MPS corporate governance framework update

Report: 10
Date: 8 December 2008
By: Director of Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report provides a progress report on the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) corporate governance work programme. It includes updates on the areas identified by the MPS Annual Assurance Statement that enhance the MPS’ governance arrangements, on the work programme itself, and incorporates the Corporate Risk Management update.

A. Recommendation

That the Committee notes the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

Current Corporate Governance arrangements

1. The MPS continues its drive to achieve excellence in corporate governance. As such an established ‘Temple’ model of corporate governance, approved by Management Board (see Appendix 1) reflects current good practice.

2. The results of a gap analysis of the MPS Corporate Governance Framework against the elements of the CIPFA / SOLACE Good Governance Framework informed the development of the corporate governance work programme. This work programme is managed and monitored through the MPS Corporate Governance Coordination Group with regular progress updates to the Performance Board and this Committee.

Summary

3. The MPS continues to use the ‘temple’ model of corporate governance set out in Appendix 1. This model is supported by the corporate governance work programme, which consists of the following workstreams. The current status of each workstream is provided below with more detail set out in section D of this report.

Progress update

Public engagement and consultation

4. Following the September update to Committee, PAS survey questions are now active, with 5,000 responses anticipated in quarter 3 (October to December 2008 inclusive). These read as Q135 a) ‘What would you say are the top three things that the police should be dealing with across London?’ and Q135 b) ‘What would you like the police to do about these issues?

5. The MPA/MPS online public consultation, conducted from October to 1st December 2008, has already attracted a higher number of respondents than previous years’ consultations (639 as of 15 November 2008).

6. The MPA has advertised the consultation process in the London press and in each borough’s Local Policing Summary. A wide variety of individuals and organisations have been directly invited to take part, including a large number of youth contacts established through the MPA youth scrutiny. Plans for future consultation processes include focus groups and consultation ‘road shows’.

Safer Neighbourhoods Panel training & business/youth engagement

7. The pilot stage of the Safer Neighbourhoods Panel training is now complete and agreement has been reached between the MPA/MPS and Safer London Foundation (SLF) to roll out the training over the next two years. An SLF Project Manager is planning and rolling out the training, which is being delivered in the Central London Training Unit by police trainers experienced in delivering neighbourhood-policing training. Feedback has been very positive on the delivery of ‘Part 1’ training with over 15 seminars conducted to date.

Business (Retail) Engagement

8. The Business (Retail) Engagement Pilot on eight Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) remains on track. A project meeting on the 27 November 2008 will be held where the results of the Business Key Individual Network survey will help to develop a Business Engagement 'Tool Kit'.

9. Following the September update, the Joint MPS/City of London Police project is underway and working with London First, business lobby groups, individual businesses and the NPIA. It is due to identify the key activities that enable success and is an opportunity to test new ways of working. Professor Martin Innis (Cardiff University) is currently conducting surveys and questionnaires with key businesses in the three locations. These results will determine the type of activity to be undertaken. The project group is to report findings in September 2009.

10. The initiative to develop Youth engagement through an on-line survey and Safer Neighbourhoods (SN) Panels is now in place with over 5000 replies received. In addition to the 630 SN panels there are currently 131 Youth Panels set up across London. These panels are required to have a priority identified through youth engagement work. The current top priorities are: ASB by youths; ASB in general; drug dealing and using; ASB by motorists; ASB related to alcohol.

11. The Safer Neighbourhood Youth survey for 2009 is now being prepared and will be made available to as wide an audience of young people across London as possible, to ensure that the views, concerns and ideas are captured and fed back to a local BOCU level.

12. Safer School Partnership Police Officers will be working in partnership with their School to set up Key Individual Networks (KINs). Each officer will also develop a School Panel, similar to a Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel but specific to the individual school, where key partners and, most importantly, students are able to discuss and set policing priorities and issues relevant to that school. 27 Schools across London are engaged in a pilot of the London Youth Crime Prevention Board’s Safer Schools Award. One of the key principles of this award is "promote positive contribution by pupils". It is envisaged that this award will be rolled out across every school in London following evaluation of the pilot scheme.

Introduction of a Strategy Co-ordination Role

13. The Strategy Development Team continues to enhance the process to link strategic analysis to planning and finance. To that end both Strategic Finance and Business Planning are represented on the CSA steering group and an initial draft of the Corporate Strategic Assessment (CSA) for 2010/11 has been produced which will help inform MPS priorities for 2010/11.

14. In continuation of the drive to link with other strategic processes, the MIB Strategic Intelligence Assessment is being produced in parallel to the CSA, with direct cooperation at senior and practitioner level, with the CSA team advising on presentation of the SIA to Performance Board.

15. A report focusing on the Thames Gateway covering the Olympics legacy to the Thames Gateway Programme Board (TGPB) will follow the London Landscape Report and will help inform all strategic decision-making in the service. The aim is to have this report ready for the start of the 2009 calendar year.

Implementation of the Taylor Reforms

16. A corporate news item will be published on the 1 December 2008 to announce the launch of the new Taylor website and Taylor Reforms ‘Go live’ throughout the Police Service.

17. The training programme has now been delivered and all OCUs have appointed a minimum of three trained police officers as ‘Professional Standards Champions (PSCs)’ to administer local misconduct and unsatisfactory performance procedures as part of the new reforms. All DPS Borough Support Unit staff, the DPS Customer Service Team and HR Practice Team Managers have been trained in the new procedures and are familiar with the new internal processes to assist all B/OCUs with the transitional arrangements.

18. The B/OCU Professional Standards Model has been promoted to all the TP Borough Commanders and early indications show that many will adopt this new way of working within their Borough. This has provided the B/OCUs an opportunity to think more widely about the manner in which professional standards are dealt with at the local level, linking closely with the Citizen Focus Agenda. This will include areas such as Transforming HR, engaging in a new service recovery process, safer driving and civil actions.

19. The Taylor Post Project Review will be undertaken in the new year to help assist the Taylor Project Board in ensuring the Taylor Benefits Realisation Plan has been implemented, together with a robust Performance Management Framework. Taylor Project Boards, chaired by DCS Hamish Campbell (DPS), will continue to be held on a monthly basis for the foreseeable future to monitor quality and performance issues arising from Taylor implementation.

Review of corporate risk management

Risk Management Strategy

20. The Risk Management Strategy has been approved by the MPS and is currently being submitted to MPA CGC for approval.

Corporate Risks

21. The MPS has agreed a risk profile and heat map, with Management Board lead accountabilities defined. Business groups will progress the analysis necessary to ensure proportionate control action.

Risk Management Governance

22. The Service Improvement Board (SIB), which has cross business group representation, has taken over the responsibilities of the Corporate Risk Review Group. This will be underpinned by Business Group Risk Co-ordinators (BGRCs), who will be key in embedding risk management in their areas. BGRCs meet regularly in a forum chaired by the S&ID Corporate Risk Manager to ensure that a corporate approach is adopted and to exchange good practice.

Risk Management Continuous Improvement

23. The Corporate Risk Manager continues to refine risk management processes and progress their integration within strategic decision making, business planning and performance management, within both S&ID and the MPS in general.

24. An Implementation Plan, fed by previous audits, is being progressed (details within the Risk Management Strategy Paper). Some key areas to be developed are:

• Support and co-ordination mechanisms for the work on corporate risks (utilising existing structures as much as possible)
• The Corporate Risk Register
• A Maturity Model and associated QA mechanisms
• Establishing support needs for practitioners at all levels and mechanisms to address them.

Formation of MetLaw reception desk

25. Following the September update and the launch of MetLaw desk, a platform for DLS to monitor the legal spend on behalf of the MPS, DLS are presently working with other MPS Directorates to finalise working arrangements and policies and procedures. Authorised users within Procurement and Property Services have received MetLaw direct training enabling them to use the purchase order facility themselves.

Emerging Market Hotspots

26. Three separate market indicators have been obtained covering technology and information roles - findings are being compiled for review by Information Board in December. DoI is to participate in a further salary survey, from which market information will be supplied in November.

27. A wider range of market information has been identified, but the current state of the market in certain regions and sectors across the UK is beginning to have an impact on market rates and salary expectations. Some more careful analysis of trends by sector will be required to ensure we do not lag the market and are in a position to benefit from any changes in market rates in the employer’s favour.

Development of corporate health organisational performance indicators

28. The Q1 (April-June) 2008-09 report presented at September Performance Board contained performance information on 15 quarterly and 4 annual headline indicators. In addition 10 further indicators were identified by exception from the full set and were reported with commentary by exception.

29. Data is presently being collected to inform the Corporate Health Indicator Q2 (July-September) 2008-09 report. The deferred report will be presented to the 15 December Performance Board meeting. The Q3 (October-December) 2008-09 report will be presented to performance Board on 27 January 2009.

30. To ensure that the Corporate Health Indicator set is effective in providing Performance Board with relevant and useful information, and that this aligns with the broader performance framework, a review of the current set will take place during January and February 2009. It is anticipated that this will lead to a refinement of both the indicators and the report from April 2009.

Developing Resource Management Programme

31. The DRM Programme was launched in July 2008, specifically focused on delivering efficient, controlled projects primarily in the areas of Finance, Procurement, Property and Strategy and Improvement. The purpose of the programme is to embed a rigorous set of control processes that will provide the foundation for the delivery of projects on time and the monitoring of benefits from those projects.

The programme workstreams have progressed as follows:

32. Contract Compliance and Management (CCM) – Baselining of existing contracts has been completed and is currently being quality assured. These have been prioritised in order of strategic and financial value to enable a sequenced loading onto the corporate system (SAP) in line with the January 2009 completion date. For sustainability, the new Contract Management process is being finalised following an assessment of current and future requirements. The process is due for completion in December 2008.

33. Finance & Resources (F&R) Review – the location of the links sites were announced in October 2008, with work now progressing with Property Services to determine a suitable timeframe for implementation. Workshops will take place during November 2008 to develop future Service Level Agreements for this.

34. Corporate Decision Making (CDM) –A paper proposing the CDM solution and implementation plan will be submitted to Management Board for approval in January 2009. This project involves developing the decision support system and processes to provide Management Board with improved information and analysis.

35. Purchase to Pay (P2P) – Current routes to purchase transactions are being baselined during November 2008. Work will be coordinated with the Category Management Team to create efficiencies and begin piloting the compliance process for P2P.

36. Scheme of Delegation (SoD) – On the 6 October the interim solution for SoD went live implementing eight approval levels across APEX (full) and EBP (first two levels only). The full solution is due to go live in Q2 2009 dependent on the progress of the SAP Upgrade.

37. MPS Partnership Framework – The DRM Partnership Workstream has been undergoing review with the revised Statement of Work to be delivered in November 2008. Work has been coordinated with the parallel Partnership work being undertaken by Territorial Policing to deliver a service approach to LAA Partnerships.

38. Strategic Procurement Planning (SPP) – SPP was launched in October 2008 to establish and embed a rigorous planning process for Strategic Procurement. This initiative is seen as key to support Business Groups in planning the achievement of their proposed savings for 2009 and beyond.

Corporate Audit and Inspection Strategy

39. A protocol for working with audit and inspection services has been developed and agreed in consultation with the HMIC, MPA Internal Audit and Audit Commission. The Protocol is supported by internal guidance for practitioners and a communication strategy.

40. The protocol has now been published on the MPS intranet and will be disseminated through meetings with practitioners. It has been deposited in the MPA Reference Library.

Enhanced MPA/MPS Fraud and Corruption Awareness Strategy

41. Work is ongoing on developing a joint MPA/MPS framework for improving the awareness of fraud and corruption issues across the Service. An Audit Commission toolkit is being prepared which includes the use of a tailored online self-assessment questionnaire, workshops and follow up sessions. Also, existing learning vehicles will be used to cascade training, including the development of a module within the leadership training events.

42. Phase One of the process is intended to target the most senior levels within the MPS and will include senior finance and resources staff. Timescales for this phase are in development.

MPS Complaints and Compliments (policy and resource)

43. Following September’s update, the Citizen Focus Policing Programme established the MPS Customer Service Unit (CSU) in October 2008 to co-ordinate the progress and resolution of all service related complaints. The CSU now deals with service related complaints received via both the DPS and Your Voice Counts internet reporting facilities.

44. The MPS Policing Pledge/Promise will be published in January 2009 and it will direct members of the public to contact the CSU either directly by telephone or via the Your Voice Counts facility if they feel the MPS has not met its promised service standards.

45. In partnership with the Directorate of Information, the Citizen Focus Programme has developed a Reward and Resolution Database for recording all service related complaints and compliments; the database is currently being tested within the CSU. In January 2009 the database will be made available across the MPS with guidance notes on the service related complaints process. This will enable the capture of information relating to all service related complaints, including those received directly at Borough.

46. Service related complaints data will be analysed to monitor compliance with the standards of service defined in the MPS Policing Pledge/Promise and to identify common themes, trends and opportunities for organisational learning and service improvement.

Review of expenses policy

47. A further revision to the draft Gifts & Corporate Hospitality Policy and Standard Operating Policy is to be considered by the HR Board in November 2008 before submission to Management Board.

48. A review of all current policy and processes covering expenses in terms of formal procurement, local procurement, corporate credit cards, overseas travel and minor cash expenses incurred is currently being undertaken by HR Pay & Benefits. This will require consultation during November with policy–owning Directorates in order to identify concerns and impacts across the wider organisation.

C. Race and equality impact

The model of corporate governance set out in this report is based on the principles of openness; integrity; accountability and equality. The development of the framework should have a positive race and diversity impact by ensuring that these principles inform the way in which the MPS operates. Further, improved communication of the corporate governance framework aims to help staff understand how to apply these principles in their day-to-day work.

D. Financial implications

The work streams identified will be delivered within approved budgets.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Raphaella Hamilton-Appiah, Sandy Manuel and Paul Clarke, S&ID, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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