Best value & progress on improving DPS investigative processes & outcomes

Report: 14
Date: 11 April 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

Progress on implementing the Best Value Review for the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS) is on schedule. The restructuring of Borough Support Command to 16 investigative teams at 4 sites was completed ahead of schedule, as was the development of performance information for all Investigating Officers (IOs). 

This report includes an updated implementation plan and an assessment of how the benefits should be quantified. 

The total costs of the review and implementation are now assessed at £621,000. The cashable efficiency savings are £763,000 a year and the non-cashable efficiency savings are £1.37 million a year, totalling £2.14 million annually. 

The average number of officers suspended has been reduced from 115 in 1999 to 80 in 2001, allowing the MPS pay budget to put 35 more officers on front-line duties. 

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) inspected this Best Value Review and have recently sent their report to the MPA. It is pleasing to note that the overall judgement was that the service is good and prospects for improvement are excellent.

A. Recommendation

It is requested that members note the progress on the DPS Best Value Review and the judgement by HMIC.

B. Supporting information

Implementation plan and progress

1. In December 2001 the PSPM Committee approved the DPS Best Value Implementation Plan, an updated version of which is attached as Appendix 1 (see Supporting material). Members stressed the importance of timeliness of investigations, communication with both complainants and officers, and the need to minimise bureaucracy. These issues are referred to below.

2. The Chair asked for further work to be done to quantify the benefits. Some of these are now measured weekly or monthly by DPS, and included in the bi-monthly report to PSPM entitled 'Investigative Performance and Misconduct Procedures'. Further details are given in the section on Quantifying Benefits and in Appendix 2 (see Supporting material).

3. References such as (b2) indicate activities or products shown in the implementation plan at Appendix 1. References such as (Ben. 23) indicate benefits shown in Appendix 2.

4. The restructuring of Borough Support Command to 16 investigative teams at 4 sites was completed two months before scheduled (a1). As an example of a non-financial benefit, this has freed up office space in Central London for the Territorial Policing HQ (Ben. 16).

5. The management information on the performance of all DPS investigating officers and branches (c3) was also developed ahead of schedule, and the timeliness figures are included in this month's report on 'Investigative Performance & Misconduct Procedures'. Borough-level management information is now freely available on the Intranet. All BSC IOs have received training in its use and interpretation and are expected to use it as the basis for quarterly meetings with senior management teams on their boroughs. (e2)

Review of DPS and inspection by MPS Inspectorate

6. In the last quarter a wide-ranging Review of DPS has been conducted by Commander Phillip Hagon. This Review has also served as the Excellence Model assessment for DPS, avoiding duplication of work and overlapping action plans. (f2)

7. In parallel with this Review, the MPS Inspectorate have conducted an inspection of the timeliness and quality of discipline investigations. This has covered some of the areas where Level 2 inspections were otherwise due, in particular Corporate Standards and the Ethical Health Audit. (c1 & e4).

Quantifying Best Value benefits

8. The Best Value Review identified 44 likely or potential benefits (Appendix 2). Theoretically almost all could be measured or quantified in some way. (e6) However, analytical capacity is limited and DPS has prioritised the quantifying of those benefits that relate to:

• large efficiency savings;
• timeliness of investigations or misconduct procedures;
• quality of service to complaints or officers; and
• quality of investigation.

9. The cashable and non-cashable efficiency savings were reported to PSPM in the Best Value report in December 2001, and are summarised in Section C below. The measures of timeliness and quality are included in the bi-monthly report to PSPM entitled 'Investigative Performance and Misconduct Procedures'.

10. Whilst it would be possible to quantify more of the benefits, this would risk double-counting. For example, the reduction in unnecessary referrals of internal investigations from Boroughs (Ben. 20) could be calculated as an efficiency saving on the basis of the average cost of an internal investigation. However, this saving has already been claimed through the reduction of senior management in Borough Support Command. Similar arguments apply to the improved use of resources in proportionate investigations (Ben. 6) and applying resources to prioritised work and avoiding duplication of effort (Ben. 38).

11. The improvements in timeliness will in due course improve both the confidence of complaints and the morale of officers under investigation. It is likely that improved morale will reduce sickness abstractions and improve officers' performance. However, it would be difficult and expensive to demonstrate the correlation and measure the savings.

12. In summary, 70% of the 44 benefits are quantifiable. About 50% of the total will be reported to the MPA PSPM through either the Best Value Implementation Plan updates or the bi-monthly report on 'Investigative Performance & Misconduct Procedures'. Another 20% of the total are best assessed through project control, intrusive management by senior officers in DPS, or the Excellence Model. These benefits will be reported as appropriate in the body of the regular reports to PSPM. The remaining benefits could in theory be measured or quantified in some way. However, this effort would not support the performance management framework in DPS, and indeed would reduce the focus of analytical resources on identifying patterns of complaints, and analysing potential disproportionality.

Review of discipline office

13. The Review of Discipline Office was the continuation of the Best Value Review, though with much reduced staff and bureaucracy (a2). The emerging findings are currently the subject of consultation with other parts of DPS, staff associations and the PCA. There will be some cashable efficiency savings (see Section C below) but the main benefits will be improved timeliness of decision making and misconduct hearings, and a more transparent and objective process for reviewing completed investigations.

Evaluations, inspections and partnership

14. The HMIC inspection of this Best Value Review was recently sent to the MPA, with the overall judgement was that the service is good and prospects for improvement are excellent (b2). The evaluation of the BSC development site at Norbury is on track (b1).

15. A Level 2 inspection of decision logs (c4) was completed in December 2001 and will inform the next draft of the decision logs. Further training in risk assessment was given to Investigating Officers in January 2002.

16. The 'Learning Lab' partnership of the MPA, MPS, CPS, PCA & Cabinet Office has been reconfigured to put more emphasis on progress by the Working Group (d1). Benchmarking against other forces began last autumn, and has been extended to consider relative performance in arranging misconduct hearings (d2).

Training and guidance for investigating officers

17. A course was held at the Detective Training School in December 2002 for PCA members who may be called on to act as senior investigating officers for serious complaints. Feedback from the PCA members was generally favourable. The course was based on the national Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) development programme, and this was seen as an opportunity to train half a dozen DPS IOs alongside the PCA members (c6). However, feedback from the IOs was that the course did not meet the particular needs of complaints investigation. A different course is thus needed for DPS IOs, and this will be based on the recently completed DPS Training Needs Assessment.

18. A common theme of the recent Review of DPS and of previous consultation with staff is that IOs and their staff want more guidance in complaints investigation. Pending the design and delivery of the IOs courses, this guidance will be given by the DPS Corporate Standards, which were implemented in September 2001, and by the revised Misconduct Investigation Manual (c2 & c5). This manual is taking longer to finish than planned, as a direct result of prioritising work on the timeliness of investigations.

Satisfaction surveys and communication

19. It was intended to conduct quarterly satisfaction surveys of complainants (e1). However the response rate to the questionnaires sent to complainants over the last year has been under 20%, so it is now proposed to conduct the survey annually. The responses are currently being analysed. The emerging findings are entirely consistent with the Best Value Review research and the recent inspection by the MPS Inspectorate. Complainants and officers overwhelmingly want timely investigations and want to be kept informed of the progress.

20. A detailed study has recently been undertaken by Ms Dina Gold, an Advisor in the BBC Programme Complaints Unit, who is currently on secondment to the MPS. She has recommended that DPS be more systematic in keeping officers and complainants informed of the progress of investigations, and has proposed numerous methods by which communication can be improved. Her recommendations will be implemented as part of the Best Value implementation plan.

21. Currently communication with officers is by letter, which is slow and needlessly expensive to produce, so more use will be made of the MPS email system. The business case for the replacement of the legacy Complaints & Discipline System will include provision for officers under investigation to check the status of investigations themselves at any time.

Resource allocation and functional evaluation

22. Resource allocation for the Borough Support Command is determined by the number of investigating teams (now 16 teams at 4 sites), the number of officers on each team, and the numbers and functions of essential support staff.

23. Development of the resource allocation model (e5) will be assisted by a process of functional evaluation, which has been developed and piloted for three representative DPS functions, including the BSC administration function. This will be extended to all DPS units over the next four months. The aims are:

• A. To develop a rigorous and credible process that identifies and justifies DPS use of resources, to enable DPS to resist future resource reductions or allocate resource increases wisely.
• B. To manage the impact of any resource reductions by identifying the functions that will no longer be done, or that will be done less often, less well or less thoroughly.
• C. To identify the resources needed for a shift into preventive work, in support of the impending MPS Professional Standards Strategy.

Project control

24. One recommendation of the recent Review of DPS is to rationalise the DPS meeting structure, bringing together senior managers from the previously separate Operations and Discipline commands. The Best Value project board has now been included in a wider Best Value & Continuous Improvement Board chaired by Commander Hagon. This will require project initiation documents for all projects and will meet quarterly to monitor progress against projections.

C. Financial implications

1. The total costs of the Review and implementation were reported to the December 2001 PSPM as being £672,000. As a result of the DPS Review a Performance Review Unit has been created in DPS to help monitor and keep on track all projects, plans and performance indicators. Therefore less time will be required from senior officers in Borough Support Command, and the total costs of the Review and implementation are now assessed at £621,000.

2. The cashable efficiency savings are currently assessed at £763,000 per annum, through the reduction of senior officers in Borough Support Command, of which 90% will be realised in 2002/03 the 2003/04 and future year's savings will be incorporated in the medium term financial forecast. This will be increased by civilianising some of the inspectors posts as case managers in the Discipline Office. One post has already been civilianised. Further savings depend on the implementation of the Review of the Discipline Office and MPS corporate guidance on civil staff recruitment. These savings will be included in the next Best Value update.

3. The non-cashable efficiency savings are mostly due to the reduction in the number of suspended officers and the consequent pay bill. (Ben. 4 & 24) This was assisted by the realisation of many other benefits, including improved decision making (Ben. 8, 9 &12), risk assessment (Ben. 13 & 35), corporate standards (Ben. 18 & 39), timeliness (Ben. 23 & 28 & 34), and quality of investigations (Ben. 25).

4. Previously the savings relating to suspended officers were all calculated at the average pay rate for PCs. They have now been updated to reflect the higher pay of sergeants and senior officers. In 1999 there were an average of 115 officers suspended, costing £4.39 million. In 2001 there were an average of 80 officers suspended, costing £3.10 million. This is a saving of £1.29 million and has allowed the MPS police pay budget to put 35 more officers on front-line duties. Adding in the £86,000 saved by reduced ACPO involvement in complaints produces total non-cashable efficiency savings of £1.37 million a year.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

Report authors: DCS Tony Dawson, MPS.

For information contact:

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

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