In 2023–2025, we carried out a PEEL inspection of South Wales Police. PEEL stands for police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy.
We inspected how well the force performed in several areas of policing. Most of these areas were then graded as outstanding, good, adequate, requires improvement or inadequate.
Find out more about South Wales Police
More information about the PEEL assessments
Our inspection assessed how good South Wales Police is in ten areas of policing. We make graded judgments in nine of these ten as follows:
We also inspected how effective a service South Wales Police gives to victims of crime. We don’t make a graded judgment for this area.
We set out our detailed findings about things the force is doing well and where the force should improve in the rest of this report.
We also assess the force’s performance in a range of other areas and we report on these separately. We make graded judgments for some of these areas.
In 2014, we introduced our police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach.
We have moved to a more intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years. Forces are assessed against the characteristics of good performance, set out in the PEEL Assessment Framework 2023–2025, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
It isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded in this PEEL inspection and those from the previous cycle of PEEL inspections. This is because we have increased our focus on making sure forces are achieving appropriate outcomes for the public, and in some cases we have changed the aspects of policing we inspect.
It is important to recognise that forces in Wales operate in a different context to those in England. Although policing and justice aren’t devolved to Wales, essential services such as healthcare, accommodation, education and social services are. This means that Welsh police and justice activity take place in unique performance and legislative contexts. In Wales, devolved and non-devolved organisations work in partnership to give local people the best possible level of service. Sometimes this means forces in Wales need to comply with both English and Welsh regulatory requirements.
Our reports contain references to, among other things, ‘national’ definitions, priorities, policies, systems, responsibilities and processes.
In some instances, ‘national’ means applying to England or Wales, or England and Wales. In others, it means applying to England, Wales and Scotland, or the whole of the United Kingdom.
HM Inspector Wendy Williams oversaw this inspection until 31 March 2024, when her tenure ended. These are her observations on the force’s performance. At the time of publication, Michelle Skeer holds responsibility for South Wales Police.
We are pleased with some aspects of the performance of South Wales Police in deterring crime and antisocial behaviour. The force is good at promoting a safe and welcoming workplace. We are satisfied with most other aspects of the force’s performance, but there are areas in which it needs to improve.
In 2023, South Wales Police faced the challenge of policing large-scale disorder in Ely, Cardiff and then rebuilding community trust and confidence. The force’s leadership and command and control arrangements helped it to co-ordinate its initial response well. The force, in this example and others, used its own and partnership data to understand the concerns of the communities it most needed to get involved.
South Wales Police prioritises how it protects the safety of women and girls in public spaces. The force has tackled antisocial behaviour using a multi-agency problem-solving approach. To do so, it has used money from the Home Office Safer Streets Fund, which allows forces and local authorities to invest in crime prevention initiatives.
South Wales Police is regarded as a welcoming employer by its workforce and has a notably lower rate of voluntary resignations by police officers compared to the England and Wales average. But the force needs to make sure that all its officers and staff feel valued and involved in its decision-making.
The force has a transformation programme to make sure its contact management function can meet current and future demand. This has already resulted in clear benefits in terms of leadership and helping the public to contact it online.
In our inspection, we found that South Wales Police effectively risk assesses and prioritises incidents. However, the force hasn’t made enough progress in promptly answering emergency calls. It also needs to attend domestic abuse incidents quickly enough so that victims can be confident they will be protected.
The force doesn’t consistently or effectively identify crimes or vulnerable people connected with antisocial behaviour. This is concerning and means that the force isn’t taking every opportunity to keep vulnerable victims safe.
It is reassuring that most criminal investigations our inspection audited were carried out and supervised well. Most victims were supported and consulted appropriately. In South Wales, a relatively high number of domestic abuse offenders are brought to justice.
The force is working to make sure that it has enough skilled personnel in the right places to investigate crime to the expected standard. But, in some cases, this work hasn’t yet translated into results. Overall, too few offenders are brought to justice. Often, inexperienced or unskilled officers investigate serious and complex crime.
Since our last inspection, South Wales Police has improved its response when children are reported missing. The force now has dedicated teams to protect children from being criminally exploited. It provides timely Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme information to potential victims more often. But some of these improvements are recent and not yet consistent across all areas of the force.
The force allocates enough resources for the effective lifetime management of the most dangerous offenders. However, we are concerned that the force doesn’t always promptly notify partner agencies when it suspects that children may be at risk of harm from online offenders.
South Wales Police has strong collaborative arrangements with other forces and partner agencies to provide local, regional and national services to the public. The force is funded at a higher-than-average rate when compared to other forces across England and Wales. We found its financial understanding and planning to be sound. However, the force must make sure that its learning and development capacity can meet its training plans and that it has enough IT staff to support other improvement programmes.
HM Inspector of Constabulary
Using the College of Policing leadership standards as a framework, in this section we set out the most important findings relating to the force’s leadership at all levels.
South Wales Police’s chief officer team is in transition, with several positions occupied on a temporary basis. However, these temporary chief officers are experienced senior leaders with considerable knowledge of the force and areas they lead. Senior leaders clearly communicate the force’s priorities and plans to the general workforce. The force could better inform its personnel about its plans for change, such as the reorganisation of teams to better address the public demand for services.
South Wales Police is investing in developing its operational leaders’ skills and capability to support the workforce and improve performance.
The force is increasing its proportion of female operational and senior leaders, but this success isn’t yet replicated in middle-ranking leadership roles. And the force’s notable investment in developing Black and ethnic minority officers and staff hasn’t yet translated into greater representation in senior leadership positions.
South Wales Police understands its demand and well-being challenges as well as how effective leadership can help optimise workforce performance. The force is making sure that it has the right leaders in place in key areas, such as its control room and public protection.
The force has responded to workforce feedback about the visibility and approachability of senior leaders by increasing opportunities for interaction with officers and staff at all levels. Chief officers have clear responsibilities for work to improve performance, protect well-being and remove barriers to efficient working.
South Wales Police’s senior leaders take a collaborative approach with other forces and non-policing partners to tackle violence against women and girls and racism.
More detail on South Wales Police’s leadership is included in the main body of the report.
The reducing crime assessment sets out what South Wales Police is doing to reduce crime and how effective this action is. This assessment doesn’t include police-recorded crime figures. This is because they can be affected by variations and changes in recording policy and practice, making it difficult to draw comparisons over time.
The force effectively handles calls for service from the public and accurately assesses the risk to callers. It has a good understanding of its control room and response demand. But the force needs to improve how promptly it answers 999 calls and attends incidents. It needs to reassess the risk to victims if attendance is delayed.
The force records crime to a generally acceptable level of accuracy but must improve its recording of vulnerable victims and crime linked to antisocial behaviour.
The force has improved its recording of reasonable grounds for stop and search. It is less effective at recording its use of force.
The force understands community tensions and priorities well. It collaborates effectively with partners to keep vulnerable people and communities safe and to tackle neighbourhood crime. It has a well-established approach to problem‑solving.
The force is committing resources to improve investigative standards. It needs to improve the prioritisation of training for non-specialist investigators and bring more offenders to justice.
The force has made clear improvements to its approach to missing children, the sexual and criminal exploitation of children and the disclosure of information about domestic abuse offenders. However, there is still work to do to sustain this progress.
The force has generally effective arrangements for bail and the lifetime management of the most dangerous offenders. It needs to improve how promptly it shares information about children at risk.
More detail on what South Wales Police is doing to reduce crime is included in the main body of the report.
This section describes our assessment of the service South Wales Police provides to victims. This is from the point of reporting a crime and throughout the investigation. As part of this assessment, we reviewed 100 case files.
When the police close a case of a reported crime, they assign it an ‘outcome type’. This describes the reason for closing it.
We selected 100 cases to review, including at least 20 that the force had closed with the following outcome:
Although our victim service assessment is ungraded, it influences graded judgments in the other areas we have inspected.
The force needs to improve the time it takes to answer emergency 999 calls and reduce the number of non-emergency 101 calls that callers abandon because they aren’t answered promptly.
When the force answers calls, it uses a structured process that considers threat, harm, risk and vulnerability. It identifies repeat and vulnerable victims, meaning it is fully aware of the victim’s circumstances when considering what response should be provided. Call handlers are polite and give victims advice on crime prevention and how to preserve evidence.
South Wales Police doesn’t always attend incidents within set timescales. It doesn’t always inform victims of delays, meaning that victims’ expectations aren’t always met. This may cause victims to lose confidence and disengage from the process.
The force records crime to an adequate standard. This means that victims receive an appropriate service from criminal investigators.
However, the force needs to improve its crime-recording processes to make sure that all crimes reported to it are recorded correctly.
We set out more details about the force’s crime recording in the ‘Recording data about crime’ section.
In almost every case we examined, the force carried out investigations in a timely way, completing relevant and proportionate lines of enquiry. The force supervises investigations well and regularly updates victims. Victims are more likely to have confidence in a police investigation when they receive regular updates.
A thorough investigation increases the likelihood of offenders being identified and arrested and, therefore, provides a positive result for the victim.
In all cases we examined, the force recorded whether it considered using orders designed to protect victims, such as a Domestic Violence Protection Notice or Domestic Violence Protection Order.
The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime requires forces to carry out an assessment of whether victims need additional support at an early stage of an investigation. The force carried out this assessment and recorded the request for additional support in every case we audited.
In nearly every case, victim personal statements were taken, which gave victims the opportunity to describe how the crime has affected their lives.
In all cases when victims withdrew support for an investigation, the force considered progressing the case without the victim’s support. This can be an important method of safeguarding the victim and preventing further offences from being committed.
The force closes crimes with the appropriate outcome type. It records a clear rationale for using a certain outcome, and this is effectively supervised.
The force seeks and considers the victim’s views and the offender’s background when deciding how to record the outcome of a closed investigation. When required, investigators obtain an auditable record of the victim’s wishes. The force informs victims about the outcome assigned to the investigation.
South Wales Police is adequate at recording crime.
The Home Office Counting Rules, which provide the standard for crime recording in England and Wales, have changed since the last time we inspected the force for crime data integrity.
This change mainly relates to the way forces record violent crime. This means we can no longer compare the findings from this audit to those from previous audits.
We estimate that South Wales Police is recording 92.9 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 2.8 percent) of all reported crime (excluding fraud). This estimate is based on the incidents sampled using the standard crime data integrity methodology. However, in our additional random sample of incidents, we found that some crimes weren’t recorded.
We estimate that the force is recording 92.8 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 4.8 percent) of violent offences. This estimate is based on incidents that were sampled using the standard crime data integrity methodology. However, in our additional random sample of incidents, we found some violent crimes weren’t recorded.
We estimate that the force is recording 93.4 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 4.4 percent) of sexual offences. We looked at an additional random selection of incidents where not enough detail had been recorded to classify the offence. In this selection, we didn’t find any sexual offences. This means this percentage reflects a more accurate estimate of how well the force records sexual offences.
We carried out an additional audit of incidents for which the force hadn’t recorded enough detail to be able to determine which type of crime they related to. This made it difficult to see whether the force was recording all or most crimes accurately. In some cases, we found crimes that hadn’t been recorded at all. If the force doesn’t have a consistent approach to identifying the type of incidents reported to it, it can’t be confident that is accurately recording and investigating all crime on behalf of victims.
The force is failing to consistently classify all incidents reported to it. This means that it is difficult to identify some incidents where crimes may need to be recorded. Fully classifying incident records means that they can be examined and assessed to see if a crime should be recorded. Failing to classify incidents fully means that crimes are sometimes missed.
The force doesn’t record all crimes in cases involving child protection or vulnerable adults. In our audit, we found that the force should have recorded 38 crimes but had only recorded 22. It is important that the force keeps accurate records and records crimes against vulnerable victims. This helps to make sure that crimes are fully investigated, offenders are brought to justice and crime data is complete.
The force is failing to record nearly all crimes and tackle problems when victims report antisocial behaviour personal. We examined 50 incidents involving antisocial behaviour targeted at individuals that had been closed with that classification. Of those, only 2 of the 15 crimes that should have been recorded were. Victims of antisocial behaviour can be subject to long-term abuse and torment, often from neighbours. Failing to record and tackle antisocial behaviour and crime can mean victims live in fear in their own homes.
The force’s data for victims of crime shows that age and gender are well recorded. However, ethnicity is less well recorded and other protected characteristics aren’t recorded. The force should be collecting this information to understand the extent to which each protected group is affected by crime, how this differs from those without the protected characteristics and whether a different response is needed for these victims.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to crime data integrity.
The force records crime quickly. We found that 95 percent of all crime was recorded within 24 hours. It is important that crime is recorded at the earliest opportunity as it helps make sure that victims can access the support services they need and an effective investigation is established.
Although the force records most sexual offences accurately, it should take more care to make sure that the classification of rape crimes is correct. We found that 40 rape crimes were classified and recorded correctly. However, three others were recorded as reported incidents of rape (N100 classification) and one as a sexual assault, not as a rape. In addition, four rape crimes had been recorded when they should have been classified as an N100 and another three N100s weren’t recorded at all. Rape is one of the most serious crimes a victim can experience. Therefore, it is especially important that crimes are recorded and classified accurately to make sure victims receive the service and support they expect and deserve.
South Wales Police is adequate at using police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
In the year ending 31 March 2022, the force recorded 20,595 use of force incidents, which corresponds to 15.7 incidents per 1,000 population. This is a 10.9 percent decrease compared to the previous year when 23,116 incidents were recorded.
We would expect the number of times use of force is recorded to be greater than the number of arrests. South Wales Police recorded 16,748 arrests in the year ending 31 March 2022, which is consistent with this expectation. Officers we spoke to could explain their understanding about when their use of force needs to be recorded, but some were unaware of any process to make sure this happens. Some officers and supervisors told us that technical difficulties sometimes make it difficult to attach use of force recording forms to the force crime and incident recording system. Therefore, it can’t be guaranteed that the force records every use of force properly.
We also found that although the force publishes data about use of force incidents on its website, it was difficult to find data about force used on people with disabilities.
In June 2023, HMICFRS and the Care Quality Commission jointly inspected South Wales Police’s custody facilities. We found that South Wales Police couldn’t show that when force or restraint was used in custody, it was necessary, justified and proportionate. We noted that the force submitted fewer use of force recording forms than it should have. As a result, we issued a cause of concern.
The force does hold an independent advisory group, which scrutinises its use of force. However, the group doesn’t regularly review use of force data.
Without a full picture of how and against whom force is used, South Wales Police can’t be confident that it is taking opportunities to improve its use of force or reassure the public that it is used fairly.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
South Wales provides a comprehensive programme of mandatory learning to train officers and staff in how to communicate with people effectively and empathetically. Subjects include conflict resolution, teamwork and recognising vulnerability. Personnel we spoke to told us that an understanding of unconscious bias, and fair and unfair treatment featured in all classroom and practical, scenario-based training. The force told us that its ‘let’s talk about race’ seminars have had an 85 percent attendance rate. This equates to over 5,000 officers and staff.
The force’s body-worn video (BWV) policy reiterates the principles of good practice set out in the current National Police Chiefs’ Council guidance for the use of BWV and monitoring by supervisors. Most officers we spoke with told us that they understand the policy. We also examined a selection of BWV recordings of stop and search and use of force encounters. During most interactions, officers were respectful and clearly explained their use of powers to members of the public.
Many officers and staff told us that the force’s BWV cameras often don’t record interactions due to battery failure. Despite this, the force told us that in the year ending 31 March 2023, over 95 percent of stop and searches and over 90 percent of incidents where force was used were recorded on BWV. The force has advised officers and staff about battery care but needs to make sure that they remain confident their equipment is reliable.
Consistently high use of BWV is important to maintain public confidence that the force is transparent and open about how it uses its powers.
We reviewed a sample of 281 stop and search records from 1 January to 31 December 2022. Based on this sample, we estimate that 86.5 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 3.9 percent) of stop and searches carried out by the force during this period had reasonable grounds. This is a statistically significant improvement compared with our previous inspection when we found that 71.1 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 5.7 percent) of stop and searches had reasonable grounds recorded. Of the 35 records of stop and searches on people from ethnic minority backgrounds we reviewed, 31 had reasonable grounds recorded.
The force has recently refreshed stop and search training for officers and supervisors using video footage of stop and search encounters to encourage debate. The force invites community members to observe the sessions. Student officers experience practical scenarios throughout their initial training course.
We did, however, find that most officers we spoke to were unaware of any guidance on strip-searching children or searching people on school premises. The force needs to make sure that all officers are confident to use their powers lawfully and fairly.
The force uses a data dashboard to monitor the frequency and results of officers’ stop and search and use of force. The data is broken down into age, gender and ethnicity. The force also monitors complaints about the use of force and stop and search.
Officers electronically record stop and searches using the iPatrol app on mobile devices. Sergeants must review the reasonableness of each search record. Inspectors scrutinise every search of someone from an ethnic minority background. The force has introduced a new process that supports and develops officers who fail to reach the expected standards.
In the year ending 31 March 2022, South Wales Police carried out 9,900 stop and searches. This was a 39.1 percent decrease on the previous year. More recent data shows a further decrease of 28.3 percent to 7,102 stop and searches in the year ending 2023.
To examine disproportionality data for stop and search rates between people from ethnic minority backgrounds and White people, we examine values. A value of less than 0.8 shows that a person from an ethnic minority background is less likely than someone who is White to be stopped and searched. A value higher than 1.25 shows that someone from an ethnic minority background is more likely to be stopped and searched.
In South Wales, Black people are 3 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people, which is lower than the disproportionality rate of 4.8 in England and Wales for the year ending 31 March 2022. The force acknowledges that it still has more to do to eliminate the disproportionate searching of Black people. The force told us that its own data for the year ending 31 March 2023 showed that Black people are 3.1 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people.
In our previous inspection, we found that the force’s external scrutiny panels for use of force and stop and search should be independently chaired and have a better trained, more diverse membership.
The force told us that panel members elected not to have an independent chair, although independent advisory group members lead some meetings. Panels still don’t have regular training about police powers to stop and search or use force. And they don’t have members with first-hand experience of the use of police powers. Untrained chairs and panel members are unlikely to be as effective in giving feedback that promotes improvements in police practice.
Encouragingly, each meeting that we observed had an actions list relating to feedback given to officers or questions about specific conduct observed by previous panels. Police attendees were able to update group members about each action. By doing so, the force demonstrated that it acts on feedback from external scrutiny of its use of police powers. However, few officers that we spoke to were aware of any feedback from external scrutiny panels.
The force told us that it intends to adopt a similar process to that used by Merseyside Police, which involves a wider cross-section of the public to scrutinise police powers. We look forward to seeing the progress of this improvement work.
Since June 2023, the force has used its South Wales Listens online messaging service to ask its communities how confident they are in the force’s use of stop and search. The force also does this before and after policing operations to tackle a particular issue, such as knife crime. Survey results are broken down by location, ethnicity, age and gender and help the force to understand the effect its use of police powers has on communities.
South Wales Police is good at prevention and deterrence.
Where it considers it to be in the public interest, the force sends letters about arrested people who could cause harm at work to partner agencies or their employers. For example, a person might repeatedly drive when unfit to do so because of drink or drugs when their job requires them to drive. Or they may show a tendency to use violence or abuse, which may make them unsuitable to have contact with women, girls or vulnerable people in the course of their work. If notified, the partner agency or employer can consider what steps to take to prevent the person from having an opportunity to cause harm while at work.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to prevention and deterrence.
South Wales Police has a new neighbourhood policing framework, which guides how it meets national and local priorities. The neighbourhood policing programme board and local performance meetings hold local policing commanders to account for liaising with communities, reducing crime, identifying vulnerability and working with partners.
We found that while local performance meetings receive monthly updates from inspectors, these tended to be anecdotal accounts of activity rather than being linked to clear outcomes. Devising a neighbourhood policing performance scorecard is a priority for the force, but it hasn’t made any substantial progress with this. To maintain the confidence of its communities, the force needs to be able to demonstrate the effect of its officers’ work on levels of crime and antisocial behaviour.
The force has delayed creating a dedicated neighbourhood policing course due to a lack of capacity in its learning and development department. The force compensates for this by training neighbourhood police officers in problem-solving and other development activity. However, it should fulfil its plans to train neighbourhood policing teams as specialists.
The force uses a range of information sources, including surveys, Mosaic data and information from partners, such as health and fire services, to identify its most deprived communities. Intelligence analysts and hate crime teams produce community tensions reports about international, national or local events that may increase the likelihood of hate crimes or disorder. Local teams create engagement plans based on an understanding of where the force needs to work hardest at improving trust in its ability to keep people safe.
Intelligence analysts produce problem profiles for issues such as serious violence, hate crime and exploitation. Daily briefings and self-service data help officers and police community support officers understand what their priorities are.
The force’s Operation Sentinel targets antisocial behaviour by deploying extra officers to areas of 300 square metres where problems have been identified. The force electronically tracks police radio handsets and vehicles to make sure officers are patrolling in the right areas and for long enough to tackle identified problems.
Following large-scale disorder in Ely, Cardiff in June 2023, the force used data and information from education and youth services to identify areas with high numbers of children who weren’t in formal education. The force, with support from its school liaison officers, then met with partner organisations to arrange events to involve children and parents. We look forward to the results of this work being evaluated.
South Wales experiences lower levels of some neighbourhood crimes that carry a high risk of harm. In the year ending 31 March 2023, South Wales Police recorded 0.48 knife crimes per 1,000 population. This was lower than the rate across all forces in England and Wales (0.85 per 1,000 population) but still within the expected range compared to forces across England and Wales.
The force uses South Wales Listens, an online messaging service, to ask its communities about the issues that matter most to them. Police community support officers carry out doorstep surveys and encourage people to register to use the service. To help people who aren’t online communicate with neighbourhood officers, the force still uses ‘police and communities together’ meetings and street briefings with local councillors.
The results of all this activity allow the force to brief its teams effectively about key issues and where and when to patrol to reassure communities. The force also tells its communities about problems in a particular area or about action it has taken by posting updates on the South Wales Listens website and the force’s Orlo social media messaging service.
The force collaborates with community safety partnerships to maintain safety in the night-time economy. Licensing officers work with pubs and nightclubs where force data indicates that violence and antisocial behaviour are likely to occur to make sure security staff are able to maintain safety. By doing so, the force encourages businesses to co-operate in order to prevent victimisation and exploitation.
Operations Minerva and Ferndown use plain-clothes officers to help females who may be vulnerable or find themselves in unsafe locations to stay safe. These officers also identify males who display aggressive or predatory behaviour and where possible, arrest and prosecute them.
The force uses OSARA plans to tackle neighbourhood crime and antisocial behaviour that require longer-term partnership work. We saw examples of well-researched plans to tackle organised crime and plans involving partnership working with children’s social care based on the successful 4P-approach. Most plans we viewed had been regularly reviewed by inspectors. Examples of successful plans to guide future problem-solving are easy to find on the force’s intranet site.
The Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot basic command unit (BCU) has recognised that school holidays and weekends were associated with a rise in shoplifting and antisocial behaviour in some towns. In response, the BCU has established a new team of officers to deter crime and to take action against offenders. The initiative is being carried out in collaboration with a local business improvement district, which is providing funding to educate businesses about responsible trading and crime prevention.
In Pontypridd, the force has adopted a Clear, Hold and Build approach to reduce long-standing antisocial behaviour, drugs supply and violence in a deprived community. The force has used a range of tactics to address, or ‘clear’ this criminal behaviour, including executing drugs warrants, increased officer patrols and vehicle seizures. To ‘hold’ public confidence in the newly safe environment, the force has started to activity design out crime while collaborating with the council, housing association and a football club to hold community events. To help ‘build’ a stronger community, the force told us it intends to use its police support volunteers and South Wales Listens messaging to maintain public involvement alongside its regeneration activity with partner organisations. We look forward to seeing an evaluation of the force’s partnership problem-solving.
The sex worker outreach team panel is a promising approach to help rough sleepers and sex workers find shelter and get involved with support groups or diversionary programmes. Partnership panels, which are often chaired by police inspectors and include agencies such as housing, mental health and adult social care, meet to reduce individuals’ likelihood of resorting to crime or substance misuse or of being exploited.
But our inspection found that OSARA plans lacked consistently detailed analysis of their effectiveness in reducing crime and disorder or saving police and partners’ time. Without detailed evaluation of plans, the force can’t confidently judge whether apparent successes are likely to be sustainable or whether problems have merely been displaced.
The force has citizens in a policing team that recruits volunteer members of the public and provides opportunities for them to contribute to keeping communities safer. The force has student volunteer hubs at three universities, and these volunteers help to run night safety buses in busy night-time economy areas. Police support volunteers also make crime prevention visits to victims of burglary to reduce the likelihood of repeated victimisation.
The force also has several police youth volunteer hubs, which are co-ordinated by neighbourhood policing teams. The hubs are set up in areas that include neighbourhoods with higher levels of deprivation and involve children and young people in an attempt to divert them away from antisocial behaviour or crime.
Operation Makesafe uses officers and police support volunteers to test if hotels and bed and breakfasts can spot potential offenders who are using their premises to commit child abuse. The volunteers act as test purchasers at shops selling vapes and alcohol to check whether retailers are acting within the law regarding sales to children.
South Wales Police requires improvement at responding to the public.
In the year ending 30 June 2023, South Wales Police received 186 emergency 999 calls per 1,000 population. This was in line with other forces in England and Wales. In the same period, the force answered 76.1 percent of its 999 calls within ten seconds. This is below the expected standard of answering 90 percent of calls within ten seconds.
The force told us that more recent data shows that the percentage of 999 calls being answered within 10 seconds has improved slightly but remains below the expected standard.
Emergency calls for service must be answered promptly so that police officers are sent to protect victims or investigate crimes quickly enough. Otherwise, the force may miss opportunities to bring offenders to justice on behalf of victims of crime.
The force has plans to improve its contact management operating model and call-handling performance. We would encourage the force to make sure that these plans are implemented.
Figure 1: Proportion of 999 calls answered within ten seconds by forces in England and Wales in the year ending 30 June 2023
Source: 999 call answering times from BT
Note: Call-answering time is the time taken for a call to be transferred from BT to a force and the time taken by that force to answer the call.
In our victim service assessment, we found that the incident response time was within the required attendance time in 64 of the 79 relevant cases we examined (whether downgraded or not).
The force publishes its expected time frames for officer attendance at incidents. Those requiring urgent attendance are graded 1 and should be attended within 15 minutes. Non-emergency calls for which attendance should be prioritised are graded 2 and attendance is expected within 1 hour.
We found that the force’s average attendance time for grade 2 priority calls that weren’t associated with domestic abuse was 1 hour and 11 minutes. However, domestic abuse related grade 2 priority calls took more than twice as long to attend – an average of 2 hours and 23 minutes. In addition, too many domestic abuse related calls were held by the control room for over an hour before officers were dispatched to help victims. The force told us it is doing work to fully understand why the time taken to reach victims of domestic abuse is longer. This has led to improvements. This action should be kept under rigorous review.
We also found that although call handlers and missing persons specialists often correctly assessed the risk of harm to missing people, there were still lengthy delays before allocating officers to help find them.
This delayed response means that the force may miss opportunities to safeguard victims and collect evidence that could help bring offenders to justice.
The force has published its commitment to tackling violence against women and girls. But by delaying its attendance at domestic abuse incidents, the force may risk losing the confidence and support of victims.
The force control room has an incident resolution team (IRT). The IRT is responsible for triaging and resolving non-urgent (grade 4) incidents, which officers should normally attend within 24 hours. The IRT is responsible for dealing with grade 2 incidents that call takers think might be suitable for resolution on the phone rather than by deploying officers to attend.
We found examples of incidents for which the risks to victims had been assessed superficially or not at all by call handlers or IRT staff. Often, crimes relating to domestic abuse involving children and antisocial behaviour weren’t identified. Our victim service assessment also identified that the force fails to record almost all crime linked to antisocial behaviour reported to it.
Staff told us that the IRT has a target to finalise 75 percent of incidents every day and that any incident will be closed after three unsuccessful attempts to contact the caller. We found several examples where this had happened. This is contrary to the force’s own policy, which states that this shouldn’t happen where there are opportunities to identify or investigate crimes.
We also found tasks that appeared to have been assigned to individual IRT staff when they were away from work for a number of days. This meant that investigations on behalf of victims were likely to be delayed.
The control room and IRT have a dip sample-based quality assurance and supervision process. But we found that most performance improvement feedback was given via email and not in person. We saw examples of officers failing to carry out thorough risk assessments, with no apparent follow-up supportive action.
Unless the force effectively identifies and supervises the investigation of vulnerability and crime at an early stage, it can’t be confident that all crime will be recorded and victims protected.
The force has listened to feedback from its call management staff about the length of time it takes to take and prioritise calls for service using the THRIVE structured risk assessment model. The force found that, too often, THRIVE assessments were completed retrospectively or that methodically using the mnemonic took too long for call takers to then process the information and decide on how to prioritise the incident response.
The force has started to trial SAR (summary of the circumstances, assessment, response – a grading decision based on the national decision model) as an alternative to using THRIVE. The force is initially training small numbers of staff to use SAR while seeking feedback from the College of Policing and commissioning an evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of the approach.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force responds to the public.
At the time of our inspection, South Wales Police had started a continuous improvement project for its contact management department. This is a major investment, which has already created a new operational and support management structure, demand and resourcing profile to help the force meet current and future demand for its services. The force has also expanded its digital contact function. We found that enquiries from the public using live chat, emails and Single Online Home are dealt with promptly and effectively.
The force told us it is developing business continuity and longer-term resourcing plans and carrying out a review of its incident dispatch function and training requirements in preparation for its new contact management system. We look forward to seeing how the force translates this transformation work into sustainably improved services for the public.
In the year ending 30 June 2023, South Wales Police received 275 non-emergency 101 calls per 1,000 population. This was in line with other forces in England and Wales.
The force told us that 14 percent of calls to its non-emergency 101 facility were abandoned by callers before they were answered. This abandonment rate is higher than the 2020 national contact management strategy principles and guidance that forces without a switchboard should aim to have an abandonment rate lower than 10 percent. However, this is an improvement on the findings of our last inspection.
Incident dispatchers explained that they can monitor urgent incidents but have few opportunities to review older logs. We found several domestic abuse and missing persons incident logs waiting for officers to be deployed to them. Some of these were days old, but supervisors hadn’t reviewed risk assessments or intelligence checks. Victims hadn’t been contacted again to reassess the current likelihood of their coming to harm.
When dispatchers finish dealing with emergency calls, they prioritise backlogged incidents based on the original priority grading and not according to a reassessed understanding of the level of risk.
The force needs to understand the current risk within its unmet demand so it can more promptly meet the needs of victims of crime who need help most urgently.
Our last inspection, which examined missing persons reports in several areas of the force, and the more recent findings of the multi-agency joint inspection of child protection arrangements in Bridgend in June 2023 found that South Wales Police needed to respond consistently and effectively to missing children reports.
Since then, the force has responded positively by reviewing its policy and organisational structure. The centralised missing persons team has received training to recognise and protect missing and vulnerable children and adults.
Our inspection examined missing persons investigations across the force area. We found that call handlers and specialist missing persons teams often correctly judged the likelihood of missing people coming to harm. However, when response supervisors needed to ratify risk assessments or task officers to carry out enquiries, there were lengthy delays. Some supervisors’ reviews used language that had the effect of suggesting missing children were responsible for putting themselves at risk of harm.
We also found examples of officers failing to take opportunities to speak to children to check on their welfare or when faced with refusals from parents not insisting on doing so. Public protection notices for children who had been missing or exposed to domestic abuse were sometimes not completed for days.
While the force has made promising progress, some of its improvement work is recent and will take time to develop into a consistently risk-appropriate response to safeguarding missing and vulnerable children.
The force uses a range of analytical tools to understand the daily demand for its contact management services and whether members of the public choose to contact it on the phone or via digital means. The force can also forecast the likely rise in demand so that it can make decisions about the number of staff and technological improvements it will need in the future.
The control room uses demand ‘heat maps’ to judge when to use internal teams, such as the digital desk, to support the answering of emergency calls. The ‘high path’ system monitors the availability of control room staff and can switch calls between operators in times of high demand. Encouragingly, we saw few examples of queues of unanswered calls.
The force can monitor and analyse the average speed of call handling and how long each team takes to deal with emergency and non-emergency calls. This means that it can decide how to improve its service to the public in the short and longer term. But we also found that the force sometimes relied on overtime working, which some staff told us that they felt pressured to do.
Having learned from the Manchester Arena Inquiry, each team in the control room now has two force incident managers to provide leadership for the daily operational management of incidents and performance. This has been a recently implemented investment in leadership, and we look forward to reviewing its effect on providing an improved service to the public.
Our victim service assessment found that in every case we audited, control room staff carried out an assessment of the risk of harm to victims. Checks were made to identify whether incidents involved vulnerable victims in nearly every case. Calls were correctly prioritised according to how urgently attendance was required in all of the 95 cases we reviewed.
Members of the public can be confident that when they call South Wales Police, once answered, their calls will be managed effectively.
Our victim service assessment found that, of the cases we reviewed, call takers took almost every opportunity to give callers appropriate advice about how to preserve evidence prior to officers’ arrival. This means that the force can reduce the likelihood of the loss of evidence, which may help in solving crimes.
Of the calls we reviewed, every caller was given advice about crime prevention where this was appropriate. If callers are given appropriate advice about crime prevention before officers attend, they are likely to be less at risk of further crime.
South Wales Police is adequate at investigating crime.
South Wales Police solves an unacceptably small number of crimes following investigation. The force needs to understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims.
In the year ending 30 June 2023, South Wales Police recorded 88,466 victim‑based crimes. Of these recorded offences, 10.1 percent were assigned an ‘offences brought to justice’ outcome. This is within the normal range compared to other forces in England and Wales.
Figure 2: Percentage of victim-based crime recorded by South Wales Police and all forces in England and Wales by selected outcome types in the year ending 30 June 2023
| Outcome types | South Wales Police outcome rate | England and Wales outcome rate |
| 1 – Charged/summonsed | 7.5% | 5.3% |
| 2 and 3 – Caution – youths and adults | 0.4% | 0.7% |
| 8 – Community resolutions | 1.7% | 1.5% |
| 9 – Prosecution not in the public interest (Crown Prosecution Service decision) | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 10 and 21 – Prosecution not in the public interest (police decision) | 0.5% | 0.9% |
| 14 – Evidential difficulties (suspect not identified; victim doesn’t support further action) | 4.7% | 5.9% |
| 15 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports further action) | 14.4% | 13.3% |
| 16 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim doesn’t support further action) | 25.4% | 22.3% |
| 17 – Prosecution time limit expired | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| 18 – Investigation complete – no suspect identified | 39.6% | 43.0% |
| 20 – Responsibility for further investigation transferred to another body | 0.2% | 1.4% |
| 22 – Diversionary, educational or intervention activity | 0.3% | 0.4% |
Source: Police-recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Note: Presented data comes from the latest release available before the start of our inspection and may have been revised since. British Transport Police and City of London data is excluded from the England and Wales rate. Total police-recorded crime includes all crime (except fraud).
Figure 3: Proportion of victim-based crimes assigned a charged/summonsed outcome (outcome 1) by South Wales Police between the year ending 31 March 2015 and the year ending 30 June 2023
Source: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Note: Presented data comes from the latest release available before the start of our inspection and may have been revised since. Victim-based crimes are defined as all police-recorded crimes where there is a direct victim, such as an individual, an organisation or a corporate body.
Our previous inspection identified that the force needed to fulfil its plans to train, develop and retain personnel who investigate crime.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, only 55 percent of investigator posts in South Wales Police were filled by personnel qualified to professionalising investigations programme (PIP) level 2. PIP level 2 is the minimum level of competence for investigators of serious and complex crime recommended by the College of Policing.
At the time of our inspection, most investigators – 93 percent – were qualified or working towards being qualified to PIP level 2. However, we found examples of investigations being carried out by inexperienced or unqualified personnel. For example, the force estimates that investigation hubs deal with 97 percent of domestic abuse cases where suspects have been arrested.
Offences investigated by hub personnel include serious assaults, robberies and burglaries. Investigation hub personnel are among the force’s least experienced investigators, who are required to achieve a PIP level 1 qualification by the time they have finished their attachment to the hub. This is the minimum level of competence recommended by the College of Policing for investigators of volume and priority crime. At the time of our inspection, force governance meetings couldn’t establish whether the force has prioritised the training of hub sergeants to PIP 1 supervisor level.
The force told us that it has carried out work that has allowed it to identify a number of supervisory roles that require PIP level 1 training to provide effective supervision of volume and priority criminal investigations.
At the time of our inspection, the force estimated that only 65 percent of personnel were scheduled to attend training on the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996. This training is important so that investigating personnel understand their responsibilities to gather and disclose evidence fairly and lawfully.
We also found response and neighbourhood policing officers were given responsibility to investigate serious and complex crimes, such as high-value frauds and non-fatal strangulations. However, at the time of our inspection, the force estimated that only 68 percent of response and neighbourhood policing sergeants had booked to attend PIP level 1 supervisor training.
Operation Diogel involves sending dedicated investigators to visit, take statements from and offer safeguarding support to domestic abuse victims while the suspected offender is in custody. Many of the victims visited by officers had a lengthy history of experiencing domestic abuse and didn’t initially support a prosecution.
An evaluation of Operation Diogel by Cardiff University indicates that when this approach is adopted, higher numbers of victims support a prosecution and more offenders are charged or cautioned.
Operation Diogel has been piloted in one of the three basic command units in South Wales Police. Its sustainability or effect on repeated victimisation when greater numbers of victims are involved can’t yet be judged, but the evaluation is promising.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force investigates crime.
Our victim service assessment found that in 97 of the 100 cases we audited, investigators had completed an effective investigation and that nearly every case had been appropriately supervised. Few investigations were delayed and almost all were initially allocated to appropriately skilled investigators.
Our victim service assessment found that in 21 of 23 cases where victims decided not to support a prosecution, their views and decisions were properly recorded. Of the 85 cases we audited, the correct outcome was recorded on every occasion. The force has made encouraging progress since our last inspection, which identified the auditable recording of victims’ views and decisions as an area for improvement.
South Wales Police has several connected meetings that govern its approach to improving the standard of investigations. Attendees at the force’s performance meeting discuss the number of investigations, workloads of investigators and outcomes for victims. The synergy board and hub steering group provide governance to make sure that there are enough skilled personnel in the right places to investigate crime to the expected standard. The force also has a performance framework to make sure it investigates domestic abuse related crime to acceptable standards.
IT systems such as Data Depot and Power BI allow the force to view its criminal investigations demand, supervisory performance and workloads. But we found that the force didn’t have enough analytical capacity to better understand all aspects of this data. For example, it can’t yet fully understand how well its investigation hubs manage demand. The force hasn’t yet evaluated how effectively it considers victims’ needs when releasing domestic abuse suspects on bail, which is required by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
We found that, overall, general criminal investigation departments, rape investigation teams and investigation hubs had manageable caseloads.
But we also found that the overall number of crimes yet to be assigned a final outcome was rising sharply. The force told us that between February and October 2023, the number of crimes investigated by response officers that hadn’t been assigned an outcome increased monthly from 3,692 to 10,128. This equates to around 40 percent of all criminal investigations by the force.
The force told us it has created a new governance structure to help it understand how well it deals with crime and incidents reported to it on behalf of victims. However, our inspection found that the force didn’t have a clear understanding of why response officers were retaining responsibility for increasing numbers of investigations. We were told that, in order to keep workloads manageable, investigation hubs will often decline to accept new investigations. This means that response officers have to retain responsibility for cases. Sergeants and inspectors told us that they struggle to keep track of whether their officers are promptly investigating crimes and updating victims. If response officers are responsible for investigating increasing numbers of crimes while still responding to incidents, victims may not receive prompt or efficient access to justice.
South Wales Police is adequate at protecting vulnerable people.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, South Wales Police recorded 30,157 domestic abuse related crimes. This equated to 23 domestic abuse related crimes per 1,000 population. This was higher than the rate across all forces in England and Wales of 15.8 domestic abuse related crimes per 1,000 population.
Despite this, in the same period, the force applied for 30 Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs), which equated to 2.3 DVPOs per 100,000 recorded domestic abuse related crimes during that period. This was lower than the England and Wales average of 19 DVPO applications per 100,000 recorded domestic abuse related crimes. The force, therefore, applied for DVPOs in only 0.1 percent of all cases of domestic abuse related crimes, which was lower than expected compared to other forces across England and Wales.
Figure 4: Number of DVPO applications as a proportion of domestic abuse related crimes by forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2023
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
In the year ending 31 March 2023, South Wales Police recorded 2,798 stalking offences, which equated to 2.1 offences per 1,000 population. This was similar to the average across all forces in England and Wales of 2 offences per 1,000 population. During this time, the force made only one full Stalking Protection Order application at court, which was granted.
Orders such as these help keep vulnerable victims safe from offenders while victims make more permanent plans to keep themselves safe or seek help from services such as independent domestic violence advisers. Failure to apply for protective orders where appropriate denies victims this opportunity and potentially places them at risk of greater harm.
The force has recently recruited a stalking co-ordinator and a preventative orders officer. It has also provided training to the workforce about how to apply for orders. These are positive steps, but it isn’t yet possible to assess whether this recruitment and training will result in an increased number of successful protective order applications.
Our last inspection identified that the force needed to meet the nationally recommended time limits for making disclosure decisions under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.
The force has centralised its management of the scheme within its safeguarding and public protection command. It has refreshed guidance to make sure that all personnel involved in the process understand their responsibilities. A data dashboard now helps supervisors to closely monitor timeliness at every stage of the process and to identify when they need to use members from other teams to minimise delays. We found that inspectors had reviewed the progress and safeguarding risks of each case we audited.
We found that in most areas, almost all applications awaiting disclosure decisions were within the national 28-day limit. But in Cardiff, 44 disclosure decisions were overdue. The force’s disclosure rate within the time limit is 38 percent.
The multi-agency joint inspection of child protection arrangements in Bridgend in June 2023 found that personnel didn’t always fully understand the force’s Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme process. It also found that they didn’t progress applications in a timely manner.
The force has made encouraging progress but needs to demonstrate sustainable improvement in promptly informing applicants of the information it needs to make decisions about their safety.
The force knows that it needs to improve the safeguarding of stalking victims. It has developed an app to help personnel carry out stalking and domestic abuse risk assessments and refer victims to advice and commissioned services.
At the time of our inspection, the force had recently introduced the app and had yet to evaluate its effect on referrals. The force is also adding more functionality to the app for other types of incidents involving vulnerable people.
The force recognises the importance of building and maintaining the trust of women and girls so they are confident the force will take action to support and protect them if police officers or staff offend against them.
The force has commissioned a service for victims of police-perpetrated violence against women, including domestic abuse and serious violence. Specialist support for victims is intended to address the power imbalance associated with police offenders. This work is in partnership with the offices of both the South Wales and Gwent police and crime commissioners.
This initiative is new and will require a careful, sensitive and thorough evaluation.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force protects vulnerable people.
South Wales Police has a new protecting vulnerable people command and vulnerability strategy. This helps the force to benchmark its standards against those of the National Vulnerability Action Plan. We found that knowledgeable senior leaders made effective resourcing decisions to support the force’s aims to tackle vulnerability. We also found that these leaders worked with partner agencies to support joint efforts in this area.
We found that the force had effective processes for triaging domestic abuse risk assessments. A centralised demand data dashboard allows it to judge where demand is highest in the force and to allocate extra risk assessors to promptly address that demand. For example, we found low numbers of public protection notices awaiting secondary assessment. This reduces the potential for delays in action to protect victims from serious harm.
The force now has a specific team that tackles child criminal exploitation and has teams that support adult victims and take action against offenders. This was an area for improvement from our last inspection, in which we stated that the force didn’t have dedicated teams to investigate and disrupt child criminal exploitation.
We found that the new teams were comprehensively trained. The force appropriately uses warning markers to help personnel identify exploited children or potential offenders.
In addition, we found that the exploitation team worked effectively with partners. We observed the force participating in safety planning discussions at multi-agency child exploitation panels with children’s social care, health, education and criminal justice partners.
In November 2023, the force started using Project CARA. This allows cautions to be offered to domestic abuse offenders on the condition that they attend workshops to help them positively change their behaviour. This gives the force more options to reduce repeat offending and safeguard victims.
The force has only recently adopted Project CARA so while encouraging, the effect on repeated or more serious victimisation will need to be evaluated over time.
We found that the force promptly carried out research into the risk of harm posed to and by people mentioned in public protection notices and safeguarding referrals from children’s social care. We found few examples of delays in information sharing and strategy discussions with partners. Monthly meetings between multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) managers and children’s social care counterparts help to make sure that information sharing and safeguarding arrangements are working effectively.
A MASH can be held remotely online or by telephone. Often, having police and partner organisations together in the same place means they are better able to share information and develop effective working practices. There is currently a MASH with police, health and social services in the same location in only one area of the force. The force needs to continue to encourage its partners to replicate MASH arrangements in all areas of the force to minimise potential delays in taking action to safeguard children and vulnerable adults.
The force carries out surveys with victims of domestic abuse and other offences to understand their experience of the criminal justice process. The force told us that its victim satisfaction survey result for the three months to the end of March 2023 indicated that 82.6 percent of domestic abuse victims were satisfied with their overall experience of their involvement with South Wales Police. However, only 56.1 percent of victims were positive about follow-up contact by investigators.
The force has a dedicated team that supports victims after a suspected offender has been charged. But the force should make sure it understands the ongoing support that victims need and that it effectively supports victims to maintain their confidence and support for prosecutions.
We found that the force learned from experience to improve the way it protects vulnerable victims. The force’s major crime team identifies learning opportunities from domestic homicide reviews and other potentially fatal incidents. This is incorporated into training for detective sergeants to help improve safeguarding for victims. The force has also used homicide data relating to males over the age of 25 in public spaces to promote its One Punch Ruins Lives campaign.
Our inspection found that multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) meetings were chaired by experienced detective inspectors, who identified risks and agreed appropriate safeguarding actions with partner agencies. MARAC meetings occur either weekly or fortnightly.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, the force discussed 5,172 cases at MARAC meetings. This was above the 2,150 cases recommended by SafeLives based on the size of the local population. This situation hasn’t changed notably since our last inspection. We found that in some areas of the force, such as Cardiff, discussions about referral criteria took place with a smaller group of partner agencies. These discussions decide whether a referral to a MARAC meeting is likely to result in more effective safety planning. This should help to reduce any unnecessary referrals.
The number of repeat domestic abuse related crimes recorded by South Wales Police continues to increase. In the year ending 31 March 2023, the force recorded 9,582 repeat domestic abuse related crimes, which equated to 7.2 repeat domestic abuse crimes per 1,000 population. This compares to the 5,960 repeat domestic abuse related crimes the force recorded in the year ending 31 March 2022 (which equated to 4.5 crimes per 1,000 population).
Figure 5: Rolling 12-month repeat domestic abuse related crimes per 1,000 population recorded by South Wales Police between the year ending 31 March 2020 and the year ending 31 March 2023
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
The force needs to evaluate whether its various methods of managing the volume of high-risk domestic abuse and its risk of harm are equally effective at preventing repeated domestic abuse incidents.
South Wales Police is adequate at managing offenders and suspects.
Force policy states that as soon as the force identifies that a person suspected of accessing indecent images of children has a link to a child, children’s social care should be notified so that safeguarding action can be taken.
Our inspection found several high, medium and low-risk cases that involved suspects accessing indecent images of children where investigators waited until enforcement action had been taken before notifying children’s social care. In some cases, these delays took weeks. This could mean that children remained at risk of harm for longer than necessary.
The force should make sure it adheres to its stated policy and prioritises the safeguarding of children.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force manages offenders and suspects.
The force’s monthly outstanding suspects, released under investigation (RUI) and bail meeting, chaired by a chief officer, monitors the performance data of each BCU relating to the arrest and management of suspected offenders.
Daily management meetings make sure that local commanders have the support needed to arrest suspected offenders who present the highest risk of harm to victims. Officers are briefed through regularly updated handover documents about the suspects they are expected to apprehend. We found most tasks that required the arrest of suspects had been regularly reviewed and risk reassessed.
The force told us that neighbourhood police officers and members of other teams, such as firearms officers, recently took part in a two-day operation to arrest high‑priority suspected offenders. The force also told us that each BCU regularly runs operations to arrest suspects. Senior leaders make sure that there are enough personnel to arrest and accommodate prisoners at custody centres and to interview them.
The force needs to make sure that it maintains its capacity to arrest suspects. It told us that in May 2023, 324 outstanding suspects had yet to be arrested and by August 2023 there were 421 outstanding suspects. The longer suspected offenders are allowed to remain at large, the greater the number of victims who may be at risk of harm.
Our inspection found that most reviews of and authorisations for bail or RUI were proportionate, clearly justified and balanced the needs of the investigation and measures to safeguard victims. Force policy is clear that the release of suspected offenders for serious offences and domestic abuse on RUI must be authorised by an inspector and that victims’ views should be sought.
Bail sergeants are responsible for making sure that investigating officers apply for bail to be extended or converted to RUI. However, bail sergeants are also responsible for the booking-in and risk-assessment process for suspects who attend police stations voluntarily. Response team inspectors and sergeants told us that they can struggle to review bail and RUI alongside their other demands.
We found examples of suspects who were answering bail at police stations only to find that they couldn’t be dealt with. This was because the bail sergeant was already busy dealing with other attendees or investigating officers hadn’t progressed investigations and weren’t present to provide updates to custody staff. In these circumstances, bail often lapses into RUI. This means that victims are no longer protected from harm by bail conditions, often without any alternative safeguarding measures being put into place.
In June 2023, HMICFRS and the Care Quality Commission jointly inspected South Wales Police’s custody facilities. In that inspection, we found that the force needed to charge suspects more quickly after a Crown Prosecution Service decision to charge. We also found that the force needed to make sure officers and staff responsible for safeguarding victims are notified as soon as bail lapses into RUI.
The management of sexual offenders and violent offenders (MOSOVO) teams and the paedophile online investigations team are led by superintendents in the safeguarding and public protection command. The force’s MOSOVO policy clearly sets out the responsibilities of offender managers and supervisors and incorporates multi-agency public protection arrangements guidance.
The force complies with the authorised professional practice for reactive offender management, including unannounced, double-crewed visits. We found very few overdue home visits.
We found that MOSOVO teams were well staffed, but while caseloads were currently manageable, they were rising. The force told us there are around 50 offenders allocated to each offender manager. It needs to keep cases low enough to reduce the risks that offenders pose and to protect workforce well-being.
The force assesses each offender’s likelihood of causing harm to the public using the active risk management system assessments. Our inspection found that 120 assessments were overdue. Although none of the delays were lengthy, the force needs to make sure it promptly risk assesses offenders.
All registered sex offenders are flagged on the force’s crime and incident recording system, Niche. However, only those who are considered to represent a specific risk are also flagged on the command and control system (Control Works). This lack of consistency means that officers attending incidents may not identify offenders in lower-risk categories, even if they are found in the company of vulnerable people.
All personnel who manage sexual and violent offenders are trained in MOSOVO, active risk management system assessments and how to use the Violent and Sex Offender Register system.
The force uses Magnet Outrider software to detect harmful content on registered sex offenders’ electronic devices, but we found that not all officers and staff were confident in its use. We also found that new starters in MOSOVO teams from a non-police background had no formal training in general police duties. This included, for example, how to take statements and use police radios. Not all staff were trained to use the Police National Database. This means that staff may not know whether some offenders have previously been arrested and not charged or cautioned for indecency offences. Therefore, offender managers may have an incomplete understanding of the potential dangers posed by offenders.
We found that the police online investigation team was adequately staffed to meet its current demand.
When the force is notified of a suspected offence, research is carried out using criminal record and intelligence checks. The Kent internet risk assessment tool is then used to assess the seriousness of the threat posed by the suspect. Our inspection found that members of the police online investigation team took action in most high and medium-risk cases and within recommended timescales.
But we found this wasn’t always the case in low-risk cases. Before our inspection, the force told us that there was a backlog of up to 80 cases awaiting enforcement action. Although the backlog had been reduced by the time of our inspection, this reduction had been achieved by officers and staff doing overtime, which is unlikely to be sustainable in the longer term.
Some low-risk cases we audited showed that assessments using the Kent internet risk assessment tool were delayed for a week or more. This means that delays in taking action are in fact longer than they might seem from a cursory understanding of performance data and that victims may remain at risk of harm for longer.
South Wales Police is good at building, supporting and protecting the workforce.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force builds, supports and protects the workforce.
The force uses the Blue Light Wellbeing Framework to guide how it understands and supports the well-being of its workforce. The force’s well-being board monitors the progress of its well-being action plan, which includes leadership, mental health and absence management.
The force has increased access to counselling for personnel whose jobs pose the highest risk of mental health illness through repeated exposure to trauma, such as those who investigate child abuse offences or manage the most dangerous offenders. The force told us that 26 departments or teams now have psychological screening, so officers who need mental health support can be signposted to the employee assistance programme.
Officers are offered trauma risk management counselling when they are exposed to traumatic incidents at work. Most officers told us that Operation Hampshire, which mandates a series of supportive actions for officers who have been assaulted in the course of their duty, is prompt and effective.
A well-being toolkit and extensive intranet resources are also available for further guidance and self-help. Officers and staff we spoke to said that they find these resources useful.
The force is also reacting to factors outside the immediate workplace that might affect the mental or emotional health of officers and staff. For example, the force allows personnel to access their salaries earlier in the month to mitigate cost‑of‑living pressures.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, South Wales Police had 12.8 occupational health referrals per 100 officers and staff. This was lower than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales. Average waiting times for appointments reduced from 24 days in the year ending 31 March 2022 to 16 days in the year ending 31 March 2023.
Figure 6: Number of occupational health referrals per 100 officers and staff by forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2023
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
But several people told us that they aren’t able to take time away from the workplace to access well-being support due to their workloads and levels of demand. Respondents to the force’s internal workforce engagement survey said they worried about work when they were off duty. If personnel can’t forget about work pressures or prioritise their health, they may become unwell or leave.
We carried out a workforce survey between 3 July 2023 and 4 August 2023. Overall, 79.2 percent of respondents (373 of 471) felt a sense of belonging to South Wales Police, and 84.1 percent (396 of 471) felt proud to be a member of the force.
All respondents were asked questions relating to the behaviour of their line managers. We found that 90.1 percent (424 of 471) of respondents agreed that their line manager challenges discriminatory behaviour, and 88.1 percent (415 of 471) agreed that their line manager creates an inclusive working environment. Our survey also found that 86.6 percent (408 of 471) of respondents agreed that their line manager models high standards of behaviour.
These results are broadly similar to the force’s own recent internal workforce engagement survey.
The force offers the ‘explore’ programme to help police staff develop via shadowing opportunities, secondment to other departments and contributing to force improvement projects. Despite this, only 37 percent (90 of 243) of police staff respondents in our survey agreed that they feel as equally valued as police officers. The force should take steps to understand this perceived disparity.
Positively, the force has invested in reinforcing the workforce’s understanding of its responsibility to protect and promote fair treatment. The majority of the workforce has attended the ‘let’s talk about race’ web-based seminars and ‘inclusion matters, diversity wins’ training. Inclusion development workshops promote the force’s expectation that personnel challenge inappropriate and unfair behaviour.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, only 29 percent of police officers left South Wales Police due to voluntary resignation. This is lower than the England and Wales average of 43 percent.
Student officers told us that the force and its supervisors create a welcoming environment and that the force carries out surveys to identify how future training and induction could be improved. The force told us it has recently changed its preferred degree provider, which has resulted in a 33 percent reduction in academic work. Course content is now more relevant to the policing role student officers are working towards.
The force has also analysed the effect of student officers’ protected learning time (PLT) for the teams they work in. Despite this, the force told us that the management of PLT continues to be a challenge. Some officers told us that PLT days are still cancelled so that they can perform duties or that PLT is scheduled after a night shift. The force has recently introduced a policy that requires a chief inspector’s authority to move a student officer’s PLT day so that their academic work is only disrupted when necessary.
The force’s strategic equality plan affirms its commitment to meeting its statutory public sector equality duty by improving the development and retention of officers and staff from ethnic minority backgrounds and female personnel. The force offers exit interviews to understand why personnel from under-represented backgrounds leave and if there are specific issues that contribute to this.
The ‘atlas’ programme provides networking and mentoring opportunities for police officers and staff from under-represented backgrounds to help develop and sustain their careers. Personnel spoke positively about the confidence they have gained through the programme. The force’s gender equality network helps female officers and staff to develop their potential through promotion seminars, mentoring and coaching. The network also helps to promote work-life balance and well-being. The force promotes the HeForShe campaign, which encourages male colleagues to champion gender equality.
The force is increasing the proportion of female police officers being promoted. In the year ending 31 March 2023, 34.7 percent (44 of 127) of promoted police officers were female. This is a promising and sustained increase when compared to data from the year ending 31 March 2022, when 25 percent (33 of 132) of promotions were female and the year ending 31 March 2021 when 24.2 percent (22 of 91) of promotions were female. In the year ending 31 March 2023, the rate of female officers leaving the force was 22.4 percent. This is notably lower than the England and Wales average of 30.9 percent.
The force told us that although it is promoting more female officers to sergeant or chief superintendent and above, it needs to have more diverse representation across all levels of leadership. It is less successful at promoting enough female officers to inspector, chief inspector and superintendent roles. The force currently has no serving officers from under-represented backgrounds above the rank of chief inspector.
The force has well-developed support networks and associations to represent the interests of the general workforce and minority groups. But some members of these networks said that they lacked regular dialogue with nominated senior leaders.
The force’s strategic equality plan focuses on the attraction, development and retention of ethnic minority and female officers and staff. Several personnel and members of support networks told us that this stated focus has resulted in other groups, such as those with neuro-diverse needs or LGBTQ+ orientation, feeling less valued.
Data from our workforce survey showed that 73.8 percent of respondents (348 of 471) agreed that South Wales Police considers their skills and capabilities when deploying them or allocating tasks. But some respondents told us that line managers don’t really understand disability. Some personnel with neurodiversity needs or caring responsibilities said they believed they were moved to roles for operational convenience, rather than being helped to remain in their previous positions with the aid of reasonable adjustments.
South Wales Police was assessed under the National Equality Standard, and the results were published in May 2023. The report was positive about the force in relation to inclusivity, challenge, ethics and accountability. However, the force told us that 24 percent of respondents felt disadvantaged due to their gender, age, disability or caring responsibilities.
The force needs to better communicate how it intends to increase opportunities for all members of its workforce.
The force’s development programme for first-line leaders trains newly promoted sergeants to supervise investigations and promote equality and diversity. It also helps them to better understand the demands of the Policing Education Qualification Framework. Constables must attend this training to be eligible for promotion to sergeant. The force has plans to train already qualified sergeants and police staff when it has the capacity to do so.
But several acting sergeants told us that they had been performing the role for months or years without any training. At the time of our inspection, the force told us that only two thirds of training spaces had been booked. And in some locations, sergeants could only attend training if a student officer performed the acting sergeant role in their absence.
The force needs to make sure that all supervisors attend the training they need to acquire the skills and confidence to lead teams and serve the public effectively.
South Wales Police’s leadership and management is adequate.
We found that the force is understaffed in some key areas, such as its IT function, which, as a result, can’t fulfil some of its plans.
The force’s current operating model and the different teams it has created to deal with crime demand are also under-resourced. This means that it sometimes uses inexperienced officers to investigate complex crimes for which they aren’t trained.
The force has an ambitious training plan but lacks the personnel to put it into action. For example, even though the force’s driver training department is fully staffed, it can’t meet the demand for courses.
Lack of attendance by officers at pre-planned training is causing financial loss. In October 2023, the force lost £91,000 due to personnel not attending training.
There are too few supervisors booked onto leadership courses. Not enough officers are booked for Taser training, and too few police community support officers are booked to attend personal safety training.
The force needs to review its current operating model to make sure the right number of people with the right skills are in the right places to achieve its training objectives.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to leadership and management.
The force collaborates well with its neighbouring forces, which is reflected in its joint firearms unit, joint scientific investigation unit, the legal services department and the digital services division. The force makes good use of shared functions with Gwent Police, which provides value for money for both forces.
The force collaborates nationally with investment in civil contingencies, recruitment and Taser training. It works well with partner organisations to achieve its priorities. The force told us that it has worked with one unitary authority to fund extra community support officer posts. It is also working closely with the National Health Service at an executive level to understand the effect that the Right Care Right Person approach is likely to have on the local ambulance trust and related services.
The force uses the South Wales Listens online messaging service to involve its communities and hopes to reach 100,000 people. It is working with Cardiff University and Ipsos-devised surveys to create micro-beat (areas of 300 square metres) targets for its neighbourhood policing teams. It has created community safety manager posts in all BCUs to manage partnership resources more effectively.
The force has created a new governance structure and holds executive meetings to better monitor performance, well-being, resourcing and programmes of work. It makes sure that its decisions about how to improve services, such as by expanding some departments, are supported by financial analysis. New projects are escalated to the force’s productivity, innovation and efficiency board before approval. The force is using surveys to identify areas where it needs to improve, such as the visibility of its senior leaders.
However, we did find that the force doesn’t currently understand levels of time off in lieu or the reasons for its accrual. The force has improved its global resourcing system so that it can now understand overtime spending to a departmental level of detail. In August 2023, we were told that the force had used £307,000 of excessive overtime. Senior leaders acknowledge that the force is still using too much overtime even though the force’s workforce has increased since the Police Uplift Programme started.
Additionally, the force told us that there is a lack of compliance with supportive sickness plans for absent officers and staff who are unwell. We were told that this is likely to be because inexperienced supervisors aren’t using the process effectively. The force accepts that it needs to do more to make sure it understands its demand and how that affects the workloads of its officers and staff.
The force has created a first-line leaders’ development programme for operational supervisors and expects to adopt the College of Policing’s mid-level leadership development programme in 2024.
Officers and staff told us that the chief officer team encourages challenge and debate from its workforce. The force is performing better in the number of grievances raised and finalised than other similarly grouped forces.
The force has some temporary chief officers within an otherwise stable and established team. The temporary post holders are experienced senior leaders with considerable knowledge of the force and their portfolios. Senior leaders clearly communicate the force’s priorities and plans to the general workforce.
However, the force told us that its internal workforce engagement survey found that respondents lack confidence in the fairness of promotion processes and the visibility and approachability of senior leaders.
The force has responded well and quickly to survey concerns. Chief officers have, for example, held ‘back to the floor’ briefings and the force is making sure senior leaders work from local stations where practicable. However, personnel told us that the force could better inform its workforce about its plans for change.
The force currently has an overall vacancy rate of 9 percent. This includes the key area of firearms licensing, which is important to help the force regulate the public’s access to lethal weapons.
At the time of our inspection, the force had 41 vacancies out of 180 staff (23 percent) in its IT function, which affects its capacity to meet the demands placed on it. This presents a risk for the force. It is aware it can’t currently match industry levels of pay, with salaries being in the region of £5,000 to £10,000 below those in the private sector. This makes it difficult to attract and retain the officers and staff the force needs.
The learning and development function also lacks the workforce it needs to carry out its ambitious plans. With more recruitment planned for 2024, the force needs to prioritise capacity in this area. It is aware of this issue and has highlighted it as a risk in its force management statement. This means that the force can prioritise improving its capacity as part of its future planning.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, the force received a total of £402.9m in funding, which was £307,000 per 1,000 population. Of its total budget, the force receives 37 percent from council tax precept, which is £152.1m. The force is funded at a higher-than-average rate when compared to other forces across all forces in England and Wales.
Figure 7: Total funding per 1,000 population by forces in England and Wales in the 2022/23 financial year
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
The force’s general contingency reserve currently stands at £10.3m. This is £2.1m below the force’s reserve strategy level, but it is sensible.
The force’s financial plans are sufficient. The mid-term financial plan is adequate, and the force has assured us it is on track to make the savings (£20m) it requires by 2027.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, South Wales Police had 11.7 percent of officers in support roles. This was consistent with expectations for forces in England and Wales.
Data in this report comes from a range of sources, including:
For any charts and tables included in this report, we have listed the data source underneath.
We collect data from police forces twice a year. We agreed the design and schedule of this data collection with forces and other interested parties, including the Home Office.
Our analysts check and evaluate the collected data. We contact the force if we have any initial queries. Following this, we carry out an in-depth data review and make further contact with the force if needed. This process gives forces several opportunities to quality assure and validate the information they shared to make sure it is accurate.
We then share our analysis with the force by uploading the data to online dashboards. As they can review own and other forces’ data in context, forces can identify any notable differences or other inconsistencies.
This report presents the results from a PEEL inspection of one of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. British Transport Police is outside the scope of this report.
Any aggregated totals for England and Wales exclude data from the British Transport Police, which means that the totals will differ from those published by the Home Office. If any other police forces didn’t supply data and aren’t included in the total figures, we will mention this.
We use data that has been collected outside our PEEL inspection to support our fieldwork.
This report contains the latest data available before the start of our inspection and the data that the force gave us during our inspection. If more recent data becomes available after our inspection fieldwork and shows that the force’s performance has changed, we will comment on this.
In this report, we sometimes present information as rates per 1,000 population in each police force area. This allows our data to be comparable across all forces. Where population data is used in our calculations, we use the latest mid-year population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
In this report, we have included bar charts with dotted red lines to show where a force is significantly different from the average for forces in England and Wales.
The dotted lines on the bar charts show one standard deviation above and below the unweighted average of all forces. Standard deviation summarises the difference between each individual value and the average and can be used to identify extreme or rare values.
Forces that are more than one standard deviation above or below the average are considered significantly different. These forces are outside the red dotted lines on our bar charts and we have highlighted them in either a dark blue (forces above average) or light blue (forces below average) colour. Typically, 32 percent of forces will be above or below these lines for any given measure.
We survey the police workforce throughout England and Wales to understand their experiences at work. The survey is an opportunity for the whole workforce to share their views with us. It is a valuable source of information as it isn’t possible to speak to everyone in a force during our inspection.
However, the responses we receive come from a non-statistical, voluntary sample within the workforce. The number of responses also varies between forces. This means that the results may be not representative of the workforce population.
We treat the results with caution and don’t use them to assess police forces. Instead, we use the results to establish themes that should be explored further during our inspection fieldwork. The results can also be used to give more evidence and validate information from other sources.
We carry out a victim service assessment for all forces as part of our inspection programme.
We assess the service that a force provides to victims. This is from the point of reporting a crime and throughout an investigation.
We also evaluate how forces record crimes. We assess every force on its crime recording practices at least once every three years.
You can find details of the technical methodology for the victim service assessment on our website.
We carry out a stop and search audit for all forces as part of our inspection programme.
Our stop and search audits allow us to evaluate how well forces use their stop and search powers. We review how many stop and searches a force carried out under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 or section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. We analyse:
South Wales PEEL assessment 2023–2025
You can find more about South Wales Police on our dedicated force page.
South Wales Police is the largest force in Wales, providing a policing service to almost half of the country’s population and its capital city.
South Wales Police is a strategic force, delivering local services and providing support for major national events to other forces.
Find out more about HMICFRS’s work and other inspection areas.
Find out how well other forces have performed during their PEEL assessment.
You can view the recommendations for all forces made by HMICFRS on our Progress against recommendations page. This shows how much progress has been made on these recommendations.
