication and engagement for the C3IR project and include this as a specific workstream with key deliverables within its implementation plans for Stages 5, 6 and 7. |
16 | Police Scotland should review the use of ad hoc ‘scribble pads’ by service advisors within C3 Division and provide definitive guidance on their use, issue and proportionate supervision. |
17 | Police Scotland should ensure that the new suite of integrated technologies procured under Stage 7 of the C3IR project includes a detailed independently assured specification which supports streamlined national processes, improves compliance and reduces the risk of staff bypassing critical systems. These new systems must also support robust quality assurance processes and audit. |
18 | Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority should implement strengthened ICT governance and independent quality assurance reviews for key deliverables within Stages 5, 6 and 7 of the C3IR project. |
19 | Police Scotland should engage with the Scottish Government, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service to explore the feasibility and joint development of a bespoke emergency services address gazetteer for Scotland. |
20 | Police Scotland should implement a robust information audit approach which should include an immediate review of data quality and information security. Functionality and accuracy of the gazetteer and internal directory should be addressed as a priority. |
21 | Police Scotland should continue to progress the development of a single suite of business continuity plans for C3 Division, replacing remaining legacy site plans. |
22 | Police Scotland should improve financial management and reporting for the C3IR project. The Scottish Police Authority should consider the level of scrutiny and due diligence applied to change project budgets and projected financial benefits. Identification of explicit savings against project costs (both revenue and capital) should be regularly monitored as part of business case review and overall benefits reporting. |
23 | Police Scotland should define and document its key processes within C3 Division and update its standard operating procedures. This should be supported with immediate investment in process training and guidance for all existing and new staff. |
24 | Police Scotland should adopt a more formalised risk and vulnerability assessment model for service advisors, reflecting this in both general and specialised awareness training. |
25 | Police Scotland should establish a Quality Assurance Framework as soon as possible. This should include regular call audits undertaken by the Quality Assurance Unit and the results shared with the Scottish Police Authority and local policing scrutiny committees. |
26 | Police Scotland should promote an improvement culture where staff are encouraged to report adverse incidents or ‘near misses’ and introduce processes as soon as possible where these can be recorded, assessed and any improvement identified and implemented. |
27 | Police Scotland should ensure there is a clear and consistent vision for the role, responsibilities and resourcing of Public Assistance Desks. |
28 | Police Scotland should ensure that any changes impacting on the Service Overview function are fully risk assessed and included with the appropriate governance for Stages 5 and 6 of the C3IR project. |
29 | Police Scotland should include a specific workstream within its Stage 5 and 6 plans of the C3IR project to co-ordinate the collation and transfer of all major incident plans onto a single system and embed processes for their ongoing management. This should also include training for staff in their use. |
30 | Police Scotland should ensure there is a clear and consistent vision for the role, responsibilities and resourcing of the National Systems Support function. |