A proposal for providing performance information to the MPA Professional Standards and Performance Monitoring Committee

Report: 4
Date: 14 November 2000
By: Clerk

Summary

The purpose of this paper is to identify an approach to performance reporting that ensures the Professional Standards and Performance Monitoring (PSPM) committee are fully informed about the matters relevant to their remit but which minimises the duplication of reporting. It proposes a system which schedules regular in-depth consideration of specific matters of interest.

A. Supporting information

1. There are currently three reports produced that support performance monitoring. All are produced by the MPS.

1. A tabulated performance indicators report includes the current status of all policing plan and best value indicators. These performance indicators have all been identified as being necessary for the MPA to perform its statutory function of monitoring best value and compliance with the policing plan.

2. The MPS also produces a commentary for the MPA, which supports the tabulated report. This provides additional information relating to the indicators and actions arising as a result of management initiatives.

3. The MPS Performance Review Committee (PRC) receives a report that provides considerably greater detail and analysis. It covers all of the best value performance indicators and policing plan indicators, but does not provide these details within every report. It is the MPS’s intent that all the indicators, where possible, will be available for reporting and consideration during the year.

2. These three reports include some duplication. Although they are based on the same set of PIs, they are set out differently and have different emphases.

3. The PRC report is produced to support the MPS's management process and is designed to inform management decision making.

4. The MPS commentary is largely extracted from the PRC report and designed to provide explanation of trends and indicators to support the monitoring process carried out by the MPA. Additional comment is included on points specifically requested or relevant to the PSPM.

5. The difficulty that arises from the provision of all the above information is that the extent of activities covered is large; it is therefore extremely difficult to provide time at each meeting to cover all aspects sufficiently or to ensure attendees are briefed on all these aspects. It will also be important for PSPM members to develop and maintain a good understanding of the subject areas behind the figures. Previous proposals have identified other committees that will probably wish to take a lead in consideration of some areas of performance so reducing the need for discussion within the PSPM. Arrangements have been made to provide them with an extract of the tabulated information covering their areas of interest. The MPA secretariat will perform the task of ensuring pertinent extracts of the reports are passed on to the relevant committees and are included in the Mayor's report.

6. To simplify the reporting processes, and reduce duplication it is recommended that in future the PSPM receives a monthly performance report which is made up of a copy of the MPS PRC report along with a tabulation of all BVPIs and Policing Plan Targets. It is recommended that the separate commentary produced specifically for the PSPM is dropped.

7. The MPS will be expected to inform the PSPM of the key issues discussed at the PRC meeting either as an addendum to the report or in an oral report to the meeting. The former would be preferable.

8. It is recommended that this regular report be forwarded to the Full Authority once a quarter, under a covering note summarising key points on the report made by the PSPM.

9. Borough information will also be provided in the form included in the PRC report. This provides comparative data, to gain a London-wide picture, rather than detailed statistics on individual boroughs. It will also be possible, once the BVPIs are published by the various police authorities at the end of the year, to make comparisons between individual Boroughs and other Police Authorities across the country. In order to achieve this it is essential that the MPS figures are presented on the same basis as all other police service figures. The MPS will endeavour to ensure that the information it provides complies with published guidance.

10. In order for the PSPM to develop and maintain a good understanding of the issues that lie behind the figures, it will need to consider priority areas on a routine basis in more detail with significantly more commentary than would typically be provided by the monthly report. Detailed reports on specific topics would be dealt with as a separate item(s) on the agenda. It is suggested that these areas be dealt with on a routine quarterly basis. In order to facilitate this, it is proposed that a quarterly cycle be established, starting next month, which covers all of the subjects of interest to the PSPM. The elements of the cycle will be determined by the Policing Plan and BVPIs. An example might be:

11. The above list will need to be reconsidered once the policing plan priorities for 2001/2 have been confirmed. It will be important for this system to be used flexibly. There is no point in having more detailed commentary for its own sake. At each meeting the PSPM should advise the MPS for which subjects from the categories nominated for the following month they require a more detailed report.

12. It is anticipated that the October, November and December meetings will include consideration of targets for the coming year, associated with the completion of the Policing Plan. It is also anticipated that the June, July and August meetings will review end of year figures. It is possible that once per year the quality of the information provided in each area will be scrutinised.

13. Survey figures will be included in the agenda when they become available, including any additional surveys requested by the MPA or the PSPM.

14. It will be open to members to request that additional items of concern, arising from the figures in the reports, be included within the agenda. It would be appreciated if additional items for discussion could be identified to the Secretariat giving at least two working days before the committee meeting for further research if required. Clearly, this is not intended to inhibit members’ ability for raising any subject during the committee meeting, but providing notice of an item for discussion will enable the MPS and MPA secretariat to prepare briefings etc.

B. Recommendations

1. It is recommended that the PSPM receive on a monthly basis the PRC performance report and a tabulated PI report listing all BVPIs and PPPIs. These are described in paragraph 1. The MPS should also provide a summary of the key issues discussed by the PRC to the PSPM.

2. More detailed reports on key subject areas should be provided to the PSPM in accordance with a quarterly cycle, as proposed in paragraph 10. Members should agree at PSPM meetings which subjects they would like reports on for the following month from the quarterly cycle list.

3. The MPS monthly performance report to the PSPM should be forwarded to the full Authority meeting once each quarter, with a commentary on any issues that the PSPM may wish to raise.

C. Financial implications

None.

D. Review arrangements

None.

E. Background papers

The following is a statutory list of background papers (under the Local Government Act 1972 S.100 D) which disclose facts or matters on which the report is based and which have been relied on to a material extent in preparing this report. They are available on request either to the contact officer listed above or to the Clerk to the Police Authority at the address indicated on the agenda.

None.

F. Contact details

The author of this report is Ian Gaskell.

For information contact:

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

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