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ILTSHIRE
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OLICE &
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ILTSHIRE
P
OLICE
A
UTHORITY
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NFORMATION
S
YSTEMS
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ECHNOLOGY
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TRATEGY
Document Control
Document Control
Version
Number Status Date Author Reason for new version
0.1 DRAFT 26 April 2011 Bill Malloy Document created
0.2 DRAFT 20 May 2011 Bill Malloy Updates from Business
Improvement Strategy
0.3 DRAFT 11 July 2011 Bill Malloy Further updates
0.4 FINAL 20 September
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Foreword
For over 170 years Wiltshire Police has provided a service to the communities of Wiltshire. During that period Wiltshire Police has continuously changed and adapted to meet the challenges of the day.
The challenges facing WPA and Wiltshire Police today are unprecedented, with major financial cutbacks in the public sector, a coalition government indicating changes to the political governance of Police Forces and the growing reliance on new technologies.
It is not enough to merely change structures and processes in response to such challenges. Fundamental changes of culture are required to drive home permanent changes that will ensure Wiltshire Police continues to deliver high quality services in such challenging times.
This Business Improvement Strategy seeks to encapsulate the essence of local and national drivers for change and the benefits to be realised as a result of that change. It puts the wider strategies into a more holistic view of how we will structure ourselves to best deliver the strategic priorities set out in our Policing Plan and seeks to improve Wiltshire Police over the coming years, acting as a source of direction for both strategic and cultural change. This strategy acts as the link between the vision of the Policing Plan for Wiltshire and the delivery mechanism of the change programme.
As one of the wider strategies, the Information Systems & Technology (IST) Strategy underpins the Business Improvement Strategy and makes a key contribution to improving the way Wiltshire Police both conducts and delivers services.
Drivers for Change
Political
The political environment within which we operate has changed significantly within the last year. The coalition government have announced numerous changes for the Police Service. As well as governance and financial changes, they are also winding down the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) which has been a key driver of technology based improvements. Whilst the future of the NPIA projects is debated, we must ensure that we are in a position to capitalise on improvements already made and be prepared to continue with any subsequent developments that result from the winding down of the NPIA. We are also in the midst of reviews of remuneration, leadership and training all of which will have an impact on frontline policing. Wiltshire Police must have both systems and structures in place that can support any changes required in response to such reviews.
Economic
The public sector is now bearing the impact of the economic downturn with central government cutting its grant funding to public authorities. Wiltshire Police is facing the challenge of continuing to deliver services with cuts of approximately £15million in the lifetime of this strategy. The IST Strategy underpins a more efficient and sustainable policing model in Wiltshire. It supports a more flexible and responsive service model of policing and aims to deliver technology solutions where and when they are needed.
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Social
As well as the changing demographics of Wiltshire with a continued increase in population, we are seeing a major social shift in the use and impact of technology. Recent investigations have resulted in unprecedented levels of social technology usage. The murder of Sian O’Callaghan saw massive usage of the social website Facebook and the Wiltshire Police website. As the younger, more computer literate generation mature, usage of such technology will increase and Wiltshire Police need to be able to take advantage of that change.
Technology
We are operating in a progressively more dynamic technological age. The rate of technological progress is recognised as one of the major drivers for change. It influences how we communicate, how we manage information and how we respond to crime. The IST Strategy will ensure that technology is harnessed in a way that supports policing and takes advantages of effective developments to deliver policing benefits.
Environmental
With Wiltshire Police operating across the whole of Wiltshire from a number of establishments and utilising a variety of vehicles, we have a large technical structure with an equally large environmental impact. Technology can help to reduce this impact. Not only does the latest IT equipment have much lower emissions, but new software can be utilised with estate and fleet management to reduce our carbon footprint. The IST Strategy will seek to promote greater efficiencies in the usage of technology to manage Wiltshire Police assets and reduce the carbon footprint of IT equipment.
Legal
The legal frameworks within which we operate continue to change with new statutes, standards and regulations. With advances in technology come changing legislative requirements for storage, retrieval and deletion of data as well as enhanced security requirements. Wiltshire Police needs to be able to respond to such legislative changes and the IST Strategy will ensure we are in a position to respond positively to such requirements.
Vision and Priorities
Against the background of the drivers for change, the direction of the police service in Wiltshire over the next three years has been set out in the “Policing Plan for Wiltshire 2011/14”. The Plan is jointly owned by Wiltshire Police Authority (WPA) and Wiltshire Police and states:
“The Vision shared by WPA and the Force is for our county to be the Safest County in the Country.”
Working towards this vision, Wiltshire Police has set out 4 strategic priorities: Reduce Violent Crime
Tackle the People who Cause the Most Harm in Our Communities Tackle Antisocial Behaviour
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The Business Improvement Strategy stresses that the key dependency in the delivery of the first three strategic priorities is the delivery of the fourth strategic priority. The IST Strategy reinforces that dependency and seeks to deliver a technology platform that will deliver the sustainability required for all 4 strategic priorities.
IST Landscape
The section above sets out Wiltshire Police’s aspirations in terms of performance (being the safest county in the country) and its strategic priorities in terms of policing focus. The latter are effectively captured in strategic priorities 1 to 3, with the need to be able to do this against a backdrop of significantly reducing resources being captured in strategic priority 4.
The Business Improvement Strategy not only identifies our core values but also 5 key attributes that will be needed to provide a service that meets public needs and expectations:
Flexible and Dynamic Highly Customer-focused
Knowledgeable and Well Informed Effective and Efficient
Working in partnership
The IST Strategy serves to underpin these attributes and create a landscape that makes these attributes deliverable. However, this must be done from our current baseline with a large number of applications and equipment:
Circa 2800 end user computing devices (PC / laptop / handheld devices) 100 applications
120 databases (including test and training databases)
400 architecture devices (servers / routers / switches / firewalls) (113 physical / 89 virtual servers)
From this baseline we need to create a landscape which has the following features: Agility – to respond quickly to changes in business requirements
Flexibility – to scale up and down dependent on service demands
Innovative – taking advantage of the most up-to-date technology to deliver benefits Cost-efficient – making the best use of both human and financial resources
Whilst a rationalisation of the architecture and devices will go some way to delivering the new landscape, the creation of a more tightly controlled environment that operates with the business will have a greater impact in delivery of business benefits.
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The Change Programme
The change programme, having been agreed with both WPA and Wiltshire Police picks up a number of themes agreed as part of the organisation’s future roadmap in October 2010.
Introducing a New Operational Policing Model and Supporting Organisation Structure This part of the organisation’s change programme, which was set up under the “Vision Wiltshire” title, is at the core of Wiltshire Police strategy to reduce costs by approximately £15 million by 2014-15, but actually has, as its main driver, the need for policing to be more flexible and dynamic. The common theme behind our new operational policing model is that of a “single Force-wide service delivery model”. To support this theme, IST will deliver the following business benefits:
i) Reduction in the bureaucracy associated with supporting the organisation in its use and development of IST
ii) Creation of an environment to drive forward business change and improvement in a controlled manner
iii) Improved knowledge management within the new Business Strategy and Improvement department with a greater emphasis in cross-skilling and service resilience
iv) Removal of technical barriers to enable greater sharing of information in collaborative ventures
v) Provision of relevant information where and when it is needed vi) Single point of data entry reducing duplication
vii) Resilient communication network.
These benefits will be delivered by a combination of the following specific projects:
a) Introduction of a new organisational structure bringing together the IST department and the Project Management Office to form the Business Strategy and Improvement department
b) Enhancement of service desk arrangement with the introduction of ITIL 3 standards c) Alignment and migration of databases to support collaborative ventures such as Brunel
(major crime and special branch shared service with Avon and Somerset).
d) Participation in national and regional projects aimed at delivering improved functionality and services to support modern policing such as NICHE and Police Enterprise Architecture
e) Rationalisation of databases to minimise duplication of data f) Further development of Mobile and Remote Working
g) Introduction of Identity Access Management to provide secure and accredited access to a broader range of systems
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Improving Resourcing and Deployment
Bridging the “highly customer-focused” and “effective and efficient” themes set out above is a specific strand of our current change programme, which is all about having the right resources in the right place at the right time which is heavily reliant on the following benefits being delivered by the IST Strategy:
i) maintaining one single and accurate picture of the organisation’s resources, be they human or physical resources, together with an accurate record of skills and capabilities
ii) making sure that there is a very close match between Police service demand and the resources available to meet it at any time of the day, week or year
iii) being able to see where Policing resources are and to be able to deploy them accurately and effectively at any given time
iv) ensuring that resources are kept productive, through effective tasking and briefing, an appropriate focus upon proactive resolution of community issues and minimisation of non-value adding activities such as unnecessary journeys back to a police station
v) greater interoperability of systems building a more dynamic operational picture vi) greater economies of scale with integrated service delivery
In order to deliver these benefits, the following specific projects have been initiated:
a) creating a single authoritative database for all human resource information, including their skills and qualifications
b) introduction of a Geographical Information System (GIS) that allows us to overlay information on to an up to date map of any area in Wiltshire
c) Airwave max to improve radio discipline and configuration
d) Automatic Resource Location System (ARLS) to enable us to locate and manage our resources more effectively
e) Convergence of GIS, MRW, Airwave and ARLS with the HR information to enable our control centre to effectively allocate available resources in a dynamic environment using relevant skillsets and geographical information.
f) providing effective tasking and briefing facilities so that fieldforce resources are kept as productive as possible throughout their shifts
g) introduction of a Mobile Remote Working (MRW) solution that enhances Police response with timely, accurate information
h) improved use of asset management systems to enable the effective deployment of technical equipment and support
i) active exploration of integrated service delivery on a national, regional and local scale with other police forces, local authorities and other similar agencies.
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Improving Customer Service
Improving customer service is of course a key driver behind all components of our change programme and is arguably the theme that overarches the entire change programme. The focus of this strand of the change programme is to be able to inspire confidence with our public and to be able to resolve as many issues as possible at first point of contact. In order to do so, it is imperative that the first point of contact is fully supported by the IST strategy. It is also imperative that the IST strategy supports improved customer service to our internal customers. To support this strand of the strategy we will deliver the following key benefits:
i) increased levels of internal satisfaction with IST services ii) greater confidence in resilience and use of IT equipment iii) greater levels of resolution at first point of contact
iv) increased levels of public satisfaction with police services
To realise these benefits, the IST Strategy will deliver the following projects:
a) introduction of new IST service management standards and published service levels in line with national best practice
b) introduction of a service catalogue that provides quick and easy access to IST services and products
c) introduce enhancements to Wiltshire Police’s contact and control centre arrangements with an operational systems improvement team being located within the centre to drive the implementation of new systems such as GIS, the enhancement of current systems such as NICHE and STORM. The team will drive not just system improvements but utilisation improvements to ensure we use the systems in the most effective manner. d) supporting technologies for the introduction of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs and
Integrated Offender Management in order to provide better levels of public protection in the areas of domestic violence and child protection etc.
e) Provision of full technical support for a joint initiative with Wiltshire Council to provide a network of public-facing campuses serving the 20 community board areas, incorporating neighbourhood policing as an integrated part of local service delivery to these areas, and supported, where practical, by a number of shared depots and administrative hubs
f) introduction of an e-commerce capability, as part of our regional policing consortium and on behalf of the UK Police Service, which will streamline the way that members of the public access a number of our services including firearms licensing, subject access requests, collision investigation reports, fixed penalty tickets and driver awareness courses
g) the introduction of a single non-emergency number for policing, with the potential for this to be expanded to multi-agency in due course
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Improving our Decision Making through Better Knowledge and Information
The importance of accurate and up-to-date information, which is readily available to those who need it, coupled with a less risk averse attitude to decision making, cannot be underestimated in our efforts to protect the public and provide them with services that meet their needs and expectations. IST provides the systems and architecture that allows the information to be collected, analysed and used. It is essential that this combination of systems and architecture is not just sustained, but is continually improved. The specific benefits to be delivered from this approach are as follows:
i) a streamlined information system landscape in order to minimise duplication and the potential for inconsistencies
ii) improvements in data and information quality across all our systems
iii) improvements in availability and accessibility of information, at the time and location where it is needed
iv) a greater level of information sharing and trust with other service delivery partners and, where appropriate, the wider public
In order to achieve these key benefits we will deliver the following specific projects:
a) the replacement of our current analogue recording information with more modern digital evidence recording and storage capabilities, together with the linkage of this with other information streams such as CCTV
b) technical support for the centralisation of our storage capabilities to manage our investigative assets and special property
c) full rollout of our Niche records management system and subsequent decommissioning of the remaining legacy systems that this will replace e.g. domestic violence, special property management etc.
d) introduction of the Police National Database, ensuring that it is used in such a way that it improves our decision-making and thereby keeps the public safer
e) enhancements to our Mobile and Remote Working solution, so that officers not only have access to more of the information they need whilst out in the field but are also able to complete more of their tasks whilst out of the station, not only because of the travel time this saves but also because of the reduced delays in getting sometimes vital information to a broader audience
f) enhancements to our intelligence analysis and proactive tasking capability through the introduction of an up-to-date digital Geographical Information System
g) introduction of effective Identity Access Management, initially to support the Police National Database, but eventually to provide secure and accredited access to a broader range of systems
h) improved management of police information through introduction of the Government Protective Marking Scheme (GPMS)
i) implementation of a shared covert database, as part of the regional policing collaboration programme, in order to enhance our fight against serious and organised crime
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Supporting Structure
Development of the IST Strategy is not in itself service delivery. In order to drive this IST Strategy there are a number of “living” supports that will continually change over the lifetime of this strategy:
Service Level Agreements with suppliers IST Service Catalogue
IST service levels IST roadmaps
Stakeholder & Communications Plan Business Continuity Plan
Disaster Recovery Plan Product test and release plan Risk Register
IST user group
Management
The Business Strategy and Improvement (BSI) department assumes responsibility for delivery of the IST Strategy and have developed a control environment that will manage all IST services within Wiltshire Police. The BSI department have a management structure that will engage with stakeholders, drive the projects and deliver the identified benefits.
The projects and benefits described in the IST Strategy are in support of the wider Business Improvement Strategy which seeks to deliver the Strategic Priorities through the delivery of Strategic Priority 4 – Develop a Sustainable Policing Model.
Governance
Implementation of this information systems and technology strategy will be subject to compliance with the governance requirements of WPA. Detailed business cases for the implementation of each element of the strategy must be submitted for approval by WPA before any commitment is made or expenditure incurred.
WPA’s Value and Productivity Group and Strategy, Direction, and Progress Committee will be responsible for the governance of the implementation of this strategy.
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Summary
The IST Strategy aligns itself with the Wiltshire Police Authority and Wiltshire Police aim, strategic priorities and values, retaining a “golden thread”.
By highlighting the specific projects being worked on across the key themes, the IST Strategy has established how we underpin the Business Improvement Strategy and support the operational and business elements of Wiltshire Police in its entirety.
We aim to deliver a service that is cost-efficient, innovative, flexible and agile, whilst remembering that we exist to support the operational policing requirements for Wiltshire.
With robust management and governance arrangements, the IST Strategy will deliver the benefits identified over the lifetime of the Strategy.
