Delivering services to the community

Queensland Government priorities

The Queensland Government’s priorities provide direction to ensure current and future challenges are addressed through sustainable and effective service delivery.

The Queensland Police Service contributes to these priorities by providing services that underpin the safety and security of over four million Queenslanders and millions of domestic and international visitors.

Our strategic plan

The Queensland Police Service Strategic Plan 2008-2012 set the strategic direction for the Service during the 2008-09 year. The plan identified key focus areas, strategies for service delivery and performance measures.

This direction was disseminated through internal planning and performance management processes and through the development and implementation of specific action plans and strategies at each level of management to address local priorities.

For the first time, a statement of the Service’s Strategic Priorities, developed by the Senior Executive, was included in the strategic plan.

The priorities will be updated each year to reflect new or emerging issues, and will guide decisions about service delivery, resource management and future investment.

The Service has key outputs for the delivery of its core activities and services. These are:

• Community Safety and Engagement
• Crime Management
• Traffic Policing
• Professional Standards and Ethical Practice

Corporate Resource Management covers activities undertaken in support of the four outputs, and costs are distributed across the outputs for external financial reporting purposes.

Performance management in the QPS is based on operational performance reviews supported by compliance auditing.

Reviews are conducted of all districts across the State as well as commands and corporate divisions.

Reviews are chaired by the Commissioner, who is joined by the Service’s two Deputy Commissioners and the Deputy Chief Executive (Resource Management) in facilitating a comprehensive, structured discussion centred upon all aspects of service delivery and support operations within the area under review.

Review discussions reinforce the Service’s strategic direction and provide the opportunity to explore emerging issues with strategic implications, enabling the Service to develop informed responses to challenges as they arise.

In September 2008, the Premier launched ‘Toward Q2: Tomorrow's Queensland’. This policy articulates a new vision for the future of Queensland, including five ambitions and 10 targets for Queensland to achieve by 2020. Q2 replaces the government priorities which were the basis for the 2008-12 strategic plan.

The Queensland Police Service Strategic Plan 2009-2013 was implemented on 1 July 2009. The plan gives effect to the new Q2 performance management framework and describes our relationship to the targets and how we contribute to the Government's overall vision for the State.

The objectives of the Queensland Police Service for 2009-13 are to:

• reduce the incidence and impact of crime and road trauma in Queensland
• strengthen Queensland’s capacity to plan for, respond to and recover from the negative impact of disaster and major events
• enhance community confidence in, and satisfaction with, policing in Queensland.

The full plan can be found on our website www.police.qld.gov.au

Review of service delivery and performance management

Between March and June 2008 the Service Delivery and Performance Commission (SDPC) conducted a review of the QPS.

The Review Report was tabled in Parliament on 23 April 2009.

The Review found many positives in our organisation, including a strong service delivery culture, significant progress in raising professionalism and ethical practice, a strong commitment to training, and supporting the health and well-being of officers.

The Review identified a number of areas where the Service could improve its performance and made 54 recommendations across the following broad areas:

• demand measurement and analysis and strategic planning
• analysis and management of trends in ethical slippage
• human resource management
• information and communications technology management and planning
• policy analysis and development.

While the Review identified opportunities for improvement it also found that ‘the QPS has a strong focus on delivering operational services and performs this work to a high standard’.

The QPS has developed a full Implementation Plan which was provided to the Public Service Commission in July 2009 in accordance with Recommendation 52 of the SDPC Report.

The Implementation Plan details the areas within the QPS that will be responsible for implementing each recommendation. The Plan also describes the steps that will be taken for each recommendation to ensure that implementation occurs in an effective and timely manner.

As outlined in the QPS SDPC Implementation Plan, there is a strong governance framework in place to ensure that the Review recommendations are fully addressed in an open, transparent and accountable manner.

Implementation of the recommendations will commence from 1 July 2009 with the last due for completion by 1 July 2012.

By implementing the recommendations of the Report the Service will build on previous good work and pursue further improvements to service delivery.

The Review Report can be accessed at www.sdpc.qld.gov.au/reviews/review_qpolice.shtm