Update on the Met Modernisation Programme (MMP)

Report: 8
Date: 30 November 2006
By: Director of Strategy, Modernisation and Performance on behalf of The Commissioner

Summary

This report updates members on the progress of the modernisation programme in 2006/07 including the links with the Service Review. It sets out what the programme has achieved to date, what benefits are being and will be delivered - including efficiency and value for money - and how we are communicating with our stakeholders and staff. The report also looks at how the programme will go forward in 2007/08.

A. Recommendation

That members:

1. note the links and direction set out in the Service Review proposals agreed in autumn 2005;
2. note the status of the critical (Category 1) projects delivering products and outcomes in 2006/07 and achievements to date;
3. note the MMP communications strategy and how key messages are being communicated to our stakeholders and to frontline staff;
4. note the benefits that the programmes will deliver and how this will enhance performance;
5. note the financial position, including the financial management framework and efficiency and value for money implications;
6. note how projects and programmes have been prioritised for 2007/08 and the transitional arrangements for moving forward over the next 12 months;
7. note the equalities implications to MMP and how they are being addressed; and
8. consider and advise on any aspects on the MMP where further improvements can be generated.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The Met Modernisation Programme is a portfolio of projects and programmes that started in April 2006 to co-ordinate, prioritise and deliver:

• the proposals resulting from the Service Review;
• the strategic priorities and outcomes set out in the Corporate Strategy, and
• major change already taking place in the MPS such as the C3i Programme and Safer Neighbourhoods.

2. This major change programme is geared towards delivery of a better service to the public and driven by a rigorous approach to sustainable benefits and success through strategic outcomes. Appendix 1 illustrates the Service Review proposals agreed by the Authority last year and the seven strategic priorities contained in the strategy and how these have been prioritised within the MMP programme for 2006/07. The benefits that will be achieved as a result of the successful delivery of the programme over the next three years will contribute significantly towards the longer term strategic outcomes for the people of London.

3. The MPS Management Board recognised that with this scale of business change impacting across the whole organisation it would not be possible to do everything in the first year and proposed to the Authority that the programme should be prioritised into categories to maintain focus in the key areas. The categories were defined as follows:

4. At the same time, it was agreed that modernisation taking place in Specialist Crime Directorate and Specialist Operations, including the implementation of the Counter Terrorism Command, should proceed and be integrated within the rest of the programme. Underpinning all of this business change was the determination to focus on the needs of the citizen, to identify efficiencies and value for money and to achieve sustainable improved performance.

Delivering the MMP programme in 2006/07

5. Attached at Appendix 2 is an overview of some of the key activities that have been taking place in the projects and programmes since April and many of the significant milestones. As far as the Category 1 programmes are concerned, it is worth noting the volume and intensity of activity on the newer and emerging programmes of Intelligence, Covert Policing and Tasking and Together when compared to the more mature programmes Safer Neighbourhoods and C3i where the infrastructure and delivery of the programme are more well defined.

Key achievements to date

6. There has been strong progress in each of the Category 1 programmes over the last few months including:

• The systematic rollout of Safer Neighbourhood teams across the whole of London a full two years ahead of the National Policing Plan requirement.
• The migration to date of 18 Borough OCUs to Metcall is improving our end to end call handling and our response capability. While the programme is on track, there are a number of implementation challenges which the C3i Programme team is tackling in concert with our key stakeholders, including the MPA.
• In the drive for enhancing management and leadership, the Together programme launched the Leadership Academy in June providing a range of opportunities centred on police officer and police staff taking on roles as first line supervisors for the first time. To date, 200 people have completed the programme.
• The Intelligence, Covert Policing and Tasking (ICPT) programme was developed bringing together five separate but related projects. One of these, the Met Intelligence Bureau (MIB) will start implementation of the business change activity by March 2007 to deliver the enhanced capability.

A detailed summary of the achievements is set out in Appendix 3.

Communicating the messages for modernisation

7. The communications and consultation goal for the programme is to maintain the support of, and engagement from, stakeholders throughout the duration of the three-year programme. A stakeholder analysis identified key groups of internal and external stakeholders and the Modernisation Delivery Unit (MDU) is using this analysis to influence the timing and content of communication and consultation to maximise awareness and engagement. The leaflet attached at Appendix 4 gives a useful overview of the activity taking place in the key programmes and has already been used at internal and external events.

8. At the outset of the programme, the Programme Director Stephen Rimmer commissioned the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to carry out an early review of the approach being adopted to deliver this complex portfolio over three years and how messages might best be communicated. An independent executive member Professor Jake Chapman has been appointed to the Programme Delivery Board to maintain this external perspective – the MPA Chief Executive and Treasurer also sit on the Board.

9. The MDU tailors its messages so that they are meaningful to the target audience, whether this be external stakeholders, unions and staff associations or frontline colleagues. The MMP intranet site has proved particularly valuable in recent weeks with the advent of message boards and other interactive facilities to encourage greater engagement right across the organisation. A detailed summary of our communication channels is attached in Appendix 4A.

10. The MDU is working closely with the Citizen Focus team to deliver a series of challenge or development panels that are based on the programmes in the portfolio. The first of these is taking place in December on Workforce Modernisation and is being followed in January by a panel debating supervisor call back. The panels will include people from both the public and private sectors who have indicated a willingness to take part and can provide a critical and informed view.

Benefits being delivered by MMP

11. The MDU is working in partnership with DoI’s Benefits Management team to develop robust and measurable benefits for each of the MMP programmes that will help to demonstrate the success of the programme. Traditionally, this has been an area that the MPS has found difficult to embed when effecting major business change, particularly in monitoring and evaluating benefits once they have been identified.

12. A structured benefits delivery schedule has been put in place for each programme in the MMP portfolio so that they are treated consistently and dependencies between programmes are clear. The stages are:

13. Attached at Appendix 5 is a benefits timeline for each of the Category 1 programmes that set in context when these stages are scheduled to take place. Much of the early stages are already complete for Safer Neighbourhoods and C3i, but it is important to emphasise that the bulk of the benefits identified by the programmes will not begin to be realised until early 2007. Programmes will continue to be part of the MMP portfolio until the Programme Delivery Board is satisfied that the anticipated benefits are being delivered in line with expectation and long term accountability can rest with the relevant lead business group.

14. Underlying this whole approach is also a fundamental set of benefits to be derived longer term in respect of the MPS, supported by the MPA, driving through sustainable long term change, managing that ‘in house’ (expenditure on external consultants has been minimal) and demonstrating impact through outcomes rather than process boxes being ticked.

15. The implications in successfully driving through this approach should be substantial and far reaching. Category 1 programmes such as Safer Neighbourhoods, Together and C3i have focused on improving service provision, particularly in relation to community engagement, confidence and satisfaction. These are supported by the work taking place under the banner of Citizen Focus. While specific measures for these programmes are still under development, clear improvement has been seen in the performance areas these programmes are designed to impact:

• Residents reporting significant concern of Anti-Social Behaviour has fallen from 30% in June 2005 to 24% in June 2006 (following a consistent period of increase)
• Confidence in the MPS is increasing and, at 53.4%, is the highest in the Most Similar Forces (MSF) group
• User satisfaction has generally improved considerably comparing, for example proportion of users satisfied with overall service provided has gone up from 71.2% in June 2005 to 78.7% in June 2006

16. Importantly, the embedding of change to deliver these improvements does not appear to have affected performance in relation to day to day policing. Comparing September 2005 to September 2006 overall crime fell by 5%, while the sanction detection rate increased from 16% in September 2005 to 20% in September 2006 and Offences Brought To Justice rose from 16% in September 2005 to 20% in September 2006.

17. The elements of MMP that are most developed in terms of rollout have tended to be focused on delivering performance improvement, but a vital element of the programme will be to ensure that we deliver an effective service as efficiently as possible. To this end a number of the programmes that will rollout throughout 2007/08, such as workforce modernisation, will have a focus on organisational efficiency. This is being supplemented by work around financial accountability and efficiency and value for money which is being led by the Modernisation Delivery Unit.

Financial accountability and reporting

18. The Programme Delivery Board and MPA Oversight Committee receive a monthly report that sets out the budgetary requirements for each programme in the portfolio over the next three years, that includes capital and revenue cost. Since July this has been extended to show in year cost to date.

19. A 2006/07 mid year review has recently been undertaken to establish whether the end of year forecast spend is consistent with the original budgetary provision. It has proved challenging to present a coherent financial picture of the MMP portfolio as a whole since legacy programmes such as Safer Neighbourhoods have had budgetary provision and financial reporting structures in place for some time. Attached at Appendix 6 is an overall summary of expenditure that includes the budgetary provision of the legacy programmes. This gives a more realistic scale of the investment in the MMP portfolio of £330 million (including capital and revenue) in 2006/07 but recognises that monthly monitoring information of programmes such as Safer Neighbourhoods is difficult to disentangle from Territorial Policing business group spend.

20. The MDU has been working closely with Finance Directorate to achieve improved financial management and accountability across the portfolio to enable greater transparency of investment on programmes, see where the money is being spent and what is being delivered in return. Attached at Appendix 7 is a more detailed explanation of the work being carried out that was agreed by the Oversight Committee in September.

21. The MPA Oversight Committee has performed a crucial and influential role since April in steering and evaluating the work being undertaken within the MMP. Attached at Appendix 8 is a summary of some of the key topics that have been presented and scrutinised by this group, in addition to the monthly progress update that is provided by Stephen Rimmer.

Efficiency and value for money

22. Efficiency and Value for Money underpin the overall aims and direction of the portfolio and are integral considerations in the same way as improved performance. The Value for Money (VfM) Steering Group, chaired by Stephen Rimmer, oversees work to deliver more efficient working practices.

23. In June, the VfM Steering Group took responsibility for the approach outlined by Investment Board on how efficiencies should be identified, captured and redirected to frontline services. The MDU, in conjunction with Finance Directorate, has examined the progress in transferring £300 million, around 10% of MPS resources, into frontline services over three years as set out by the Commissioner during the Service Review. These efficiencies, including duplicated provision of support services such as HR, are made up of cashable and non-cashable savings and involve all the business groups and corporate overheads. In terms of planning for 2007/08, redirection is particularly influenced by the commitment to a further 270 frontline officers despite overall savings of £65m. Stephen Rimmer will be giving a VfM presentation to the Oversight Committee in December to update members in more detail on the current position.

24. It is clear that over the coming years the MPS will be required to deliver continuous improvement in an ever more challenging resource environment. The initial focus of our Value for Money strategy therefore needs to be to integrate productivity and performance information to provide a complete view of the efficiency of the organisation. This framework will provide the necessary management information to drive the developing agenda around process improvement and improved resource management. Progression of this work will be the key to delivering improved levels of efficiency. The Value for Money Steering Group will therefore oversee work to analyse performance and productivity, identify areas for improvement and ensure that solutions to deliver more efficient use of resources are embedded. The support of the MPA will be essential in driving this process forward.

Preparing the MMP programme plan for 2007/08

25. On 6 June the MPS Management Board agreed a prioritised plan for the MMP for 2007/08 – see Appendix 9 – informed by factors such as;

• whether a programme has a significant and direct impact on the quality of service provided to citizens
• whether it directly addresses areas of underperformance highlighted by the PPAF assessment
• where it will significantly improve the efficiency of the MPS.

26. The prioritisation reflects the recognition that existing Category 1 programmes in 2006/07 will still be part of the portfolio next year but that their needs and resourcing requirements might be different. The stated benefits will start to be realised but in a number of cases such as ICPT there will be a continued requirement for financial priority.

27. Similarly, new and emerging programmes such as Public Protection will require specialist help and support from the MDU to the appointed Senior Responsible Owner in terms of setting up an appropriate infrastructure and the provision of necessary training and scoping the programme.

28. On 28 November 2006, the Programme Delivery Board will consider the implications of the 2007/08 programme plan, including the relationships between programmes in different categories, how this will influence the resourcing decisions and on what basis programmes will leave the portfolio. This will enable a more informed discussion about focus, overall capability for managing the scale of the business change and affordability of the proposed change in light of the budgetary constraints.

Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) within the MMP

29. In assessing equalities impact, the Projects and Programmes within the MMP follow the criteria outlined in the Corporate Equality Impact Assessment Guidance developed by the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate.

30. An EIA is conducted as part of the planning process within each project and programme. The Project/Programme Managers (PPMs) take ownership for assessing and monitoring the potential impact on the programmes guided by the MDU.

31. If no impact is identified then this is appropriately documented. If the impact is identified as unjustifiably adverse, discriminatory, or fails to promote the positive aspects, then alternatives and/or amendments are considered, a process which has not been required to date.

32. Completed EIA forms are attached to key project documents (including the Business Case) and reviewed as and when appropriate by individual MMP staff and the relevant PPM.

Abbreviations

EIA

Equality Impact Assessment

ICPT

Intelligence, Covert Policing and Tasking

MIB

Met Intelligence Bureau

MMP

Met Modernisation Programme

MDU

Modernisation Delivery Unit

PPMs

Project/Programme Managers

OGC

Office of Government Commerce

C. Race and equality impact

The equality and diversity issues are raised under the Equalities Impact Assessment information in paragraphs 29-32 and the development of the strategy around Citizen Focus.

D. Financial implications

There are significant financial implications from this programme set out in paragraphs 18-24 that will affect in year monitoring and budgetary decisions for 2007/08 and subsequent years.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Michael Debens, MPS

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 3

Key Milestones within Programmes and Projects

Metcall

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has achieved a significant milestone as the Central Communications Command (CCC) is now delivering the command and control function for over half of all London boroughs. Haringey, the 18th borough to move into the OCU, successfully migrated its staff into the OCU’s Bow building this month.

Each of the 18 migrations have been completed successfully thanks to the close working relationship between the C3i programme, Territorial Policing and other business groups.

All business areas work together to prepare and move borough control room staff into Metcall and establish each borough's new Integrated Borough Control function, which is also created as part of the transition process.

Safer Neighbourhoods

The MPS has taken the lead in its commitment to neighbourhood policing. The rollout of Safer Neighbourhoods teams across London has been completed a full two years ahead of the National Policing Plan requirement.

There are now 630 teams in place, covering the 624 wards in London. Each team comprises of a minimum of one sergeant, two constables and three PCSOs. The teams are listening and talking to local communities to find out what affects their daily life and feelings of security. Between April 2006 and October 2006, 1,470 local panel meetings have taken place.

They work in partnership with local people and other agencies to find lasting solutions to problems such as anti-social behaviour, graffiti, noisy neighbourhoods, yobs or vandalism.

Together

Following a successful period of unprecedented growth in capacity, the MPS must now focus on the accompanying capability that is needed, particularly around management and leadership, to meet the changing demands of a modern police service.

Through developing and improving such capability, Together will create a more motivated and satisfied workforce delivering a more efficient and effective service in all performance areas.

The Leadership Academy opened in June 2006 and is providing a range of development opportunities. The training will be available to police officers and police staff when they take on leadership roles for the first time as first line supervisors not just those in senior posts.

Intelligence, Covert Policing and Tasking

Information and intelligence drives everything we do, from protecting London against terrorism to tackling anti-social behaviour in the community, therefore we need to ensure that we are working in a joined up way. On 6th June 2006, a programme of work called the Corporate Intelligence, Covert policing and Tasking Programme (ICPT) was agreed to achieve this.

The programme consists of five separate projects: Met Intelligence Bureau (MIB), Covert Policing Standards, Corporate Tasking, Prison and Telephone Intelligence and Operation Information Services (OIS). These areas of work are being taken forward by a large number of colleagues working together in project groups and will have profound importance in delivering an improved service to the public by working in a more efficient and joined up way.

Single Sign On

The aim of the Single Sign On (SSO) project is to reduce the number of passwords police officers and staff require to access MPS IT applications, which is both frustrating for staff and time wasting.

A full SSO pilot is underway at Twickenham and rollout across the MPS, which will focus on BOCUs initially, is scheduled to start January 2007.

This project is just one of the initiatives being undertaken by DOI to address the problem of re-keying into the MPS computer systems and to improve Information Quality - a key strategic priority.

Appendix 4a

Key internal communication channels

Meetings with the Trade Unions

A monthly meeting chaired by the Director of Modernisation, Stephen Rimmer, with senior representatives from the Federation, Superintendents Association and police staff unions.

The meetings provide the opportunity for representatives to be updated on the latest progress of the various Met Modernisation programmes and projects. Different guest speakers attend each meeting to consider a particular modernisation topic in greater detail. The format of the meetings is designed to engender maximum opportunity for representatives to provide feedback and seek clarity on all issues. The issues raised at this meeting are then fed back to the programmes and projects.

BOCU/OCU meetings

A monthly meeting chaired by Stephen Rimmer is held with a selection of BOCU/OCU Commanders from across the organisation. The aim of the meeting is to gain feedback on how modernisation programmes and projects are impacting the frontline. The BOCU/OCU Commanders provide an operational perspective on the programmes that have already been implemented and those in development. The meetings also have a modernisation focus item each month and the issues raised are fed back into the various programmes and projects and influence the Met Modernisation strategy for communicating with the frontline.

Met Modernisation intranet site

The Met Modernisation intranet site provides comprehensive information on all programmes and projects in the portfolio and latest news bulletins.

Colleagues have the opportunity to ask questions or raise a concern about any modernisation topic and there is a message board that features issues raised by colleagues from across the organisation. This forms part of the ‘Your Page’ section that focuses on how modernisation is impacting the front line.

Live intranet forum

This is an opportunity for colleagues from across the organisation to ask questions directly to Stephen Rimmer via an intranet live forum. The sessions run for two hours, and all questions are answered in that time frame, the questions and responses are posted on the Met Modernisation intranet site for all staff to access. The next forum is planned for 29 November.

Updates to staff associations

There is now a one page news letter is provided for the SAMURAI (abbreviation for the 15 staff associations) meetings to keep these groups up to date on the various work being undertaken in the modernisation portfolio.

Working alongside Directorate of Public Affairs

The Met Modernisation communication team work closely with colleagues from DPA to ensure that corporate messages reflect the modernisation agenda. Met Modernisation topics and issues are fed into the Met-Get-Together, the Commissioner’s monthly video message to staff and the key brief (a briefing note for senior managers to communicate to their teams).

Advise at programme/project level

The Met Modernisation communication team play an important role in disseminating good practice on communication to the various modernisation programmes and projects teams, including promoting the corporate approach to internal communication.

The Job

Met Modernisation has been a feature item in two editions of the internal magazine. In one article, colleagues were invited to pose questions to Stephen Rimmer on modernisation. Also the Met Modernisation communication team review all up coming articles to highlight modernisation angles.

Key external communication channels

Business Community

The Commissioner hosted a Met Modernisation event with senior business leaders from across London.

The aims of the session were to;

• improve awareness and understanding of the tangible benefits of modernisation
• be a conduit for disseminating the messages received on the day to their own network of contacts
• gain commitment from London First to strengthen the relationship for mentoring MPS staff
• learn from London First on ‘good practice’ around managing large change programmes
• gain commitment from business leaders to support the Met, especially with the estate side on planning permission

Following the event, a number of these aims are being explored further, including the possibility of secondments into the Met to advise on managing and implementing change.

Citizen Challenge Panels

Work has begun on developing challenge panels that allow citizens to have an input into modernisation programmes and projects. A pilot panel is being run with Workforce Modernisation, the first panel will be held in December and will be followed in January by a panel debating supervisor call back. This work supports the delivery of citizen focused policing by actively seeking to reflect in our decision making the needs, experience and expectations of individuals and local communities.

Appendix 7

MMP Financial Management & Accountability

Current Position

Mature programmes alongside emerging ones

1. Some of the Category 1 programmes within the MMP portfolio, particularly Safer Neighbourhoods and C3i/MetCall are very mature and have been operating for a number of years before the inception of the Modernisation Programme. These mature programmes tend to be managed by a single business group who have been given the budget to support the work.

2. Since the programmes do not have a clearly defined end date these budgets have become part of the business group’s overall budget provision. This budgetary provision is agreed on an annual basis as part of the corporate budgetary planning process and funding is allocated accordingly.

3. On the more newly emerging programmes such as Intelligence, Covert Policing and Tasking where no specific budgetary provision had been made (budgets had been allocated for these activities to various business groups based on historical spend etc.) the Modernisation Delivery Unit has ensured that a business case that co-ordinates this work has been seen by Management Board and that Investment Board scrutinises funding implications for the first key product, i.e. the Met Intelligence Bureau.

4. There is still key work to be done in ensuring that funds are identified to enable the delivery of the MIB by the scheduled date of March 2007. The developing work on this project must demonstrate how the estimated cost of the implementation will be offset by anticipated financial savings either within the delivery of the intelligence function, or from elsewhere within the organisation.

5. The result of integrating old with new within the MMP umbrella is that this creates challenges for presenting a coherent financial picture that sets out:

• the overall MMP budget
• an accurate picture of what has been spent so far
• a consistent approach to what is included within spend data
• how we are doing against the budget allocated, and what has been delivered

6. The financial information that is currently presented to Programme Delivery Board (as included in your executive information report) is a summary overview, which shows the projects and programmes that have budgetary provision for 2006/07 (and beyond in some cases) and supporting commentary. The commentary provides more context to the figures shown.

Investment Board

7. In the last year steps have been taken to tighten up the processes around the initiation of new programmes, which are now required to submit a detailed business case and have funding approved from a central source via the Investment Board chaired by the Deputy Commissioner. This process also now applies to those projects and programmes that are already within the MMP portfolio but are seeking additional funding.

8. This approvals process is still not fully embedded within the organisation, but its role alongside the Performance Board and the Programme Delivery Board as part of the Management Board operating framework is definitely taking shape and the products and data considered by the boards is more consistent. This informs not only financial decision making but makes the crucial link to delivering benefits and achieving improved performance.
Enhancing financial accountability

9. Financial control of MMP is viewed as a Strategic Finance activity, as most of the perceived issues are observed at the strategic or corporate level. This is a visible issue since Strategic Finance, through the Modernisation Delivery Unit, monitor and oversee the reporting of financial information.

10. However, the emphasis is more around management accounting. MPS finance systems and reporting are primarily geared to Business Group and OCU budgets and not projects and programmes that span across these boundaries. Programme budgets are not profiled across cost codes in a manner that enables programme cost data to be captured in a straightforward way. This issue is currently being tackled by MDU staff with Strategic Finance colleagues. Strategic Finance has undertaken to modify the General Ledger (GL) reporting structure to facilitate project financial reporting for all new programmes and projects.

11. Building on this, the MDU intends to invite Business Group management accountants to a forthcoming meeting of the MMP Project and Programme Managers Forum. This will ensure a consistency of approach in finance reporting across the MMP, provide a key support and contact network and provide a forum to discuss programme dependencies and opportunities to identify potential financial savings.

12. A review of the current MMP financial reporting structure highlights that project and programme costs are reported as actual spend against allocated budget. This is a useful overview but does not show:

• how long the project is expected to last
• how much the project is costing or how much more we anticipate spending over the projects lifecycle.

The budget is also treated as part of the business group’s normal operational costs (see also para 5 above).

13. The nub of the problem is the difficulty in establishing the budgetary requirements to carry out business as usual as against those imposed by the modernisation and business transformation activities. This also makes it difficult to establish any instances of double counting, or how the budgetary provision supports the priorities and targets set out in the Policing London Corporate Strategy.

Next steps in tightening financial management

1. Adopt the proposed management accounting structure that will facilitate project financial controls and reporting (this has been agreed by Strategic Finance this week and is in train)
2. Programme/project budgets to be extracted from the business group’s overall budgets and accounted for separately. This will highlight any duplication and will provide efficiency savings (the MDU is already scrutinising Business Group business plans for 2007/08 to identify MMP related investment)
3. All programmes/projects to have a business case, irrespective of cost, that is scrutinised and approved by Investment Board. This is imperative as we need to understand what savings are being made to offset programme/project running costs
4. Accountability for spend and benefits to be established and enforced across the MMP portfolio at project manager and Senior Responsible Owner levels.
5. Use the management accounting information to drive strategic planning and reporting
6. Commence additional training and support for project managers in the enhanced financial management processes
7. Produce a financial accountability framework and issue as a key protocol for the MMP

Appendix 8

MPA Oversight Committee Meetings - 2006

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