Source · HMICFRS
PEEL Assessment 2023-25: Merseyside Police
3 October 2023
PEEL Force Inspection
11 areas for improvement
PEEL 2023-25 inspection findings for Merseyside Police
Applicable forces
Areas for improvement
AFI
The force needs to make sure it answers emergency calls quickly enough
In the year ending 31 March 2023, Merseyside Police answered 74 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. This was lower than the standard expected of forces in England and Wales, which is to answer 90 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force extends support for new recruits to include their families
The force has a dedicated chief inspector lead on the support for new recruits. This has been extended to include their families. The force researched and identified a book, ‘The Wolf That Was Not leeping’, that was written for children aged three to seven years who may be concerned about their parents going to work as police officers. The force has bought copies of the book for new recruits with children of the appropriate age. They will be given the book at the attestation ceremony along with a welcome pack. The force plans to make the book into a video format to allow families to download it at home. This initiative shows the force’s aim for wider inclusivity, looking after its police family, well-being and the support for its recruits and workforce. Further support developments include inviting families to observe level 2 public order training to provide reassurance of the quality of training provided.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force should improve how it manages individual performance so that it can effectively understand, monitor and prioritise the development needs of its workforce. It should make sure reviews are consistently and fairly applied across the workforce and valued by all
We found inconsistencies in the completion of the performance appraisal process for the workforce. Police officers told us that unless a person is looking for promotion in rank or a transfer into a specialist posting, they see little value in the process. Police staff had a similar view and described little opportunity for development. While the force monitors the number of completed performance appraisals, we found that some members of the workforce were yet to begin the process. Line managers described how elevated levels of demand influenced their ability to complete this process formally. They said they did have regular conversations with staff but on an ad-hoc basis. Without regular one-to-one meetings, staff can’t discuss and have their performance and development or well-being needs recorded. Those who need support may not be identified.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force needs to make sure it has enough trained staff and resources within its specialist investigation functions
We found that staff working in some specialist investigation functions have excessive workloads. The force has a unity team that investigates rape offences which are complex and demanding. During our inspection, we found that resourcing of qualified, experienced detectives was below the required levels. The force told us that some of these investigators were each overseeing more than 25 live investigations of serious sexual offences, with some supervisors overseeing over 100 cases. High caseloads for officers results in high caseloads for supervisors. We found supervisors’ reviews that weren’t within required timescales and that were copied from other investigations with no meaningful value added to the investigation as a result. The force must make sure it understands the resource levels needed to meet that demand. Staff with high caseloads will find it difficult to provide an effective investigation on each individual case. As such, they won’t give victims a quality service and outcome.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force doesn’t consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims
The force isn’t always achieving acceptable outcomes for victims of crime. It has low numbers of crimes that are solved following investigations. The force needs to understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force needs to make sure it has enough trained staff and resources so the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme function complies with the required legislative processes and timescales
The force doesn’t have enough trained resources in place in order to meet the legislative requirements of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS). The DVDS team is a small team made up of a detective sergeant, two safeguarding officers and two researchers. The two officers complete the DVDS disclosures on behalf of the whole force. At the time of our inspection, the force told us there were 457 applications at various stages of research and decision-making, and there are often delays in disclosures to applicants. The force has, importantly, increased publicity around this scheme. But it hasn’t increased its permanent resources to meet additional applications and instead relies on the use of temporary agency staff. This isn’t sustainable. We carried out a dip sample of ‘right to know’ applications received but awaiting review. The oldest dated back more than 90 days, yet the force is required to make any disclosure within 28 days. The force should make sure it provides appropriate information to potential victims of domestic abuse or se ual offences promptly. Without this, the force can’t make an informed decision about the victim’s safety, and they may unknowingly remain at risk. We previously identified this as an area for improvement for the force in our 2019 inspection, which it had successfully achieved in 2021 by clearing the backlog. It is disappointing that the issue has now returned.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force needs to make sure that it has safeguarding systems and triage processes with enough trained resources in the vulnerable persons referral unit to meet demand, prioritise the risk contained within the vulnerable person referral forms awaiting assessment and make timely referrals to partner agencies
While the force does effectively identify and record vulnerability at the first point of contact through either call handlers or initial response officers, the force has delays in processing the vulnerable persons referral forms then submitted. The unit is resourced to manage an average of 200 referrals a day. At the time of our inspection, we found backlogs of over 1,200 unprocessed forms. The incidents in the backlog were up to 14 days old and were a mixture of vulnerable adult referrals and incidents of domestic abuse. This backlog accumulated in the six months prior to the inspection with no process for escalation of resources to address the issue until the backlog hit 1,000. The force lacked clear processes and policies for the prioritisation of risk to those whose referrals were waiting for processing. The processes and policies should focus on the identification and timely referral to partner agencies of vulnerable adults and on all occasions when there is a concern for the welfare of a child. We also found no recognition of cumulative risk. If there were multiple calls for service from the same people in a brief period, staff weren’t considering this when allocating a risk level to that situation. We found that staff were unclear of the process in place for the prioritisation of risk in managing the backlog. This delayed any notification to partner agencies and left vulnerable people, children and victims of crime at risk through the delays in appropriate safeguarding notifications and actions.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force should increase its consideration and use of preventative orders to safeguard vulnerable people in all appropriate cases
Our inspection found that there is evidence of staff considering ancillary orders, such as Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPNs), Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) and Stalking Protection Orders, where appropriate in 4 of 13 cases we reviewed. Also, in a second dip sample of closed high-risk domestic violence investigations we found that where cases that had been finalised using outcome 16, there was no consideration for a DVPN recorded in 9 of 10 cases. The force allocates an officer to domestic violence courts to make sure they apply for restraining orders when appropriate.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force should make sure that it shares safeguarding information with local authorities at the earliest possible opportunity, and prior to enforcement action, to effectively safeguard children from serious harm
The force doesn’t have clear governance or oversight in place to manage the risks posed by online child abuse offenders. There are unnecessary delays in consulting with social services to start safeguarding children. The force should make sure it completes a referral to social services at the earliest possible opportunity when it believes a suspect has access to children. This would allow information sharing to begin between the two services and would help them build an accurate picture of any risk the suspect poses. Unless the force shares information at an early stage, there may be a delay in safeguarding children.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force should make sure that any backlog of work is subject to an intelligence refresh process to determine if there has been any change in risk level during the intervening period prior to enforcement action. This refresh process should be aligned with Kent internet risk assessment tool (KIRAT) guidance timescales
The force has no measures in place to review the intelligence picture and continually risk assess the cases that aren’t yet allocated or are awaiting enforcement action. There isn’t enough capacity within the online child abuse investigation team to assess and respond to risk quickly. The team doesn’t have robust processes in place to allow regular review and risk assessment of cases either under development or awaiting action. At the time of inspection, the force told us that it had 43 cases in the backlog awaiting enforcement action, such as arrest or to execute a warrant. The oldest cases in the backlog were four medium-risk cases, which were each two months old, and two low-risk cases, which were each four months old. Due to the lack of intelligence refresh processes, the force can’t identify if the risk in these cases has increased, which would lead to faster enforcement action. However, the force has brought forward the planned introduction of additional staff. An additional detective inspector and a detective sergeant are now in place. This will lead to monthly governance meetings to review backlogs and allow capacity for more regular and meaningful case reviews, which were lacking. A tactical and safeguarding support group has also been introduced. This is made up of five uniformed officers to assist with the execution of search warrants. This will release detectives to undertake investigative work.
Merseyside Police
AFI
The force should develop a performance framework that helps it to understand the context of its backlogs in active risk management assessments, risk management plans and supervisory reviews. This means understanding how overdue the work is and the risk level of the offenders within those backlogs
The force doesn’t track the number of outstanding active risk management (ARMS) assessments. ARMS is a key tool used to help identify risk and set actions to address that risk. Without this assessment, the force isn’t fully informed of the risk posed by a registered sex offender or whether any safeguarding interventions are needed. Monitoring ARMS assessments is important. We found registered sex offenders who hadn’t been subject to an ARM assessment for several months, meaning the force didn’t accurately know their current risk. While the force has now improved its alignment with national guidance on this, previous deviations has led to the backlogs in ARMS risk assessments. The force previously worked outside national guidance by not completing an ARMS assessment for low and medium-risk offenders. It would only carry out an assessment if there was considerable change in the person’s circumstances. The force completed assessments for high and very high-risk cases in line with the guidance.
Merseyside Police