Work is now underway to determine what benefits can be realised and how

3.30 In 2001, PITO established a Business Benefits Steering Group, consisting of individuals from police forces, police authorities, the Home Office and unions. This group was tasked with directing the work of both a small, central team based within PITO, and of a working group consisting of representatives from 20 volunteer forces who were tasked with determining what functions of Airwave had the potential to deliver benefits and how to measure these benefits. Figure 18 shows the composition of these groups.

3.31 Rather than introduce additional measurements as a separate activity, performance, as already measured by national statistics such as Best Value and Key Performance Indicators, will be tracked over time. Figure 19 identifies some areas where Airwave is expected to enable improvements in performance. This approach has the advantage of avoiding a significant additional data collection burden on forces. However, it does mean that additional expenditure cannot be matched with quantifiable benefits in monetary terms.  The aim of the Steering Group is to develop a learning package that shows how the forces involved went about implementing Airwave in such a way as to enable benefits to be achieved. The package will also include methods that have been designed to measure changes in performance. Furthermore, PITO is willing to share lessons learnt with other Airwave sharers, such as the Fire and Ambulance Services, in the future.