Policing in England and Wales is highly decentralised, with each of its 43 constituent forces operating with much more independence than in many other comparable countries. The same is true for police scrutiny functions. Police chiefs are held to account by their local Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) (1) who, in turn, will be scrutinised by a Police and Crime Panel (2) predominantly made up of local councillors.
And yet, even in this decentralised scrutiny model, central government plays a crucial enabling role. This includes a £2.8 million grant from the Home Office which funds support officers for local Police and Crime Panels. Interestingly, regular underspend of this central budget has been seen across several financial years, and the impact of this funding on the shape and effectiveness of these panels has historically had little evaluation.
The Challenge
The Home Office (3) recognised a need to better understand the support provided to Police and Crime Panels, and what models could improve the quality, consistency and professionalism of the support. Ultimately, a revised model of support could enhance the scrutiny functions that are essential to our highly localised policing model, achieving more within the same budget envelope.
The Home Office commissioned Leapwise to help with this challenge, drawing on our expertise in the policing and criminal justice space. Our work would involve user-centred research to identify plausible policy options, with detailed appraisal scoring of these options against strategic objectives and critical success factors.
Later on, the Home Office commissioned Leapwise to complete a piece of follow-up work, developing a design blueprint for their preferred policy option. This option was a new Knowledge Hub that would run a network and community of practice for support officers across the country.
Our Approach
In our first phase, we conducted a feasibility exercise over four-months in which we explored options to improve the quality, consistency and professionalism of Police and Crime Panel support. We focused heavily on user-centred design principles and direct stakeholder conversations to understand what model would work for those at the frontline and engaged closely with the Home Office to understand what policy options could be carried forward to ministers.
To achieve this first phase, we:
- Developed a sophisticated understanding of the current state of Police and Crime Panel support through in-depth, user-centred stakeholder research
- Conducted workshops with panel support staff, Chief Executives of OPCCs, panel chairs and the APCC Board
- Interviewed panel support staff across the country, as well as local authority staff, PCCs, the GLA, LGA, and Welsh Government
- Produced a detailed options package for the Home Office, setting out three models to improve the standard of panel support
- Worked closely with the Home Office to shortlist three options from an initial longlist of seven potential models
- Drew on stakeholder research to appraise options across key strategic objectives and critical success factors
In the second phase, the Home Office commissioned Leapwise to design a proposed model for their preferred policy option – a Knowledge Hub to enhance the quality of panel support.
- Delivered a detailed design blueprint for a new Knowledge Hub, in line with Home Office objectives
- Presented recommendations for the Hub’s size, role, responsibilities, staffing, ways of working, enablers, and performance monitoring systems
- Set out proposals for funding the Hub, reflecting detailed analysis of local panels’ historical claims against central grant funding
- Presented a detailed implementation timeline for the new Knowledge Hub
- Set out critical paths to ministerial decisions and the subsequent process towards full implementation of a hub, with additional mapping of key considerations and risks.
Results
Throughout the two projects, we focused on identifying an effective, cost-efficient solution that would align with both Home Office objectives and the needs of local Police and Crime Panels across the country. Given that these panels vary in size, ways of working and focus, this required a highly user-centred and geographically aware approach to develop a plausible solution.
Our work across these two projects resulted in:
- A comprehensive design blueprint for a new Knowledge Hub that would enhance the quality, consistency and professionalism of support for Police and Crime Panels.
- A rigorous options appraisal process and a detailed implementation timeline (with detail around funding), to equip Home Office staff with the materials needed to help ministers take informed decisions.
- Significantly enhanced understanding of the range of Police and Crime Panel support across England and Wales, underpinned by detailed stakeholder engagement sessions – either attended by the Home Office or with key outcomes shared directly with relevant officials.
- A pathway to productively utilise persistent underspend in the central grant allocation for Police and Crime Panel support, delivering value for money for the taxpayer.
“Leapwise encouraged challenge and feedback and showed excellent understanding of the wider delivery context. We were hugely impressed and wouldn’t hesitate to work with Leapwise again.“
– Kayleigh Chapman, Head of Police Strategy and Reform Unit, Policing Policy Directorate, Public Safety Group
For more insights on our user-centred evaluation of Police and Crime Panel support and development of a design blueprint for a new knowledge hub, please reach out to our team to discuss this in more detail.
