Efficiency and Effectiveness Review Programme

Report: 07
Date: 22 April 2004
By: Treasurer

Summary

This report updates members on progress of the Efficiency and Effectiveness programme.

A. Recommendation

That members note the progress on the Efficiency and Effectiveness review programme.

B. Supporting information

1. The Efficiency and Effectiveness Project Board has now met twice since the last update to the Committee, on 13 January and 2 March 2004.

Implementation and benefits realisation update

2. On 13 January the Board instigated an independent review of the benefits of the main Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 E&E reviews, particularly identifying gaps for managing and reporting on the delivery of these benefits.

3. The Board considered that it would be most effective to use a combination of the resources of the Audit Commission, Internal Audit and the MPS’s Internal Consultancy Group to prepare this review. The Audit Commission were willing to extend work on implementing efficiency reviews they were already undertaking and Internal Audit had already programmed a review of interpreters/linguistics. The work was allocated across the main reviews as follows:

• Audit Commission (Tranche 1 reviews)
  • Transport Services, Forensic Services, and Management of Overtime;
• Internal Consultancy Group (Tranche 2 reviews)
  • Civilianisation, IT , Shifts, Inspection and HR; and
• Internal Audit (Tranche 1 review)
  • Interpreters/Linguistics

In addition MPS Financial Services has reviewed the financial benefits of the Income Generation review.

4. The interim final reports from the Audit Commission and ICG were discussed at the Board’s meeting on 2 March. Their final reports, which have now been agreed by the Board, are attached at Appendix 1, for members only together with Internal Audit’s interim findings on interpreters and translators. Copies of these documents are also available on the website.

5. The Audit Commission indicated that for transport and forensics, the E&E review has acted as a catalyst, further/wider developments have taken place and the management of these services has made it more likely that change will take place and benefits will be realised. It is difficult to quantify the savings from a change in practice – in some areas costs have remained the same but workload has increased. For overtime there are some pockets of good practice but it is not consistent across the MPS. The Budget Change Team issued guidance for budget managers, ‘Guidelines for Managing Police Overtime Effectively’, but again this does not seem to be used consistently and some managers have not seen the guidance. There are issues around supply and demand and demand management is still a major issue, quality of some data is inconsistent, activity and cost data could be used more effectively in the budget setting process and staff welfare does not seem to be appropriately considered (concentrating on payment of overtime only rather than recording hours worked).

6. In reviewing the Tranche 2 reviews – civilianisation, IT, shifts, inspection, HR the Internal Consultancy Group again found evidence in some areas that the E&E review has acted as a catalyst to further development and change. Overall 45 of the 47 recommendations have been fully or partially implemented.

7. Internal Audit has prepared an interim report on interpreters and translators. Their initial findings, which relate to the benefits and implementation of the E&E work, noted amongst other matters that a charging system to recover costs from the Immigration Service for use of interpreters has been implemented and that the budget for interpreters has been devolved from 1 April 2003, although other work is still in progress.

8. A financial benefits register has been agreed with the MPS and is attached at Appendix 2. This shows that some £36.2 million of cashable financial benefits have resulted, either by way of reduced budgets or overall reduction in expenditure. An overview or ‘end of term report’ of the E&E Programme is shown in Appendix 3.

Territorial Policing feedback on sharing of good practice

9. The Board received a presentation at its March meeting from Chief Inspector Steve Deehan which concentrated on three of the tools recommended by Accenture:

• directory of contacts – it was noted that it was difficult to ensure update of information and that the MPS were developing links to the shared drive to aid accessibility;
• discussion database – there were some initial problems with ‘user friendliness’, forcing use of the database by only posting information there. It was noted that the TP planning intranet site is under development and further developments are being sought; and
• good practice forum – some evidence that networking is beginning to take place with further developments planned for 2004-05.

10. TP are also looking to develop ‘postcards/info cards’ – providing each member of TP staff with a copy of their local objectives for the year, eventually including local performance targets. This links to the PDR programme and discussions are taking place with HR in relation to this.

11. Overall the feedback was encouraging, however there is currently no systematic sharing of experience across business groups – there was a need to ensure that learning and good practice from the TP experience is shared across the MPS (see paragraph below).

Implementing sharing of good practice

12. The MPS Internal Consultancy Group are to build on the original E&E work, review the experience of TP and elsewhere, prepare a specification for a piece of consultancy work to look at all the current work highlighting practical solutions and see how this can be taken forward. It is intended that the consultancy exercise would be funded from the E&E programme budget.

Next steps

13. While much has been achieved there are still outstanding areas on some individual reviews that either require implementation or where further work or assessment of benefits is still needed. The E&E Project Board continues to meet on a quarterly basis and further identification and derivation of benefits from tranches 1 and 2 will continue.

14. The Project Board still has £450,000 budget remaining for use in 2004/05, plus £75,000 carried forward from previous tranches. It is intended that the Board will consider proposals for the allocation of this resource at its next meeting on 9 June and seek endorsement from the committee at its next meeting on 23 July.

C. Race and Equality impact

None specifically identified although the successful implementation of many of Accenture’s recommendations, particularly in HR, requires the best principles in the field of equality and diversity to be adopted.

D. Financial implications

1. 2003-04 was the last year of funding for the efficiency and effectiveness programme, and the £1m budget was a saving in the budget build for 2004-05.

2. The Co-ordination and Policing Committee on 15 March agreed to carry forward any unspent monies to 2004-05. The estimated underspend is in the region of £450,000 and this will be reserved, together with £75,000 reserved from previous years, for future efficiency and effectiveness work.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Ken Hunt, Deputy Treasurer, MPA.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1c

Update by Internal Audit on the implementation of the recommendations arising from the efficiency and effectiveness review of interpreters and translators

Appendix 3

End of term report – Efficiency and Effectiveness Programme 2000-04

At the commencement of the Authority in 2000 the Mayor asked the MPA to ensure that its budget provided resources for independent consultants to commence a three-year programme of reviews covering the efficiency and effectiveness of resource allocation to fund future service developments. The Mayor, Chairman of the Authority and the Commissioner agreed that the primary purpose of a programme would be the release of additional resources for front line policing. This was seen against the background of potential future funding constraints in terms of government grant and precept.

In February 2001 a joint stakeholder group comprising GLA, MPA and MPS undertook the 3-year programme with an annual budget of £1 million. In August 2001 Accenture won the tender for year 1 (known as tranche 1) and in March 2002 won the tender for tranche 2. There was also some specialist consultancy completed in other areas. In year 3, the Efficiency and Effectiveness Board sponsored the commencement of the Step Change programme, allocating £400,000 and supported work on procurement (£100,000).

A significant number of benefits have flowed from the review programme which include a mix of budget reductions, income increases, reductions in overspends, one-off benefits to the MPS and improvement in procedures.

Some of the achievements are:

• Nine tranche1 and eight tranche 2 reviews completed to time and budget
• Total financial benefit of £20 million per annum in 2002/03, £3 million in 2003/04 and a further anticipated benefit of £13 million
• There have been benefits in the following areas:
  • Transport services
    • Reduction in contract cost
    • Improved vehicle allocation formula
    • Improved central management
    • New transport strategy developed
  • Forensic Services
    • Improved commercial contracts now in place
    • Devolved budget from April 2004 local management responsibility
    • Moving towards cost per case instead of per test
    • Starting to measure JDs as a consequence of forensics
  • Management of overtime
    • Guidance for the management of overtime produced and issued March 2003
    • Good work taking forward Accenture’s recommendations, however there is still much to do
  • Civilianisation
    • 3 year implementation plan starts in 2004/05
    • Corporate guidance issued
    • £2 million cost reduction for 2004/05 (difference between police officer and police staff costs).
  • Information Technology
    • IT investment reflects business priorities - benefits management strategy introduced where investment decisions based on business benefits
    • Strengthened project management capabilities
    • Strengthened and clarified accountabilities for delivering benefits at OCU level
  • Shifts
    • Appropriate BOCU shift pattern has been evaluated
  • Inspection
    • End of local inspection programme in BOCUs and OCUs – 12 police posts and £373K released
    • Relaunch of improved programme in SO, SC and TP’s Pan – London units from January 2003
  • Human Resources
    • Review showed MPS costs for OH Nursing, recuperative services and medical officer functions extremely competitive
    • Maintain welfare counselling service in house – review showed that any savings from outsourcing could be undermined by loss of quality of service, customer relationship
    • Devolved HR administration kept in house – related operational risks made the benefit of outsourcing marginal
  • Linguistics
    • Review of interpreters supply and demand – identified shortage in 5 key languages – recruitment undertaken
    • Charging system for Immigration Service now in place
    • Budgets for interpreters devolved to BOCUs on 1 April 2003
    • Policy and standard operating procedure currently being consulted upon – anticipated publication May 2004
  • Other reviews
    • Supplies and services - review of Procurement Department, roll out of electronic ordering
    • Property – review of strategic property portfolio
    • Income generation - creation of sponsorship unit, establishment of charitable trust
    • Forensic Medical Examiners - budget for FME services devolved to OCUs
    • Budget devolution – linked to development of operational policing measure
    • Operational Policing Measure – visibility target incorporated in 2004/05 Policing Plan utilising OPM data as baseline/monitoring (proposes 5% increase in visible policing hours in TP/BOCUs)
• The process for managing projects was commended by the Audit Commission in August 2003 as being in line with best practice
• The governance arrangements for the E&E Project Board (including MPA members) encouraged successful joint working between stakeholders at the top level
• The scrutiny process encouraged an independent ‘outside’ look at efficiency and effectiveness
• The process encouraged working relationships at operational level between stakeholders, for example the establishment of the Joint Working Group
• The Board has reacted flexibly as opportunities arose, for example the funding of the Step Change programme
• The process encouraged a ‘non-silo’ approach to reviews
• The Board has instigated a review into sharing best practice across the organisation and intend that the progress made in TP is rolled out across the organisation
• The E&E process now feeds into the HMIC efficiency target
• The Accenture review has acted as a catalyst for a more cost effective culture and other efficiency opportunities have been rolled out as a result. Taken as a whole anticipated savings in the wider area would approach £54 million.

Much has been achieved in a short time. The E&E review programme has released substantial benefits. Processes put in place will continue to release ongoing benefits on an annual basis. All stakeholders are committed to continuing to work to drive out effectiveness and ensure further benefits accrue in the future. The modernisation / change agenda for policing continues at a remarkable pace. The need to ensure that every pound of taxpayer’s money contributes effectively to Londoner’s needs for a safer city means that the pressure for efficiencies will continue. The savings to date of £22 million within the overall budget for the police service has facilitated growth leading to the largest number of police officers in London than at any time in the past. The Board will continue to ensure arrangements are in place to release resources for effective front line policing.

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