Staffordshire Police: PEEL Cause of concern revisit letter

Letter information

From
Wendy Williams CBE
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary
Her Majesty’s Inspector of Fire and Rescue Services

To
Chris Noble
Chief Constable
Staffordshire Police

Ben Adams
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire

Sent on
10 February 2023

Background

In January 2022, we conducted a victim service assessment as part of our police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy inspection of Staffordshire Police. During the inspection we identified two causes of concern, which were that the force:

• was failing to identify and assess vulnerability at first point of contact; and
• wasn’t carrying out effective investigations and didn’t give victims the support they needed.

In December 2022, we revisited the force to review progress against the causes of concern by repeating the victim service assessment. We reviewed 90 case files.

In addition, we reviewed 59 files to assess the force’s reasons for closing the files, known as outcome types.

Summary of findings

1. The force isn’t always using a structured risk assessment on victims, although this has improved since our last audit. When used, the force often records the assessments accurately on call logs.
2. The force isn’t always checking for repeat victims, although this has improved since our last audit.
3. The force is routinely giving victims crime-prevention and scene-preservation advice.
4. Despite improvements, the force isn’t yet routinely using an investigation plan for each investigation.
5. The force isn’t always effectively supervising investigations, with no meaningful improvement in this area.
6. The force isn’t routinely recording the consideration of evidence-led prosecution or the application of orders that protect victims, although this has improved.
7. The force isn’t routinely keeping victims informed of investigation progress but has made improvements in victim care.

Our more detailed findings are set out below.

Progress against the causes of concern recommendations

Staffordshire Police should make sure that call handlers use and correctly record structured initial triage and risk assessments – this will help the force know what priority it should give the call and allow it to decide on the most appropriate response.

This is in progress.

The force used a structured triage approach in 38 of the 50 cases we reviewed, an improvement from the January 2022 audit when it was recorded in 18 of 99 incidents. There was an accurate record on the incident log in 31 of 38 cases, a deterioration from the 16 of 17 in our previous audit. During this revisit, we found the grading of calls was appropriate in 67 of the 72 relevant cases.

Staffordshire Police should make sure that vulnerable and repeat callers are routinely identified, as are other people in the household who may also be vulnerable.

This is in progress.

There has been some improvement in the frequency of repeat victim checks. In this audit, they were completed in 31 of 56 cases we reviewed, compared to 31 of 109 cases reviewed in January 2022.

Checks to identify whether a victim is vulnerable have also improved. In this audit, they were completed in 41 of 56 cases, compared to 27 of 101 cases in January 2022.

Staffordshire Police should make sure that call handlers give relevant advice on the preservation of evidence and crime prevention.

This is in progress.

We found that call handlers were polite and professional when speaking to victims of crime. Victims were given advice on crime prevention in 22 of 28 cases, and preservation of evidence in 13 of 19 cases. This is an improvement.

The force has improved supervisory oversight of calls for service since the last audit. In this most recent audit, we found supervisors reviewed incidents when necessary in 26 of 28 cases, compared to 14 of 28 cases in our previous audit.

Staffordshire Police should make sure it completes investigation plans to give direction and identify lines of inquiry at an early stage.

This is in progress.

We found that 20 of 49 cases didn’t have an investigation plan. However, this is an improvement on the previous audit when 26 of 43 cases didn’t have an investigation plan.

Staffordshire Police should make sure investigations are actively and regularly supervised and have their progress reviewed, and that all proportionate lines of inquiry are followed.

This is in progress.

The force hasn’t improved the supervision of investigations. In the most recent audit, we found effective supervision in 26 of 62 investigations, similar to our previous audit (24 of 60 investigations).

We found that appropriate investigative opportunities were taken in 61 out of 80 cases, an improvement compared to our previous audit.

In the 19 cases not thoroughly investigated, proportionate and relevant lines of enquiry weren’t completed. In 11 of 90 investigations, there were unnecessary delays.

Staffordshire Police should make sure it pursues evidence-led prosecutions when a victim withdraws support for the investigation.

This is in progress.

The force has improved its use of evidence-led prosecutions, which were considered in 6 of 18 cases, compared to 2 of 13 cases in January 2022.

We found a slight deterioration in the force’s consideration of orders that protect victims. They were recorded to be considered in 2 of 11 cases that were suitable, compared to 2 of 8 cases in January 2022.

Staffordshire Police should make sure it complies with the requirements established in the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime and that it completes victim needs assessments.

This is in progress.

We found that Staffordshire Police wasn’t always keeping victims informed of an investigation’s progress. We found they were kept informed in 30 out of 43 cases, an improvement compared to the previous audit (21 out of 35 cases).

Victim needs assessments were completed in 60 of 83 cases we reviewed. The force offered victims the opportunity to make a personal statement in three of the ten cases where it was appropriate. The force has made improvements in both of these areas of victim care.

Overall, in 68 of the 90 cases, victims were found to have received an appropriate level of service during the investigation, an improvement on 46 in 67 cases in the previous audit.

Progress against areas for improvement

The force needs to attend calls for service in line with its published attendance times and ensure that when this doesn’t occur, victims are fully updated.

This is in progress.

We found that incidents were attended within the force’s own published time frames on 35 of 54 occasions, which is similar to the previous audit when 45 of 71 were attended within the time frame.

When there was a delay, the victim was informed in 5 of 13 cases where it was appropriate, compared to 8 of 20 cases in the previous audit.

We found supervision of the deployment of units was effective in 25 out of 33 cases where it was required, an improvement from the previous audit.

The force needs to make sure that all appropriate investigative opportunities are carried out before closing an investigation.

This is in progress.

As stated earlier, our audit found that appropriate investigative opportunities were taken in 61 of the 80 cases. This was an improvement compared to the previous audit, which found appropriate investigative opportunities were taken in 51 of the 70 cases.

We also found that 69 of 90 investigations were effective, compared to 46 of 70 in January 2022 investigations. This is an improvement.

The force should make sure it holds an auditable record of victims’ decisions and their reasons for withdrawing their support and that victims’ wishes for an out‑of-court disposal or a caution are fully documented.

This is in progress.

An auditable record of the wishes of victims who withdrew support for an investigation prosecution was obtained in 6 of the 20 cases that we reviewed, a slight improvement from our January 2022 review, when an auditable record was obtained in 4 of the 19 cases.

Conclusion

We found that Staffordshire Police has made progress against some of the cause of concern recommendations that we focused on in this revisit. However, some of the improvements were small. Given the risk in these cases, further improvements are needed. As such, Staffordshire Police will remain in the engage phase of our monitoring process.

We are encouraged to see that the force is actively involving its workforce, other forces and external stakeholders to help it develop its plans to improve and strengthen its governance. We will continue to monitor the force’s progress as it continues its efforts to achieve measurable improvements to the service the public receives.

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Staffordshire Police: PEEL Cause of concern revisit letter