AGENDA ITEM 19
Report to the Independent Audit Committee
2 December 2015
HMIC Update
RECOMMENDATION
The Committee is requested to note this report.
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PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
1.1
This report offers a summary update on HMIC activity in the period since
the Committee’s meeting in September. This note also highlights
inspectorate activity that is anticipated over the next several months.
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HMIC SUMMARY UPDATE
Overview of Activity since June Audit Committee meeting
2.1
The Police Efficiency, Effectiveness and Legitimacy (PEEL)
‘Effectiveness and Legitimacy’ inspection of the force took place in
October. The work sought to address the overarching question: “How
effective is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?”
2.2
HMIC will subsequently produce an ‘Effectiveness’ report that will include a
graded assessment of the constabulary’s progress. This will inform the
overall PEEL assessment of the force (outlined below at 2.6 onwards).
2.3
The PEEL Efficiency inspection report on the force was published in
October. As part of the Inspectorate’s developing approach to improve and
rationalise its reporting, the text included a small number of broad ‘Areas
for Improvement’ (AFIs) rather than a host of detailed recommendations:
The force should undertake further work to gain a fuller understanding of
current demand for its services, and likely future changes in demand. This is
so it can make best use of its resources by matching them to demand to
meet the needs of the public
The force should develop its understanding of the links between its outcomes,
outputs and costs
The force should develop a future workforce plan that is aligned with its
overall demand and budget. The plan should include future resource
allocations, the mix of skills required by the workforce and behaviours
expected of them.
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2.4
Leadership and co-ordination of the force’s response to these AFIs has
been remitted to the Service Delivery Model team, which will report to the
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Strategic Tasking and Co-ordination Group meeting (which also reviews
progress against other HMIC Recommendations on an exception basis).
2.5
A number of thematic (i.e. general rather than force-specific) inspections
have been published by HMIC over the last several months, these include:
 Targeting the risk: an inspection of the efficiency and effectiveness of
firearms licensing in police forces in England and Wales (Sept 2015)
The report included numerous recommendations – local arrangements already
satisfy the great majority of them; work is in progress to fulfil the remainder.
 Witness for the prosecution: Identifying victim and witness
vulnerability in criminal case files (November 2015)
Northamptonshire Police was one of a number of forces subject to ‘fieldwork’
during the course of this thematic inspection. As a result, in addition to a
national report, HMIC published a brief summary of the force’s progress, which
did not include any recommendations and indicated that local performance was
in line with national trends.
Anticipated activity December – March
2.6
PEEL reports and overall assessment
Multiple draft PEEL reports will emerge for embargoed ‘factual accuracy’
checks during December prior to publication in February – these include:
PEEL Vulnerability
PEEL Legitimacy
PEEL Effectiveness
2.7
The full suite of PEEL reports will be aggregated to produce the PEEL
assessment of the force that is also scheduled for release in February.
2.8
The February publication date is around 3 months later than the
equivalent publication last year. This underlines the ‘historicity’ of the PEEL
2016 assessment, which will draw in part upon data from early 2014/15
and upon on inspections that predate PEEL 2016 by close to a year.
2.9
Other activity
HMIC’s programme of work is wide-ranging. However, there continues to
be a very limited horizon of visibility on exactly which inspection activities
will engage individual constabularies, what the nature of these
engagements will be and when they will occur.
2.10
This limits the accuracy/specificity of forecasts of the Inspectorate’s
activity in force. However, the HMIC 2015/16 programme indicates that
topics such as child protection as well as joint work with other
inspectorates may feature over the remainder of 2015/16 and beyond.
2.11
In addition, HMIC has recently indicated that forces will be subject to
unannounced Crime Recording inspections, albeit relevant correspondence
does not commit HMIC to complete this inspection round within 2015/16.
2.12
More generally, it may be relevant to reiterate that the Inspectorate has
benefited from significant resource uplift. Its levels of activity, intrusion
and demand have grown proportionately. For example, HMIC has
established the ‘Force Insights’ programme which, among other things,
requires forces to admit the Inspectorate to a range of internal meetings
and to facilitate access to key staff. Locally, Multi Agency Risk Assessment
Conference arrangements and Organised Crime Group meetings and leads
have already been subject to ‘Insight’ visits.
3 Conclusion
3.1
The Committee is requested to note this report and in particular, the
anticipated publication schedule for the PEEL assessment and supporting
inspection reports.
2
SEAN BELL
Superintendent Corporate Services
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS
None
HUMAN RESOURCES IMPLICATIONS
None
RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
None
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS
None
Author:
Corporate Services
Chief Officer Portfolio Holder:
A. Frost, Deputy Chief Constable
Background Papers:
None
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