the role of audit scotland in monitoring police performance miranda alcock portfolio manager –...
TRANSCRIPT
The role of Audit Scotland in monitoring police performance
Miranda Alcock
Portfolio Manager – Public Reporting Group
Public scrutiny in Scotland
Scottish Parliament
Scottish Government
Inspectors & Regulators
Standards Commission
Accounts Commission(Local authorities)
Auditor General(Health and Central
Government)
Standards Bodies*
Other Commissioners
Audit Scotland* Public Sector Ombudsman Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Public Appointments Commissioner
Inspectors & Regulators
Principles of public audit
• Independence
• Wider scope– financial controls, probity, value for money– individual bodies and how they work together
• Public reporting– to Scottish Parliament– to public organisations– to citizens
Audit role
• Holding to account
• Helping to improve
Financial audits
Statutory performance
indicators
National performance audit studies
Local governance and performance
reviews
Best Value and Community
Planning audits
National studies – overview
Project idea/ need
Project scoping and acceptance
Methodology development and
piloting
Fieldwork and
research
Reporting and
marketing
Project review
Project Progress
Dealing with offending by young people
• Reports published in 2002 and 2003• Performance update published August 2007
– Increased funding but cannot demonstrate impact
– Partnership working and timeliness of reports improved but need greater emphasis on early intervention and prevention
• Data collection methods– Review of documentation
– Progress against recommendations
– Fieldwork visits to eight local authority areas
– Funding and costing analysis
Police call management
• Number and type of calls to the police and how they deal with them
• Data collection methods– Information from forces
– Staff survey, public survey and focus groups
– Two-day incident sampling exercise
– Review of documentation and force interviews
• Publication – 27 September– Scottish Parliament Audit Committee – 10 October
Involving stakeholders in studies
• Study advisory groups
– Range of expertise
• Other networks
– Police contact centre managers
– Community planning network
• Meetings, conferences etc
Statutory performance indicators
• Legislative basis– Accounts Commission direction – Compare performance between and within councils, police
forces and fire and rescue services
• Criteria– focused on outputs or outcomes (or inputs linked to service
delivery)– straightforward to interpret – reflect national targets or standards rather than local ones
SPIs for police
• Indicators cover:– Clear up rate (for all crimes and some selected ones)
– Sickness absence
– Complaints
– Speed of answering 999 calls
– Drugs - seizures and offences
– Road traffic casualties
– Submission of reports to Children’s Reporter and Procurator Fiscal
Scottish Policing Performance Framework
• High level objectives
– Service response
– Public reassurance and community safety
– Criminal justice and tackling crime
– Sound governance and efficiency
• Performance measures:
– Outcomes, activities, inputs and context
– Includes all police SPIs
Assessing impact
• Follow-up reports
• Local audit work
• Working with other agencies
– HMIC
– Improvement Service
• Tracking progress through national performance indicators
Challenges for the future
• Increased emphasis on outcomes
– Policy or performance tool
– Accountability in partnership working
• Proportionate scrutiny of public services
– Use of self-assessment
– Closer working with other inspection agencies
– Sharing good practice
• Accountability in a tri-partite arrangement