5. Memorandum submitted by
Nottinghamshire Police Authority
PERFORMANCE ACCOUNTABILITY
It is on the issue of performance accountability
that we would like to respond to the committee.
We believe that the particular experience of
the Nottinghamshire Force and Police Authority, working in partnership
with the HMIC and the Home Office Police Standards Unit (PSU),
offers the Committee a valuable case study on the potential of
the current tri-partite structure to deliver improvements in policing.
As a Police Authority we bring a distinctive
contribution to performance monitoring by virtue of our accountability
and resourcing functions.
BACKGROUND
Nottinghamshire is a Force that has experienced
severe difficulties in recent years. The HMIC report of the inspection
of the Force and the Nottingham City division in March 2003 acknowledged
that the Force has been hit in recent times by a significant rise
in serious crime (both drug related gun crime and an abnormal
level of murders). But the report also found that the performance
of the Force had been poor for a number of years. Although performance
had improved by 2003 this had not been the case across the board.
The HMIC's report in December 2003 found the
Force was still a poor performer in relation to other forces but
acknowledged there was no doubt that fundamental improvements
had been made. This had started with the reorganisation of the
Force in 2002 and changes in key Force processes, particularly
with a new emphasise in accountability for performance and the
systems to go with it, and had continued with the programme of
work arising from the March 2003 inspection. HMI concluded that
the Force was efficient and effective but that the recent improvement
must be sustained. The report referred to milestones and targets
being established which would be monitored monthly by the Chief
Constable, the Police Authority, HMIC and the PSU.
STATEMENT OF
INTENT
In response to these challenges, the Force and
the Authority, with advice and assistance from other partners,
has developed robust performance accountability structures.
The starting point for this is a Statement of
Intent signed by the Force, the Authority, the HMIC and PSU. It
is believed to be the first of its kind. The statement sets out
in clear terms the responsibilities each partner has for improvement.
Performance targets, milestones and action plans are appended
to this statement providing a ready guide to Force progress against
issues identified in the HMIC inspection and via the baseline
assessment process.
FORCE PERFORMANCE
STRUCTURES
The Force's Operation Focus launched by the
Chief Constable in April 2004 brings together a series of initiatives
and projects, many of them PSU funded, which concentrate on particular
corporate and operational processes. Alongside this the Chief
Constable has rejuvenated the Comstadt process via the Focus Group.
At the Focus Group Divisional Commanders are required to account
on a monthly basis for performance highs and lows. The Focus process
makes extensive use of both management information internal to
the Force and the Home Office Quanta information.
In this way good practice and policing techniques
leading to good performance can be borrowed across divisions.
Ineffective practices can be identified and addressed. This same
process is now being developed at Divisional Command level.
AUTHORITY PERFORMANCE
STRUCTURES
In parallel with this the Authority also revised
its performance structure in March 2004 by establishing a Performance
Scrutiny Board of members to meet on a monthly basis to review
Quanta and Management Information material, "spotlight"
areas where further scrutiny of the Force is required and monitor
progress of the Force against the Action Plans. The Performance
Scrutiny Board can of its own volition raise issues relating to
performance for example those highlighted as a result of public
consultation. Performance is interpreted in its widest sense to
include areas of crime such as serious crime, which are not currently
covered by Quanta data. This ensures that volume crime and serious
crime issues are seen in the round rather than in isolation from
each other.
Our members are allocated to Divisions and meet
regularly with Divisional Commanders and their teams to discuss
issues of current concern. A standard agenda is being developed
for these meetings that will include potential for performance
issues identified in Divisional Meetings to be fed into the Scrutiny
Board meetings. A Headquarters Group has also now been formed
to look at support functions provided centrally. This group has
looked in detail at issues resulting to forensics and file quality.
This process has begun to "drill down"
below the figures themselves and to examine in detail performance
issues which arise. This process includes looking in detail at
crime recording to provide public reassurance that improvements
in performance are linked to actual reductions in crime. The Authority
is also looking to the Force to build in specific targets for
crime reductions in to operational initiatives at the time that
these initiatives are planned.
Scrutinising the whole of the process around
how a crime is recorded to how the file is handed to the Crown
Prosecution Service can also provide a stronger process to identify
priorities when we prepare the budget.
The Authority has produced a Development Plan
identifying its own strategic priorities and goals for the next
two years, The Plan includes the following commitment; "We
will monitor closely the operational performance of the force
and seek continuous improvement in policing standards." It
recognises that training in performance management is key to this
and members have completed Modules 1 to 4 of the APA Managing
Performance course.
PROGRAMME BOARD
Between the Force and Authority processes sits
a Programme Board where the signatories to the Statement of Intent
meet monthly to review performance issues.
Both the Force and the Authority believe that
this structure is a vigorous and dynamic one. It allows for issues
raised by any of the partners at any point in the cycle to be
fully explored in Focus/Performance Scrutiny Board/Programme Board
processes. The addition of the Divisional Focus Meetings will
provide a valuable addition to the structure, which currently
exists and Members attached to Divisions will participate at this
level.
CDRP'S
The Authority has become the main driver in
raising the profile of performance management within CDRP's. This
has developed since April 2003 when we first became a responsible
body. Members are allocated to CDRP's and take a full part in
their strategic groups. Our scrutiny of Quanta information and
the links with Divisional meetings ensure we drill down to CDRP
performance when holding BCU commanders to account for their performance.
The Authority is keen to provide an effective
link with, and develop processes to ensure, that CDRP priorities
are at the heart of the local planning process. Internally we
are setting up a CDRP Liaison Panel to bring together Members
to discuss CDRP related issues.
We have obtained agreement from the Chief Constable
that CDRP's should have a presence at Force Planning days when
the strategic priorities are established which then feed into
the Local Plan.
We have also made a start in involving CDRPs
in the performance process itself. We recently held a Seminar,
hosted jointly with the Government Office of East Midlands, to
seek consistency on target setting processes. We intend to involve
CDRP partners in the target setting process in future. This has
wider implications for the CDRPs: our feedback from the seminar
has seen us being used as an example of best practice for PCT
and the Fire and Rescue Service by integrating the targets. We
aim ultimately to link performance management to budget planning.
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT
Recent Management Information and Quanta performance
suggests a substantial improvement in the reduction of crime during
the last quarter in Nottinghamshire. The report to the Authority's
Monitoring and Audit Committee in July 2004 indicates total recorded
crime has reduced by 15.4% in the three months to the end of June.
Using a 12-month rolling period total crime is 15.7% lower at
the end of June 2004 compared with June 2003. Burglary dwelling
has reduced by 24% in 2004-05, vehicle crime by 26%, violent crime
by 8% and robbery by 35%. Recent performance data on detections/sanctioned
detections is less impressive and has been the focus of the Authority
Scrutiny Board. This is the subject of a detailed action plan
by the Chief Constable which will be further discussed in the
Focus process described above.
CONCLUSION
Whist not seeking to attribute these improvements
in performance directly to the new structure nonetheless the Police
and the Authority would submit to the Committee that these new
working arrangements are an example of how the parties to the
current tripartite structure can work together to facilitate real
policing improvements for the local community. The new structures
in place in the Force and the Authority are intended to ensure
that this improvement is sustained into the future.
29 July 2004
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