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

Public value of audit

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