MPS citizen focus policing programme brief

Report: 9
Date: 28 September 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This Programme Brief outlines the contribution of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Citizen Focus Policing Programme to achieving the MPS mission of Working Together for a Safer London.

The MPS Citizen Focus Policing Programme brings together activity from across the organisation to drive the delivery of high quality policing services meeting the needs of citizens as well as the needs of the service.

This document has been developed based on the MPS Corporate Strategy 2006 - 2009. The Programme is based on five work strands, the origins of which may be found in the Government White Paper ‘Building Communities, Beating Crime: A better police service for the 21st century’.

The programme has been running for a little over one year in which time satisfaction levels in the MPS have risen by over 10% - the largest increase anywhere in the country.

A. Recommendation

That members note the contents of this report.

B. Supporting information

1. On the 29 September 2005, the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) agreed the draft MPS Corporate Strategy 2006-2009, one of the priorities of which is the delivery of a more Citizen Focused service.

2. The inclusion of Citizen Focused Policing in the MPS Corporate Strategy reflects the importance the MPS attaches to this way of working. It also demonstrates a commitment to meeting one of the five key priorities from the 2005 – 08 National Policing Plan; ‘to provide a citizen-focused police service which responds to the needs of communities and individuals, especially victims and witnesses, and inspires public confidence in the police, particularly among minority ethnic communities’.

Aims of the programme

3. The MPS Citizen Focus Policing Programme enables the Metropolitan Police Service to deliver its long-term strategic aims of:

• Improved service delivery and responsiveness, leading to raised levels of satisfaction, confidence and feelings of security, resulting in increased operational effectiveness.
• Culture change that embeds citizen focus principles into MPS practices and processes.
• Implementation of the quality of service commitment.
• Increased public involvement in policing.

4. The delivery of the these outcomes is reflected in improvements in MPS scores in the Citizen Focus domain of the Police Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) and is monitored through direct reporting to the MPS Performance Board chaired by the Deputy Commissioner. A description of the Citizen Focus PPAF domain and MPS performance for 2004/05 and 2005/06 may be found at Appendix 1.

Business need

5. The ability of the MPS to respond to major incidents such as terrorism and large-scale public safety commitments is second to none. However its ability to provide a high quality service in everyday policing activity on a regular basis presents a significant challenge, given the issues of volume and complexity in policing London.

6. The MPS has signalled its intention to improve the quality of the services it delivers; the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner have made public their personal commitment to wrap these services around the citizen. The MPS Citizen Focus Policing programme is about improving the way the MPS understands, communicates with and engages with its communities, whether as direct users of services or as members of the wider public. It is a way of working that puts the requirements of citizens at the heart of decision-making and is integral to everything the MPS does.

7. The practical effect of taking a citizen focused approach to policing is that:

• Citizens have access to the MPS and its services through a variety of means that are designed around the service user.
• The views of citizens genuinely influence the development and delivery of policing services and feedback is both given and acted upon.
• The MPS responds quickly and flexibly to questions about any aspect of its services and develops an understanding of the requirements of its citizens to the extent that the MPS anticipates the questions and provides the answers before the question is even asked
• All members of the MPS consider it core business to honour the commitments they make to citizens.

8. The benefits of moving further towards an approach to policing that is citizen focused include greater participation in the criminal justice system – leading to more support from victims and witnesses throughout the process resulting in more offences being brought to justice. Other benefits that will accrue through greater public involvement in policing include increases in the level and quality of community intelligence provided to the police. This community intelligence is vital if the MPS is to tackle the crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour that effect communities so badly, as well as providing the key to unlock the most serious crimes including terrorism and the harm caused by the activities of organised criminal networks.

Programme scope

9. The programme is structured to deliver the strategic aims through five strands of activity:

Improving the user experience

10. Positive personal experiences of contact with the police are a key predictor of overall confidence in policing. As 44% of the public have contact with the police in any year, ensuring that contact is a positive experience is the single most important way to improve overall levels of confidence and satisfaction.

11. Concentration on victims of crime is a key priority as is providing appropriate levels of support to witnesses, especially vulnerable and intimidated witnesses.

12. An important component of this strand is the development and delivery of the MPS Quality of Service Commitment. This work is shaped around a set of national minimum standards for quality, accessibility and responsiveness that must be in place for all forces by 1 November 2006.

13. The MPS Quality of Service Commitment sets out 81 specific commitments to the public with respect to:

• Making it easy to contact the MPS.
• Providing a professional and high quality service.
• Dealing with the initial contact.
• Keeping the public informed about their anti-social behaviour call.
• Ensuring the public voice counts.
• The code of practice for victims of crime.
• Other service commitments.
  • Dealing with request under the Freedom of information Act
  • Dealing with request under the Data Protection Act
  • Dealing with complaints against police

Neighbourhood policing

14. This work area reflects the need for local service provision to respond to the particular concerns of local communities.

15. The critical starting point is having dedicated teams of police officers and community support officers, working in concert with volunteers and other members of the extended police family to provide a visible and accessible presence in communities.

16. The Territorial Policing Safer Neighbourhoods Programme is undertaking this work. The MPS Citizen Focus Programme Board ensures that the momentum of the existing Safer Neighbourhoods work is maintained whilst at the same time providing stronger links with other elements of the Citizen Focus programme of work, such as improving engagement.

Improving engagement

18. Much of this programme focuses on understanding local needs, wishes and priorities. For the MPS, OCUs and Safer Neighbourhood teams to fully understand their public's needs, there is a need to be clear about the make-up of the communities they serve, develop the means to engage with them effectively and maintain an ongoing dialogue.

19. This objective will be delivered through a work strand on Engagement that addresses how the MPS can better understand the needs and priorities of our diverse communities, and, working with them, make services more responsive. The cornerstone of this strand is the development of an engagement strategy, jointly with the MPA, which provides overall direction to both organisations when undertaking community engagement activity.

20. Examples or work being undertaken within this strand include; the establishment of a central infrastructure to support engagement activity across the MPS, the development of a corporate database that allows the sharing of good practice and public consultation to support the development of policing priorities for 2007/08.

Public understanding and local accountability

21. The MORI Criminal Justice Confidence survey shows a link between levels of familiarity with an organisation and overall levels of confidence in that organisation. Overall satisfaction levels can be influenced through the management of public expectations, as well as improvements in service delivery. The purpose of this strand is to develop the opportunities for improving satisfaction and confidence by improving public understanding and accountability mechanisms at local level.

22. An example of work in this area is the production of a Local Policing Summary for every household in London. These summaries are a legal requirement and joint MPA/MPS activity will ensure they provide a mechanism through which people can better understand policing activity in their area.

Organisational and cultural change

23. This is an enabling strand of work that underpins delivery of the previous four. The delivery of citizen-focused services requires both cultural and behavioural change amongst people in parallel with changes to policies, business processes and working practices. The work strand on organisational and cultural change addresses both and includes issues of leadership, training, reward and recognition, performance management, partnership, business processes and staff engagement.

24. The Together approach being developed within the MPS is an important delivery mechanism for many of the objectives within this work strand as is the development of a range of HR practices and processes, and the other strands of the Met Modernisation Programme, into which all this work will feed.

25. Examples of the work being undertaken within this strand include; the inclusion of Community and Customer Focus in the Personal Development Reviews (PDRs) of all staff from April 2006, supported by the development of recruitment, selection and promotion processes that also highlight the importance of citizen focus.

The programme approach

26. The approach of the programme is to ensure that Citizen Focus principles are embedded into organisational practices and processes. To achieve this aim it is essential that developmental work, including the associated revision of policies and procedures, is undertaken within and owned by the relevant MPS Business Group.

27. A small central team of eight (7.5 Full Time Equivalent), working to the Programme Director, supports the MPS Business Groups and is responsible for:

• Co-ordinating activity across the programme to;
  • Prevent duplication of effort.
  • Ensure there are no gaps in scope of the programme.
  • Provide assurance to the Programme Board that Citizen Focus activity is joined up with other major change programmes.
  • Ensuring that work packages approved by the Programme Board are undertaken to agreed specifications, for example in terms of quality and timescale.
• Acting as a single point of contact for the MPS both internally and externally.
• Supporting staff within Business Groups who are engaged on work in connection with the programme.
• Identifying and disseminating good practice both internally and externally.
• Ensuring the work strands of the programme is co-ordinated with other major change activities, e.g. Together, C3i, MetCall and the MPS Equalities Strategy.

The relationship with the modernisation the Met programme

28. The Modernising Met Programme (MMP) draws together the priorities in the Corporate Strategy, the key proposals from the Service Review and other major change projects including the Citizen Focus Policing Programme.

29. The programme enables the MPS to provide better services by improving its ability to act as one organisation that has the needs of citizens at its centre. The Modernising the Met Programme provides the corporate mechanism through which the MPS is able to achieve the outcomes described in the Corporate Strategy.

30. As a key strand of the Modernising Met Programme, the Citizen Focus Policing Programme benefits from the support infrastructure put in place by the MMP this includes access to the services of staff and the strategic documents of the other change programmes.

31. The Citizen Focus Policing Programme Director is a member of the Modernising Met Programme Delivery Board and as such provides the strategic link between the programmes.

Outline programme benefits

32. The benefits have been grouped under four high level headings: increased effectiveness, increased efficiency, enhanced organisational capability and improved public satisfaction.

Increased effectiveness

33. This includes improving performance and improving the quality of service. This will be delivered by projects such as: Safer Neighbourhoods, MetCall and Operation Emerald, all key components of the quality of Service Commitment.

Increased efficiency

34. This includes the development of a right first time culture, reducing the investment in organisational time and resources required to correct mistakes and investigate service failure.

Enhanced organisational capability

35. This includes improving team working and leadership, improving staff satisfaction, increasing the diversity of the workforce and improving partnership working.

Improved public satisfaction

36. This includes increasing engagement with the public, improving access to police services and increasing public reassurance and confidence in our ability to deliver. All of which are elements of the PPAF Citizen Focus domain and the HMIC Baseline Assessment.

Programme organisation

Governance roles and responsibilities

37. Effective decision-making, communication and the timely resolution of issues are critical to the success of this programme. Communication links to the MPA have been structured to align with the Co-ordination and Policing Committee and a governance structure has been created that describes how the programme governance will integrate with the Met Modernisation Programme, Management Board and the MPA.

38. The key roles of the Citizen Focus Policing Programme are as follows:

• Senior Responsible Owner: Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson
• Programme Director: Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rose Fitzpatrick
• Programme Manager: Chief Superintendent Ian Harrison
• Programme Board: Programme Board has Member and Officer representation from the MPA and senior representation from all MPS Business Groups.

Progress to date

39. Over the past year MPS in the Citizen Focus domain of the PPAF performance has improved significantly with a rise in overall satisfaction of 10.8% - the highest rise in the country. A most encouraging feature is that 92% of people surveyed were satisfied with the way in which they were treated by police officers and staff. The key programme outcomes to date include:

• The production of the MPS Quality of Service Commitment.
• The production of a joint MPA/MPS Community Engagement Strategy.
• The inclusion of Community and Customer Focus as a mandatory behaviour in the PDR of every member of staff from April 2006.
• Full Council membership of the Institute of Customer Service (the first Police service to become so).
• The development of a segmentation tool that categorises every role in the MPS according to the level of public contact it has. The tool will be used to target the delivery of citizen focus objectives and key messages, including the sharing of good practice. The tool will also enable the identification of those priority roles and functions requiring training and development in service delivery.
• New minimum standards for engagement that provide guidance for any member of staff undertaking an engagement process. The standards concern important issues, for example, a requirement to state how participant comments will be used, how feedback will be provided and a requirement to record how participant comments have influenced decision-making.
• A toolkit to support all members of staff when undertaking engagement activities.
• Training for trainers at the Leadership Academy to enable them to include Citizen Focus in all of their training activities.
• Working with Together to ensure the new MPS Values incorporate citizen focus principles.
• In association with the Home Office Police Standards Unit, the production of a Citizen Focus Good Practice Guide.
• The production of a Borough based self-assessment workbook to improve performance in the Citizen focus PPAF domain.
• Revision of the corporate policy development framework to ensure that Citizen Focus principles are embedded.
• Revision of existing training programmes (e.g., probationer and station reception officer) to include Citizen Focus.
• Revision of borough websites to ensure that access information is easily available.

C. Race and equality impact

1. The Citizen Focus principles require that the service user be engaged at all stages of the design and delivery of policing services. This approach provides the mechanisms through which we are able to identify the bespoke needs of individuals and communities and provide responsive services that meet those needs.

2. In the time that the programme has been running the satisfaction levels of black and minority ethnic victims of crime rose by 10%. In the same period the satisfaction of all victims of racist incidents has improved by 13.8% to the extent that by the end of 2005/06 the MPS was top of its most similar family of forces in this performance area. This provides a strong indication that the focus brought to the issues through the programme has the potential to make a positive impact on the services we provide to all of our communities.

D. Financial implications

The approach of the programme is to embed the Citizen Focus principles in the usual business development processes of the MPS. It is not intended that the programme will be the catalyst for new major change programmes but will add to those already in being, (e.g. Emerald and C3i) for which provision has been made in the Medium Term Financial Plan. The direct costs for the programme are for eight members of staff.

E. Background papers

• Corporate Strategy 2006 – 2009
• White paper ‘Building Communities, Beating crime: A better police service for the 21st century
• Medium Term Financial Plan
• Existing Programme material

F. Contact details

Report author: Chief Superintendent Ian Harrison, MPS

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

Police Performance Assessment Framework Measures of User Satisfaction, Public Confidence and Fairness and Equality
Strategic Performance Indicators

SPI 1 - User satisfaction with:

1a the ease of contacting someone who could assist you

1b the actions taken by the police

1c how well you were kept informed of progress

1d the way you were treated by the police officers and staff who dealt with you

1e (taking the whole experience into account) the service provided by the police

These data are taken from locally run surveys of victims of domestic burglary, vehicle crime, and violent crime, and those involved in road traffic collisions.

SPI 3 Fairness and equality:

As part of the fairness and equality monitoring there is a separate PI for racist incident victims (3a) which reports user satisfaction with the service provided by the police (taking the whole experience into account)

There will also be a comparative PI (3b) which compares reported satisfaction with the service provided by the police for white respondents and for minority ethnic respondents.

MPS PPAF Performance 04/05 and 05/06

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