The MPS Research And Survey Unit

Report: 06
Date: 14 March 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

The report provides an overview of the MPS Research and Survey Unit. Key areas referenced are the unit's core work, significant costs, staff profile, work processes and some anticipated external influences. The advantages for the Unit, and the MPS, of working within a formal consultation strategy are noted.

A. Recommendation

Taht Members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Introduction

1. This report provides an outline of the MPS Research and Survey Unit (PIB 3). This unit, part of the Policy, Review & Standards Directorate (PRS), is the recognised source of expertise within the Service on survey methodology, contracted market research services and quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The intention is to provide a profile of the Unit that describes its staff, core business, significant costs and factors (actual and anticipated) that impact on its activity and resilience to meet demand. In the absence of an agreed consultation strategy, it is difficult for the unit to lay out a clear development path but in the knowledge that new approaches will be needed, the report does outline some possible developments and their costs.

Key work

2. The Research and Survey Unit currently manages a range of different survey work on behalf of the MPS and a brief outline is given below. The customer satisfaction surveys (CSS) provide corporate and borough level performance indicators as well as fulfilling statutory requirements for Best Value performance indicators (BVPIs). The two surveys used (targeted at victims of crime and those involved in road traffic accidents) provide quarterly corporate and borough management information on victim satisfaction levels; they are a vital component of local self-assessment, planning and consultative exercises such as Crime Audits and the EFQM process.

3. The Unit is also responsible for co-ordinating the MPS consultation on the annual public attitude survey (PAS) and managing the delivery of the survey from a contracted market research company. This year saw the survey develop significantly as an instrument for local consultation. Thus, several BOCUs requested boosted samples or additional survey questions to allow for more detailed analysis of local views and concerns. The 2001 survey also saw the development of new user-friendly software which allowed BOCUs, for the first time, to do their own data analysis in support of local issues and priorities. As an annual survey, it is not designed to monitor changing attitudes during the planning year or the effect of specific events but it does provide useful comparative data and long term trends.

4. The unit is expected to respond to quick-time corporate requirements for Service–wide data. A case in point has been the recent MPS Operation Cleansweep, which focused on the collection of data that allowed an assessment (and re-inspection) of the cleanliness and state of repair of police buildings across the Service.

5. The unit also has responsibility for assisting BOCUs across the service with ad-hoc survey work. In 2001/2 (to date), the unit has conducted over fifty such surveys. Of these, roughly 30% were borough based (20% staff, 10% customer); the remaining 70% was shared between central OCUs customer surveys (40%), staff surveys (10%) and other evaluations (20%). Surveying is a specialist activity and while the unit's work in these areas does not take up a significant amount of time or budget, this support helps to ensure a level of quality for all surveys conducted.

6. From time to time the unit assists key agencies in promoting consultation on policing issues. In this regard, the Research and Survey Unit recently undertook the data input and analysis of over 500 questionnaires for Julia Smith (MPA); the work was focused on canvassing Londoner's views on 'policing priorities'.

Staff profile

7. The Research and Survey Unit is a small team of civil staff; the established strength normally consists of a manager at Grade 9 (Higher Executive/Scientific Officer), four Scientific Officers (Grade 10), three college based sandwich students on one-yearly placements and an administrative officer (Grade 12). The four Scientific Officers (SOs) either manage or personally conduct the majority of the project work of the unit.

Commissioning survey work

8. Contracted-out survey work is usually commissioned using the 'framework agreement' which provides a group of vetted and approved market research companies. The agreement rests on a competitive tendering process that allows companies to bid for all or parts of an itemised schedule of requirements. Bids are rigorously assessed and work awarded on the basis of cost, resources and relevant experience. Currently, there are three companies in the framework agreement (MVA, Kudos and Research International).

Resilience and capacity to meet demand

9. The resilience of the Research and Survey Unit and its capacity to support customer demand is primarily affected by two factors; these are staff turnover and demand for quick-time corporate work (e.g. Operation Cleansweep). Until the recent selective use of a market related allowance (MRA) for project officer staff, turnover in the unit had been high. Predictably, high staff turnover had undermined the capacity of the unit to fully meet customer demand and acquire fresh technical knowledge and expertise. Within the MPS there is continuing uncertainty about the full effects of the Hay pay and grading review; this is a potential risk factor for retention within the Research and Survey Unit.

Costs

10. The unit had a budget of £315,000 for 2000-2001. The bulk of this amount funded major corporate surveys that were contracted to market research and data analysis companies. Some of the work managed by the unit, particularly at BOCU level, has been part-funded by local partnership arrangements.

11. The major spend from the Research and Survey Unit in 2001/02 was:

• the MPS annual Public Attitude Survey (PAS): £100,000
• the quarterly Crime Victim survey: £140,000
• the quarterly RTA Customer Satisfaction survey: £14,000

12. The vast majority of the Unit's non-statutory survey work attracts only opportunity costs. In the recent past, the Unit operated a "shadow charging" regime where BOCUs received an initial allocation of project officer days; in part, due to significant variation in demand this arrangement has now been discontinued.

13. In 2001/2 (to date), the other non-statutory "real" costs of the Unit's work are £2,700 to a Royal Mail account for pre-paid envelopes, £810 for further analysis by a contractor and £430 for envelope filling. The major expense of the year on ad-hoc corporate work was some £10,000 for Operation Cleansweep.

Work allocation and process

14. The Research and Survey Unit is almost exclusively demand led. When resources allow, the Unit customarily works on a mix of corporate work and ad-hoc survey requests from BOCUs and individual HQ departments. Priority is given to work in support of corporate planning processes and work that delivers data in support of key measurement regimes such as BVPIs and the EFQM.

Key external influences on the work of the unit

15. The development of the MPA Consultation Strategy will undoubtedly impact on the nature and scope of work in the unit (see comments in para. 21). The emerging Corporate Strategy will also call on the Survey Unit to get involved in the development of new approaches to consulting with the wider community both inside and outside the MPS. The Unit is alive to many of the new approaches and techniques and is keen to be involved in this work.

16. A key external influence on the work of the Research and Survey Unit could relate to the new 'ministerial priorities'; as thing stand, these priorities ask for a significant increase in survey activity.

17. There are also other notable external influences. For example, the priority and additional resources, that the Home Office is presently assigning to the British Crime Survey may eventually allow the MPS to re-assess its reliance on the Public Attitude Survey (PAS) as a primary tool to provide corporate and borough based performance indicators. This would principally affect the assessment of fear of crime, satisfaction with foot/mobile patrols and estimates on the non-reporting of crime. The government priority on the use of and availability of technology is another important influence that should allow the unit to make wider use of different consultation methodologies (e.g. e-consultation).

Anticipating significant future costs

18. The draft five year MPS corporate plan 'The Safest City – delivering policing for Londoners (2002-2007)' makes reference to several consultation/research activities that could have significant new costs. Firstly, there is a commitment to "introduce selective surveys with the public" followed by a separate commitment to "an annual community survey". This suggests that one annual consultative exercise such as the PAS needs to be augmented with more frequent and targeted surveying. The service also commits to conducting an "independent staff survey on a yearly basis".

19. It is difficult to assign precise costs to any of these proposed activities at this early stage but, as a guide, estimates have been obtained from one market research company for quarterly on-street surveys to estimate the fear of crime by borough (a local objective for 2002/3). The costs of such an additional piece of survey work (the full PAS would still need to be conducted) could be :

• Set up and design of questionnaire (including pre-testing questionnaire), sampling methodology (one-off cost assuming the questions do not change over the year): £5,000
• Quarterly survey of approximately 3840 interviews across the 32 boroughs. This cost will include the production of a set of tables per borough (one top copy plus an electronic version for each borough): £33,630 per quarter
• End of year report summarising the findings for the whole of London (approximately 15,360 interviews): £4,230
• The total cost of this new consultation initiative would be £143,750

20. Other significant and unanticipated costs may be incurred should a contractor cease training. This year the contractor who conducted the Crime Victim Survey was closed down by its parent company. The MPS received no advance warning (or compensation), lost up to four months worth of data whilst tendering for a replacement, and ended up paying some £60K per annum more to a new contractor for the survey.

Need for a Consultation Strategy

21. Although the Research and Survey Unit has a good record in meeting customer demand, a lot of its activity is largely uncoordinated from a strategic perspective. There is no overarching consultation strategy guiding its work or work processes. This situation means that there are risks for the MPS that consultation is not being progressed in the most economic and effective manner.

22. The Research and Survey Unit and other representatives from its parent directorate, PRS, have been active in liasing with the MPA to help in the development of a consultation strategy. It is anticipated that such a strategy will increase the capacity of the MPA/MPS and the Research and Survey Unit, in particular, to deliver more co-ordinated and effective consultation in line with the needs of Londoners.

C. Financial implications

Details of some of the specific costs incurred by the unit are set out above. Expenditure for the current year is within previously agreed budget. The bidding process for 2002/3 is still on going and provision is being sought for the range of costs that might be incurred as outlined in paragraph 19.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

Report author: Alistair McBeath and Paul Price, Research & Survey Unit, MPS.

For information contact:

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

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