Supporting Thames Valley Police to Assure their Transformation Programme: A Leapwise Case Study
Introduction
The current policing landscape in the UK is characterised by increasing pressures on police forces: higher volume and more complex demand, recruitment & retention challenges, loss of public trust & confidence and broader criminal justice system strains. While Uplift (1) has created potential to rebuild local policing capacity, particularly in neighbourhood policing and investigations, the short and mid-term fiscal position for police forces remains tough; additionally, funding for more officers has increased performance expectations.
The Challenge
To make best use of Uplift and meet growing expectations with constrained resources, Thames Valley Police (TVP) (2) initiated a Force Review in Spring 2022, and subsequently a Force Restructure Programme in Spring 2023. The main objective of this initiative was to improve the force’s operational effectiveness, with a focus on strengthening local policing and public protection, all while delivering significant savings.
In Autumn 2023, TVP commissioned Leapwise to conduct an external rapid review to provide independent assurance that this Programme was set up to deliver against planned objectives, and to provide recommendations to address areas of improvement.
Our Approach
To provide rapid assurance and actionable recommendations, we leveraged Leapwise’s Critical Success Factors for Major Change Framework©. From working across 100s of major change programmes, we understand the critical drivers of successful transformations across public sector organisations; our framework holistically and rapidly assesses transformation programmes’ health. Leapwise’s Critical Success Factor for Major Change Framework enables quick identification of critical barriers to programme delivery, and it ensures their rapid removal through interventions targeted at their root causes. It does so by assessing:
- Clarity of programme’s ambition
- Strength of support for change
- Programme design, methods, and evidence base
- Cultural and behavioural drivers of effective transformation management
- Team capabilities & capacity
- Approach to innovation, testing and learning
- Governance & leadership
We applied the framework over a three-week rapid assessment, which involved: stakeholder interviews with the programme team, Senior Responsible Owners, and key impacted stakeholders; an online survey; a review of over 60 programme and strategic force documents, and observation of programme governance meetings.
These inputs helped us to robustly evaluate the Force Review and Restructure Programme, providing:
- Independent ratings of progress against each critical success factor
- An overview of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the programme – highlighting the strength of the new local policing operating model and highlighting opportunities for more assured and faster delivery of financial benefits
- A facilitated self-assessment by the programme team against the CSFs framework and additional sessions to test and validate our independent evaluation.
Through our independent evaluation we identified six targeted and actionable recommendations to strengthen the programme’s practices and ensure the effective delivery of Programme objectives. These covered issues ranging from clarity of objectives and communications to implementation and resource planning.
Due to the critical nature related to some of the recommendations, we provided accelerated support to quickly address two of the six recommendations over four weeks, while the programme team commenced work on the remaining four.
Part of this work involved aligning Chief Officers on the key public, workforce and financial priorities for the force, building on TVP’s strong existing performance priorities and framework. This in turn supported decision-making around the focus of the Transformation Programme, the expected contributions to supporting these priorities, and necessary actions to improve confidence in these contributions. The outcome included an updated Vision, Scope & Objectives for the Force Restructure Programme, with greater clarity, confidence, and assurance around the expected programme benefits.
Results
The work that we conducted with TVP produced clear tangible impacts on the Force Restructure Programme which were endorsed by the programme team and Senior Responsible Owner:
“The work carried out by Leapwise in partnership with TVP has allowed us to make sound financial decisions that have paved the way for our enabling services review and wider transformation programme. The team made things simple yet effective, working to tight timescales and considering the bespoke needs of the organisation recognising that one size doesn’t fit all…. I am grateful for the work they have done and the quality of the products delivered“
– Assistant Chief Constable Dennis Murray, Force Restructure Programme Senior Responsible Owner
All recommendations made to the client based on the Leapwise external rapid review of the Force Review & Restructure Programme were progressed through either Leapwise support or directly by the programme team. These recommendations led to:
- Increased Senior Leader alignment on the the key public, workforce and financial priorities for the force and stronger support for the Transformation Programme;
- Greater confidence in the delivery of the Force Restructure Programme’s financial and performance benefits, and improved tracking and management of benefits
- The development and adoption of an updated Programme Vision, Scope & Objectives
- The adoption of a new approach to future planned work that mitigates identified risks
Progress is a huge credit to the TVP team who continue to work with commitment on the programme – and adapt to the ever-evolving challenges that any major change programme such as this one inevitably faces.
Reach out to our Team to discuss how we can help to transform your organisation through sound financial decision and programme restructure.