PCD 1232 Medical - Streamlined Forensic Reporting

PCD 1232 Medical - Streamlined Forensic Reporting

This decision seeks approval for contract award to ‘Softcat PLC’, for an initial period of 2 years with a further option to extend for up to 12 months. The maximum value of the contract will be £900,000 (£300,000 per annum).  

The contract will provide the MPS with access, via an online portal to SFR Medical Ltd, who will provide access to timely and accurate medical evidence which summarises a victim’s injuries and the subsequent treatment by medical professionals.  This provides a compliant, efficient and simple ‘one touch’ process for front line officers to obtain medical Streamlined Forensic Reports (SFRs) as supporting evidence for any associated investigations and/or judicial proceedings.  

The existing MPS process of obtaining medical reports and statements involves frontline police investigators attending hospitals in person which can be inefficient, protracted, time consuming and often takes medical professionals away from their core duties. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the award of contract to ‘Softcat PLC’ and the NHS SBS Multidisciplinary Consultancy Services Framework for an initial period of 2 years with a further option to extend for up to 12 months. The maximum value of the contract will be £900,000. Implementation costs of £159,000 plus all ongoing running costs (including contract costs of up to £300,000 p.a. and Digital Policing support costs of £20,000 p.a.)  will be funded from existing MPS budgets. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. Time delays caused by the existing process to obtain essential medical evidence from medical professionals employed by NHS Trusts pan London can result in inefficiencies or adverse outcomes in the prosecution of violent offences and as a consequence risks the improper release of dangerous offenders to possibly re-offend.  

2. SFR Medical offer a 24 hour medical evidential service (for in-custody remand cases) or a 10 day turnaround for non-urgent medical evidence through an online portal. Securing this evidence in this efficient way will vastly improve the success of requests to remand the most prolific offenders, improve the subsequent likelihood of a successful prosecution case and remove delays in the judicial process.  

3. This will allow for allow for quicker and proper outcomes for victims of violent crime thereby improving victim satisfaction. 

2. Issues for consideration  

1. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, NHS are now heavily reliant on, and many trusts will only accept requests, via the streamlined method and therefore the use of this sole service provider is becoming the only viable option available for obtaining medical reports. The medical professionals who provide the reports have indicated broad support for this solution being provided by SFR Medical. 

2. This is a fully digital, paperless system – a simple, trackable, auditable payments process, removing delays and complexities of payment. This contributes considerably to the improvement of professional standards of all personnel representing the MPS by ensuring correct transparency and a properly considered process to remunerate NHS colleagues.   

3. All Medical Transcribers (MTs) employed by SFR Medical are fully trained to write the reports which results in a higher quality medical evidence statement, reducing the number of cases that are dismissed during the judicial process.  

4. This wil result in improvements in Criminal Justice efficiency. In most cases, the evidential statement (MG11) would not be required and is replaced by the case management tool (SFR). This speeds up the judicial process as once agreed by both prosecution and defence pre-trial, no further evidence is required and does not become an issue in a case at court. Speedy revelation of third party material to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) enhances performance in cases involving high risk, vulnerable complainants and violent offenders. 

5. Guidance created  by  the  (NPCC)  Forensic  Capability  Network,  (FCN)  Commercial  Pillar  to  support Forces’ procurement for medical reports services notes that “SFR Medical's research found that it takes on average  67  days to get a medical evidence report and there have been cases leading to secondary patient harm because of slow medical evidence. Further, SFR Medical's proposal aims to achieve a >90% reduction (i.e. to around 5 days) in waiting times against the above averages for medical evidence reports, improving cost efficiencies by providing value for money, increasing officer satisfaction and providing high quality evidence.”   

6. Should these benefits be applied to the MPS’ estimated annual demand then this could produce a non-cashable saving equivalent to £4-5m based on 6,100 reports. It should  be noted that the NPCC research has not been separately verified by the MPS and therefore has not been validated. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. The maximum value of the contract will be £900k (£300k p.a.). In addition there will be additional one-off expenditure of £159k to pay for Digital Policing (DP) costs in implementing the contract and an annual DP ongoing support cost of £20k.   

2. The total annual costs of £320k pa will be funded from existing budgets of £135k pa (£95k in Frontline and £40k in Met Ops) with the balance of £185k pa to be absorbed within Frontline each year. Frontline have earmarked baseline budget for the budget gap in the 2022/23 budget build process. The one-off DP costs will also be absorbed by Frontline budgets. 

4. Legal Comments  

1. The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (“MOPAC”) is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (“the Regulations”).  All awards of public contracts for goods and/or services valued at £213,477 or above shall be procured in accordance with the Regulations. This report confirms the value of the proposed contract exceeds this threshold.   

2. This report confirms the MOPAC’s route to market is compliant with the Regulations. 

3. The MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (“DMPC”) has delegated authority to approve:  

• Business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 and above (paragraph 4.8); and 

• All requests to go out to tender for contracts of £500,000 or above, or where there is a particular public interest (paragraph 4.13).  

4. Paragraph 7.23 of the Scheme provides that the Director of Strategic Procurement has consent for the approval of the award of all contracts, with the exception of those called in through the agreed call in procedure.  Paragraph 4.14 of the Scheme provides the DMPC reserves the right to call in any MPS proposal to award a contract for £500,000 or above. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The award of contract with SFR Medical will take place via the NHS SBS Multidisciplinary Consultancy Framework. This route to market will require the MOPAC to contract with Softcat PLC as the prime contractor who sub-contract delivery of the services directly to SFR Medical.  

2. Softcat have agreed to donate a proportion of the contract value over the contract term to Givewith, the Met’s Social Impact partner, which supports the Met’s ongoing Social Value ambitions through procurement activity with 3rd party providers. 

3. The engagement of SFR Medical, who are an SME organisation based in London, also supports the Met’s commitment as an Anchor Institution to direct 10% of its annual spend to local micro, small, diverse and VCSE businesses based in London. 

4. Further information on the commercial costing model applicable under the contract can be found within the restricted section of the report. 

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. The MPS is subject to the the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals. 

2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects. 

3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the project meets its compliance requirements. 

4. A DPIA has been completed for this project. The project will ensure a privacy by design approach, which will allow the MPS to find and fix problems at the early stages of any project, ensuring compliance with GDPR. DPIAs support the accountability principle, as they will ensure the MPS complies with the requirements of GDPR and they demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance. 

7. Equality Comments  

1. The Metropolitan Police Service has completed the requirement under their Public Sector Equality Duty and as part of the Equality Act 2010. The future implementation of the new Medical SFR portal has been assessed for impact, both internally and externally and positive and negative, on persons belonging to a ‘protected characteristic’. Where appropriate, negative impact has been assessed, reviewed and plans (both pre-existing and new) have been introduced to this assessment to provide mitigation to the impact, perceived and real. Records of the consultation and associated responses have been recorded. The Inclusion, Diversity and Equality (IDE) Strand, part of AC Professionalism HQ have also been consulted and have reviewed the EIA and consider the assessment to be procedurally correct, therefore passing quality assurance.   

2. SFR Medical are a unique SME (small and medium sized enterprise) organisation offering a bespoke service to all national police areas in England and Wales to enhance the service police provide to victims of violent crime. This supports the Anchor Institution Charter in its objective that post pandemic we can all live and work in greener, cleaner, healthier and safer communities, that our society can be fairer – with a stronger safety net, more engaged communities and more value placed on the things we care most about.  

3. The founder of SFR Medical is an NHS key worker who recognises the pressure put on health and emergency workers and the impact of this on the criminal justice service during and post pandemic, offering a way to narrow social, economic and health inequalities by offering an improved service to all customers and all victims of violent crime. 

4. This service will significantly improve the MPS’ service to victims of violence, not least, violence against women and girls which is a priority for the MPS and nationally. 

8. Background/supporting papers 

1. Report