Gloucestershire Constabulary - Case Study
Gloucestershire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire in England.
In 2007, Gloucestershire Constabulary emerged from a period of unprecedented growth and corporate development, facing multiple challenges of the need to control costs within its ICT department while the organisation made rapidly increasing demands for ICT services.
Quantum Plus was chosen, because of its experience of both out-sourcing and in-sourcing, and because of the extremely close fit of their standard, flexible “health check” to the review requirements.
Quantum Plus has a tried and tested methodology for conducting a health check which examines the following aspects of the service through organisational and operational review, document examination and stakeholder interviews:
Governance – management structures, meetings, reporting and escalation
Relationship – within the in-house team and between them and end users
Value for money (VFM) – cost of the services, compared to their knowledge of the market
Service quality – service levels delivered, customer satisfaction
Risk – business and reputational risk related to the service
As part of the health check, Quantum Plus was particularly asked to compare the pros and cons of in-sourcing and out-sourcing with regard to the ICT support requirements of Gloucestershire Constabulary.
The health check commenced in July 2007, just after the Gloucestershire floods, and was completed in September 2007.
Throughout the health check, the Quantum Plus advisor worked extremely closely with ISD management. As a result, not only was the advisor able to produce an extremely comprehensive report at the conclusion of his work, but ISD management were able to take note of and react to observations made during the course of the health check.
The recommendations of the health check report were accepted in full by the Chief Officer Group, as was a proposal, requested by the Head of IS, to provide management support for implementing the proposed Service Improvement Plan.
Service Improvement Plan (SIP)
The Quantum Plus Health Check Report had contained numerous recommendations for action to mitigate observed risks, and for the implementation of service and engagement related initiatives. The Service Improvement Plan (SIP) was based upon the prioritised health check observations and recommendations, building on plans already in place, with strong emphasis on ITIL.
As in the health check, the Quantum Plus advisor worked extremely closely with ISD management to implement the SIP.
At the end of January 2008, the five aspects of the service examined in the health check were reassessed and significant progress was accepted to have been made in all respects.
Overall, the significant risk facing the IS Department was mitigated and the foundations for a continuous service improvement program (CSIP) had been laid, based on industry best practice.
Throughout these two engagements, Quantum Plus worked closely and effectively with Gloucestershire Constabulary staff, both within and outside the IS Department, to provide an incisive assessment of the problems facing the department and the Force, considered and pragmatic recommendations for their resolution and high quality, effective management support in the implementation of a most successful service improvement plan.
The result has been a step-change improvement in ICT service delivery to the Force, achieved in an accelerated timescale and in an extremely cost-effective manner.
There is no doubt that Quantum Plus provided major benefits to Gloucestershire Constabulary in undertaking this work.
“Quantum Plus demonstrated insightful and thought provoking behaviour in their completion and implementation of a health check that has delivered a step change in many aspects of our ICT perception and governance. I would not hesitate to recommend them to other forces who are facing the need to re-evaluate or review their ICT sourcing strategy.”
Deputy Chief Constable
