Status of all recommendations

Police Scotland should redesign its workforce planning approach requiring a set of design principles and parameters to facilitate meaningful involvement of senior staff to deliver a consistent design and planning approach.

Police Scotland should establish a clear model and plan for producing a Target Operating Model and set out a route map for its delivery through business planning and change activity.

The SPA and Police Scotland should review governance arrangements and processes, and clearly define how workforce planning decisions will be made and who will oversee their implementation.

Police Scotland should strengthen the links (at all levels in the force) of tasking and co-ordination to workforce planning, fully adopting the demand response model to demonstrate how changes in threat, risk and demand translate directly into tactical and resource decisions.

Police Scotland should develop a unified and expanded data science capability within the Demand and Productivity Unit.

The SPA and Police Scotland should progress the development of future scenarios and use them to support the production of a longer-term vision as part of the new Joint Strategy due in 2023.

Police Scotland should focus on two main areas of activity:

• Develop a strategic assessment of the workforce and a refreshed delivery plan to address the gaps and issues we have identified for consideration by the SPA (by April 2023)
• As part of that delivery plan, develop a revised methodology to deliver the next iteration of the SWP in April 2024.

Police Scotland should develop a roadmap for delivery of strategic SWP objectives and a programme for workforce change.