South Wales PEEL 2017

South Wales Police has a good understanding of the full range of demand for its services. It uses several processes to analyse demand and has invested in technology, in collaboration with Gwent Police, to introduce greater efficiency into the way it manages its staff and finances. Good governance processes are in place to identify waste and inefficiency, as well as to ensure that the benefits of change are realised and that any unintended negative consequences are addressed; specifically through post-implementation reviews and introducing further change, if necessary. However, the force is inadvertently suppressing demand through the large number of abandoned calls for service; it needs to improve its response to 101 calls for service and to reduce the number of abandoned calls. The force recognises it needs to do more to reduce the number of abandoned non-emergency calls and has plans in place to address this. Finally, the force provides a variety of ways for its workforce to give feedback and to put forward ideas to its senior leaders. The force is able to demonstrate that it is open to responding to and acting on this feedback and new ideas; support champions assist staff who contribute, helping them to formalise their suggestions and present them to the board.

South Wales Police makes good use of its resources. The force has a good understanding of the operational skills of its officers and staff, including the skills that will be needed in the future, and it is developing a better understanding of non-operational skills. However, it has limited understanding of its leadership skills, although it is now taking some steps to improve this. The force bases its priorities on its understanding of the current and future demand for its services, local priorities and national requirements. On a day-to-day basis, it can identify and be flexible with its resources, where resourcing falls below the anticipated demand levels. Its investment focuses on improving technology, enhancing its capability and the priorities set out in its policing plan. In relation to its joint-working, it is committed to collaborating with organisations, such as other police forces, local authorities, health, social services, the ambulance service, fire and rescue services, Welsh Government, Public Health Wales and voluntary sector organisations. It has working arrangements in place to ensure that demand is managed efficiently across agencies. The force could do more, however, to monitor the benefits of collaboration initiatives, although it can demonstrate cost savings as a result of collaboration. The force is proactive in seeking out new opportunities for service improvement, and its leaders demonstrate a willingness to experiment with new approaches.

South Wales Police’s understanding of future demand for its services is good. The force is able to evaluate fully what its future demand is likely to be and it has advanced plans to meet that demand. The force has processes in place to maintain a continuing and up-to-date understanding of the public’s changing expectations.

The force has a good understanding of succession planning, but has less understanding of the softer skills held by its individual officers and staff. The force has introduced a talent management scheme and career pathways, however, these need to be more clearly communicated to the workforce. The force is open to recruiting and benchmarking externally the skills and capabilities required by some posts with those of external candidates but does not currently see any need to consider direct entry appointments for appointments to be made at the rank of inspector.

The force understands the opportunities that emerging technology can offer, both to policing and criminal behaviour, and how this is changing. It has embraced technology as a tool to shape its vision for the future, and is working to extend its use of technology to bring about further efficiencies and improvements to its service provision. The force understands the importance of collaborative working, both with other police forces and local authority agencies; it has achieved considerable savings through its collaborative approach.

The force has a full medium-term financial plan setting out its revenue and capital requirements, together with planned savings for 2017/18 to 2020/21. The force has made good progress in developing and implementing the change programme necessary to make its required savings, and independent scrutiny indicates that the force’s plans are good.