The Implementation of the National Probation Service Information Systems Strategy

Transcription

1 Home Office The Implemetatio of the Natioal Probatio Service Iformatio Systems Strategy REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL HC 401 Sessio : 26 April 2001

2 Home Office The Implemetatio of the Natioal Probatio Service Iformatio Systems Strategy REPORT BY THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL HC 401 Sessio : 26 April 2001 LONDON: The Statioery Office 0.00 Ordered by the House of Commos to be prited o 23 April 2001

3 Cotets Executive summary 1 Key fidigs 2 Part 1 Backgroud 9 Backgroud to the probatio services i Eglad 9 ad Wales Backgroud to the Natioal Probatio Service 12 Iformatio Systems Strategy Previous examiatios by the Committee of Public 14 Accouts ad the Natioal Audit Office Study scope ad methods 14 This report has bee prepared uder Sectio 6 of the Natioal Audit Act 1983 for presetatio to the House of Commos i accordace with Sectio 9 of the Act. Joh Bour Natioal Audit Office Comptroller ad Auditor Geeral 4 April 2001 The Comptroller ad Auditor Geeral is the head of the Natioal Audit Office employig some 750 staff. He, ad the Natioal Audit Office, are totally idepedet of Govermet. He certifies the accouts of all Govermet departmets ad a wide rage of other public sector bodies; ad he has statutory authority to report to Parliamet o the ecoomy, efficiecy ad effectiveess with which departmets ad other bodies have used their resources. For further iformatio about the Natioal Audit Office please cotact: Natioal Audit Office Press Office Buckigham Palace Road Victoria Lodo SW1W 9SP Tel: equiries@ao.gsi.gov.uk Website address:

4 Part 2 What lessos ca be leared from this 15 programme? Whether NPSISS has delivered all the expected beefits? 15 Why did the CRAMS case maagemet system fail to 17 deliver the expected busiess beefits? Whether the Home Office's programme maagemet 23 team was fully equipped to maage a programme of this type? Part 3 What have NPSISS ad CRAMS cost? 27 Were the costs of istallig ad supportig 27 NPSISS etworks ad systems ad developig CRAMS withi the forecast cotaied i the busiess case? Why did the NPSISS programme cost more tha 27 forecast? Appedices 1 Summary of Her Majesty's Ispectorate of 33 Probatio's Thematic Ispectio Report: "Usig Iformatio ad Techology to Improve Probatio Service Performace" (published October 2000) 2 Natioal Probatio Service aims, priorities, 36 Natioal Stadards ad performace measures 3 NPSISS ad CRAMS: Chroology of key evets 38 4 Methodology 40 5 Questioaire Survey Results 41 Photographs by kid permissio of: Frot Cover: Steve Crow Photography, Stafford Others: id.8 Photography, Sheffield

5 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL PROBATION SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY executive summary 1 I 1993 the Natioal Probatio Service Iformatio Systems Strategy (NPSISS) was established to achieve a commo high quality iformatio techology ifrastructure across all of the probatio services i Eglad ad Wales. The iitial atioal programme was for the provisio of a atioal computer ifrastructure (comprisig persoal computers, operatig software ad a commuicatios etwork supported by commo servers) ad a case recordig ad maagemet system (CRAMS). The implemetatio programme was maaged by the Home Office s Probatio Uit. Bull Iformatio Systems Limited, the mai cotractor, operates uder a eablig agreemet, siged i December 1994, to istall the ifrastructure ad CRAMS, ad provide a maaged service. The agreemet with Bull is due to ed i December The cost of implemetig the strategy over 10 years was projected to be 97 millio. Roll out of the NPSISS ifrastructure bega i 1995 ad was scheduled to be completed by March Her Majesty s Ispectorate of Probatio carried out a thematic ispectio of probatio services use of iformatio, icludig the progress made i the implemetatio of the NPSISS strategy. The Ispectorate s report "Usig Iformatio ad Techology to Improve Probatio Service Performace" was published i October The Ispectorate idetified weakesses i the iformatio available to probatio staff ad i the IT systems ad cocluded that the Home Office eeded to make very sigificat improvemets to give probatio services the IT systems ad support they eeded. 3 The Natioal Audit Office collaborated with the Probatio Ispectorate i its work. This report presets the results of the Natioal Audit Office s further examiatio of what lessos could be leared from the Home Office s maagemet of the NPSISS ad CRAMS programme. executive summary 1

6 Key fidigs By the ed of March 2001 the NPSISS computer etwork covered 49 out of the 54 local probatio services. From 1 April 2001 there is a ew Natioal Probatio Service with 42 local areas of which 38 have access to the NPSISS etwork. Give that the etwork was itroduced ito autoomous ad locally maaged services, this was a otable achievemet. The ifrastructure has led to improved commuicatio withi ad betwee probatio services. Liks with the Home Office ad the systems of other crimial justice agecies have yet to be made. The CRAMS case maagemet system was itroduced i 39 out of the 54 probatio services, ad is used substatially by 16 of these, represetig oly 20 per cet of the probatio service budget. CRAMS has proved difficult to use, ad its developmet, oversee by the Home Office, did ot keep pace i all respects with chagig busiess requiremets. As a result of the limitatios with CRAMS the Home Office has suspeded its further developmet except for essetial maiteace of the software. The full ecoomic cost of the NPSISS ifrastructure, support ad CRAMS is expected to be at least 118 millio by the ed of 2001, which would be 70 per cet at costat prices above the expediture forecast i the Home Office s origial busiess case for the same time period. The eablig agreemet with Bull is largely ope eded, with additioal expediture commitmets beig made as ad whe required. Poor specificatio of expected outputs, weakesses i service moitorig ad iadequate cotrol by the Home Office over the issue of purchase orders cotributed to the higher tha expected cost of the programme. Sice early 2000, the Home Office has held back its pursuit of IT developmet work because of cocers as to whether ew purchase orders uder its eablig agreemet with Bull would meet Europea public procuremet requiremets. The itroductio of a atioal ifrastructure ad case maagemet system was always likely to preset a sigificat maagemet challege. However, the Home Office s programme maagemet team suffered from a lack of cotiuity i its leadership ad was ot fully resourced to deal with the scale of the issues facig it. I its first seve years, for example, the programme team had seve programme directors. I terms of day to day project maagemet, we foud that resposibilities were ot always clear, ad that commuicatio betwee the Home Office ad the services was ot always effective. The Home Office has already recogised some of these issues ad the Iformatio ad Techology Group for the ew Natioal Probatio Service is plaed to have a complemet of aroud 50 staff compared to the previous effective complemet of The detailed fidigs ad lessos leared from the study are set out below. O istallig NPSISS 2execuitve summary 4 By the ed of 2000 the NPSISS etwork exteded across 47 out of 54 probatio services, coverig 87 per cet of the premises withi the etworked areas; ad it was rolled out to a further two services by the ed of March The coverage of the etwork will become icreasigly importat with the creatio of a uified Natioal Probatio Service for Eglad ad Wales i April The Home Office told us that it remaied committed to extedig NPSISS across all probatio services but, as at February 2001, had yet to make the ecessary arragemets.

7 5 Forty two of the 47 probatio services o NPSISS by the ed of 2000 reported to us that NPSISS had brought improvemets i commuicatios withi their areas. NPSISS has ot yet delivered the plaed ew liks with other crimial justice iformatio systems. This was partly because CRAMS had ot bee adopted by all services ad partly because of delays i the developmet of iformatio systems by other crimial justice orgaisatios. NPSISS has ot provided iteret access ad exteral services. The progress of these ad other developmets has bee affected by the Home Office s decisio ot to let ew purchase orders uder the eablig agreemet with Bull because of cocers as to whether this would be i compliace with Europea public procuremet requiremets. 6 The Home Office promoted but did ot actively moitor other beefits from the NPSISS programme, icludig busiess chage i the probatio services. As a result, it is ot possible to quatify the busiess beefits derived from the itroductio of these systems. Costs ad achievemets have ot bee moitored agaist projectios i the origial busiess case. For the future 7 At the ed of 1999 the Home Office started reviewig the IT strategy for the probatio service ad i July 2000 it drew up a recovery programme to address challeges throw up by the NPSISS programme. The ew Iformatio Systems Programme Board, which is resposible for defiig the IT requiremets of the ew Natioal Probatio Service ad overseeig their implemetatio, is takig this work forward. The ew IT strategy work makes a commitmet to develop further the atioal systems ad to achieve liks with other crimial justice agecies. We recommed: the Home Office esures that the atioal etwork is completed ad exteded to the atioal directorate to provide a backboe for the operatio ad accoutability of the ew Natioal Probatio Service; the Natioal Probatio Service esures that its ew iformatio strategy is firmly liked with the Service s busiess strategy ad that performace o IT is reviewed at least aually, i full cosultatio with the services; ad the Natioal Probatio Service takes every opportuity, o future IT developmet, to re-egieer existig admiistrative systems to eable the full busiess beefits of IT to be achieved. O the problems with CRAMS 8 Users have foud CRAMS difficult to operate. Cosultats commissioed by the board overseeig the programme reported that the user iterface cotaied defects that compromised the ability of users to perform their work. The Home Office did ot esure that the developmet of CRAMS kept pace i all respects with chagig busiess eeds, for istace it does ot provide local probatio services with direct access to operatioal data held by other areas i order to help i the trasfer of case iformatio, or does it provide a atioal database to support ew local procedures to improve the maagemet of high-risk offeders. Geerally services were havig to rely o paper files, card idexes ad registers to retai ad access iformatio o offeders presetig a risk of harm to the public. The Chief Ispector of Probatio has commeted that this lack of IT had ot compromised public safety or put staff at risk. executive summary 3

8 9 The developmet of CRAMS was based o software operatig i some probatio areas. The Home Office uderestimated the techical risks associated with trasferrig a existig system oto the NPSISS etwork. The poor user iterface of CRAMS was evidet from a early stage, alog with the other techical problems ad faults which had ot bee resolved by iitial testig. I July 1996, a review commissioed by the Home Office from a IT cosultat from the Cetral Computer ad Telecommuicatios Agecy oted several risks. I the cosultat s view, acceptace ad pilot testig of CRAMS suffered from a lack of clear directio, criteria to measure success, ad coordiatio. Eve if formally accepted, the cosultat thought that the system s acceptability ad usability were ukow. The Home Office team sought to address these problems but did ot prevet the roll out of poor quality software. 10 The requiremet for CRAMS to produce reports for maagemet purposes was ot adequately specified at the start of the project, or was a subsequet requiremet from the Home Office for Bull to develop stadard reports usig specialist software, kow as GQL, which extracts data from databases. The Probatio Ispectorate foud that services had to ivest their ow resources to make the GQL software work satisfactorily. GQL had bee istalled i 46 services by early The Home Office iitially expected that CRAMS would cost some 4 millio but it ow estimates it will have cost almost 11 millio at costat prices by December 2001, icludig the costs of work to esure year 2000 compliace ad the costs of the additioal reportig tool. Durig the course of the NPSISS programme probatio services o the NPSISS etwork spet early 1.2 millio o the purchase ad developmet of supplemetary software to record ad maage cases. The five services still ot o NPSISS have spet additioal resources developig their alterative case maagemet system. They estimate they have spet some 350,000 o developmet work ad a further 30,000 a year supportig it. I total some 27 probatio services are developig or usig alterative computerised systems for recordig or maagig case details. This positio has resulted i case records beig held i a umber of differet formats, creatig problems for the trasfer of cases 4execuitve summary

9 betwee services. A major challege for ay ew atioal case maagemet system will be the eed to maage the migratio of iformatio from existig systems. For the future 12 Curret plas propose a modular approach to addressig the eeds for case maagemet software, utilisig systems developed by local services ad itroducig a ew atioal case idex. We recommed the Natioal Probatio Service: develops proper user specificatios for case maagemet systems to succeed CRAMS, buildig o curret experiece ad reflectig clear statemets of the busiess objectives ad requiremets for the ew atioal service i particular, it should address their usability ad their ability to produce maagemet iformatio; esures that proposals for ay ew atioal case maagemet system, or ay other major techical developmets, are subject to a full evaluatio of the likely techical risks before goig ahead; esures that the orgaisatioal implicatios of ay future IT developmets are properly evaluated ad that there is full user ivolvemet, with effective maagemet arragemets to esure that issues arisig at local level ca be fed back quickly to appropriate cotacts withi both the Home Office ad the supplier; esures that there are effective arragemets for keepig the service iformed of progress agaist targets i the strategy; explores the best cotractual optios for developig software to succeed CRAMS ad, i adoptig a modular approach, to esure that a strog overall desig is developed so that the modules fit together well; ad esures that test plas, with clear objectives ad criteria for determiig success, are formally agreed with suppliers prior to startig the desig ad developmet of ew software. executive summary 5

10 O the cotract with Bull 13 The Home Office s cotract with Bull was draw up i the form of a eablig agreemet. It provides for the Home Office ad probatio services to take out purchase orders from a specified rage of products ad services at prices set out i schedules to the agreemet. The performace of Bull was ot maaged effectively. Moitorig of service levels agaist the eablig agreemet was sporadic; ad performace agaist the service level agreemet, ot agreed util 1998, was ot moitored systematically. 14 The Home Office raised a total of 69 purchase orders betwee December 1994 ad March 2000 ad cosultats commissioed by the Home Office cocluded i 1998 that there were uecessary orders, duplicatio ad overlap, ad a risk of overpaymet. To ratioalise the situatio the Home Office egotiated with Bull a cosolidated purchase order for support ad maiteace at a cost of 5.4 millio a year with effect from 1 April The Home Office Audit ad Assurace Uit cocluded that there had bee sigificat iadequacies i the egotiatio of the cosolidated purchase order. The purchase order specifies the resources Bull is to use to support NPSISS rather tha deliverables, leavig value for moey at risk. I recogitio of this the Home Office has itroduced tighter service delivery maagemet procedures. 15 Sice November 1999 the Home Office has had cocers about whether lettig ew purchase orders uder its eablig agreemet with Bull would comply with the competitio requiremets uder Europea Public Procuremet Directives. Legal advice received by the Home Office suggests that ay ew purchase orders raised uder the eablig agreemet are ulawful. The Home Office has ow cocluded that over the remaiig period of the Bull agreemet, up to December 2001, ay IT developmet work which is eeded, ad which caot be delivered by Bull withi the terms of the cosolidated support ad maiteace agreemet, would have to be procured through separate legal agreemets. 16 Failure by the Home Office to prioritise the ecessary preparatory work has cotributed to delay i establishig a ew strategic partership to follow the ed of the eablig agreemet with Bull i December As a result the Home Office is likely to have to bear additioal costs from a proposed separate iterim cotract after the expiry of the curret eablig agreemet. The work to maage this iterim cotract is kow as the first phase procuremet project. O the other had, the Home Office cosiders that this delay has brought the advatage of allowig the ew atioal probatio service busiess strategy ad chage programme to be specified more defiitively before key decisios are take o the strategic cotract. For the future 6execuitve summary 17 The pla beig take forward by the Iformatio Systems Programme Board stresses the importace of tighter supplier maagemet ad sets expectatios for the procuremet of the first phase ad subsequet strategic cotracts to follow o from the eablig agreemet with Bull. We recommed the Natioal Probatio Service: agrees with Bull specific deliverables for the remaider of the cotract to esure that it gets value from the support ad maiteace agreemet;

11 esures that its future IT cotracts are ot ope eded ad crucial elemets ot left to post-cotract egotiatios they should be based o a clear specificatio of the expected outputs ad quality of service ad should esure that appropriate cotract risks are bore by the cotractor; ad esures that it effectively maages its suppliers, ivolvig systematic ad strategic moitorig of cotract performace. O the skills ad resources of the maagemet team: 18 Over the course of the project, from 1993 to the ed of 2000 there have bee seve programme directors i charge of the NPSISS programme, of whom oly two had sigificat experiece of maagig major IT projects. The programme maagemet team also suffered frequet chages of staff. Techical experts ad specialists withi the team teded to be cosultats workig o short term assigmets. 19 From 1996 the project maagemet cotrols ad reportig arragemets were based o the PRINCE 2 project maagemet methodology. But the maagemet structure did ot iclude a project assurace fuctio. Furthermore, formal project maagemet methods were ot embedded firmly i workig practices ad they fell ito disuse. 20 I Jauary 2000 cosultats reported to the Home Office that its Iformatio Services capability was badly uder-resourced with misaliged skills, ad that this was exposig the Home Office ad probatio services to sigificat busiess risk. For the future 21 The Home Office has recruited a ew Head of IT for the Natioal Probatio Service. His maagemet team will comprise a Head of IT Strategy, Head of Service Maagemet ad a Head of Programme Maagemet ad he will have a complemet of some 50 staff. The Home Office has agreed that project assurace will be a priority, ad has appoited a experieced cosultat to provide quality assurace for the first phase procuremet project. We recommed that the Natioal Probatio Service: pays full regard to recet recommedatios made by the Committee of Public Accouts ad the Cabiet Office relatig to the maagemet of IT projects; udertakes a full risk assessmet of its ew Iformatio Systems Strategy ad itroduces proper risk maagemet procedures; provides for greater cotiuity of leadership for its IT programme ad adequate staffig; ad esures that the project maagemet team reflects a appropriate balace betwee the advatages gaied from usig secodees ad the eed for project experiece ad cotiuity. Timely ad appropriate traiig should be provided to project maagemet staff whe ecessary. executive summary 7

12 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL PROBATION SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY Part 1 Backgroud 1.1 I 1993, the Home Office ad local probatio services adopted the Natioal Probatio Service Iformatio Systems Strategy (NPSISS) to provide for the creatio of a atioal iformatio techology ifrastructure for local probatio services. The iitial programme was for the provisio of a atioal computer ifrastructure (comprisig persoal computers, operatig software ad a commuicatios etwork supported by commo servers) ad a case recordig ad maagemet system, CRAMS, to all probatio services i Eglad ad Wales. This programme is maaged by the Home Office s Probatio Uit. The mai cotractor, Bull Iformatio Systems Limited, operates uder a eablig agreemet, siged i December 1994, to istall the ifrastructure ad CRAMS, ad provide a maaged service. The agreemet with Bull is due to ed i December The cost of implemetig the strategy over 10 years was projected i 1994 to be 97 millio. This figure icludes the costs of purchasig ad istallig IT equipmet, support ad maiteace, software ad staff traiig. 1.2 Roll-out of NPSISS bega i 1995 ad was scheduled to be completed by March By the ed of 1999 the NPSISS ifrastructure had bee istalled i 47 out of 54 probatio services ad further developmet of CRAMS, except for essetial maiteace of the software, had bee stopped. Agaist this backgroud Her Majesty s Ispectorate of Probatio carried out a thematic ispectio of probatio services use of iformatio, icludig the progress made i the implemetatio of the NPSISS strategy; ad the Natioal Audit Office examied what lessos could be leared from the Home Office s maagemet of the NPSISS ad CRAMS programme. The ispectio ad audit were carried out collaboratively with joit visits to probatio services, joit iterviews with Home Office officials ad sharig of iformatio. The Ispectorate s report Usig Iformatio ad Techology to Improve Probatio Service Performace was published i October Its fidigs ad recommedatios are preseted i summarised form i Appedix 1. Backgroud to the probatio services i Eglad ad Wales The probatio services serve the courts ad the public 1.3 The probatio services are a itegral part of the crimial justice system. Util 1 April 2001, their mai resposibilities were to: serve the courts ad the public, pricipally by providig reports o offeders for the courts; supervise offeders i the commuity (both those offeders give commuity seteces by the courts ad those requirig supervisio followig release from priso); maage offeder programmes to esure that offeders lead law-abidig lives i a way which miimises risk to the public; ad safeguard the welfare of childre i family proceedigs. The Services objectives ad activities are set out i more detail i Figure 1. The probatio services i Eglad ad Wales are maaged locally by probatio committees 1.4 At the time of our examiatio, the probatio services were orgaised ito 54 autoomous ad locally maaged services i Eglad ad Wales. Each service was headed by a chief probatio officer, appoited by ad accoutable to a local probatio committee. Local services received 80 per cet of their fudig from the Home Office ad 20 per cet from local authorities. Though locally maaged, the probatio services worked withi a commo statutory framework to key performace idicators ad atioal stadards, determied by the Home Secretary. part oe 9

13 1 Probatio Services objectives ad activity levels Before April 2001, the probatio services had four key areas of work: to serve the courts, supervise offeders i the commuity, maage offeder programmes ad safeguard the welfare of childre i family proceedigs. Sice April 2001 the Childre ad Family Court Advisory Support Service has assumed resposibility for the welfare of childre i family proceedigs. Serve the courts Supervise offeders i the commuity Pre-setece reports provide a aalysis of the offece ad the offeder ad coclusios o the suitability of a commuity setece. Bail iformatio reports iclude a assessmet of the risk the offeder represets to the commuity. Other reports, icludig meas iquiries, parole reports ad iquiries for istitutios. 237,000 pre-setece reports 16,000 bail iformatio reports 46,000 other reports 126,000 offeders started crimial supervisio followig court orders Average umber of offeders uder supervisio, 218,000 Set ad moitor a supervisio pla ad goals for idividual offeders. Moitor offeders' compliace with the terms of their commuity setece. Work with priso staff to help make decisios o the release of prisoers. Probatio Service Maage offeder programmes Safeguard the welfare of childre i family proceedigs Maagemet of offeder programmes ad cousellig to esure that offeders ca atted appropriate courses. Ehaced level of residetial supervisio i approved probatio ad bail hostels icludig support to tackle offedig behaviour. Over 2,000 bedspaces available i approved probatio ad bail hostels 34,000 welfare reports 7,000 mediatio cases Assist courts with decisios about the care ad welfare of childre. Mediatio cases to assist separated parets to agree arragemets for their childre. Supervisio of miors. 14,000 admissios to hostels, of which bail accouts for aroud 60 per cet 38,000 directio appoitmets 300 people aged uder 18 bega family court supervisio orders part oe Source: Probatio Statistics Eglad ad Wales

14 2 The probatio service for Eglad ad Wales - roles ad resposibilites prior to April 2001 Up util April 2001, probatio services were locally maaged orgaisatios but ultimately resposible to the Home Secretary for their performace. Home Secretary The Home Secretary sets policy aims, prorities ad stadards for local probatio services. HM Chief Ispector, Probatio Permaet Uder-Secretary of State, Home Office Setecig ad Correctioal Policy Directorate Other Home Office Directorates Her Majesty s Ispectorate of Probatio, which is a idepedet statutory body, ispects the outputs ad performace of probatio service areas Probatio Uit The Home Secretary is advised by the Probatio Uit o probatio policy matters. It has a fudig role, but o maagemet role. The Uit was resposible for maagig the implemetatio of the NPSISS programme. 54 Probatio Committees 54 Probatio Services Prior to April 2001, the probatio services were maaged locally ad were accoutable to a local probatio committee composed of magistrates, members of the local commuity, a judge (appoited by the Lord Chacellor) ad oe or more represetatives of the fudig local authority (or authorities). Ultimately, local probatio committees were accoutable to the Home Secretary. Source: Home Office 1.5 The Home Office s Probatio Uit exercised the Home Secretary s resposibilities for the probatio services. The Uit s role was to advise o policy ad moitor the performace of the local probatio services ad to assist local probatio services through research ad evaluatio of best practice. Figure 2 outlies the resposibilities of the various parties. 1.6 Together the probatio services employ the equivalet of some 15,600 full-time equivalet staff. The probatio services vary widely i terms of size ad expediture. The Ier Lodo Probatio Service employs aroud 1,200 people ad had budgeted to sped aroud 43 millio i The smallest service, Powys Probatio Service, employs aroud 40 people ad its budget for the same year was aroud 1 millio. part oe 11

15 The probatio services are to be reorgaised ito a ew atioal service 1.7 The Crimial Justice ad Court Services Act 2000 created a uified Natioal Probatio Service for Eglad ad Wales with effect from April The ew Natioal Probatio Service is led by a Natioal Director, supported by a directorate operatig withi the Home Office. It is directly accoutable to the Home Secretary for its cotributio to Home Office aims ad its performace. The ew aims for the Natioal Probatio Service, the Home Secretary s priorities, atioal stadards ad the ew performace measures are detailed i Appedix The day to day ruig ad maagemet of services i each area is, as before, i the hads of chief probatio officers. Chief probatio officers are appoited by the Home Secretary. They are members of local probatio boards which supervise the work of the service i each area withi the atioal framework. There are 42 local probatio boards with the areas cotermious with police force ad Crow Prosecutio Service areas, i place of the 54 areas which existed before. The ew atioal service is etirely fuded by cetral Govermet. Backgroud to the Natioal Probatio Service Iformatio Systems Strategy The atioal iformatio systems strategy was formulated i I the early 1990s, all probatio services employed iformatio techology to some extet but there was o atioal strategy for probatio service iformatio systems. As a cosequece there were wide differeces i approach to probatio service computerisatio ad i the extet of computerisatio betwee probatio services. May systems had bee developed by idividual services or cosortia. The systems differed i their coverage, were geerally stad aloe ad employed differet defiitios for the data they used. This meat there was limited scope for itegratio of systems ad likig with other agecies. part oe 12

16 1.10 I 1992, the Home Office together with probatio services set up the Iformatio Strategy Steerig Committee to cosider the future use of iformatio ad iformatio techology. The Committee approved the Natioal Probatio Service Iformatio Systems Strategy (NPSISS) i November The NPSISS strategy set a visio that relevat, accurate, timely iformatio should be accessible to all staff, where appropriate, at ay locatio from a sigle source as a itegral part of their workig eviromet. It evisaged probatio services workig together to develop a atioal iformatio techology framework ad to deliver atioally strategic projects, withi which local decisios could be take to address local eeds ad priorities. Over the period of the strategy this would result i the migratio of probatio service iformatio systems oto a commo, high quality ifrastructure Alogside developmet of the Strategy, the Iformatio Strategy Steerig Committee developed proposals for the atioal case maagemet system. They decided that the case recordig ad maagemet system, CRAMS, would be a ehaced versio of a existig case maagemet system developed ad used by Northumbria Probatio Service. The aim was to have a system which probatio officers would use to record the details of offeders, seteces, supervisio plas ad actios take; to produce some of the reports required o offeders by the courts ad others; to produce progress reports to assist i the supervisio of offeders; ad to produce maagemet iformatio I October 1994, followig competitio to select a supplier, the Home Office submitted a busiess case to Treasury seekig approval for the NPSISS programme to proceed. The cost of implemetig the programme over 10 years was projected to be 97 millio at 1994 prices. Forecast fiacial beefits from the implemetatio of NPSISS ad CRAMS were aroud 240 millio over the period; ad the cumulative et preset value of the beefits was almost 95 millio (usig a six per cet discout rate 1 ). The Home Office s Probatio Uit has maaged the implemetatio of both NPSISS ad CRAMS. The mai supplier ad service maager is Bull Iformatio Systems Limited 1.13 The Iformatio Strategy Steerig Committee retaied resposibility for overseeig the NPSISS strategy. A project maagemet board was established to exercise maagemet cotrol o a more regular basis. Day-today maagemet of the programme was the resposibility of the Home Office s Probatio Uit I December 1994 the Home Office appoited Bull Iformatio Systems Limited, supported by a umber of sub-cotractors, as the prime NPSISS cotractor uder a eablig agreemet. The agreemet was for seve years, ad is due to ed i December It provides for: the istallatio ad support of computer facilities ad systems i idividual probatio services; local ad atioal commuicatios facilities; the migratio of CRAMS oto the NPSISS operatig system; support services at local ad atioal levels, icludig the operatio of a atioal help desk; ad traiig for traiers. The eablig agreemet with Bull specified i broad terms the service to be provided ad made provisio for particular equipmet ad more detailed service requiremets to be established i purchase orders Fudig for the NPSISS programme was provided by withholdig part of the capital fuds ormally allocated to the probatio services each year. This moey was used to fud the purchase ad istallatio of IT ifrastructure by probatio services (up to approximately oe computer for every three probatio officers ad oe computer for every member of support staff ad maagemet) ad to fiace cetral NPSISS developmets such as CRAMS. Probatio services which wated to purchase additioal ifrastructure (for example, to icrease the umbers of computers) had to fud this expediture from their ow budgets. part oe 1 The discout rate of six per cet is the rate recommeded by H M Treasury for traslatig the expected beefits ad costs i future years ito preset value terms i the appraisal of public sector ivestmet projects. 13

17 part oe By March 2001, 49 out of 54 probatio services had access to the NPSISS ifrastructure. It is plaed that all 42 local service areas i the ew Natioal Probatio Service will be o the NPSISS etwork by March But further developmet ad rollout of CRAMS was halted i 1999 because of dissatisfactio with it ad the eed for ew atioal applicatios to meet the chagig busiess requiremets of the Natioal Probatio Service. I September 1999, work had begu o the desig ad developmet of a successor, kow as COPERNICUS. However, work o this project was stopped i February 2000 ad was subsequetly overtake by the developmet of a ew strategy. A chroology of key evets i the developmet ad implemetatio of NPSISS ad CRAMS is provided i Appedix 3. The Home Office is i the process of desigig a ew iformatio systems strategy for the ew Natioal Probatio Service 1.17 At the ed of 1999 the Home Office bega a review of the iformatio systems strategy ad busiess requiremets for the probatio service. I July 2000, the Home Office drew up a recovery pla to address the challeges throw up by the NPSISS programme. A ew Iformatio Systems Programme Board has take the strategy ad the recovery pla forward i its Iformatio Systems ad Techology Programme for the Natioal Probatio Service. The mai strads of this programme are: developmet of IT strategies, policies, architectures ad stadards; a service maagemet pla to provide for cotrolled maagemet of local IT solutios to support the delivery of probatio service fuctios; provisio of cotiuig support ad maiteace of the curret ifrastructure ad systems from the expiry of the eablig agreemet with Bull at the ed of 2001 util strategic arragemets are i place, icludig some developmet of selected case maagemet applicatios; ad procuremet of strategic systems to support the Natioal Probatio Service, icludig a replacemet for the CRAMS case idex, from Previous examiatios by the Committee of Public Accouts ad the Natioal Audit Office 1.18 I Jauary 2000, the Committee of Public Accouts i their report o Improvig the Delivery of Govermet IT Projects (First Report, Sessio ) drew together lessos to be leared from a wide rage of projects previously examied by the Committee. I May 2000, as part of the Moderisig Govermet iitiative, the Cabiet Office published good practice guidace for Govermet o how to deliver Successful IT. It made detailed recommedatios coverig all aspects of the maagemet of such projects from leadership ad project maagemet to the learig of lessos after completio of a project. To esure that chage would be delivered, it itroduced a gateway idepedet pre-cotract review by the Office of Govermet Commerce for major projects ivolvig IT, ad placed a requiremet o all Accoutig Officers to make a aual statemet of compliace with the pricipal recommedatios i the review. The procuremet arragemets coverig cotiuig support ad maiteace of the NPSISS ifrastructure ad systems, ad the subsequet strategic systems to support the Natioal Probatio Service are beig subject to review by the Office of Govermet Commerce. Study scope ad methods 1.19 This examiatio focused o the Home Office s maagemet ad delivery of the NPSISS strategy uder its eablig agreemet with Bull, with a view to drawig lessos from a programme seekig to istall a complex ew system ad ew atioal software ito 54 largely autoomous probatio services. These lessos are of relevace to the Home Office ad the ew Natioal Probatio Service i cosiderig the ext phase of the probatio service iformatio strategy ad to other public services seekig to implemet systems across orgaisatioal boudaries. The award of the agreemet to Bull, which was made over six years ago, was ot examied i detail except isofar as the iitial terms affect curret decisios This report addresses: the lessos that ca be leared from the itroductio of NPSISS ad CRAMS (Part 2); ad the cost of the programme (Part 3). The examiatio icluded a survey of chief probatio officers; visits to 11 probatio services, icludig eight with the Probatio Ispectorate; iterviews with key persoel i the Home Office, Bull ad various IT cosultats; ad a review of project maagemet documetatio ad other iformatio. Further details o the methods employed ad the survey results are set out i Appedices 4 ad 5.

18 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL PROBATION SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY Part 2 What lessos ca be leared from this programme? 2.1 This part of the report examies the lessos which ca be leared from this programme, i particular: Whether NPSISS has delivered all the expected beefits? Why the CRAMS case maagemet system failed to deliver the evisaged busiess beefits? Whether the Home Office s project maagemet team was fully equipped to maage a programme of this type? Whether NPSISS has delivered all the expected beefits? Give that the etwork was itroduced ito a autoomous ad locally maaged service, the extet of NPSISS coverage, 49 out of 54 services by March 2001, is a otable achievemet 2.2 Whilst the iitial busiess case prepared by the Home Office i 1994 had assumed that all local probatio services would be coected to the ew atioal etwork by March 1999, i practice the Home Office was reliat o persuadig each of the idepedet local services to take up the system. By the ed of December 2000, 47 of the 54 probatio services had istalled the NPSISS hardware ad were coected to the etwork. Two further istallatios, i Ket ad Corwall Probatio Services, were completed by the ed of March I those areas where the NPSISS ifrastructure has bee istalled, the etwork is more extesive tha evisaged at the plaig stage but less extesive tha allowed for i the eablig agreemet. Probatio officers work from probatio service offices, but also from courts, prisos, probatio service hostels ad some other premises. The busiess case had evisaged that 900 of the the 1,280 locatios would be coected to the etwork, represetig 70 percet of the probatio service estate. The eablig agreemet provided for 1,200 coectios. By September 2000 our figures suggest that there were 973 locatios coected to the etwork, coverig 87 per cet of premises withi the 47 etworked areas ad that o average there were four computers for every five probatio service employees. This represets almost 100 percet of offices ad hostels ad close to 75 per cet of courts ad prisos withi these probatio services. This coverage level reflects expediture o iformatio techology systems ad equipmet made by local services i additio to the cetral fudig from the Home Office. 2.4 I November 1999, followig the decisio to susped further work o CRAMS, the Home Office wrote to those services ot o the etwork ecouragig them to istall NPSISS but without CRAMS. The five probatio services who have ot had NPSISS istalled (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, East Sussex, Norfolk, ad Suffolk) all operate a commo case maagemet system, the Itegrated Case Maagemet System, ICMS. They cosider their system to be critical to their operatios ad of higher quality tha the atioal system, ad for this reaso have sought to keep it ad work o their existig local area etworks. The Home Office told us that it remaied committed to extedig NPSISS across all probatio services but as at February 2001 had ot established the ecessary arragemets. 2.5 The Home Office s origial busiess case i support of NPSISS ad CRAMS aticipated productivity gais arisig from reduced o-productive work by professioal staff ad a reduced requiremet for support staff. Both systems were expected to geerate savigs amoutig to seve per cet of ruig costs, amoutig to 240 millio over 10 years at 1994 prices. Most of these gais were expected to arise from the itroductio of CRAMS. Before itroducig the ew systems, local probatio services were expected by the Home Office to review ad re-egieer their existig busiess processes. Our visits to probatio services suggested that ot all services had udertake the expected reviews or had implemeted the resultig fidigs. Over the period of the itroductio of NPSISS ad CRAMS productivity withi the service has icreased by some 18 per cet, equivalet to about 16 millio a year. However, it is ot possible to say what proportio of this gai is attributable to the ew systems. part two 15

19 part two The NPSISS strategy ad busiess case did ot make provisio for extedig the etwork to the Home Office Probatio Uit or the Probatio Ispectorate. At the ed of 2000 there was oe NPSISS termial i the Home Office to facilitate commuicatio with probatio services. The Home Office ow has i had a project which aims to lik the NPSISS etwork with the Natioal Probatio Directorate via a existig secure etwork. Local probatio services report improved commuicatio both withi ad betwee probatio services as a result of NPSISS. Aticipated gais through better commuicatio with other agecies i the crimial justice system have yet to materialise 2.7 Forty two of the 47 probatio services o the NPSISS etwork by the ed of 2000 reported to us that the etwork had brought improvemets i commuicatio withi their probatio service (Figure 3). Those areas that did ot have ay facilities prior to NPSISS particularly valued the improvemet i commuicatios brought by NPSISS. The five services reportig o beefit i terms of iteral commuicatio had all had iteral systems prior to NPSISS. 2.8 Where offeders trasfer betwee areas there is a eed, i the absece of a atioal case maagemet system, to iform the supervisig officer of ay particular eeds or risks associated with the offeder. The majority of probatio services with NPSISS reported that it had provided at least some beefit with regard to commuicatio with other probatio services. The Probatio Ispectorate believe that additioal beefits could be achieved i the future if a atioal itraet were icorporated ito the NPSISS etwork to eable iformatio ad good practice to be shared more easily. 3 Improved commuicatio as a result of NPSISS The majority of probatio services which have received the NPSISS ifrastructure reported that there had bee beefits to iteral commuicatio ad commuicatio with other probatio services, but that wider commuicatio beefits had ot materialised Iteral With other probatio services Key Withi the crimial justice system Source: Other exteral Number of probatio services % 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% major beefit some beefit o beefit egative Natioal Audit Office questioaire survey of probatio services 2.9 The origial NPSISS Strategy aimed to develop a system that could be liked to ew iformatio techology etworks beig developed by other crimial justice agecies. The busiess case i support of NPSISS forecast savigs of 15.3 millio as a result of these liks. To date, NPSISS has provided o ew atioal liks to other crimial justice iformatio systems. This is partly because CRAMS has ot bee adopted by all services, ad partly because of delays i the developmet of iformatio systems by other crimial justice agecies. The primary savigs were expected from a lik betwee CRAMS ad the Magistrates courts system to eable the probatio service to receive details of the results of hearigs. The Magistrates courts system, LIBRA, is ow due to be rolled out betwee 2001 ad 2004 ad the lik will eed to be made with the successor system to CRAMS. Work to make a lik betwee the police service atioal crimial records database, Phoeix, ad the probatio service was completed by the police i September 2000 but work o the CRAMS lik has bee postpoed Five of the probatio services reported that they have oetheless derived some beefit from NPSISS from improved commuicatio withi the Crimial Justice System. This was based o liks havig bee established locally betwee the five Lodo probatio services ad the Metropolita Police. Otherwise, the NPSISS etwork is a closed etwork without access to the Iteret, reducig the potetial for other exteral commuicatio. Most services have fuded their ow very limited access to the Iteret through stad-aloe computers. Cosultats employed by the Home Office have cocluded that, with further work, NPSISS should provide a satisfactory ifrastructure for the developmet of iformatio systems withi the ew Natioal Probatio Service 2.11 I February 2000, as part of work beig udertake to review the IT strategy, cosultats commissioed by the Home Office cocluded that the curret NPSISS ifrastructure provided a satisfactory basis for meetig the immediate eeds of the probatio service. The cosultats, AMTEC, suggested however that the capacity of the etwork was iadequate for the levels of electroic traffic takig place i some areas ad the additioal software that some services were operatig. The effects of isufficiet capacity icluded poor scree quality, ad slowig of the applicatios beig used. I their view, this capacity problem would get worse as a result of icreased electroic traffic i the future. The probatio services we visited told us that oavailability of the etwork was sometimes uacceptably high. However, additioal capacity ad fuctioality, such as Iteret access, could be supplied through ogoig ivestmet i the curret ifrastructure.

20 Why did the CRAMS case maagemet system fail to deliver the expected busiess beefits? The CRAMS case maagemet system was itroduced i oly 39 out of the 54 former probatio services. CRAMS proved difficult for probatio services to use ad it failed to meet some importat operatioal eeds 2.12 By March 2000, 36 of the 54 former local probatio services had received a complete rollout of CRAMS ad three other probatio services had partial or icomplete rollouts, some 12 moths later tha plaed. The remaiig 10 probatio services which are coected to NPSISS decided ot to istall CRAMS. Figure 4 provides details of where CRAMS has bee istalled Users have foud CRAMS difficult to operate. Two recet idepedet ergoomic assessmets of CRAMS have poited to a poor user iterface. A team from Uiversity College, Lodo, commissioed by the Iformatio Systems Strategy Board, reported i February 1999 that the CRAMS user iterface cotaied defects that compromised the ability of users to perform their work. I their view, the software made excessive demads o usig ad learig to use the system. I additio, CRAMS failed to provide adequate access for users with special eeds. The team recommeded that the user iterface be extesively redesiged. A team from Amey Vectra Limited, commissioed by Lacashire ad Merseyside Probatio Services, reported i April 2000 that there was a potetially high risk of stress to users; that the CRAMS user iterface was illogical, iflexible ad uforgivig of user error; ad that probatio services should cosider ot usig CRAMS if the problems could ot be rectified Some services we cotacted had persevered with CRAMS despite the cocers about its quality, as oted by the commet from South Glamorga Probatio Service quoted below. The Home Office foud i March 2000 that 32 services reported that the CRAMS case idex was critical to their work, although most did ot use five of the specific fuctioal modules i CRAMS because they did ot work properly or did ot meet services eeds. Based o further cotact with probatio services, however, the Probatio Ispectorate has reported that oly 16 of the services with CRAMS were makig substatial use of CRAMS, that is, they were usig both the cotact log for supervisio cases ad the commuity service module. These services were geerally small, accoutig for 20 per cet of the overall budget for probatio services, ad did ot iclude the three largest services, Ier Lodo, Greater Machester ad West Midlads. The remaiig services with CRAMS made limited use of it. We have take a very positive attitude to CRAMS ad used it extesively i may service areas. This is despite its very evidet limitatios ad operatioal problems. The Service has beefited greatly from the o-lie case record. However, this has bee at the expese of operatig a difficult to use system. The aticipated beefits have ot bee as great as expected because of the poor quality of CRAMS. Source: South Glamorga Probatio Service - Natioal Audit Office questioaire survey respose The Home Office has ot esured that the developmet of CRAMS has kept pace i all respects with the chagig busiess requiremets of the probatio service. For istace CRAMS does ot provide local probatio services with direct access to operatioal data held by other areas, i order to help i the trasfer of case iformatio. Nor has a atioal database bee developed o NPSISS to support the Early Warig System which was itroduced i April 1999 to improve the maagemet of potetially dagerous offeders i the commuity. Istead, local probatio services have had to develop local solutios to maagig the iformatio eeded to oversee high-risk offeders. The Probatio Ispectorate reported that there was evidece of good practice i public protectio work i some services, usig risk registers they had developed i database software supplied o NPSISS. However geerally services were havig to rely o paper files, card idexes ad registers to retai ad access iformatio o offeders presetig a risk of harm to the public. The Chief Ispector of Probatio has commeted that this lack of IT had ot compromised public safety or put staff at risk I additio, the Probatio Ispectorate has reported that CRAMS caot produce all of the iformatio eeded by local services to eable them to moitor their compliace with atioal probatio stadards or moitor their performace agaist key performace idicators. As a result services had to extract iformatio maually from the electroic database ad the eter it ito aother piece of software. part two 17

21 4 The extet of coverage of NPSISS techical ifrastructure ad the CRAMS case maagemet system i the probatio services By March 2001, 49 probatio services had NPSISS techical ifrastructure istalled i their service. Te of those services had ot had the CRAMS case maagemet system istalled. Greater Machester Shropshire Hereford & Worcester West Midlads Cambridgeshire Bedfordshire Norfolk Suffolk Somerset Oxfordshire & Buckighamshire Berkshire Sussex East Ket Ier Lodo Corwall Key NPSISS techical ifrastructure ad CRAMS istalled NPSISS techical ifrastructure istalled, CRAMS ot istalled Neither NPSISS techical ifrastructure or CRAMS istalled Source: Home Office, Her Majesty's Ispectorate of Probatio part two 18

22 2.17 As a result of the problems with CRAMS, 27 services have cotiued either to use alterative case maagemet systems (12) or have developed systems to supplemet the facilities available o CRAMS (15). This positio has resulted i case records beig held i a umber of differet formats, creatig problems for the trasfer of cases betwee services. A major challege for ay ew atioal case maagemet system will be the eed to maage the migratio of iformatio from existig systems. The itroductio of a atioal case maagemet system ito a devolved local service was always likely to preset a sigificat maagemet challege. I practice, programme resposibilities were ot always clear, ad commuicatio betwee the Home Office ad local services was ot always effective 2.18 The overall IT strategy recogised that clear owership ad commitmet to NPSISS ad CRAMS from all probatio services would be essetial for the full beefits of the strategy to be realised. The Iformatio Strategy Steerig Committee, which was the body resposible for overseeig the developmet of the NPSISS strategy ad its adoptio, was established by the Home Office ad had represetatio from chief probatio officers ad probatio committees. Chief probatio officers edorsed the Strategy ad were also represeted o the other mai programme committees (Figure 5). The Iformatio Systems Strategy Board, whe it took over resposibility from the Iformatio Strategy Steerig Committee i 1997, was iteded to be a probatio service committee. It was chaired by a chief probatio officer ad like its predecessor had represetatio from chief probatio officers ad probatio committees. The Home Office atteded oly as a observer, despite its resposibility for maagig the cotract with Bull. Outside the formal committees there were o other mechaisms for securig acceptace to the maagemet of the programme by all probatio services. 5 User ivolvemet i the NPSISS programme Represetatives from the probatio services sat o the mai committees ad boards resposible for the maagemet of the NPSISS programme; ad user views were coveyed through the CRAMS User Group. Cetral Probatio Coucil (CPC) Iformatio Strategy Steerig Committee / Iformatio Systems Strategy Board Probatio Committees Project/Programme Maagemet Board Probatio Services ACOP Maagemet Iformatio Committee CRAMS User Group Associatio of Chief Officers of Probatio (ACOP) Project/Programme Director ad Executive Key Formal project maagemet liks Iformal project maagemet liks Represetative bodies Represetative sub-bodies part two Project maagemet structure Source: Natioal Audit Office 19

23 2.19 Neither the Home Office or the various project boards had direct cotrol over local implemetatio. Local probatio services were expected to take their ow decisios about how both NPSISS ad CRAMS should be implemeted i their local areas, icludig establishig their ow implemetatio teams ad liaisig directly with Bull ad its sub-cotractors. I practice, the 54 probatio services, although coductig the same busiess activities, had differig maagemet structures, priorities, methods of workig ad differig experiece of maagig IT. The success of the overall project was therefore particularly depedet o appropriate maagemet ad coordiatio betwee the various parties The Iformatio Strategy Steerig Committee (ad its successor the Iformatio Systems Strategy Board) met about five to six times a year ad approved most iitial decisios, icludig the assessmet of iitial optios for a atioal case maagemet system, the selectio of a supplier, the preparatio of the busiess case, ad various proposals to upgrade the systems. The Project Maagemet Board (ad its successor the Programme Maagemet Board) met mothly. As early as July 1996, a report commissioed by the Home Office from a cosultat workig for the Cetral Computer ad Telecommuicatios Agecy (CCTA), foud that the the maagemet structure ad commuicatio lies had ot always proved adequate at addressig problems. The cosultat had foud that fairly mior problems had bee escalated to fairly seior levels withi both the Home Office ad Bull. I respose to the report, the Home Office restructured its mai programme committees to brig them more ito lie with accepted practice for projects of this scale ad complexity (PRINCE 2). Despite these chages, we idetified examples where the Strategy Board was seemigly ot ivolved i key decisios, for example the decisio i March 1998 to purchase a third-party reportig tool GQL for CRAMS; ad the decisio i September 1999 to susped further developmet of CRAMS. Both decisios were take by Home Office officials The Home Office used a variety of meas to provide updates o progress with NPSISS ad CRAMS ad to cosult directly with probatio services. For example: by issuig probatio circulars addressed to probatio service maagers; by distributig ewsletters to the services, up util November 1998; through correspodece ad meetigs of specialist iformatio techology groups ad user groups (for example, the System Maagers Group, ad the Maagemet Iformatio Committee of the Associatio of Chief Officers of Probatio) The 1996 review by a cosultat from CCTA of the programme maagemet arragemets drew attetio to the eed to do more to commuicate with probatio services. It reported that i the absece of effective commuicatio chaels, stories ad rumours about CRAMS ad ifrastructure problems were beig allowed to circulate betwee the services. The NPSISS Programme Maagemet Board agreed i Jue 1996 that a commuicatios strategy was eeded to get the right iformatio at the right level to the right people. However, o further actio was take to itroduce a commuicatios strategy Durig audit visits, probatio service staff reported that commuicatio had bee good i the early stages of the NPSISS ad CRAMS programme. However, services perceived that, as the programme progressed, there had bee a deterioratio i the level ad quality of iformatio provided by the Home Office ad the programme maagemet team about the programme s progress The Home Office iformed the Natioal Audit Office that commuicatio had deteriorated because of the heavy workload the programme maagemet team was cofroted with durig a period i which it had to deal with rollig out NPSISS techical ifrastructure as well as rollig out CRAMS. The Home Office is ow providig regular updates to the probatio services i the form of probatio circulars summarisig decisios at the mothly Iformatio Systems Programme Board meetigs. The Home Office iteds that better commuicatios will be a importat compoet of the Iformatio Systems ad Techology Programme, withi a overarchig commuicatios strategy for the ew Natioal Probatio Service. The developmet of CRAMS was based o software already operatig i some probatio areas. The Home Office uderestimated the techical risks associated with updatig ad developig the package for the atioal system 2.25 The decisio to go ahead with CRAMS, buildig o a existig case maagemet system, was crucial to subsequet evets. Whilst the key techical risks were correctly idetified, these risks were ot fully evaluated. part two through ad hoc direct cotacts with chief probatio officers ad other probatio service staff ; ad 20

24 2.26 I 1993, the Iformatio Strategy Steerig Committee decided that the ew atioal case maagemet system should be based o software developed ad already beig used by the Northumbria Probatio Service. Their decisio followed a appraisal by represetatives from the Probatio Uit ad probatio services of three existig case maagemet systems ad a build from scratch optio. The three existig systems were the Northumbia Probatio Iformatio Maagemet System (NPIMS), the Itegrated Case Maagemet System (ICMS) operated by Cambridgeshire; ad the Itegrated Operatioal Support System (IOSS) operated by Hereford ad Worcester. The review team cocluded that the system operated by Northumbria scored the highest of the three existig systems, meetig just over two-thirds of probatio services evaluative criteria, which icluded a prove ability to share data across two or more probatio services. I the team s view, the Northumbria system was tried ad tested ad had a prove record i accommodatig chage. I additio, the team believed that the system could be ehaced to meet fully services eeds The review team, however, uderestimated the techical risks associated with this decisio. To operate ad develop the Northumbria system for use as a atioal casework maagemet system required the software to be ehaced to meet the probatio services requiremets ad trasferred from a maiframe to a Microsoft Widows-based techical eviromet. The review team had judged that to make the move was techically possible but that this would be ukow territory util actually tackled. I their view, this would be o more hazardous tha the risks associated with developig a ew system from scratch. Whilst the team had idetified this key techical risk, we could fid o evidece of a techical evaluatio to assess the seriousess of this risk Durig the cotract lettig procedure Bull recommeded that the Home Office should pursue the desig ad developmet of a bespoke system rather tha the Northumbria optio. I their view, the Northumbria system was the lowest risk optio for meetig the requiremets of the probatio service but would be expesive to maitai; whereas a bespoke system would have a umber of advatages icludig beig more acceptable to users, more flexible, itegratig with other software better, ad with lower developmet ad maiteace costs. Nevertheless, both the Home Office ad Bull agreed to go ahead with the Northumbria system as origially plaed. Bull told us that through the course of the cotract it became clear that the iitial fuctioality, level of documetatio ad desig material had bee exaggerated ad that as a result the techical difficulties of trasferrig the system oto NPSISS had bee uderestimated. The poor user iterface of CRAMS was evidet at a early stage, alog with other techical problems ad faults which had ot bee resolved by iitial testig. The Home Office team sought to address these problems but despite delays did ot prevet the roll out of poor quality software 2.29 The Home Office s plas for testig the ew software had evisaged a programme of acceptace testig, usig test data to check the system agaist the origial defiitio of requiremets, followed by pilot testig i two probatio service areas to test the system i a operatioal eviromet. The Home Office ad Bull expected that pilot testig would last about two moths ad the Home Office plaed that roll-out of CRAMS would start i March I practice Bull completed the migratio of the Northumbria software oto NPSISS by March 1995, pilot work bega i November 1995, but problems with the software resulted i it beig withdraw i February Further versios of CRAMS were itroduced for pilotig, before aother was released i Surrey i Jauary 1997 for rollout to probatio services. By this time, the secod pilot service, West Midlads, had withdraw from the programme because of its cocers about the quality of the software beig released for pilot testig. The software was istalled i three further services by the ed of March 1997 to seek their feedback By this poit, early 1997, problems had already bee evidet i the testig ad roll-out of the ew system. I July 1996, the cosultat from the Cetral Computer ad Telecommuicatios Agecy had foud that the availability ad acceptability of CRAMS was rapidly becomig a major issue. He reported that there were coflictig views betwee the Home Office, Bull ad the probatio service about the criteria for the release of CRAMS for pilot ruig. The cosultat s report oted that there was much pressure from the Home Office ad probatio services to implemet CRAMS as soo as possible. However, the report oted several risks. I the cosultat s view, acceptace ad pilot operatio of CRAMS suffered from a lack of clear directio, criteria to measure success ad coordiatio. Eve if formally accepted, the cosultat thought that the system s acceptability ad usability were ukow. The report oted that there were some stories about CRAMS withi the service suggestig that it was less tha a good system ad that these stories were servig to set expectatios ad ru the risk of rejectio of CRAMS. I the cosultat s view, each service would, as a result, be likely to wish to try the system itself, thereby ruig the risk of 54 separate forms of acceptace testig. part two 21

25 2.31 I November 1996, the Home Office wrote to Bull iformig them of their dissatisfactio with the progress o the developmet of CRAMS. I respose to assuraces from Bull, icludig the reorgaisatio of its project maagemet of CRAMS developmet work, the Home Office agreed i March 1997, after istallatio of the software i three further services to allow Bull to cotiue its work uder the terms of the existig cotract. However, i May 1997, the Home Office issued Bull with a formal warig that uless the acceptability of CRAMS i the service eviromet improved markedly, the whole programme ad hece Bull s cotract could be called ito questio. Amogst the issues the Home Office thought eeded to be addressed were scree layout ad the user iterface. However, Bull questioed whether they had ever received ay specificatios for the chages the beig sought by the Home Office, or had ay cotractual obligatios to develop CRAMS i the maer suggested. Subsequetly, both sides agreed a pla to take further developmet forward The first operatig versio of CRAMS was siged off by the Home Office for release i March A further versio of CRAMS was siged off i October 1997 ad this was rolled out across the service, as show i Figure 6. This versio was reviewed i March 1998 by the CRAMS User Group, which comprised represetatives from various probatio services. The Group cocluded that sigificat progress had bee made with CRAMS, that it was easier to use, ad that it represeted a solid platform to support the majority of existig requiremets ad from which to develop the system to meet emergig requiremets. Despite the CRAMS User Group s review, cocers withi the service about the poor quality of the CRAMS user iterface persisted, promptig the Iformatio Systems Strategy Board to commissio the ergoomic review by Uiversity College which reported i February 1999, as discussed above i paragraph I August 1999, IT cosultats Beaumot Colso Limited employed by the Home Office to carry out user acceptace testig of the Year 2000 compliat versio of CRAMS idetified 306 issues ad faults i the software: 191 of these had bee preset i earlier versios of CRAMS; ad 25 of these were classified as major. Most of the major faults were rectified before the software was released to the services i September I the same moth, further developmet of CRAMS was suspeded The project maagemet arragemets adopted by the Home Office from 1996 owards reflected recommedatios from the 1996 cosultat s review, but omitted the recommeded project assurace fuctio. This was a key omissio. Project assurace provides a check, idepedet of the project maager, that the project cotiues to meet its specificatio, the required stadards ad its busiess case. The Home 6 CRAMS rollout The rollout of the CRAMS case maagemet system was iitially delayed due to problems with developmet. Oce the first operatig versio of CRAMS was released i March 1997, it was rolled out across the services. By March 2000, 36 services had complete rollouts of CRAMS Number of Probatio Services December 1994 March 1995 Jue 1995 Sep 1995 Dec 1995 March 1996 Jue 1996 September 1996 December 1996 March 1997 Jue 1997 September 1997 December 1997 March 1998 Jue 1998 September 1998 December 1998 March 1999 Jue 1999 September 1999 December 1999 March 2000 part two Note: 1. Three additioal services oly had partial rollouts of CRAMS. Sources: Home Office. Natioal Audit Office questioaire survey of probatio services. Key CRAMS actual CRAMS Pla 22

26 Office cosidered that project assurace work would be udertake o a as ad whe basis by staff or cosultats as eeded. I practice the fuctio was ot itroduced. CRAMS maagemet iformatio capability was ot adequately specified ad a supplemetary reportig tool was ot fially delivered util By March 1997, whe the CRAMS case maagemet system bega to be rolled out to the probatio services, it was clear that the Northumbria system s ability to produce maagemet reports did ot work well i the techical eviromet i which CRAMS operated. Recogisig that this aspect of CRAMS was deficiet, the Home Office commissioed work from Bull i Jue 1997 to develop, validate ad test 80 maagemet reports as part of the developmet work o a ew versio of CRAMS. The value of this work was almost 40,000. No specificatio cocerig what these reports should cover appears to have bee provided by the Home Office. Very little work o the reports was i fact udertake or completed. Bull refuded the moey which they had bee paid i advace for this work I March 1998, to address the shortcomigs i CRAMS reportig capabilities, the Home Office raised a purchase order with Bull for the developmet, delivery ad deploymet of GQL, specialist software desiged to extract data from databases, to deliver 100 stadard reports ad provide probatio services with the capability to specify their ow reports. The total cost of purchasig this software, providig traiig to probatio services staff ad developig stadard reports was 612,000. Though the Home Office appraised the usefuless of this software prior to its purchase, there is o evidece that it evaluated alterative third-party reportig tools The purchase order with Bull set o specificatios for the reports to be developed as these were to be agreed through user groups. It stated that the relevat reportig capability should be delivered by March By the ed of 1999 very few reports had bee specified or delivered. The project was halted, ad the Home Office agreed to pay for the work udertake by Bull ad its sub-cotractors provided that 20 stadard reports were delivered by the ed of March These reports focused o the operatioal eeds of probatio officers. For example, reports o my caseload ad umber of pre-setece reports outstadig. The Home Office made traiig available for services istallig GQL. But the Probatio Ispectorate foud that a comparatively small umber of services were usig the software i a sigificat way ad that they had doe so by makig additioal local ivestmet to make the software work satisfactorily. By Summer 2000, 46 services had had the software ad equipmet required to use GQL istalled With the view that GQL could provide a device whereby the Home Office (ad from April 2001, the ew atioal directorate) could obtai corporate iformatio from the probatio services, a ew GQL project was established i Jauary 2000 with its ow project board to develop a set of stadard reports for cetral moitorig purposes. Formal project maagemet methods were used to iitiate the project ad to moitor its performace. However, i May 2000 the project was suspeded because there was a lack of clarity about who the busiess ower for the project was; the busiess eeds it was tryig to meet; ad who wated it. There are o plas at preset to take the project forward. Whether the Home Office s programme maagemet team was fully equipped to maage a programme of this type? The Home Office sought to adopt recogised procedures for maagig this IT project. However, the programme maagemet team lacked cotiuity ad was ot fully resourced to deal with the scale of the issues facig it 2.38 The programme maagemet team established by the Home Office to maage the NPSISS programme comprised a mix of Home Office officials, secodees from probatio services ad private sector cosultats. Sice 1996, followig recommedatios from the Cetral Computer ad Telecommuicatios Agecy, the programme team has sought to base its project maagemet cotrols ad reportig arragemets o the PRINCE 2 project maagemet methodology, a widely accepted stadard i govermet ad idustry Some of the problems associated with the maagemet of this programme reflect a lack of cotiuity i its leadership. Over the course of the programme, from 1993 to the ed of 2000, there have bee seve Programme Directors, of whom oly two have had sigificat experiece of maagig major IT projects. Six of the seve Directors departed betwee 1997 ad 2000, the poit at which the programme was iteded to come to fruitio. Iitially the Programme Director, with previous experiece of IT maagemet at CCTA, was the Head of the Iformatio Services Group withi the Home Office Probatio Uit. I 1997, as part of a major reorgaisatio of the Probatio Uit, the post of Head of the Iformatio Services Group was abolished part two 23

27 part two 24 ad the post-holder took early retiremet. From 1997 to 1999 the role of Programme Director was take by the Probatio Uit s Head of Projects, a job which carried resposibility for other o-it related projects. The three post holders had extesive kowledge of the probatio service but had brought to the job little or o previous experiece of maagig major IT projects. From August 1999 to the ed of 2000, the Programme Director role has bee filled by three successive temporary appoitmets, oe from withi the programme maagemet team. Sice October 1999 the NPSISS group has split from the rest of the Projects Group to become, ow, the Iformatio ad Techology Group of the Natioal Probatio Directorate Frequet chages of staff amogst the programme maagemet team were cited by probatio services ad Bull as a major problem: for probatio services, it led to a lack of cotiuity i dealig with local issues; for Bull it led to problems i idetifyig the appropriate perso to talk to about cotractual or techical issues. Most of the staff workig o the NPSISS programme maagemet team were secodees from the probatio service. Whilst the programme team had a good kowledge of the service it lacked people with experiece of maagig a major iformatio techology project. Ad the team it did have could ot build up log-term experiece of the project. Over the course of the programme, util September 2000, 21 secodees from probatio services had bee members of the programme maagemet team with a average ivolvemet of aroud 16 moths. Eight secodees were members of the programme maagemet team for less tha oe year There was also a lack of cotiuity amogst the techical staff. The techical experts ad specialists o the team teded to be cosultats workig o short assigmets. Those private sector cosultats who cotributed to the programme teded to be commissioed i a ad hoc way to carry out discrete tasks, ofte over a short period of time, ad this cotributed to the lack of cotiuity i programme maagemet As the NPSISS programme progressed, very little, if ay, project maagemet traiig was provided to staff who joied the NPSISS team. Ad, the formal project maagemet cotrols which had bee established at the outset of the programme fell ito disuse. For example, project iitiatio ad plaig became ad hoc, documetatio was iadequate, ad there was a lack of reportig agaist the programme s plaed products ad outputs. Members of the Iformatio Systems Strategy Board we iterviewed commeted particularly about the lack of reports to the Board detailig progress agaist the objectives set out i the strategy ad busiess pla ad deliverables, ad felt that it udermied members ability to do the jobs expected of them Recogisig the problems, the Home Office asked PA Cosultig i November 1999 to review the orgaisatio ad maagemet of iformatio services withi the probatio services. The cosultat's report, i Jauary 2000, idetified a badly uder-resourced Iformatio Services capability with misaliged skills, ad hece a uder-performig iformatio services fuctio which was exposig the Home Office ad probatio services to some sigificat busiess risks. The report cocluded that basic iformatio services maagemet processes had bee eglected due to lack of resources, ad the expected procedures for effective maagemet of curret ivestmets i systems ad ifrastructure either did ot exist or were ot maitaied. I the cosultats view, a plethora of decisio-makig committees ad boards, ad a lack of clear delegated authority ad directio for the team had cotributed to this situatio, ad had resulted i a culture of fire fightig rather tha plaed maagemet I respose to this, to the recommedatios i Successful IT: Moderisig Govermet i Actio ad to the fidigs of the Probatio Ispectorate s thematic ispectio reports, the Home Office has put i place its recovery programme. A ew Head of Iformatio ad Techology for the Natioal Probatio Service has bee appoited. He reports to the ew Natioal Director, ad will take formal resposibility for probatio iformatio techology, chairig the Iformatio Systems Programme Board which meets mothly. The ew Iformatio ad Techology Group will have a staff complemet of 50, compared to the effective complemet of aroud 12.5 i the late 1990s. Traiig i the PRINCE 2 project maagemet methodology is beig provided, ad a more structured approach is beig developed to provide skills trasfer, peer review ad metorig.

28 Due to lack of resources withi the programme maagemet team, the Home Office did ot maage effectively all aspects of its service agreemet with Bull 2.45 The NPSISS eablig agreemet betwee the Home Office ad Bull provided for the istallatio of a stadard iformatio techology ifrastructure ad the provisio of a maaged service. A atioal service level agreemet, specifyig i more detail what was to be provided was ot agreed with Bull util 1998, almost four years after the sigig of the eablig agreemet. Furthermore, there was o dedicated resource withi the NPSISS programme maagemet team to moitor ad maage the performace of Bull agaist agreed service levels. Moitorig of service levels was udertake o a ad hoc basis by a umber of programme maagemet team members The maaged service comprised a cetrally fuded telephoe helpdesk staffed by Bull employees who would respod to requests for assistace from local probatio service staff. Bull were cotractually required to provide restoratio of a equipmet service withi 8 to 30 hours, depedig o the priority assiged to the problem by the Bull Helpdesk. A high priority, for example, would be the major loss of a critical system shared by several users ad for which there was o alterative provisio; a low priority might ivolve the loss of a piece of equipmet, such as a persoal computer or priter, where there is a acceptable alterative. If the dowtime experieced exceeded the maximum time specified, service credits would become payable. Idividual probatio services were free to purchase additioal support services, coverig, for example, system availability, if they wished Util July 1998, the NPSISS Programme Maagemet Board moitored cetrally the performace of Bull s Helpdesk agaist targets agreed with Bull. Bull did ot perform well agaist these service levels. Betwee April 1997 ad July 1998, the percetage of fixes withi cotract varied betwee 69 per cet ad 91 per cet. The target was 95 per cet. I respose to cocers raised by the Programme Maagemet Board i 1997, Bull re-orgaised its maagemet of the Helpdesk ad performace did improve over the remaiig period i which performace reports were submitted to the Maagemet Board. Further iformatio obtaied from Bull for the first 10 moths of 1999 idicated that performace varied betwee 76 per cet ad 91 per cet, slightly better tha reported over the previous period but still below the 95 per cet target I August 2000, the Home Office appoited a service delivery maager to lead a ew team with specific resposibilities for maagig the ogoig relatioship with Bull ad ay other suppliers; to moitor performace agaist the agreed service levels; ad to take the lead i resolvig ay issues that might arise. The ew team icludes a secodee from the Probatio Service ad a civil servat with procuremet qualificatios ad experiece. The programme maagemet team did ot exercise adequate cotrol over the issue of purchase orders. Because of cocers about the process for lettig the eablig agreemet, the Home Office decided i February 2000 that there should be o ew purchase orders, thus restrictig NPSISS developmets 2.49 The cotract with Bull was draw up i the form of a eablig agreemet which specified ad allowed for purchase orders for additioal products ad services to be issued after the award of the mai cotract. The resposibility for placig purchase orders was shared by the Home Office Probatio Uit, to meet core requiremets ad cetral developmets, ad idividual probatio services, who could take out their ow cotracts or purchase orders with Bull for the procuremet of equipmet ad ogoig supply of associated services. Betwee December 1994 ad March 2000, the Home Office raised a total of 69 purchase orders uder the NPSISS eablig agreemet The issue of purchase orders was ot always well plaed or coordiated. Cocered at the proliferatio of purchase orders uder the eablig agreemet, the Home Office, i 1998, commissioed the Cetral Computer ad Telecommuicatios Agecy to review its curret cotractual arragemets. The Agecy s report cocluded that some uecessary orders were still ope, ad that duplicatio ad overlap were evidet i others. As a cosequece, the purchase orders were difficult to maage ad the Agecy cosidered that part two 25

29 part two 26 scope existed for double chargig. The Agecy attributed these problems to the absece of a clearly stated busiess requiremet which could iform the lettig of purchase orders To ratioalise the situatio, the Home Office egotiated a ew purchase order with Bull for cetral support ad maiteace fuctios which cosolidated those purchase orders which were the source of duplicatio ad overlap. These egotiatios were also prompted by Bull s cocer that it was ot beig paid for all the services it was providig because the Home Office had ot covered them all i the purchase orders it had raised uder the NPSISS eablig agreemet. It was threateig to withdraw those services ot fuded. The ew purchase order for support ad maiteace services was siged i March 2000 ad covers the remaiig 21 moths of the NPSISS eablig agreemet, April 2000 to December The purchase order, worth 5.4 millio a year, provides for support of the atioal etwork ad associated ifrastructure; the support of CRAMS, icludig maiteace releases; the provisio of a atioal Helpdesk; ad paymets to support Bull s NPSISS programme office Sice 1999 the Home Office has had cocers about whether lettig ew purchase orders uder its eablig agreemet with Bull would comply with the competitio requiremets uder Europea Public Procuremet Directives. The agreemet was origially put out to teder to the pael of three IT suppliers established uder a wider Home Office framework cotract for the supply ad support of computer equipmet, which itself expired i October Legal advice received by the Home Office suggests that ay ew purchase orders raised uder the eablig agreemet are ulawful. The advice suggests that the eablig agreemet could be ope to challege as could ay ew purchase orders placed uder it (by the Home Office or local probatio services) because the Home Office framework cotract had ot allowed for the lettig of other framework agreemets to the suppliers o its selected pael. As a result of this advice, the Home Office decided i February 2000 ot to let ay ew purchase orders uder the eablig agreemet beyod the cosolidated support ad maiteace purchase order. A umber of iteded developmets to NPSISS, icludig extesio of the etwork to the ew Natioal Probatio Directorate based withi the Home Office ad the provisio of access to the iteret, could ot the be pursued. The restrictio o developmet also cotributed to the decisio i August 2000 ot to progress work to provide a lik betwee CRAMS ad the police Phoeix system. More recetly, the Home Office has cocluded that i the remaiig period of the Bull agreemet, up to December 2001, ay IT developmet work which is eeded, ad which caot be delivered by Bull withi the terms of the cosolidated support ad maiteace agreemet, could be procured through separate legal agreemets. Failure to prioritise the ecessary preparatory work has cotributed to delay i establishig a ew strategic partership followig the ed of the eablig agreemet with Bull at the ed of This is likely to result i higher cost to the Home Office 2.53 The Home Office bega its review of the iformatio systems strategy ad busiess requiremets for the probatio service i early The resultig strategy was completed i July Alogside this the Home Office reviewed its optios for replacig the support service provided by Bull at the ed of the NPSISS eablig agreemet i December By the time the Home Office produced a statemet o its procuremet strategy optios, i Jue 2000, it was clear that it would be difficult to complete the procuremet process i time to allow a hadover from Bull startig i September 2001 i the evet that aother supplier was chose. The optio of extedig the existig NPSISS eablig agreemet with Bull to give some time to develop plas for establishig a ew strategic partership, possibly uder a private fiace iitiative deal, was ruled out because of the legal difficulties surroudig the eablig agreemet. Istead the Home Office decided it would eed to pursue a iterim support cotract of at least twelve moths The Home Office told us that it had ot started work o its procuremet optios sooer because its limited staff had bee committed to other high priority work icludig esurig completio of the ecessary work to make NPSISS ad CRAMS Year 2000 compliat, ad the egotiatio of the cosolidated support ad maiteace cotract with Bull. I October 2000 the Home Office procured a seior cosultat to help defie the IT programme ad aalyse the procuremet optios. I Jauary 2001 the Home Office procured a project team to maage the iterim support cotract to be kow as the first phase procuremet project The result of the Home Office s delay i progressig the procuremet of a ew IT supplier are that it will have to bear the additioal costs of the separate procuremet of the first phase support cotract ad may pay a higher price for this short-term cotract. O the other had the Home Office cosiders that this delay has brought the advatage of allowig the ew atioal probatio service busiess strategy ad chage programme to be specified more defiitively before key decisios are take o the strategic cotract, eablig the IT strategy to alig more closely with the busiess strategy. The Home Office hopes to maage IT developmets i a phased programme across its curret, iterim ad strategic cotracts.

30 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL PROBATION SERVICE INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY Part 3 What have NPSISS ad CRAMS cost? 3.1 This part of the report examies the actual costs to the Home Office ad probatio services of implemetig the NPSISS programme. I particular, we look at whether costs were withi the forecast cotaied i the busiess case ad the reasos for ay additioal costs icurred. 3.4 I additio idividual probatio services have spet a further 7 millio ( 6.5 millio at prices) purchasig, developig, istallig ad operatig supplemetary equipmet ad software, brigig total IT expediture durig the NPSISS programme to 125 millio ( 112 millio at prices). Were the costs of istallig ad supportig NPSISS etworks ad systems ad developig CRAMS withi the forecast cotaied i the busiess case? The full cost of the NPSISS programme to the ed of 2001 is expected to be at least 70 per cet greater tha forecast 3.2 The Home Office estimates that expediture o implemetig ad operatig the stadard NPSISS ifrastructure ad developig CRAMS, to the ed of 2001, will be over 83 millio ( 75 millio at prices) (Figure 7). This is 34 percet above the forecast of 62 millio for the first seve years of the busiess case (20 per cet at prices). This is based upo estimates of actual expediture util March 2000 ad forecast support ad maiteace expediture util December 2001, icludig provisio for implemetig NPSISS, but ot for providig support ad maiteace, i the five probatio services ot yet o the NPSISS etwork. 3.3 As show i Figure 7, however, the full ecoomic costs of the NPSISS ifrastructure, support ad CRAMS are expected to be at least 118 millio by the ed of 2001 ( 105 millio at prices). This icludes costs ot allowed for i the busiess case estimates, i particular the costs of esurig Year 2000 compliace ad Home Office ad probatio services costs o project maagemet, cosultacy ad local traiig. This full ecoomic cost is 90 per cet above the forecast for the first seve years of the busiess case (70 per cet at prices). Why did the NPSISS programme cost more tha forecast? The agreemet with Bull is largely ope eded, with the Home Office ad probatio services determiig requiremets i idividual purchase orders at specified rates 3.5 The eablig agreemet provides for the Home Office ad probatio services to take out purchase orders with Bull from a specified rage of products ad services. The prices to be charged are cotaied withi the schedules of the agreemet. Geerally, the agreemet does ot guaratee ay particular level of purchases. However, it does set some miimum levels, for example i respect of the umber of coectios to the wide-area etwork; ad it icludes some specific costed provisios, for example for the Bull programme office ad support from the helpdesk. Costs ad achievemets have ot bee moitored with referece to the projectios cotaied i the busiess case 3.6 Before the start of this examiatio the Home Office had ot reviewed the total costs ad achievemets of the NPSISS programme agaist the busiess case. There has bee o overall reportig of expediture ad o compariso made agaist the budget i the busiess case. The Home Office did set idividual budgets for elemets withi the NPSISS programme aually, based o a assessmet of expected requiremets for the forthcomig year. Moitorig of expediture withi these budgets was the resposibility of members of the project maagemet team but did ot result i routie part three 27

31 reports to seior maagers withi the Home Office, the Project Maagemet Board or to the Iformatio Systems Strategy Board. 3.7 Durig the early years of the project there had bee weakesses i cotrols over paymets. I 1998, the Home Office s Audit ad Assurace Uit carried out a ivestigatio to verify all paymets from the Home Office Probatio Uit to Bull Iformatio Systems Limited from owards, prompted by cocers raised by the Natioal Audit Office durig their fiacial audit of the Home Office accouts. The Audit ad Assurace Uit idetified a overpaymet to Bull of 395,000 for NPSISS related goods ad services. The fuds were repaid by Bull. The Uit cocluded that the processig ad moitorig cotrols had bee iadequate, but that improvemets had bee made. The cosolidated purchase order to cover the last 21 moths of the cotract with Bull will cost 9.4 millio. The Home Office has sought to address the risk of poor value for moey from this purchase order through itroducig tighter maagemet of service delivery 3.8 The cost of providig the stadard ifrastructure (computers, priters ad etwork equipmet) ad the IT support provided by the Bull helpdesk is expected to be some 53 millio (almost 48 millio at Total cost of the NPSISS programme 1,2 The NPSISS programme will cost at least 118 millio to maage, istall ad support over the seve years to ed December 2001, 70 per cet more tha the origial forecast cost at prices. Busiess case estimated Projected costs over Actual costs over Actual costs over cost over 10 years 7 years to ed years to ed years to ed 2001 (curret prices) ( prices) Expediture category ( 000) ( 000) ( 000) ( 000) NPSISS busiess case costs Stadard ifrastructure 77,150 47,860 52,569 47,531 Stadard software 9,260 7,350 10,356 9,130 Trai-the-traiers 1,030 1,030 1,430 1,296 Local support ad maiteace 9,200 5,900 18,979 16,558 Total NPSISS busiess case costs 96,640 62,140 83,334 74,515 Other NPSISS costs ot estimated i the busiess case Year 2000 Ifrastructure 3 14,697 12,852 Year 2000 Software 1,645 1,439 Home Office project maagemet 8,904 8,018 ad cosultacy Local project maagemet ad 2,469 2,223 cosultacy Local traiig 6,989 6,299 Full cost of NPSISS 118, ,346 Notes: 1. Projected costs over seve years to ed 2001 are based o estimates provided by the Home Office ad probatio services respodig to our questioaire survey for actual ad forecast expediture. Probatio services oly provided estimates to March For the remaiig 9 moths of the cotract with Bull, local support ad maiteace costs are projected usig forecast costs for No additioal adjustmet is made, however, for other costs, for example, local project maagemet ad cosultacy. part three 2. Four of the 47 probatio services surveyed were uable to provide estimates of their expediture o the NPSISS programme. Usig average expediture for those probatio services which provided cost iformatio, ad weightig the o-respodets by budget size, would idicate further curret expediture, ot icluded above of stadard ifrastructure, 0.3 millio; support costs, 1.2 millio; project maagemet ad cosultacy, 0.2 millio; additioal traiig, 0.4 millio; ad supplemetary expediture, 0.4 millio. 3. Icludes 837,000 o Year 2000 compliat ifrastructure for probatio services ot yet o NPSISS. Sources: Natioal Audit Office questioaire survey; Home Office Probatio Uit; ad revised Home Office busiess case for NPSISS, October

32 prices). This will be largely as forecast withi the busiess case. This icludes expediture of some 2 millio i full ad fial settlemet of a claim from Bull i respect of a shortfall i the umber of wide-area etwork coectios compared with the miimum specified i the agreemet. Ad it icludes a commitmet to expediture totallig 9.4 millio ( 5.4 millio a year) uder the cosolidated purchase order for support ad maiteace services from Bull i the last 21 moths of its cotract with the Home Office. 3.9 After agreemet of the cosolidated purchase order the Home Office s Audit ad Assurace Uit reviewed its egotiatio ad its cost. It reported that the egotiatio team had lacked experiece of egotiatio ad suffered from a lack of cotiuity of staff. It had o writte brief ad o fiacial cap o its egotiatio. The egotiatio had also bee iadequately supervised: there was o evidece of reportig to seior maagemet o value for moey ad cotractual issues durig the course of the egotiatio or of ay review of proposals by seior maagemet The resultig agreemet leaves the Home Office at risk of poor value for moey because it specifies the resource that Bull is to provide o defied activities, rather tha specifyig the outputs ad the levels of service to be delivered. We foud that durig the egotiatio the Home Office had ot udertake appropriate compariso of the proposed cost of support ad maiteace with exteral comparators, although compared to the origial eablig agreemet the cost per staff day was some 12 per cet less The Home Office told us that the egotiatio had had to be completed uder severe time pressure because Bull was withdrawig resources from support fuctios which it cosidered were ot covered by existig purchase orders. The Home Office had also foud it was difficult at that time to specify output requiremets because of chagig busiess eeds i the light of the the pedig legislatio o the ew Natioal Probatio Service I recogitio of the iheret risk of the cosolidated purchase order the Home Office has tighteed its maagemet of service delivery. A ew service delivery team has bee established, headed sice September 2000 by a cosultat with service maagemet experiece. By December 2000 the Home Office told us it was holdig Bull to accout at regular performace review meetigs; ew systems for prioritisig Bull s support ad maiteace work had bee established; ad lies of commuicatio betwee the Home Office, probatio services ad Bull had bee improved. I additio the Home Office told us it has bee reviewig its service requiremet to esure that as much as possible is provided by Bull withi the terms of the cosolidated cotract. Measures to esure that NPSISS hardware ad software were Year 2000 compliat ad to upgrade the ifrastructure cost a additioal 15.5 millio 3.13 The Home Office estimates that it icurred additioal costs of some 15.5 millio to make NPSISS ad CRAMS Year 2000 compliat ad to upgrade NPSISS. The Home Office took the opportuity afforded by the eed to deal with the Year 2000 problem to review what further remedial ad developmet work might be carried out o NPSISS systems. The optio of a quick fix short-term replacemet of obsolescet hardware ad software was rejected i favour of a loger term redevelopmet of the etwork, ivolvig ew ad improved techology The Probatio Ispectorate reported that the upgradig udoubtedly improved the NPSISS ifrastructure. I particular, it eabled older computers to be retaied as termials whilst the istallatio of ew servers made maiteace of systems easier. The capacity of the system was improved ad ew software was istalled across the system both for word processig ad Before sigig the purchase order for the Year 2000 work i 1998, the Home Office sought advice from its legal advisers as to whether Bull was liable for the cost of esurig that NPSISS was Year 2000 compliat. The advisers recommeded that the Home Office should seek a satisfactory settlemet with Bull by way of a reductio i price. I their view, although the Home Office had o clear right to require Bull to carry out the Year 2000 compliace work at o cost, Bull would be liable i respect of ay breach of cotractual service levels as a result of Year 2000 problems ad for the extet to which it had falle short of its cotractual obligatio to comply with best idustry practice. The Home Office was told that although the eablig agreemet was etered ito i 1994 ad geeral awareess of the Year 2000 problem did ot emerge util aroud March 1996, Bull had failed to meet idustry best practice by cotiuig to provide ocompliat equipmet ad had failed to provide a assessmet of the extet of the Year 2000 problem before Jauary Though the Home Office sought to egotiate the balace of liability for the costs of makig NPSISS systems Year 2000 compliat, Bull did ot accept ay liability. As part of the egotiatios for this work, the Home Office did secure reductios i price from Bull. Bull s iitial estimate was that the work required would cost some 18 millio but this estimate was reduced to 14 millio i the course of egotiatios. The Home Office has idetified further expediture o the Year 2000 compliat versio of CRAMS of 1.6 millio, brigig total expediture o makig NPSISS ad CRAMS Year 2000 compliat ad upgradig the system to 15.5 millio. part three 29

33 CRAMS has cost more tha twice the expected amout as a result of repeated efforts to improve its quality 3.17 Whe the busiess case for the NPSISS programme was beig formulated, the Home Office estimated that the overall cost of developig ad implemetig CRAMS across the probatio services would be i the regio of 4.3 millio for the database ad developmet of the applicatio. Oce the cost of other plaed software applicatios for fiace, persoel, work maagemet, maagemet iformatio ad busiess plaig ad aual costs for liceses were icluded the total estimated cost of the software came to 15 millio. Followig cotract egotiatios with Bull this estimated cost was reduced to 9.3 millio over the te years of the busiess case, although we could ot determie from the documetatio available to us which of the applicatios were expected to be delivered for this price It is uclear as to whether the higher tha expected local support ad maiteace costs reflect idividual services requestig higher tha expected levels of support or higher tha expected charge-out rates. Idividual probatio services specified their local support ad maiteace arragemets i purchase orders with Bull i accordace with the overall NPSISS eablig agreemet. Util 2000, the Home Office had ot udertake ay cetral moitorig of local probatio service expediture o implemetatio or support ad maiteace, but i October 2000 it bega to do so by meas of a survey of local probatio services IT expediture ad assets. Probatio services told us that expediture o traiig had bee higher tha expected because of the problems with the quality ad timig of rollout of CRAMS. Excessive delays, for example, meat that i some cases the skills developed as a result of traiig were lost, ad traiig was repeated. part three 3.18 The Home Office estimates that the total actual cost of providig the stadard software withi the NPSISS programme (CRAMS ad stadard wordprocessig, ad database software) will be 10.4 millio ( 9.1 millio at prices) by the ed of 2001, or 12 millio icludig the cost of makig CRAMS Year 2000 compliat. This is 63 per cet higher tha the revised busiess case forecast for the seve years to December 2001 of 7.4 millio (44 percet at prices), despite the fact that the fiace, persoel, work maagemet ad busiess plaig software expected i the origial busiess case have ot bee icluded. The higher tha expected cost resulted from the repeated efforts to improve the quality of the CRAMS software. The Home Office uderestimated the cost of local implemetatio, support ad maiteace 3.19 Probatio services have locally spet a total of 28.5 millio implemetig ad maagig the stadard NPSISS ifrastructure ad CRAMS. Of this: support ad maiteace costs icurred by probatio services util December 2001 are expected to be 19 millio ( 16.5 millio at prices), compared to the forecast cost of 5.9 millio cotaied i the busiess case; project maagemet, cosultacy ad other costs amout to almost 2.5 millio ( 2.3 millio at prices); ad local traiig costs amout to almost 7 millio ( 6.3 millio at prices). Probatio services committed their ow resources to supplemet the stadard products provided uder NPSISS with some resultig proliferatio ad duplicatio of software 3.21 The NPSISS strategy sought to strike a balace betwee aimig for migratio of local systems oto commo ifrastructure ad allowig local IT solutios to local problems. Probatio services were allowed to use their ow resources to supplemet the NPSISS ifrastructure. I respose to the Natioal Audit Office survey, probatio services estimated that they had spet over 4 millio ( 3.8 millio at prices) o additioal hardware, such as persoal computers ad remote access capability, to improve the coverage of the etwork For some years, the Home Office sought to prevet probatio services duplicatig IT developmets. From April 1998 owards the Home Office placed a restrictio o probatio committee expediture o computer equipmet without the authority of the Secretary of State. I practice, this restrictio was ot applied. However, by March 1999, the Home Office cosidered that the etwork ad coverage of CRAMS was sufficietly extesive that further local ivestmet would ot provide value for moey. It remided local services about the eed to obtai the Secretary of State s approval for expediture o IT developmets. From that date, services were required to avoid ay local developmets which duplicated provisio already made, or due to be made, uder NPSISS; ad to seek the approval of the Home Office for expediture o developmets costig 20,000 or more. I respose to the Natioal Audit Office survey, probatio services with NPSISS estimated that they will have spet 2.2 millio to supplemet NPSISS software by the ed of March 2001, icludig some 800,000 after March They will have spet: 30

34 1 millio o software origially aticipated but ot provided uder NPSISS, such as fiace ad payroll systems; ad 1.2 millio o additioal case maagemet software, such as the developmet of local case record ad maagemet systems or registers of highrisk offeders. The fuctioality ad quality of these local developmets varies cosiderably. Some provide basic case iformatio while others provide sigificat case maagemet facilities. May of these developmets use the database software provided o the NPSISS ifrastructure. The Home Office did ot seek to coordiate these developmets to miimise their cost or maximise their use across probatio services The seve probatio services which have ot implemeted NPSISS were also spedig moey o similar developmets ad operatig their local iformatio systems. The five services ot coected to NPSISS spet approximately 350,000 developig their case maagemet system ad 30,000 per year providig o-goig support ad maiteace, i additio to the cost of providig their local IT ifrastructure ad other software. part three 31

35 Appedix 1 Summary of Her Majesty's Ispectorate of Probatio's Thematic Ispectio Report: "Usig Iformatio ad Techology to Improve Probatio Service Performace" (published October 2000) Aims of the ispectio The aims of the ispectio were to examie how probatio services make iformed decisios i order to reduce crime ad protect the public; examie the adequacy of systems developed atioally to support the use of iformatio; ad to highlight ad promote good practice i the maagemet of kowledge ad use of iformatio. Key fidigs of the ispectio The fidigs of the Ispectorate's report i relatio to the Natioal Probatio Service Iformatio Systems Strategy are summarised below: Although NPSISS was described as atioal, it was of ecessity desiged for 54 idividual services that were idepedet ad autoomous. This created difficulties throughout the project. The Home Office lacked cotrol over local IT developmets. The atioal ifrastructure covered 47 out of the 54 probatio services. Although o timetable had bee agreed for its completio, this still represeted a major achievemet. The absece of a sigle body with clear authority to maage the overall project had created problems. The idetificatio of busiess eeds was iadequate i probatio services ad withi the Home Office probatio uit. The Probatio Uit had failed to lik the chagig requiremets of the probatio service i relatio to risk assessmet with NPSISS ad it had bee left to idividual probatio areas to seek local solutios to the eed for a computerised system for the registratio ad maagemet of high-risk offeders. As a result, the eeds of Miisters for accurate iformatio ad assurace that soud IS were i place to support services i their supervisio of highrisk offeders were ot beig met sufficietly. The origial busiess case submitted to the Treasury had ot bee subjected to a detailed review util the Natioal Audit Office bega its ivestigatio i late The focus of NPSISS shifted from the improved use of iformatio to further the work of the probatio service to a cocetratio o the istallatio of hardware/software applicatios. This meat that the origial busiess objectives were obscured. There had bee isufficiet directio ad coordiatio o key aspects of NPSISS. A umber of services had reduced the size of their iformatio uits. NPSISS had bee uable to provide the full rage of iformatio that was eeded to demostrate value for moey. CRAMS had ot provided a case maagemet system of acceptable quality to probatio services ad this had bee a major weakess. Oly 16 services were usig CRAMS substatially. At the time of the ispectio, there were at least 10 case maagemet systems i operatio or developmet i local services ad this must be a matter of cocer as steps are take to create a Natioal Probatio Service. The reportig tool, iitially kow as GQL, had ot provided the rapid ad effective solutio for iterrogatig data held i CRAMS that had bee promised by the Home Office ad aticipated by probatio services. Those services that had used it effectively had spet cosiderable local resources i the process. EASI had bee developed by the Natioal Associatio for the Care ad Resettlemet of Offeders to provide probatio staff with iformatio o facilities for use by offeders. Its istallatio o NPSISS had bee successful but o detailed scrutiy had take place o its use or cost-effectiveess. There had bee serious problems with the techical iterface with the existig resource maagemet iformatio system (RMIS) that had resulted i serious delays i the provisio of iformatio o uit costs. Lotus Notes had bee of great value as a system but there had bee isufficiet co-ordiatio of the developmet of specific applicatios ad this had meat that local services had uecessarily duplicated work. appedix oe 33

36 There had bee o thorough evaluatio of the impact of ew techology o the busiess of the service ad there was little evidece of the aticipated improvemets i productivity. The Case Record Admiistratio ad Maagemet System (CRAMS) was ot "user-friedly" ad could ot provide a clear overview of a idividual case i relatio to the requiremets of atioal stadards. appedix oe 34 There was evidece that there had bee isufficiet strategic appreciatio withi the Home Office probatio uit of the importace of esurig itegratio of operatioal ad IT developmets. I additio the ispectio made further refereces to NPSISS ad CRAMS i its fidigs o the availability ad use of iformatio ad o iformatio ad kowledge maagemet, as set out below: Iformatio was ot available to staff at all levels of the service to improve idividual ad corporate performace. However, the Itegrated Case Maagemet System (ICMS) areas were able to access data o levels of compliace with atioal stadards achieved by idividual members of staff. Effective systems did ot exist i most areas to provide operatioal iformatio, although some services had take local iitiatives that were valuable. Despite the Home Office ivestmet i techology, there was o atioal computer system to assist i the maagemet of dagerous offeders. Services were geerally havig to rely o paper files, card idexes ad registers to retai ad access iformatio o offeders presetig a risk of harm to the public. Services varied cosiderably i their reliability i providig regular statistical iformatio to the Home Office. No work had bee coducted atioally or locally o the cost of collatig ad submittig the data. The provisio of iformatio to stakeholders ad other iterested parties posed major difficulties to services. Evidece from crime ad disorder audits idicated that services made cosiderable efforts to meet the requiremets o them for iformatio. However, the absece of a effective reportig tool meat that the process was time cosumig ad iefficiet. There was there was o effective atioal computerised system to moitor atioal stadards ad this reduced the capacity of probatio committees ad maagers to esure that atioal stadards were applied appropriately; i most services seior probatio officers (SPOs) read case records to examie levels of compliace with atioal stadards ad some had devised their ow "ad hoc" systems to obtai further iformatio. There was also evidece that seior maagers did ot always use "hard iformatio" whe supervisig middle maagers; The ispectio idetified shortcomigs i the maagemet of iformatio ad kowledge ot just withi probatio services but also i the Home Office probatio uit. It was positive that probatio services ad very seior staff withi the Home Office ackowledged this issue. No probatio service iformatio strategy had bee issued at the time of the ispectio. NPSISS had represeted a IS strategy ad the probatio uit had produced a documet i late 1999 A Developig Probatio Service Natioal Iformatio Strategy which made a sigificat umber of recommedatios about the steps required for a strategic approach. NPSISS was ot reviewed util late Cosiderable work had the take place to develop the basis of a ew strategy ad the ew Iformatio Systems Programme Board accepted this i September It provided a soud basis for future decisios. There were sigificat but limited examples of local probatio services promotig the sharig of kowledge ad iformatio through NPSISS. There was a clear demad amogst may probatio staff at all grades for a atioal probatio itraet to share iformatio ad assist i the developmet of good practice. No probatio service ispected had examied the busiess beefits/costs of or udertake ay review of its use. Nor had there bee a systematic audit of the skills ad experiece of staff as a way of capturig ad maagig the kowledge that this represeted. The "Moderisig Govermet" ageda had made oly a limited impact o probatio services, although there was willigess by a umber of services to egage with ew techology very positively. Key recommedatios The report's mai recommedatios i relatio to the Natioal Probatio Service Iformatio Systems Strategy were: The Home Office should, withi the framework of the Iformatio Strategy Review give priority to the establishmet of a atioal risk of harm register to be available o the NPSISS ifrastructure. The Home Office should develop a effective case maagemet system which: o supports staff i complyig with atioal stadards ad i workig to What Works priciples;

37 o provides maagemet iformatio o compliace with atioal stadards ad other aspects of service performace; o o is itegrated ito the developmet of the systems to support the Offeder Assessmet System (OASys) ad accredited programmes; provides ad receives from others iformatio key to the work of probatio staff. The Home Office should, i future IT developmet withi the probatio service, make appropriate orgaisatioal arragemets to esure that policy, operatioal ad iformatio requiremets are itegrated ad that IT developmets are determied by policy ad busiess eeds. The Home Office should: o o esure that NPSISS icludes all local probatio services, the atioal directorate, HMIP ad the Home Office Research, Developmet ad Statistics Directorate; examie the potetial to establish a atioal probatio itraet to share iformatio ad assist i the developmet of good practice. appedix oe 35

38 Appedix 2 Natioal Probatio Service aims, priorities, Natioal Stadards ad performace measures The ew Natioal Probatio Service which came ito existece i April 2001 has five statutory aims: the protectio of the public; the reductio of re-offedig; the proper puishmet of offeders; esurig offeders' awareess of the effects of crime o the victims of crime ad the public; ad the rehabilitatio of offeders. Its work will support Home Office aims: Aim 2 - Delivery of justice through effective ad efficiet ivestigatio, prosecutio, trial ad setecig, ad through support for victims. Aim 4 - Effective executio of the seteces of the courts so as to reduce re-offedig ad protect the public. The Home Secretary's Priorities ad Actio Pla for the Natioal Probatio Service are for it to base its work o the What Works strategy, to comply with Natioal Stadards (Box 1), work joitly with the police ad other agecies, provide iformatio to the courts promptly, esure that its work is free from race discrimiatio, ad deliver high quality, fairess ad value for moey. The Natioal Probatio Service is also accoutable for performace agaist performace measures (Box 2). These relate to the Home Office's Service Delivery Agreemet, ad replace the previous probatio service Key Performace Idicators. Box 1: The Natioal Stadards 2000 The stadards specify how probatio services must supervise offeders ad provide services, i relatio to: Bail iformatio reports Pre-setece reports Specific setece reports Custodial seteces Commuity seteces ad supervisio i the commuity Required levels of cotact Achievig compliace ad esurig eforcemet Approved hostels The stadards also specify how the probatio services should carry out their work, i particular they should: Supervise Offeders i accordace with the priciples of effective practice; Work effectively with others i the crimial justice system; Moitor their performace regularly ad take actio to improve it; Respod fully ad promptly to Home Office requests for iformatio; Require parters to operate i accordace with the Natioal Stadards; Keep full ad accurate records; Depart from Natioal Stadards for supervisio ad services oly i exceptioal circumstaces; Provide cotiuity of cotact ad supervisio where a offeder moves betwee probatio service areas; Keep local protocols, policies ad guidelies; ad Provide offeders or their families with iterpreters or other appropriate assistace to avoid discrimiatio. I additio probatio services are required to: Report to the Home Office where a offeder uder supervisio commits a serious offece; appedix two Iform setecers ad the geeral public about their work ad the service they provide; ad Provide otificatio of the forthcomig release of potetially dagerous offeders. Source: Natioal Stadards Home Office. 36

39 Box 2: Natioal Probatio Service Performace Measures (abridged) Performace Measure Home Office Public Service Agreemet Target 8: To reduce by 2004 the time from arrest to setece or other disposal 1 To improve the timeliess of probatio service reports to the courts by: 1 (a) Icreasig the proportio of Pre-Setece Reports completed withi the 15 day Natioal Stadard to 90 per cet 1 (b) Icreasig the proportio of reports to the court (Pre-Setece Reports ad Specific Setece Reports) that are Specific Setece Reports to 20 per cet i ad 25 per cet i Home Office Public Service Agreemet Target 10: Reduce the rate of recovictios of all offeders puished by imprisomet or by commuity supervisio by 5 per cet by 2004 compared to the predicted rate 2 Icrease the educatioal ad vocatioal qualificatios of offeders with 6,000 completios of level 2 basic skills awards i the probatio service i ad 12,000 completios i Icrease the umber of offeders goig through accredited offedig behaviour programmes 4 Breach actio to be take i accordace with the Natioal Stadard - Target 90 per cet 5 Improve access to employmet ad accommodatio for offeders: programme to be developed by December 2000 with implemetatio thereafter Home Office Public Service Agreemet Target 11: Reduce the levels of repeat offedig amogst problem drugs-misusig offeders by 25 per cet by 2005 (ad by 50 per cet by 2008) 6 Esure that the umber of referrals to treatmet through Drug Treatmet ad Testig Orders icreases to 6,000 i ad is maitaied thereafter Home Office Public Service Agreemet Target 14: Promote race equality, particularly i the provisio of public services.ad achieve represetative workforces i the Home Office ad its police, fire, probatio, ad priso services 7 Progress agaist the Home Secretary's race equality employmet targets for represetatio, retetio ad career progressio Other 8 To reduce sickess absece i the probatio service to a average of 9 days per member of staff 9 To meet targets to be specified i due course to reduce variatios i performace withi the probatio service 10 To achieve 3 per cet efficiecy/productivity improvemets Source: Home Office appedix two 37