Audit of Policing Plan 2002/3

Report: 08
Date: 13 March 2003
By: Clerk

Summary

This report summarises the report received from District Audit on the 2002/3 Policing Plan. The MPA response to the audit, to be published within the 2003/4 Policing Plan is also discussed.

A. Recommendations

That the Committee

1. notes the report from District Audit on the 2002/3 Best Value Policing Plan;
2. endorses the MPA response to the report, to be included within the 2003/4 Policing Plan; and
3. requests that the MPS provides this Committee with an action plan to address recommendations made within the District Audit report.

B. Supporting information

1. Each year District Audit carries out an audit of the MPA’s annual Best Value Policing Plan and issues a report on the audit findings. The Authority is required to publish this report, which is being done through this report, and to provide a formal response. The Auditor’s report is attached at Appendix 1.

2. The overall conclusion of the report was that the plan was ‘a well presented and useful document’, but that ‘the Authority’s Best Value agenda now needs to be fully integrated across the whole organisation and moved forward with vigour, to ensure that tangible service improvements are secured.’

3. The District Auditor can provide a qualified opinion of a plan, together with statutory recommendations for improvement. In previous years statutory recommendations for the MPA have been made, however for the 2002/3 plan the District Auditor’s opinion was not qualified and no statutory recommendations were made. However, a number of non-statutory recommendations were made which did not require a formal response, detailed in the attached auditor’s report. These recommendations were in four broad areas:

1. The performance management framework – 4 recommendations
2. Best Value reviews - 3 recommendations
3. Managing review activity – 1 recommendation
4. Performance indicators – 1 recommendation

4. The MPA response to the report and recommendations made is to be provided formally within the 2003/4 Policing Plan. The draft text to be included in the plan is attached at Appendix 2 for members’ agreement. The MPA response welcomes the report, provides an update on previous statutory recommendations and states that the authority will be receiving an action plan from the MPS to address the non-statutory recommendations made regarding the 2002/3 plan.

5. It is recommended that members request an action plan from the MPS outlining how the non-statutory recommendations will be addressed. This should be provided to a future meeting of this committee.

C. Equality and diversity implications

As it is not part of the scope of the audit of Best Value Plans, District Audit did not comment specifically on equality and diversity issues in this audit report. It did, however, comment on the whole suite of Best Value performance indicators, which includes equalities and diversity indicators, and did not provide any statutory recommendations regarding the performance indicators. There are hence no direct equality and diversity implications arising from this report.

D. Financial implications

There are no specific financial implications within the auditor’s report. The MPS will be asked to detail any financial implications arising from the action plan to be provided.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Johanna Gillians, MPA.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 2

Annex F: Audit of Policing and Performance Plan 2002/03

Introduction

This section summarises the report from District Audit on our policing and performance plan 2002/03 and on our actions in response to their recommendations.

District Audit’s conclusion

District Audit considered that our 2002/03 plan was a well presented and useful document and that it provided users with a helpful perspective on performance. The audit report also concluded that the Authority’s Best Value agenda now needs to be fully integrated across the whole organisation and moved forward with vigour, to ensure that tangible service improvements area secured.

The audit report included an opinion which was ‘not qualified’ and no recommendations requiring a formal response were made. However, the auditor made nine non-statutory recommendations.

Initial MPA response

District Audit published their findings in December 2002. We welcomed the report and considered it to be fair and helpful. We thought the process of audit was useful and contributed to a better policing and performance plan than would otherwise have been the case. We have not been required to provide a formal response as no formal recommendations were made. We will, however, be requiring the MPS to provide an action plan to address the other recommendations within the audit report.

The auditors’ report and opinion, plus a MPA statement of response, have been considered by MPA Committee and will be published on both the MPA and MPS Internet sites.

Progress on statutory recommendations

No statutory recommendations have been made regarding the 2002/3 Policing and Performance Plan. However, three statutory recommendations were made regarding the 2001/2 plan and an update on these is provided below.

1) To ensure that all of the necessary performance information is included in next year’s policing and performance plan.

This was improved upon in 2002/3, resulting in a audit opinion which was not qualified. Improvements have continued for the 2003/4 policing and performance plan and all performance data related to policing plan indicators and all information available on best value performance indicators has been included.

2) Integrate Best Value principles into day-to-day processes to ensure that managers across the organisation are adopting a consistent and effective approach to continuous improvement.

As reported previously we believe this is an issue requiring long-term action across many parts of the MPA/MPS. Progress in 2002/03 has included:

• working with partners nationally to revise guidelines which emphasise the need for reviews to take a proportionate and flexible approach;
• ensuring that initial research clarifies progress towards the 4Cs so that the rest of the review can concentrate on ‘making good the difference’;
• ensuring review teams are led and managed by a suitably qualified consultant / project manager to improve overall quality, to reduce costs and to reduce police abstractions from operational duty;
• re-badging BVRs as ‘service improvement reviews’ to help emphasise the above change in approach.

3) Tighten implementation planning arrangements for Best Value reviews to ensure that delays are minimised in developing clear and measurable improvement plans for completed reviews.

We continue to use a common template and guidelines for the preparation of improvement plans. An improvement plan is submitted with each final report at the end of a best value review. This plan is considered and approved by members and forms the basis of a subsequent more detailed implementation plan which we monitor every six months.

Other recommendations

Although no statutory recommendations were made, District Audit made a number of other recommendations aimed at improving the overall delivery of best value and/or improving the quality of our policing and performance plan.

Other recommendations were made in four areas: four recommendations regarding the performance management framework; three recommendations regarding Best Value reviews, one recommendation on the management of review activity and recommendation in relation to the improved reporting of performance indicators.

As previously stated, the MPA has requested that the MPS provides the authority with an action plan to address these recommendations.

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