Status of all recommendations

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.

The SPA and Police Scotland should put in place measures to monitor progress against the areas for development outlined in this assurance review, ensuring regular reporting at the SPA People Committee to allow assessment of progress.

Police Scotland should develop a demand framework and delivery plan as soon as possible to include the implementation of a structured engagement model to support the effective analysis and interpretation of demand information.

Police Scotland should integrate the development of the annual demand baseline product with the force strategic assessment to ensure a more strategic focus, consistency of approach and address areas where demand information is currently lacking.

Police Scotland should develop a cohesive approach to failure demand as part of a corporate continuous improvement and organisational learning framework.

Police Scotland should further build on the approach to capturing the standards, assumptions, caveats and quality issues around demand information (both source systems and data repository) and ensure increased transparency around these in designing and delivering analytical products.