The establishment of Custody Division is an innovative structure designed to deal with the current model inefficiencies within custody. More effective use of resources is primary as the existing model has every cell, circa 500 cells, available every hour of everyday across the 8 divisions. This does not match our current demand profile. The staff currently work an old outdated shift pattern involving 7 day working (including 7 nights) while the supervisors work on a new variable shift pattern. The effect of this is that custody supervisors only see the staff they have responsibility for when the patterns overlap. The lack of continuity in immediate supervision creates a number of management issues including managing abstractions, identifying poor performance and welfare and training issues. Staffing is not suitably available at the demand times on the existing custody model. The additional rest days and abstractions have an impact on resilience at times of peak demand and as such staff often miss meal breaks. The resulting impact on health and welfare leading to a higher sickness absence rate, in the previous year this equates to 13 days per PCSO compared to the average police staff of 10 days in monetary terms circa £435,600. The new Custody Division model not only addresses the level of backfill required at demand times but also reduces the abstractions from core duties for PCSO staff between 40-60% of the time. There are numerous tasks that the PCSO staff find themselves being involved with rather than carrying out the primary functions which are the care and well being of prisoners and improving the service within the criminal justice system. Structured governance will give greater control of the corporate risks especially when dealing with the circa 100,000 prisoners a year. The new model will see an end to local practices and a uniformed consistency in the service delivery within the custody centres. The efficiency savings are both cashable and non-cashable the largest from the reduction in backfill by moving from the old to new shift pattern seeing a one third reduction; this would mean £1.8 million of police officers time back into operational policing. Supervisors would be re-aligned with the PCSO staff reducing numerous managerial issues. The links with the Custody partners will be improved. The Custody Division will contribute to an effective and efficient criminal justice system safe guarding the principles of the care and wellbeing of prisoners and keeping people safe.
PLANNING / · a clear rationale, defined processes and focus on stakeholder needs· contributes to organisation’s goals and addresses current or emerging challenges
The existing structure management of prisoners is an area of risk for the force and as such is reflected in the corporate risk register. At present, ownership of this risk is at senior management level which is disaggregated amongst the Area Commanders where the custody centre is located. There are at present twenty–two Area Commanders with the risk responsibility. The Superintendent for the division holds the portfolio for Care and Management of Prisoners and ultimately the Divisional Commander.
The initial plans for developing custody services had to change due to the changes in the economy and namely the budgets, thus the instruction from senior management to carry out a review. Following a review in 2009 of the Force’s Prisoner Management Project there were 35 recommendations. Three of them were specific to care and wellbeing of the prisoners and the demand led opening of the custody facilities. The recommendations were as follows
- “The force work towards a demand –led shift system of operation for all staff engaged on custody duties”
- Determine the practicalities of establishing a Custody Division
- The force looks towards demand-led opening of Custody facilities.
The overall objective was to develop a “corporate blueprint” for the centralised delivery of custody services incorporating a demand-led opening.
The Strathclyde Police Authority authorised the implementation of a Custody Division to align the function of matching the available cells to the actual demand under a dedicated management structure. This would also incorporate a shift pattern to modernise the shifts to significantly reduce the level of abstractions from the operational policing into the custody.
The existing model encompassed 500 cells across the 22 custody centres throughout the 8 divisions. There are 262 full time Police Custody Security Officers within the structure. The concept of “Demand Led” opening for custody facilities is designed to better reflect both Regular custody facilities on a 24/7 basis augmented by Demand facilities open over the weekend period. By reducing the number of full time facilities it is possible to move to the five group Variable shift pattern. It would then be possible to reduce the overall full time equivalent across the force. To add a fifth group to the existing model would require sixty (60) PCSO’s which would equate to an additional cost of £1.95 million. By reducing the number of full time staff and introducing a demand estate with part time PCSO staff would see an initial cashable saving of £1,027,972 on the FTE staffing. With the introduction of overtime factors and employment of other staff within the structure this could offer the force a potential cashable saving of £837,631
The locations, cell numbers and staffing levels were subject to data testing.Extensive demand analysis was carried out using 3 years of custody records across the force. This included approximately 300,000 prisoner records. An initial model was devised and tested against the known data. This model was found to be flawed against the dataset; the model was revisited and the new model (Custody Division) was designed this was then compared against the busiest week and weekend in the previous three years. The flow of prisoners was tracked in and out of custody. Benchmarking was carried out consulting with other forces, of comparative standing within Great Britain and partner agencies. Engagement took place with stakeholders including senior management teams, frontline service deliverers, Force Training and Recruiting centre (FT&RC) and Human Resources. This was to gauge feedback with what would be the customers of the new Custody Division. Further consultation then took place with Human Resources to incorporate part time Police Custody Security Officers. Unison was consulted as the model was refined to suit all custody issues following a further three months testing.
The Custody Division centralises the risk, with the Head of Force Custody managing the risk for all custody centres’. An implementation team was then assembled to work within the prisoner management department to deliver the long term vision.
DELIVERING / · implemented in all relevant areas and across all the required stakeholders· carried out in a structured and logical way , using robust and sustainable methods
The implementation team embarked on one of the largest consultations carried out since the introduction of Strathclyde Police. This included consultation with 262 Police Custody Security Officers. Eighteen road shows were carried out throughout the eight divisions within Strathclyde Police force.
The new Custody Division would see the full time staff reduced from 262 PCSO staff to 205.The staff would be given a preference of which location they would like to be based, this would be a known first in working practice. This when you include the part time staff would give a full time equivalent of 231.5 staff. This reduction of 30.5 posts is equivalent to a cashable saving of £1,027,972. In the current economic climate the option of choosing a preference (work location) offered a better work life balance reducing travelling time and costs.The HR personnel managed to match in eighty (80) percent of staff to their first preference. A website was started which was constantly updated with frequently asked questionsand answers for all the staff affected both directly and indirectly. The website had circa 26,000 hits. The full proposal for the Custody Division structure was then presented to the Members of The Force Executive in January 2012.
Some of the partner agencies were given presentations and further consulted including the Independent Custody Visitors Scheme and G4S. During the consultation the model was altered taking into consideration the issues raised to further improve the Structure and the service provided. A memorandum of Understanding was compiled with G4S care and Justice services regarding the demand estate of the model.
Adverts and interviews were conducted by the Implementation team and other members of the department.This was to employthe part time PCSO staff for the demand estate. Close working with the FT&RC has led to the successful recruitment of the part time male and female PCSO staff as well as tailoring the training courses for the new positions. The 64 part time staff will undertake a four week training course specifically tailored to their role. The introduction of the part time staff would not only supplement the regular estate but complete the overall structure. An evaluation will be carried out in the near future regarding the role of the part time staff and the training.
INNOVATION + LEADING PRACTICE / ·Demonstrates leading practice, and is capable of replication elsewhere·Achieves genuine innovation or new ways of working
The scale of the challenges facing the force as we move towards a single force in the immediate and medium term should not be underestimated. The intention was to deliver an up to date sustainable Custody model for an all improved delivery of the service. The forward thinking surrounding the new structure saw the ground breaking consultation period with the implementation team working closely with Human resources. The move towards part time staff being involved in a structure in both regular and demand estate was a move away from the tried and tested traditional policing structures. Whilst developing the operational processes and protocols for the PCSO staff the go live date has been put back due to another project being aligned regarding the front counter modernisation project. The role of the PCSO will now be ring fenced in their duties leading to an improved service to the public increasing confidence in the criminal justice system. In the existing model the PCSO staff are often used to backfill the front counter staff in some offices in others they are required to assist with front counter duties taking them away from their primary role namely the care and wellbeing of the prisoners. This will remove the high percentage of abstractions that affected the PCSO staff on a daily basis surrounding other duties which were not related this amounted to between 40 and 60% of present duties. The format and structure is being monitored and tested by the National Reform with consideration of a full implementation under the Police Service Of Scotland. The model has sustained the police staff positions at a time when outsourcing throughout other Forces in England and Wales has taken place.
RESULTS + IMPACT / · a convincing mix of customer and internal performance measures·demonstrates howbetter outcomes are being achieved
· a full range of relevant results– either already achieved or with potential to deliverover time
The Custody Division structure provides the best model regarding the demand on custody services providing a more efficient system of operating custody.
The introduction of a new five group shift pattern immediately reduces the requirement for backfill of the additional rest days on the existing four group shift pattern. It removes the seven night day rota including seven night shifts. The existingpattern allows a majority of the additional rest days to occur at the peak demand times regarding the custody services. This will give back immediately 250,000 policing hours to the frontline operational staff. It is recognised that this is a non cashable saving calculated at £1.8 million. This further benefits the public reassurances strategies of the force and increasing public confidence in policing. This would be achieved by the police officers being able to carry out core functions such as high visible patrol, or having time to communicate with the public informing them of the enquiry carried out.
The Custody Division Structure will see the ring-fencing of the Police Custody Security Officers duties. This will lead to an improved standard of prisoner care and a more effective management of risk. It is a more efficient usage of the staff skills reducing the abstractions that are currently 40-60% of their duties. This was derived from a time in motion study revealing that reducing the front counter duties would allow a significant level of time back to care and welfare of prisoners.
With the reduction in the number of regular estate offices from twenty two to thirteen, this reduces the number of offices that require to be covered by casualty surgeons; it also reduces the number of collections by G4S each day. This will be evaluated after the “Go Live “date. The increase in resilience at times of peak demand will increasestaff welfare. The modernisation of working practices and re-alignment of PCSO staff and supervisors on an equivalent shift pattern will improve direct management of staff. This will assist in identifying poor performance as well as improved availability of first and second line manager’s.
The senior management structure gives greater control of the corporate risksespecially when dealing with circa 100,000 prisoners a year.
The processes that take place at present across the 22 custody centre vary at each location; the standardisation across the force will improve the custody service provided and overall partnership working with external agencies on a daily basis.
With all the issues raised it was compelling that we achieve The Custody Division “Go Live” of the 4th December 2012. The move towards the single force of Scotland sees the National Reform monitor the model and performance.
COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2013 Page | 1
COSLA EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2013 Page | 1