Update on progress with the Policing Pledge

Report: 8
Date: 3 September 2009
By: Deputy Commissioner on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report summarises the work being undertaken in the Metropolitan Police Service to deliver the MPS Policing Pledge - our promise to the public. It also provides information about the developing performance framework and developmental work that will improve service delivery.

A. Recommendation

That the Committee to note this report and discuss how it will provide ongoing oversight of delivery of the Pledge.

B. Supporting information

Introduction

1. The Metropolitan Police Service Policing Pledge - Our Promise to the Public, was published in December 2008 and sets out the levels of service that the MPS will provide to people living, working in and visiting London. The document comprises all of the elements of the national policing pledge and was developed through research into MPS performance in the Citizen Focus domain of the Home Office Assessment of Policing and Community Safety (APACS). This was complemented by the framework provided by the existing Quality of Service Commitment and through direct contact with service users.

2. The National Policing Pledge introduced two significant new services i.e. a commitment to return calls to Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) within 24 hours and the facility for a member of the public to make an appointment for service provision within 48 hours. All of the other commitments are services that were already being delivered by the MPS. One of the main benefits of the Pledge to the MPS is that it brings together those services that have the most direct impact on public confidence in policing and provides an opportunity for close management oversight of the corporate performance in these critical areas.

3. As part of the delivery plan for the Pledge, the strategic owner of the described services reviewed policy, process, performance and staff awareness to ensure the service could be delivered in a way that consistently met the required standard. The result of those reviews was the development of work plans to develop the individual services. For example, to meet the MPS promise to update those involved in road traffic collisions within 10 days of the incident, an entirely new process was established to electronically transfer essential data from Borough to the central traffic prosecutions unit on the day of the incident. The delivery of the work plans was overseen by a Board chaired by the Commander Central Communications Command (CCC), who has corporate ownership of the MPS Policing Pledge.

4. The following section of the report provides an overview of the delivery of the MPS Policing Pledge and examines each element, describing the activity that is being undertaken to deliver the services described.

Delivery of the Policing Pledge

Strategic Leadership

5. Delivery of the Policing Pledge has been set by clear strategic direction from the Deputy Commissioner, who is chair of the Confidence and Pride Board at which all business groups are represented.

6. The work of the Citizen Focus Strategic Forum has now been rationalised into the remit of the Presence Board, chaired by Assistant Commissioner, Territorial Policing (TP). This Board provides continued strategic leadership and an integrated approach with delivery of the 5Ps. It also enables Pledge improvement activities to be monitored, reviewed and directed within business groups. All business groups have been required to develop business plans that demonstrate how they are supporting these corporate priorities.

7. Management of the corporate Pledge delivery plan is undertaken through the weekly meetings, chaired by Commander CCC, where representatives from across TP and other strategic units provide updates on activity being taken. In addition, every TP Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU) has a structure in place to drive the Pledge locally and Borough Commanders have been required to produce action plans arising from a Pledge self assessment process. These plans are currently being monitored through the Citizen Focus Programme team and identified good practice has already been shared with BOCUs to assist with the development of their own action plans.

8. The Pledge also features as a key element of the draft 2009/10 MPS Policing Plan and one of the Pledge indicators (fairness and equality) is included in the MPS critical performance areas (CPAs). This ensures that performance is subject to regular Management Board level oversight.

Raising Awareness internally

9. To ensure that staff are fully aware of their responsibilities for delivery of the Pledge, a number of measures have been undertaken to raise awareness and understanding. These include the revision of training courses to ensure that the key messages are delivered about the Pledge at the MPS Leadership Academy, in training given to new recruits, at induction seminars and for those rejoining the Service. In addition, a wide ranging internal information campaign is underway to raise the awareness of the requirements to meet the promises in Pledge. Corporate materials such as individual Pledge cards, posters, canteen table top information, presentations, intranet articles and ‘pod casts’ - all have been widely distributed. These materials support the personal briefings and formal training currently taking place.

10. Through the ‘Policing London’ mandatory training events, that are being held between 24 June and 2 October 2009, all TP and Central Operations (CO) inspectors, sergeants and Band D police staff are being informed about the Pledge and new working methods. The seminars are designed to help key front-line managers understand the main elements of ‘Presence’ and the Policing Pledge; why they make a difference to the people of London and how they can make the changes happen back in their teams - from ensuring staff have a smart, professional appearance, to patrolling singly where appropriate and engaging with the public when out on patrol.

Activity to deliver each element of the Pledge

11. Under each MPS element of the Policing Pledge, the following activity is taking place:

We will always treat you fairly, with dignity and respect, ensuring that everyone has access to our service at a time that is reasonable and suitable.

12. Corporate standards have been developed and published that are expected of all staff when dealing with the public. The Quality of Service Principles is included in the MPS Policing Pledge and reflects the MPS corporate values. The MPS is linking the development of its Equality Standard for Policing with the Policing Pledge through the production of a self assessment template that integrates equality and quality of service provision in one process.

13. The introduction of a Pledge Database has enabled reports of Pledge (or quality of service) failure to be recorded within the MPS. Work is being undertaken by the MPS Customer Satisfaction Unit on the identification of issues, together with a continuous focus on Business Group Quality Call Back Processes, and this is beginning to show that learning from Pledge failures are actioned. All business groups, in addition to each TP BOCU, have a Citizen Focus/Pledge Single Point of Contact (SPOC) who has access to this database and they are also able to record details of quality of service issues. These are available for dissemination as learning throughout the MPS.

14. The next steps are for the Pledge database to be integrated into the processes within the Directorate of Professional Services. This will provide the strategic co-ordination of complaints of service failure with complaints about individual conduct, which will result in, among, other things a more streamlined approach on BOCUs for recording complaints of all types and more robust organisational learning processes.

15. In developing the Pledge, the MPS has received advice from the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate, the Plain English Campaign, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and Mencap. The MPS Pledge is now available in nine alternative languages, as a pod cast and a Braille version is also available. By the end of September a version will be available that will make the Pledge more accessible to people with learning difficulties.

We will work to keep you and your neighbourhood safe from harm. Each ward has a dedicated Safer Neighbourhoods team that will provide a visible police presence and will only work elsewhere if absolutely necessary. They will spend at least 80% of their time visibly working in your neighbourhood, tackling your local policing priorities.

16. One of the primary roles of Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) is to provide visibility and reassurance and many of the Pledge requirements are explicitly linked to the existing work of these teams and the associated performance framework. These include:

• The MPS has a robust abstraction policy for SNTs as well as a deployment protocol. This is published on the intranet site and makes up part of the rolling inspection process carried out by the SN central link Inspectors.
• Performance for the financial year to date (FYTD - April - June 2009) shows that MPS wide 96.2% of SNT’s patrol time was spent on ward duties.
• SNTs have working protocols which include a statement of expectation for staff with a minimum commitment of two years. This excludes promotional development of individuals and welfare issues.

17. In addition, Automatic Personal Location System (APLS - GPS Tracking) is currently being tested on Kensington and Chelsea BOCU for a proposed 3 month period. The central SN unit will use this to monitor actual visibility of SNTs during this initial test period. At its conclusion, the central SN unit will review and evaluate the feasibility of using this process as a measure across the Service.

We will publicise the details of your Safer Neighbourhoods team so that you know who your dedicated team is and how to contact them.

18. Each SNT has a dedicated page on the external MPS website, on which each team has published monthly public engagement opportunities. These include meetings, surgeries, street briefings and drop in centres. These are all designed to engage with the local community in order to gather local information and intelligence as part of the local priority setting process. They also give teams an opportunity to provide information on local policing and partner activity that has taken place to address identified ward priorities.

19. Each team is required to publish photographs of the team members on the external MPS website. This is an ongoing process and currently, 82% of SNTs have photographs included on the team pages and work is being undertaken to increase this percentage.

20. The information for each team on the external website is checked in the first week of each month by the central SN unit to ensure compliance. SNTs are then contacted if gaps are identified. There has been a month on month decrease in the numbers of teams who have not been advertising meetings on the external website. In April 2009 the SN central monitoring unit identified 57 of the 630 teams had not shown a meeting taking place in that month. In July 2009, it has identified that this has decreased to only three of the 630 teams.

21. SNT contact details are also included on team websites and in locally and centrally developed newsletters. The next central newsletter will be delivered across the Service in September 2009.

We will respond to every message directed to your Safer Neighbourhoods team within 24 hours.

22. This element of the Pledge is one of the most difficult to both deliver and monitor and each Borough has developed a local approach for ensuring messages are answered within 24 hours. These local solutions are being evaluated by the central Safer Neighbourhoods Unit and corporate guidance will be produced based on identified good practice. Examples of some of the approaches being used are as follows:

• 'Buddy' systems where teams work with neighbouring teams retrieving and responding to messages and emails when their buddy team is off duty.
• Bromley: Off duty SNTs redirect their telephones to the Telephone Investigation Bureau (TIB). TIB staff answer all the calls/messages and make contact with caller to assess if immediate deployment is necessary. TIB also answer SNT e-mails. All calls are logged on a paper system.
• Kensington and Chelsea: A volunteer checks all voice mail messages for all wards, if the SNTs are not available. A reply is sent and then the SNT is notified direct by the volunteer.
• Enfield: An office has been set up using restricted/ recuperative duties personnel to answer e-mails, phone calls outside ward team hours/days.
• Haringey: Each weekend SNT telephone extensions are called by an Inspector to check for compliance, the outcome of these checks is reported to the Chief Inspector at weekly meeting and failures to respond are addressed.
• Sutton: There is a single default number to which calls to SNTs are redirected. This number is monitored on Monday to Friday by SNT support staff & volunteers and on weekends and Bank Holidays by the Integrated Borough Operations team (IBO).
• Westminster: A SNT desk has been created within the IBO. This is staffed between the hours of 10am - 8pm by members of the SNTs and, outside of these hours, by IBO staff. The mobex telephones are set to auto forward calls to the SNT contact desk if they are not answered. The contact desk also monitors the email boxes of each of the SNTs across the BCU.

23. To ensure compliance around this area of the Pledge and to identify effective systems for dissemination, the central SN unit are also conducting “mystery shopper” style calls and messaging checks.

We aim to answer 999 calls within 10 seconds and non-emergency calls within 30 seconds. We will always tell callers what will happen next and give an estimated time of arrival if appropriate.

24. Contact management data shows that telephone answering times during 2008/09 have improved for both 999 and non-999 calls compared to 2007/08. During 2008/09 the percentage of 999 calls answered in 10 seconds increased to 88% from 82% and the percentage of non 999 calls answered within 30 seconds increased to 90% from 82%.

25. National call grades and definitions have also been introduced into the CCC environment to provide a consistent approach and definition for emergency calls, priority calls and bespoke appointments. The introduction of new call grades and definitions has been accompanied by a comprehensive briefing process and enhanced compliance protocols. This policy change directly contributes to improvements in demand management and service delivery by ensuring that the most appropriate response is provided to a call for service.

We will respond immediately to emergencies so that we get to incidents as quickly and safely as possible – aiming to attend within 12 minutes and much sooner if possible.

26. There has already been some significant performance improvement, for example the average time to respond to an ‘I’ call has fallen from 18 minutes (October 2007) to 11 minutes 6 seconds (July 2009).

27. New approaches to the delivery of services which use corporate resources to the greatest benefit are also being introduced. An example is the ‘Three BOCU Pilot’ (involving Barnet, Harrow and Brent BOCUs) which went live on 3rd August 2009. This has at its core the sharing of resources across BOCU boundaries to meet overall demand for immediate response. Both local and pan-London demand management strategies are currently being developed and refined, where appropriate. The Pan-London work includes Police Not Yet Arrived calls to CCC, repeat caller analysis and a move towards SNT ownership of demand clusters. The new processes being developed from the Three BOCU Pilot are intended to bring average response times down still further and increase the number of occasions the MPS meets the Pledge standard. This will be reviewed and monitored at the meetings as part of the trial. By September 2009, there will be full roll out of those elements of the pilot that have been identified as improving performance against the pledge.

When responding to non-emergency cases involving vulnerable victims and witnesses or agreed neighbourhood priorities we aim to get to you within 60 minutes. (We use the word ‘vulnerable’ to describe someone who may be at risk because of their age, disability or their personal circumstances.)

28. In respect of this element of the Pledge, CCC and TP Patrol OCU are currently looking at options to address this section. An area that has proved problematic is the identifying of calls that come into CCC which link in to the locally set priorities. CAD is currently incapable of doing this, however work is being undertaken to develop a solution. This function is currently being conducted by IBOs who are filtering the calls using spreadsheets on BOCU to identify priorities and assign calls accordingly, with approximately 2500 locally agreed priorities across the service it is currently easier for the IBOs to manage this on a more local and smaller scale. Some local BOCU practice has been identified which includes:

• Bromley: A new weekly tactical planner is being introduced. As well as including a comprehensive list of all units on duty and immediate contact data, it will also include a fast link to all individual SNT local priorities. This will be available to all IBO staff. Therefore any calls that come through can be screened with regards to ward priorities. The BOCU is currently re-evaluating its shift patterns for all front line units to ensure adequate resources at times of peak demand. As part of shift pattern analysis, the BOCU is also to introduce “Borough aid days” in which non-operational officers will be expected to contribute to front line duties on a regular basis either supplementing response team or staffing appointment cars.
• Kingston: The IBOs are fully aware of where and how to find the latest ward priorities via both the intranet and S drives. They actively deflect appropriate calls relating to ward priorities and are aware of the ways to bring these calls to the attention of the dispatchers at CCC. There is also regular contact with patrol sergeants and duty officer to ensure calls are dealt with efficiently.
• Newham: All ‘S’ calls should be met within 60 minutes. The IBO have a list of all ward priorities and actively considers conditional call deployment on all non ’I’ calls. The shift pattern of the response team was written with consideration of call demand and response team officer numbers are correlated to demand times. There is a dedicated ‘South of the A13’ car that ensures a geographical spread of officers at any one time. There are also a number of dedicated reporting resources outside the response teams.

Alternatively, if appropriate, we will make an appointment to see you at a time that is convenient to you within 48 hours

29. There are some processes which were identified as not meeting either the standard prescribed or the expectations of the public. An example of this is where there was no robust process to make and monitor appointments made with a member of the public. It was clear that the facility on computer aided dispatch (CAD) was not flexible enough to achieve and consequently BOCUs have introduced bespoke processes using a variety of approaches (e.g. appointments cars), however these local solutions are not capable of being centrally monitored for compliance. An appointments process is being trialed in the three Borough pilot, the outcome of which will inform the development of a corporate process that will allow call handlers to make an appointment the first point of contact within CCC.

We will attend regular public meetings, at least once a month, to agree local crime and policing priorities and give updates about crime and policing issues in your area.

30. To assist with the setting of local priorities, the following work is being undertaken:

• The information gained at the “open” public meetings along with local information from all other public engagement is researched by the teams then taken before the panel meetings for decisions to be made.
• SNTs update the public meetings with work that they are carrying out around the locally agreed priorities as well as local crime and ASB data. This is generally supplied by the Borough Intelligence Units (BIUs) and the SN analysts and uses the various information databases, including the Crime mapping website, CRIMINT, CRIS and CAD.
• The SN analysts have received training in the new web based mapping tool 'Planweb'. This online tool is updated daily with crime report information down to ward level and gives access to many different data and mapping sets including:
  • Demographic data including Mosaic and Acorn data
  • Points of interest data including faith group meeting points, educational establishments and youth service providers for engagement.
  • Crime data which is updated daily directly from the CRIS crime reporting system.
• The SN central unit is looking at the meetings listed to ensure that they are engaging with the whole community on each ward, and to ensure that the meetings are held at a variety of times and accessible locations.
• Current restrictions on the website software design mean that it is currently not possible for SNTs to have free text updates around their neighbourhood priorities. It is intended to rectify this with a future software development.

31. Locally agreed priorities are published on each of the SNT pages. The Directorate of Information is currently looking at expanding this to include ongoing updates on each of these priorities.

We will keep victims of crime informed about the progress of cases at least once a month.

32. There has been a significant rise in Victims Code of Practice (VCoP) performance (monthly updates to crime victims) which has gone from 20% to 89% following the introduction of Victim Focus Units and management oversight of the process. Staff within Victim Focus Units have received briefings about the pledge and their personal responsibilities in relation to service delivery.

We will contact people who have been involved in a road traffic collision (accident) within 10 working days. (Not in National Pledge)

33. Performance recorded as at June 2009 shows compliance at 86%. Work is being undertaken with Traffic OCU to improve performance in this area. The introduction of PDA’s will support performance improvement in this element of the Pledge.

If you feel we have not met our Pledge we would like to hear from you. We will acknowledge your comment within 24 hours of reporting it to us.

34. The MPS Customer Service Unit was established in September 2008 to record and address complaints of service failure (see paragraphs 13 and 14 ante). Between January and March 2009, the MPS Customer Service Unit handled 400 pieces of feedback of which 26% was positive, 31% was neutral and 43% negative. Those comments that were either positive or negative were passed to the local Borough Commander for information and appropriate local resolution.

Engagement with partners

35. The MPA was represented by an Officer at the Citizen Focus Programme Board and by a Member at the Citizen Focus Strategic Forum at which the MPS Policing Pledge was developed. The Pledge is jointly ‘badged’ by the MPA and the MPS and the Authority website carries details of the Policing Pledge and is linked to the MPS Pledge internet pages.

36. Partnership working is embedded in every business group. Since the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the structures for partnership working at the BOCU level have become more established. The recent introduction of Local Area Agreements (LAAs) and Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAAs), mean that partnerships are constantly evolving.

37. In response to these initiatives, the MPS has produced a Partnership Strategy which aims to ensure that we develop a consistent approach to partnership working and places greater emphasis on demonstrating effective governance and efficiency. This is supported by an implementation plan. The MPS also has a well developed toolkit which aims to help support partnership practitioners. In addition, we have implemented a best practice network which will enable the MPS to take a consistent approach to partnership governance and finances based on good practice.

38. At the local level, all BOCUs are involving their local authority partners in developing local initiatives to promote the Pledge, for example through joint messages to communities and shared website information. Many BOCUs are also working with other local groups, such as Independent Advisory Groups (IAGs), to develop wider community understanding of Pledge commitments. An important initiative planned for September 2009 is the hosting of a partnership seminar with Local Authorities, Home Office, MPA, HMIC and NPIA at which there will be discussions to identify the shared responsibility for the action necessary to improve public confidence.

39. The MPS is also actively engaged in the Home Office Community Crime Fighters initiative and in addition to supporting the national briefing event, has been was closely involved in the planning and delivery of two London specific events. TP Emerald has taken the lead in providing pledge briefings to Neighbourhood Crime and Justice Coordinators.

Performance Management

40. Most of the services described in the Pledge have been monitored for a number of years and there is a large amount of base data against which performance may be assessed. All of this data has now been brought together into a unified Pledge scorecard (a copy is attached at appendix A). This will measure all elements of the MPS Pledge. All business groups will contribute to this performance framework through delivery on the quality of service and improving access to services and through supporting SNTs in provision of updates on policing issues where their operations impact on local communities.

41. A programme of internal reality checking has recently taken place to test that requirements of the Pledge are being met and that promises are kept by local teams. The findings, which have been shared on a weekly basis, indicated a variation in performance across those BOCUs examined. Therefore, a regular programme of reality checking will be developed over the next few months to ensure continued monitoring of these elements of the Pledge.

42. There is however still some performance challenges, such as there is not yet a corporate process for ensuring that every one of the priorities on each of the 630 wards can be separately identified to ensure calls receive at least a 60 minute response. BOCUs have developed their own systems for achieving this standard, often using the IBO as an interface. To address such areas for improvement, action plans are in place to close the performance gaps.

C. Race and equality impact

1. An Equality Impact Assessment has been prepared by the Citizen Focus Policing Programme in relation to the MPS Policing Pledge. The assessment indicates that there are differential satisfaction rates between white and black and minority ethnic service users (see paragraph 2 below) and that some service users experience difficulty in accessing services through traditional routes. For this reason the MPS Pledge describes such things as; how to access services through the Internet, how operators in our call centres have access to translation services and how callers who are deaf or have hearing difficulties can use a text phone. Additionally, the MPS has published its policing pledge in a wide variety of alternative formats to make it as widely accessible as possible (see paragraph 15 ante).

2. The MPS has identified a performance gap in respect of the comparative satisfaction of black and minority ethnic victims of crime, which is lower than that of white victims. Research undertaken by the MPS indicates that the satisfaction of BME victims is improved primarily through consistent delivery of quality policing services. The initiatives described in this paper and elsewhere, for example in the TP Front Counters Project, are all designed to improve external service delivery and improve the satisfaction of all service users.

D. Financial implications

The approach delivering the Pledge has been to embed the principles in the usual business development processes of the MPS. It is not intended to be the catalyst for major new spending. Costs have been incurred in developing and producing the internal and external publicity materials and a budget of £400k, has been funded corporately. Any other costs which cannot be met from within the allocated budget will be met from within existing TP budget provision.

E. Legal implications

There are no direct legal implications arising from this report, as the report is for information only.

F. Background papers

• Appendix 1 - Performance scorecard

G. Environmental impact

There are no direct environmental implications arising from this area of work.

H. Contact details

Report author: Chief Superintendent Ian Harrison, TPHQ

For information contact:

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

Glossary of Terms

5Ps

Presence, Performance, Productivity, Professionalism & Pride

AFI

Area for Improvement

APACS

Assessment of Policing and Community Safety

APLS

Automatic Personal Location System

BCS

British Crime Survey

BME

Black and minority Ethnic

BOCU

Borough Operational Command Unit

BWT

Budgeted Workforce Total

CAA

Comprehensive Area Assessments

CAD

Computer Aided Despatch

CCC

Central Command Complex (part of TP Business Group)

CO

Central Operations (Business Group)

CPA

Critical Performance Area

CRIMINT

Criminal Intelligence System

CRIS

Crime Report Information System

DAC

Deputy Assistant Commissioner

DOI

Directorate of Information (Business Group)

EPIC

Enforcement, Prevention, Intelligence & Communication (Safer Neighbourhood performance framework)

FYTD

Financial Year to Date

HMIC

Her Majesties Inspectorate of Constabularies

HO

Home Office

IAG

Independent Advisory Group

IBO

Integrated Borough Operations

IQuanta

Home Office Performance database for all forces

LAA

Local Area Agreements

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

NCHS

National Call Handling Standards

NPIA

National Police Improvement Agency

PAS

Public Attitude Survey

PDA

Personal Digital System

PDR

Performance & Developmental Review (Performance Appraisal)

SCD

Specialist Crime Directorate (Business Group)

SO

Serious & Organised Crime Directorate (Business Group)

SN

Safer Neighbourhoods (part of TP Business Group)

SMT 

Senior Management Team

SNTs

 Safer Neighbourhood Teams

SPOC

Single Point of Contact

TIB

Telephone Investigation Bureau

TP

Territorial Policing (Business Group)

USS

User Satisfaction Survey

VCoP

Victims Code of Practice

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