Performance and Measurement
Analysis of Policing and Community Safety (APACS)
The Analysis of Policing and Community Safety (APACS) framework is a performance measurement framework. It was introduced in April 2008 as Assessments of Policing and Community Safety but was subsequently renamed to reflect changes outlined in the Policing Green Paper. It applies to all police forces in England and Wales, covering key services delivered by the police working on their own or in partnership with others.
APACS was designed to be closely aligned with cross-government strategic priorities and external frameworks, in particular: the new Public Service Agreements (PSAs) (new window) and Community and Local Government’s development of performance indicators for the national indicator set (new window) in England. Click here for more background on the development and the consultation of the APACS framework.
Performance indicators form a key part of APACS, measuring outcomes, perceptions, and activities, which reflect the impact of community safety and policing services in local communities. Guidance on the individual APACS performance indicators for 2009/10 and 2008/09 can be found below. Information on the SPIs for the older Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) can be found here.
A number of changes have taken place since the release of the Policing Green Paper (new window) in July 2008. The Home Office will no longer make graded assessments under APACS. In the future, it will take a more strategic role in performance management of the police, with an increased role for HMIC (new window) (nationally) and Police Authorities (new window) (locally) in holding forces to account. However, the Home Secretary wishes to continue to publish the performance data for police forces annually in line with the approach taken for 2007/08. Renamed as the Analysis of Policing and Community Safety, APACS remains as a set of performance indicators which provide a common analytical basis for understanding performance in policing and community safety. The Home Office policing performance portal iQuanta will provide regular analysis of all APACS performance indicators. HMIC will be assessing policing performance under their new rounded assessment. A narrative describing the New Performance Landscape for Crime and Policing has now been published. This sets out how new crime and policing performance management arrangements will work in practice and sets out the roles and responsibilities of different organisations within the new performance landscape. A summary version of the New Performance Landscape for Crime and Policing is also available.
For 2009/10, the APACS performance indicators will no longer be set in statute (and no longer referred to as SPIs). Instead, there will be a role for the National Policing Board (NPB) in agreeing the set of indicators.
Technical Guidance
Guidance on the APACS performance indicators for 2009/10 is now available. Following the National Policing Board meeting on 31th March, the 2009/10 set has been finalised and we apologise for the subsequent delay in the issuing of this guidance. The APACS indicator set remains unchanged from 2008/09 except for the addition of two new national indicators: NI 38 (Drug-related (Class A) offending) and NI 32 (Repeat incidents of domestic violence). The technical guidance for the existing indicators remains similar to that in 2008/09, with only small changes or clarifications to the definitions.
Letter providing guidance on the setting of local priorities. This letter sets out that forces and authorities will no longer be required to submit outturn data for 2008/09 against previously identified local priorities or to submit new local priorities for 2009/10 to the Home Office or HMIC.
Guidance on the Statutory Performance Indicators for Policing and Community Safety for 2008/09. This contains minor changes and clarifications to the draft version issued previously. These changes are summarised in the version history on page 2 of the document.
User Satisfaction Survey Guidance 2008/09 for police forces and authorities (updated October 2008).
Local priority guidance for police authorities and police forces (subject to the APACS consultation) on setting local policing plan priorities and assessing performance within APACS.
Statutory Performance Indicators (SPI) good practice guidance. In May 2006, Accenture carried out some work to identify examples of good practice within forces for the 2006/07 indicators.This guidance is not intended to be compulsory, but demonstrates examples of what has worked for individual forces in improving their performance in these areas.
APACS strategic consultation, technical consultation, and Technical Consultation Response report (more information on the consultation can be found in the APACS background page).
APACS Interim Equality Impact Assessment report. This report was to ensure that the fairness and equality impact of APACS on the various quality strands was taken into account.
