Agenda item

101 Deep Dive

Minutes:

Alison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner, introduced the report on the 101 Deep Dive scrutiny.

 

Members were advised that the review would commence in October, would be reported in December 2020 and would focus on the following three key areas: defining and setting customer service standards; understanding and assessing the delivery services to the public; and continuous learning and development within the contact service. The OPCC would convene a bespoke OPCC Panel which would include existing scrutiny panel volunteers and councillor advocates, supported by task and finish activity led by the OPCC. The OPCC Panel’s work would be informed by focus groups, analysis of complaints and correspondence into OPCC and Force and public surveys. 

 

The Police and Crime Commissioner highlighted the following key points:

 

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the risk that police officers were taking to protect the public; this was in response to two serious assaults to police staff in Devon and Cornwall and London;

 

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£1.3 million had been invested to support the highly vulnerable to access help via phone or online opportunities;

 

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there was a 93.4% increase in calls – an increase in crime reported both on the telephone and online;

 

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increased growth in contact methods, more help to access policing.

 

The Panel discussed:

 

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the Police Officer injured in Cornwall and offered their condolences;

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the positive move towards the digital age with Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) and questioned if the reopening of front desks was realistic?

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if Verint was helping to support staffing levels and what could be done to reduce call wait times?

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that the 10% increase in calls was substantial and questioned what could be done to reduce the number of calls? Could the calls be diverted to a pre-dialling system or answer machine for non-emergency cases?

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why the numbers of calls were increasing when crime figures were on a slow decline? Was the increased demand on resources during the summer when tourists were in the area be taken into account?

 

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the reduced visible presence of Officers in communities, calling 101 could be seen as the only way to speak to a police officer or representative. In Kingskerswell a survey was undertaken asking the public ‘when they last saw an officer?’ The response was that it had been years; there was a request for more information on why this was happening? Why Officers were no longer a visible presence;

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key issues to address included the number of staff on duty, the quality of services and on-call waiting times. It was questioned if call wait times were good enough? 4 to 5 minutes was a long time to wait. Did the information take into account abandoned calls? What was the abandon rate of calls?

 

           How was the length of wait time measured?

           Could social media channels be used to reduce the number of calls?

           Could a call back system be employed for low risk calls?

 

 The Police and Crime Commissioner clarified that –

 

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the implementation of Verint, a system which predicted staffing levels required from previous call data, had a positive impact but it needed to have enough staff to follow the guide. Unfortunately the calls were not always that predictable and there needed to be reaching out into communities, asking the question do call handlers need to be in Plymouth and Exeter to make the service work? There was a high staff turnover in call centres;

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to reduce the number of calls people needed to be directed where to go. Not all calls received were all police related as 101 was one of the only 24/7 contact lines. Most agencies direct to 101 as it was a 24/7 out of hours contact service. During lockdown when public announcements were broadcast there were a surge of calls to 101 to clarify guideline information. Devon and Cornwall was the number 1 domestic tourist destination and they were prepared for an increase in calls during the high season however needed to work better collaboratively to manage the increase in calls;

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the reopening of front desks to support communities: Truro front desk was closed as the council offices were closed - this was on pause until out of Covid;

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agencies were leaning on policing teams – during Covid Police teams had not stopped supporting communities. The most vulnerable and at risk people were able to contact the service. For example 22,088 missing people were reported using 101; efforts needed to be focused on working more alongside our partners to reduce the number of calls and referring people correctly;

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there were no clear figures for abandoned calls as some call off when they hear the automated message directing callers to go online. Double the number of people were now logging issues online. Challenge from HMIC to record abandon rate;

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the challenge to managing wait times was complicated. Balancing priority 999 calls and 101 calls, and managing capacity to deal with a surge in calls or response to emergency situations within the call room. There was a 10 second threshold for answering 999 calls. The complexity and logistics of both calls being received into the call room needed to be managed effectively;

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performance was good enough, can we do more – high risk victims get through quickly and were supported. A million calls a year was not simple to process. More direction to the online service was offered, with a possibility to create a campaign highlighting the issue, to support policing by reporting issues directly online and reduce number of non-emergency calls and waiting times;

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during busy times call handlers do prompt people they will be called back but currently this was an ad-hoc system;

 

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the new European legislation requiring police social media accounts to be manned 24/7 would put additional strain on the system. Teams would be required to be available to respond to queries any time of the day. The ruling would be implemented by December.

 

Police Chief Superintendent Evans additionally added he was thankful for the additional feedback from the panel to help to improve the service. The deep dive would focus on improving access for the vulnerable, risk management of calls, prevention and signposting to online services. Control room assessments were measured by outcomes and referrals, the number of independent referrals had dropped. The control room may spend longer on calls to ensure that the team were happy the risk had been managed. There was focus on training call handlers to access individual risk, this may impact the quality of service overall. Complaints received were on the length of call waiting and not on the quality of the service. Implementing a system where people were able to leave a message would still need to be monitored and would need to have more investment. This would be after the scrutiny meeting, with the introduction of the second phase of IVR. The email system was also in place for this reason. The number of abandonment calls were recorded however some could be positive abandonment as people may be going online to use web chat or ring other agencies directly. Recommendations would be helpful to deal with abandoned calls that are not positive.

 

The Recommendation from Councillor Derrick proposed was as follows:

 

The Panel recommends that the Commissioner changes the strategic performance indicator on the 101 Call System from AMBER to RED, indicating the severity of our concerns over its performance and the need for focused action in addition to scrutiny. We support early initiation of the planned OPCC Thematic Scrutiny, adding an additional key line of enquiry as follows. “What additional measures and/or investment is necessary to restore the effectiveness of the 101 system to acceptable levels?”

Chair additionally added could a recommendation be made to consider looking into non emergent calls to be transferred to an answering machine or call back service.

 

Councillor Allister Dewhirst seconded the recommendation.

Supporting documents: