HMICS Corporate plan 2025-28

Our Inspection Framework has been developed using the EFQM Excellence Model with an increasing focus on the management of change. The model has been adapted to provide a high-level framework suitable for the scrutiny of elements of policing or its governance.

It underpins all our scrutiny activity and is sufficiently flexible and adaptable to develop bespoke key lines of enquiry, depending on the work to be undertaken. The framework, set out below, provides a structure within which we can ensure a consistent and professional approach to our work.

Leadership and vision

This examines the purpose of the organisation, why its work is important and considers how it creates and delivers sustained value for its stakeholders. It assesses organisational vision and what it is attempting to achieve in the long term, through the choices it has made for current and future courses of action. It considers the organisation’s primary purpose and priorities, its strategy to achieve those aims, and any improvements it could make to be more effective.

It looks at how well the organisation identifies and understands:

• its stakeholders’ needs;
• the wider context within which it operates;
• its own capabilities;
• major challenges; and

As with our previous framework, there is a strong focus on implementing effective governance and performance arrangements to support delivery of the purpose, vision and strategy.

It examines how well the service or organisation is led, looking at organisational culture and values, and how well leaders steer and nurture these. We consider how collaboratively leaders work to create conditions supporting change, creativity and innovation, enabling the organisation to meet its aims.

Delivery

This considers how the organisation identifies and engages with specific types and categories within each of its key stakeholder groups, and how its understanding of the needs and expectations of those groups is integral to building sustainable relationships. It assesses the levels of involvement of stakeholders (e.g. service users, officers and staff, governance bodies, partners and suppliers, business and wider society) in deploying strategy and delivery and examines the contributions they make. It looks at whether these relationships are based on transparency, accountability, ethical behaviour and trust.

It examines in detail how the organisation attracts, engages, develops and retains both officers and staff (fundamental to this is workforce planning and its alignment to purpose, vision and strategy). It also looks at building and sustaining valuable relationships with our various partner stakeholders, and how the organisation contributes to wider societal wellbeing.

This also now defines for whom the organisation should be creating ‘best value’, including expectations of environmental sustainability and associated strategy and delivery.

In examining how best to drive performance and transformation, it focuses on successfully providing current business operations while managing constant internal and external organisational change. To remain successful, both must be addressed in parallel, delivering for today while preparing for tomorrow. This will involve:

• clever use of innovation and technology;
• an awareness of the ever-increasing importance of data, information and knowledge;
• active risk management; and
• agile use of critical assets and resources.

Outcomes

This focuses on the overall performance of the organisation or service in relation to its purpose, vision and strategy, and perceptions of the organisation by stakeholders (both current and past). We look at success in delivering demonstrable, high-quality and improved outcomes for service users, communities and the public in general. Evidence for this could be obtained from various sources such as reports and datasets, public surveys, focus groups, research, press or social media, external recognition or compliments/complaints.

We also look at how an organisation or service area’s strategic priorities, aims and objectives have been achieved, including those that are nationally or locally determined. Evidence of demonstrable outcomes includes trends over time, target measures and other aggregated data that provide an indication of success in maintaining or improving the quality of the service provided, both overall and when benchmarked with similar services or organisations. The organisation should use such results to monitor, understand and improve its overall performance and to forecast the impact its performance will have both on the perceptions of its stakeholders and its future strategic ambitions.