Ensuring that the CPS leads and manages well to get the best from all CPS people, and that it engages with them, its partners and communities to improve its service
Supporting leadership
CPS programmes are designed to ensure its leaders maintain an excellent and consistent performance in every prosecution decision taken. During 2008-09, the Service significantly increased its support to its leaders, funded partly by a successful bid to the Modernisation Fund. During 2008-09, coaching and 360° development were successfully delivered across the senior management team, along with improved succession planning and talent management.
New performance management framework
The Area Performance Report (APR) process was introduced in 2003-04 to provide an assurance of consistent delivery of government and corporate targets and to facilitate improvements in performance.
In response to recommendations made by the Capability Review stocktake, which highlighted the need to focus on a smaller number of priorities, a review of APR targets and measures was undertaken in 2007-08. This review was carried out in conjunction with one of the key national performance measures and corporate projects and programmes. The outcome has been a reduction in the number of high-level targets from 18 in 2008-09 to 10 in 2009-10. In addition, five targets focusing on people measures were identified for monitoring at a national level.
Improving management
During 2008-09, management development work focused on supporting managers with support in key skills, including programmes to help them drive up performance and refresh their own management skills. These were developed nationally to ensure a consistent message. Bespoke work has taken place in a number of Groups to meet specific local needs. Other programmes helped support managers during the performance and development review process (PDR).
People measures were introduced as a performance indicator in the last two quarters of 2008-09. At quarter four, 72% of Areas and all HQ Directorates had achieved the staff PDR indicator. The Areas and Directorates that failed to achieve this indicator are establishing systems and processes to improve their position. Quarterly assessments will continue throughout 2009-10.
The 2008 staff survey showed improvements in the number of staff receiving regular advice and encouragement from management (from 47% in 2006 to 52% in 2008).
A number of HR policies have been developed and reviewed to ensure the business is supported in delivering its challenging agenda, while also meeting its statutory and corporate social responsibilities. Management, staff networks and trades unions are integral to this policy review process and are consulted in the development, deployment and review phases. Policies reviewed and released in 2008-09 include: Managing Flexible Working; Managing Home and Mobile Working; and Career Breaks. Policies reviewed during the year included Grievance; Managing Attendance; and Whistleblowing.
Secure management of personal information
Following the publication of "Data Handling Procedures in Government: Final Report" work continued with the Departmental Security Unit and IT Security Team to review, implement and report progress on the recommendations set out in the report.
In 2008-09, there was a divisional restructure of the Business Information Systems Directorate, which brought the Freedom of Information, Data Protection, Records Management, and Departmental Security Units together into the Information Management Division. It is anticipated that this new collaborative structure, coupled with the appointment of a senior manager to head the division, will give greater prominence to the information management function and enhance its long-term capability.
Additionally, a number of key areas of work were completed. These included the appointment of Information Asset Owners (IAO) at Group Chair and HQ Director level, and Information Management Advisors (IMA) at Group level. The aim of the new roles is to drive up standards relating to the management and protection of personal information within CPS.
The Service has reworked the National School of Government's e-learning package, "Protecting Information", as part of its Prosecution College suite of training courses. It will be rolled out nationally by September 2009 to all staff.
Information management programme
The CPS has invested significantly in its management of all data held within the business, but outside our core case management system. This will allow information to be stored and retrieved efficiently, forming the basis of our proposed electronic records and document management system. The Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) programme will improve the way we manage information, improve our knowledge base, facilitate ease of access to information, and provide the tools for collaborative working. This will enable staff to use the sources of information available within the CPS more effectively. The Service has launched its first electronic forms, greatly easing the administrative burden, and has provided support capability to other applications, such as the new Complex Casework Unit time recording system. To improve joined-up working, we now have around 300 users of KIM, some 70 of whom participate in the Director's Seminar site, which was used to help develop our business strategy for the next five years.
ICT services beyond 2012
Contracts for the delivery of CPS Information Technology and Telephony Services are currently due to expire in 2012. We have explored the options for the delivery of these services from 2012, and the CPS Board has decided to award its current suppliers "preferred bidder" status, with the potential to extend both contracts to 2015. Work will continue during 2009.
Building for success
A new Paralegal Career Family was developed during 2008, providing a range of new and interesting work for paralegal assistants and paralegal officers. The development will enable the CPS to provide a more efficient service to victims, witnesses and other court users. The Paralegal Career Family is being implemented from April 2009.
A workforce planning system was developed and piloted during 2008-09. Rolling out from April 2009, the new approach will enable Areas to assess and match the resources and skills required to deliver against anticipated demands and performance objectives more accurately.
Equality and diversity in the employment agenda
The CPS has developed a Diversity Delivery Plan that is being implemented to ensure equality of opportunity and access is achieved throughout the organisation. Recent recruitment at a senior level has resulted in a more representative workforce.
Leadership and Learning is developing an equalities and diversity training programme, initially for senior managers. They are also reviewing the e-learning module on equality and diversity.
Community engagement agenda
To further enhance local engagement, the CPS has set up Area-based hate crime scrutiny panels (HCSPs), Group-level community involvement panels (CIPs) and, at a national level, a community accountability forum (CAF). The hate crime scrutiny panels consider performance on the handling of hate crime cases by scrutinising finalised case files and acting on what has been learnt from the scrutiny process. The CIPs are consulted on strategies, business plans and community engagement plans; they also discuss other matters such as local victim and witness issues. In February 2009, the CPS began a review process, results of which will be published in July 2009.
The national CAF is consulted about the national CPS business plan, equality impact assessments and on draft policy statements and guidance. In addition to these standing community fora, individual Areas undergo a bi-annual assessment of their performance in relation to their wider ongoing engagement work. This includes work undertaken with community organisations, schools, colleges, organisations dealing with victims and witnesses, campaign groups concerned with justice issues and the public in general. During the year, work started on extending the current engagement remit to incorporate the new community prosecutor approach.
Case Study
The CPS won the Improvement Award at the annual Civil Service Diversity and Equality Awards ceremony held in Birmingham in December.
Recognising the significant steps the organisation has made in the field of equality and diversity, the judges were particularly impressed by our track record of consulting with community groups before forming policies that affect them.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, said: "I commend everyone in our Equality and Diversity Unit for their hard work and innovation, which has transformed the CPS into an organisation that is dedicated to ensuring the promotion of diversity and equality is central to everything we do."
Seamus Taylor
Séamus Taylor (pictured), then Director of Equality and Diversity, said: "Receiving this award is a testament to the work of many people at all levels of the CPS over recent years. It is recognition of the improvements we have made. A lot has been done, but there is a lot more still to do. We are far from complacent. We recognise that while we have come out of the shadows on equality and diversity, the challenge is now to come of age and I am confident we will do so under the leadership of Keir Starmer QC."
The Service consulted on and published a number of policies relating to equality and diversity, such as on the Single Equality Scheme, Racist and Religious Crime, Violence against Women, Domestic Violence, Rape, Disability Hate Crime, Homophobic and Transphobic Crime and Crimes against Older People.
Supporting community justice centres
The OCJR-led community justice programme is about engaging with the local community, making the court more responsive to local people and working in partnership with the range of criminal justice agencies, support services and community groups to solve the problems caused by offending in the local area. The courts take a problem-solving approach, aiming to break cycles of re-offending by bringing together a range of statutory and third sector agencies to tackle the underlying causes of crime, such as, addiction, housing, education or debt problems.
During 2008-09 the CPS supported the operation of the 13 community justice centres across England and Wales, located in North Liverpool, Salford, Birmingham, Bradford, Hull, Leicester, Merthyr Tydfil, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Plymouth, and three locations in London - Haringey, Newham and Wandsworth.
Delivering the National Communication Strategy
The National Communication Strategy brings together the CPS's priorities between 2008 and 2011 and recommends how the Service will communicate them to its people and the communities it serves.
As part of this strategy, the CPS has established an effective communication network nationally, by appointing a Group Communication Manager (GCM) for each Group. GCMs provide specialist communication advice, expertise and guidance to the Group Chair and to senior managers in the Group. All GCMs will be in post by mid-2009. An essential element of their remit is to improve public understanding of the CPS's work.
A national Staff Forum has been established to discuss and improve communication activities across the CPS. The forum members are 21 volunteers and represent a diverse range of job roles, Areas and Directorates. The Forum had its first meeting in September 2008 and meets quarterly.
While general awareness of the CPS Vision among staff is high, a major project was undertaken to improve understanding of the role of individuals in achieving it. This was also designed to strengthen a sense of common purpose in delivering a service to the public. A programme of staff engagement roadshows and conferences with the DPP and Chief Executive ran throughout the summer and autumn.
The Annual CPS Lecture was launched on 20 October 2008 as a platform for debate on justice issues. The inaugural lecture was given by Ken Macdonald QC, the then Director of Public Prosecutions. Entitled "Coming out of the Shadows", the lecture was delivered to an audience of CJS colleagues, parliamentarians, academics, journalists and voluntary sector partners. The aim is for the CPS Lecture to become a recognised event in the legal calendar.
Mutual legal assistance with other countries
In summer 2008, a new senior policy advisor was recruited by the International Division to lead on Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) matters. Formerly the UK Liaison Magistrate in Spain, since his arrival he has updated the guidance to prosecutors on MLA. International Division continues to provide a service responding to queries from CPS prosecutors on MLA matters; it also engages proactively with the Home Office on relevant policy, such as the recently-agreed European Evidence Warrant (EEW).
The Organised Crime Division (OCD) manages a network of overseas CPS Liaison Magistrates on behalf of all UK criminal justice agencies. All Liaison Magistrates are in regular contact with CPS staff and provide hands-on MLA assistance, including advising on whether a formal request is required, assistance with drafting if required, and helping to ensure that the request is dealt with speedily.
A member of staff from OCD has been seconded to the UK National Team at Eurojust – an organisation set up to assist cross-border prosecutions within the European Union.
Following the DPP's successful visit to China in 2007, it became clear that there was a need to work with the Chinese to improve the flow of mutual legal assistance requests. International Division successfully bid for Foreign Office funding for a MLA seminar with China. A team of experts from the CPS, Home Office and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) delivered the seminar in February 2009 in Beijing and Guangzhou, assisted by their counterparts from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Public Security, the Chinese Prosecution Service and the Chinese Court Service.
With the support of the CCUs, the International Division has started to put into place a system for recording the number of MLA requests sent to each country. This will allow the Service to target its work with overseas jurisdictions more efficiently.
Case Study
Owen Alfred and Oswin Moore
The prosecution of Owen Alfred (pictured left) and Oswin Moore (pictured right) is an example of successful MLA co-operation.
In March 2009, the two defendants were prosecuted by the Organised Crime Division; they were convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine from Trinidad and Tobago to the UK. Following an investigation in the UK, Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, evidence was obtained using a number of letters of request to both countries. This first enabled successful extradition proceedings and, subsequently, a successful prosecution.
Further assistance was required at very short notice during the course of the trial to arrange the recalling of a number of police officers from Trinidad and Tobago for further cross-examination. The officers, who had previously travelled to the UK to give evidence, were recalled via a video link with Trinidad.
Both men received lengthy jail terms - Alfred was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment, with Moore receiving a 15-year sentence.
International capacity building
Throughout the year, International Division has strengthened the role of the CPS as a key partner in work to reform the CJSs in priority countries. A vision and strategy paper for CPS international work was produced in January 2009, setting out future plans. Priority countries have been identified in conjunction with CPS colleagues and Whitehall partners – in particular the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The initiative will allow the Service to contribute to projects designed to enhance other jurisdictions' ability to deal with international crime at source, or in transit.
Identification of priority countries has secured funding from the FCO so that relevant work can be undertaken in places such as Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and much of the Caribbean. This will help improve criminal justice there while reducing any threat to the UK.
Engagement with international institutions
The CPS is a key partner in policy-making on EU matters and international law. We routinely contribute to cross-Whitehall meetings on all aspects of EU law and policy, and provide advice to CJS ministers. We routinely send prosecutors to take part in negotiations at EU level. As a result, the CPS is consulted at the earliest possible stage of policy-making to ensure that, as far as possible, the UK government position reflects the needs of CPS prosecutors.
To ensure that the EU agenda is more widely understood by practitioner lawyers, International Division organised an EU seminar in September 2008. Key negotiators from the UK representation at the EU and the Office for Criminal Justice Reform were invited, as well as the UK National Member and Deputy National Member from Eurojust. After a session setting out how law is made in Brussels, details of the mechanisms for influencing policy-makers, and how prosecutors could become involved in the process, were outlined. The CPS also showed how European bodies such as Eurojust and the European Judicial Network could be of practical assistance to prosecutors.
International Division also contributes to the work of organisations such as the Council of Europe, the UN, and the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP). At the Annual IAP conference in September 2008, staff from the International Division launched the Global Prosecutors' E-crime Network. This initiative helps prosecutors tackle hi-tech crime and provides a global network that enables them to share best practice and seek support and training in this specialist field. Also, in autumn 2008, members of the International Division, Business Development Directorate (BDD) and the Serious Crime Division (SCD) worked together to evaluate Tanzania's compliance with the UN Convention against Corruption.
