20 January 2008

Implementing Bichard: don’t forget your IT users

The most frequently overlooked aspect of the Bichard report – one that threatens the viability of the new £367m Impact intelligence system – is human error.

The 2004 Bichard inquiry identified serious failures in communication between the two police forces involved, and has had major implications on how Police Forces throughout the UK share information. Yet key to new IT systems functioning correctly is the data that is input.

Bichard identified three key issues that contributed to the records management fiasco:

• Lack of effective guidance and training;
• Widespread ignorance of how records were created; and
• Confusion about what was meant by weeding, reviewing and deletion.
[Bichard Inquiry – 2004]

Training is an expensive and time consuming activity. With the introduction of new record management systems (RMS) to enable force wide information sharing, IT training is becoming increasingly urgent. Not only is the need for initial training key, but ensuring officers continue to use the systems correctly is vital. Unless consistent data is entered, RMS systems become almost impossible to manage.

So how do you ensure your officers are – and continue to be – competent users of your IT systems, without incurring unacceptable levels of abstraction and associated cost?

Knowledge Solutions work with nine Police Forces throughout the UK to address this problem. Our approach utilises an optimised knowledge delivery method that combines comprehensive performance tracking, management reporting and constant reinforcement in the workplace. Knowledge Solutions has been able to demonstrate significant cost savings and reductions in abstraction during implementation and greater user effectiveness post go-live.

For one Constabulary the urgency to address staff training increased as the deadline to go live with a new Atlas RMS system loomed. With the entire Constabulary affected there was no way for training staff to cope with the anticipated numbers. The solution was to deliver a one day e-learning course for general users of the system. This course could be accessed from the officers’ desktops, leaving the classroom sessions for more specialised three, four and five day courses.

Using e-learning meant that when the number of officers requiring training doubled to 1,400, it was still possible to accommodate them all - a scenario that would have been impossible using traditional classroom methods. The traditional one day classroom based course was reduced substantially to three hours of e-learning, which, using Home Office figures, calculates into a saving of £320k or around 1,000 man days.

Courses were modular in design, enabling officers to complete small chunks of training, taking between five and fifteen minutes, whenever they had the time. As completed modules are immediately tracked and then remembered the next time you log on, it meant officers could work through the training when it suited them.

To ensure officers continued to use the new system correctly, Knowledge Solutions' in-process support tool was implemented. Plugging directly into the live application, officers could access relevant, context-sensitive information whenever needed. Additionally, any system changes could be flagged to officers, along with reminders of the correct processes to follow, thus continuing to reinforce best practice.

The feedback was very positive. Officers found that working through lessons at their own pace allowed 'power users' to race through content in less then an hour, whilst less IT literate officers could repeat lessons they were unsure of. The use of Knowledge Solutions technology enabled this Force to ensure all officers were competent IT users prior to go-live, and that, post go-live, they were provided with ongoing support which reinforced the lessons and ensured officers used the system correctly.