Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting on 26 June were taken as read, confirmed and signed.

There were no urgent items for consideration.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

All members of Community Safety Partnerships declared personal interests in all matters relating to those partnerships.

Mr. Orson and Cllr. Russell all declared personal interests as members of the Strategic Partnership Board.

Col. R. Martin declared a personal interest as a member of a charity which was in receipt of funding from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Cllr. Sood declared personal interests as the Chairman of the Leicester Council of Faiths, the Regional Ambassador of Sport England and as a patron of CLASP – The Carers’ Centre.

The Police and Crime Commissioner has been invited to attend for a discussion on this item.

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting Sir Clive Loader, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (the PCC) to discuss his plans for the future management arrangements for Leicestershire Police.

In introducing the item, the PCC read out a statement in regard to the absence of the Chief Constable, Simon Cole and the arrangements that had been put in place to ensure the effective management of Leicestershire Police in his absence. The statement read as follows:

“Chairman Orson, members of the panel – you have requested that I come today to outline the Future Management Arrangements for Leicestershire Police.  This I will do by means of a statement as follows:

Firstly, for those of you who are not ex-members of the Police Authority and perhaps even for those who are, it would be helpful to outline for you the Command and Control structure of the Leicestershire Police Force, so that you can understand what is in place, why it is there, and thereby place my decisions into their proper context.

All Chief Constables have a formal, single Deputy Chief who is legally empowered to take on the role, duties and responsibilities of the Chief when the latter is away for whatever reason – leave, courses, or indeed sickness.  Many duties of the Chief Constable are singularly theirs – by which I mean that only the individual who is holding the legal responsibility at the time can discharge them.  Good examples would be the authority to intercept communications, or to instigate surveillance operations, in certain instances and at certain scales.  Of course, the Chief’s duties are much broader than that: setting the strategic direction for the Force; instilling (and insisting upon) professional standards; indeed, acting as the visible and professional leader of the Force and, in so doing, inspiring and creating confidence (both within the Force and with the public at large); and of course representing the Force at many public engagements.

The Deputy Chief, in addition to taking on the roles of the Chief in the latter’s absence, acts somewhat as a Chief Operating Officer – for example, by monitoring the Force’s performance on a very regular basis (DCC Edens chairs the Performance Delivery Group, which tracks the Force’s achievements against the Police and Crime Plan), leading on risk and audit, and on professional standards, as well as taking on those duties and decisions that aren’t the sole bailiwick of the Chief.  Of course the Deputy Chief also acts as a support, advisor and confidant of the Chief.  As I know from my own past, the symbiotic, mutually supportive and honest relationship between a Chief and their Deputy is a powerful arbiter as to the success of a Force as a whole.  We are very lucky in having an officer with the quality and experience of Simon Edens – more of which later.

In addition to the Chief and his Deputy, there are 2 Assistant Chief Constables, in our case both selected during my time as PCC and having both come into post in June of this year.  As many of you will be aware, we had been running light on an ACC in this Force for a considerable period of time (albeit we had two very capable temporary holders in the form of Paul Telford and Chris Thomas), so one of these appointees was to provide the permanent ACC which we needed, whilst the other was to provide a replacement for ACC Steph Morgan (who had announced earlier her intention to retire as of early July of this year).  Whilst the exact duties that ACCs hold  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

A presentation will be delivered under this item.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a presentation of the OPCC regarding Stage 2 Transfers. A copy of the slides forming the presentation is filed with these notes.

Arising from the presentation, the following points were noted:

·      Regular meetings took place between the five regional PCCs and CEOs in order to establish a pragmatic way forward. Issues such as collaborative arrangements had been considered. Fortunately, all forces in the region had opted for the “max transfer” option in order to ensure that the Chief Constables had as much control over operational matters as was possible. The PCC wanted to have ownership of as little as was required through the legislation. The “max transfer” option would ensure that the arrangements were as simple, efficient and effective as possible and would avoid unnecessary duplication;

·      The lack of a standardised approach to policing meant that those in employment would require clear guidance on their role and what was expected of them;

·      It was stressed that the transfer would not have an effect on staff numbers, only who employed the staff. Meetings would be taking place with UNISON and the GMB and there would be some wider consultation with staff over the transfer;

·      It was expected that the issue of best practice would be looked at one year into the new arrangements;

·      Service Level Agreements (SLA) were expected to be in place from 1 April 2014 and would be reviewed on a six monthly basis. SLAs were being worked up between the CEO and heads of service within the Force;

·      The Police’s HR function sat within the Chief Constable’s control and the majority of this function was utilised by his staff. The OPCC required only a limited amount of HR advice and it was noted that the cost of providing this service would be met from within the Chief Constable’s budget.

RESOLVED:

That the presentation be noted.

With the Chairman’s consent, it was agreed to take a fifteen minute adjournment at 11.30am.

The meeting re-started at 11.45am.

A presentation will be delivered under this item.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a presentation of the OPCC regarding the refresh of the Police and Crime Plan and the Development of Change Options. A copy of the slides forming the presentation is filed with these notes.

Arising from the presentation, the Chairman reported a frustration on behalf of partners that the consultation period on the draft Police and Crime Plan had been very short – 14 days during a summer month when many were on holiday and which included a bank holiday. The need to consult the Panel for “a reasonable amount of time”, as set out in the Act was stressed.

In response, the PCC suggested that the Plan had effectively been consulted on since the refresh process began on 24 April. A broad engagement process had commenced at this time and the comments received had been reflected in the draft Plan which had been circulated to the Panel and other partners on 16 August. The PCC felt that the extensive engagement process with partners had been instigated as a result of what he saw as a justified criticism of a lack of partnership engagement when the previous version of the Plan was drafted.

The Panel however felt that this approach had led to an over-emphasis on a few individuals at each authority to respond and too little member engagement. A greater period of consultation would have helped ensure that partners had the opportunity to fully digest the information. There was a further concern that the Plan had too little in the way of specific actions and where changes in services were being proposed it would be necessary for the Panel to have sight of these and consider making comments.

The following further points were noted:

·      It would important to include the context of the PCC’s budget for next year in the Plan. It was also felt that it would be helpful to include with the Plan a picture of how the Police’s £20 million budget shortfall was to be addressed;

·      It was suggested that the combining of the Police and Crime Plan and the Change Programme may cause confusion. This was questioned given the “operational” nature of the Change Programme and the fact that operational matters were outside the scope of the PCP. The PCC stressed that he was required to hold the Chief Constable to account over all elements of the Plan, including the operational matters that were part of it;

·      The PCC ensured that any localised crime issues were fed back through the Police’s internal governance arrangements to the Chief Constable. For this reason, it remained vital that, where local members were aware of any issues, they contacted the PCC;

·      The PCC recognised the importance of the early intervention work with troubled families which the Council was currently engaged in and how this would hopefully have a positive impact on crime levels;

·      Given the reduction in staffing level across the Force, the careful management of public expectation would be necessary. It would be helpful to include in the Plan what, specifically, as part of the savings required it was intended to stop delivering;

·      There was a concern that rural crime might not be receiving an adequate level of attention in the Plan. The PCC indicated that it was extremely difficult to include everything in the Plan, but he hoped to ensure each issue received a fair level of representation.

(David Bill asked that it be recorded that it was his view that regular updates from the Chief Constable on criminal activity were necessary in order to gain a full understanding of how the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

The next meeting of the PCP will be a Confirmation Hearing for the post of Chief Finance Officer scheduled to be held at 4.00pm on Thursday 12 September 2013 at County Hall.

It was NOTED that the next meeting of the Police and Crime Panel would be a Confirmation Hearing for the post of Chief Finance Officer. The meeting was scheduled to be held on Thursday 12 September at 4.00pm at County Hall.