Tracking and reporting on the progress of benefits realisation.
Benefits realisation is an active process
Benefits realisation is the process of achieving the intended benefits of a change project. Benefits realisation should be monitored and reported until the agreed benefits have been realised or formally closed. Accountability for tracking and evidencing benefits rests with the designated benefit owner, supported by a benefits manager where possible. This is overseen by the senior responsible owner (SRO). Progress should be reported through appropriate governance forums, including project or programme boards and, where appropriate, force change, productivity or efficiency boards led by a chief officer.
A baseline should be established as part of benefits planning and before implementation starts. Once the change has been implemented, benefits should be tracked by comparing actual performance against the agreed baseline and target measures. This should include the following steps:
- Implement the intervention.
- Conduct a process evaluation – for example, check what happened on the ground.
- Conduct a post-test – for example, check whether the changes or improvements occurred.
- Record and analyse results.
- Report the results clearly and transparently.
Level of evaluation
Not all changes will require a detailed evaluation of the impact of a change. Police forces can avoid repeating trials when:
- a project has already been shown to work elsewhere and has already been replicated in another organisation
- it is lower in risk, cost and complexity
If a change is a new pilot that has never been used in policing before, then a full impact evaluation may be beneficial to the wider sector. An example could be conducting a randomised controlled trial (RCT). A formal impact evaluation will allow the force to demonstrate to other forces if the anticipated benefits were realised. It will also allow other forces to implement the same change with a reduced burden of evaluation. Examples of how to evaluate effectively can be found in the policing evaluation toolkit.
Conversely, when implementing changes already proven effective, if more detailed data is not available, police forces can consider using less comprehensive baselining and evaluation approaches.
Methods can include:
- using data that has been captured by other forces
- dip checking
- short and limited time and motion studies
- surveying the workforce
This will allow the police force to estimate the impact of any change, and whether the benefits are being realised. However, these results and the way they have been estimated should be reported clearly and transparently.
The benefits might start to be realised as soon as a change is implemented and during the tracking phase. Nonetheless, benefits cannot be fully realised until a change has been implemented and fully adopted.
The following table may assist to measure whether a benefit has been fully realised, or whether further work is required.
| Stage | Benefits maturity level | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Pipeline | Level 0 |
|
| Level 1 |
| |
| Level 2 |
| |
| Level 3 |
| |
| In delivery or realised | Level 4 |
|
| Level 5 |
|
Management extends beyond project closure
For some change projects, it may be possible to regularly assess the impact of the intervention throughout the delivery of the project. For others, it may not be possible to analyse results until the project has been completely delivered.
There will often be a requirement to continue tracking benefits beyond the delivery of the project or programme, to confirm that expected benefits have been realised and sustained. Where benefits realisation extends into business-as-usual operations, responsibility for ongoing measurement, tracking and reporting should be transferred to the relevant benefit owner. In some cases, such as where the benefit is a one-off or binary outcome, ongoing tracking may not be necessary once achievement has been evidenced. For example, when achieving compliance with a statutory requirement.
Post-delivery tracking
Comparatively simple changes may not require any tracking after a change project has been delivered. Once the change is in place, the benefit might be immediately realised. Changes to achieve compliance, for example, are often realised immediately.
Other change projects may not fully realise their benefits for many months. A change to incident deployment procedures, for example, may be delivered as soon as the change is in place. However, the realisation of the benefits requires officers and staff to retrain and learn new ways of working, which takes time.
It can be anticipated, in this example, that the change in deployments will increase as more officers and staff are retrained or learn new ways of working. Once everyone has learned the new way of working, it is likely that the strategic board can declare that the benefits have been fully realised.
The responsibility for realising the benefits can be handed to the business owner (perhaps the force incident control room). The business owner can then report on the benefits (the change in deployments) to the strategic board. This may allow the project managers who delivered the project to move on to new work.
Reporting realised benefits
Police forces should report on the benefits they have realised from change projects. This will allow forces to:
- learn from each other
- maintain trust and confidence that public money is being spent correctly
- assist with seeking further transformational investment from the Home Office, HM Treasury, PCCs and mayors
Where police forces have made monetisable (cash-releasing or non-cash-releasing) efficiency savings, they should report on when this saving has been made. A decision can then be taken on reinvestment, which may be at a later point, and should also be reported on.
At the force level, this should be by detailing:
- how much money has been reinvested into areas
- how many police officer or staff hours have been reinvested into areas
This should be done in line with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) police objective analysis (POA) codes.
A full list is available in the GOV.uk police workforce data tables.
Where police forces have achieved an improvement in performance, this should typically be reported to the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) Performance Management Coordination Committee.
Organisational learning
Where a force has successfully realised the benefits of a change programme, this success and the reasons behind it should be captured for organisational learning. This process is even more important where it has not been possible to realise a benefit. Reasons for this can include:
- delivery challenges
- incorrect assumptions about expected benefits
- external changes
Where appropriate, learning should also be shared with the practice bank to ensure that other forces can also benefit from the learning.
Forces may find it helpful to record this information in a consistent way, such as the example in the following table.
| Change | Efficiency saving (money or time) | Function reinvested into | Performance improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name of programme | Cash, full-time equivalent (FTE) or hours | Contact management, incident response, neighbourhood policing | If known |
National change programmes
National change programmes should ensure that benefits are identified and communicated to police forces, as well as how these benefits will be measured and reported. Examples of national change programmes include the rollout of national information technology solutions or the implementation of a change to national policy regarding attendance or criminal investigation.
Police forces must ensure that they adopt the same benefits and track and report on the required metrics. This will allow the national change programme to present a cumulative picture to the public and partners on what benefits have been realised.