Agenda and minutes

A webcast of the meeting can be viewed at: http://council.webcast.vualto.com/leicestershire-county-council/home?EventId=13128

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 September 2015 were taken as read, confirmed and signed, subject to the word ‘income’ in the first bullet point under the heading “Syrian Refugees” within Minute 159 being replaced with the word ‘migration’.

No questions had been received.

The Chairman advised that he had agreed to consider an urgent item on the recently published HMIC reports regarding Honour Based Crime, Domestic Abuse and ‘Vulnerability’ which had resulted in some media interest (Minute 170 refers).

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

Cllr. M. Sood declared a personal interest in respect of all substantive items as a member of the Police’s Independent Advisory Panel, as the Chairman of the Leicester Council of Faiths and a member of the Bishop’s Faith Forum.

Col. Robert Martin declared a personal interest in respect of Agenda Item 6 as the Trustee of “Warning Zone” which was in receipt of some funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner (Minute 172 refers).

The Panel considered the following matter, the Chairman having decided that it was of an urgent nature as a result of the need to enable the Commissioner to publicly respond to recently published HMIC reports concerning Honour-based Crime, Domestic Violence and Vulnerable People which had resulted in some media interest.

The Commissioner’s statement was as follows:

“With regard to vulnerability, I have said this in the public arena:

Looking after the most vulnerable people in our communities lies at the very heart of any police force and this has been a priority for me during my time as PCC.

My commitment to this has been demonstrated most recently by the provision of £1.2m to help tackle CSE and prevent vulnerable people from falling prey to abuse. I am confident that this funding will serve to further strengthen the work the force delivers in this area, in partnership with others…

If I can break away from what I wrote there just to say a public thank you. There has been an awful lot of really good work done in the partnership arena to deal with this issue and my Chief Executive has been leading on that but with plenty of other people who are represented or indeed who are actually here round this table so thanks to all of you. I think we are doing some very good work together in that regard. Back to what I said…

I too am disappointed that the myriad of work undertaken by the Force has not been fully recognised and I share the concerns of the Deputy Chief Constable that the report may not completely capture the breadth and depth of the very significant work delivered by officers, particularly those in the Signal Team, Multi-Agency CSE Team and the Missing Persons Team.

I will read the content of the report and assess its observations extremely carefully in order to understand what more the Force could be doing, in partnership with others, to address the issues raised.

Mr Chair and Members of this Panel you can be very sure that the Chief Constable and I will be doing precisely that and I did find those areas where they have spelled out, at least adequately, what it is we need to be doing to get the grade higher than currently it is.

With regard to the other two reports which you know have only come out in the last 36 hours or so, I and the Chief Constable have not had a chance to even start to digest those yet. It’s been a fairly frenetic 36 hours as you know, but the same will apply. In my role as Police and Crime Commissioner where I hold the Chief to account, I want to see what’s in there and let the Chief advise me on those areas where work should and could be done, within resource, or may be where necessary he will advise me where resource needs to be swung in order to allow the work to be done in order to bring us up to the grades that we all like to see.

I’d like to say one other thing in this public forum and it’s this: I was with the Chief yesterday with HMIC representatives and I made a point to them and I feel this now quite strongly. I am in no way an apologist for Police performance and I hope the Chief would admit that I have held him to account suitably in the last 3 years. He knows I have. But also there is another thing about HMIC here and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 170.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner concerning progress on the Blueprint 2020 programme and setting out response times in the east of the County. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 5” is filed with these minutes.

The Chief Constable reported the following updates on the Blueprint 2020 programme:

·         Blueprint 2020 introduced an approach to harm-based crime where the focus was placed on the damage caused to communities;

·         The budget context was unclear but would become clearer when the Provisional Police Grant report 2016/17 was published. The Comprehensive Spending Review announced on 25 November 2015 had indicated that there would be no cuts to police funding nationally, however it was not known whether there would be reduced funding for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland when the allocations were made clearer;

·         It was pleasing that the Police response times for the east of the County had improved.

Arising from a discussion the following points were noted:

·         As the Home Office had postponed the Funding Formula changes, the current Funding Formula would remain in place until at least 2017/18. It was unclear how the Funding Formula would work in the future once the process for calculating funding was changed;

·         A view was expressed by the Panel that Neighbourhood policing was working well and should be protected insofar as this was possible, whilst making sure that officers were spending the appropriate amount of time dealing with the evidential and criminal justice side of policing. It was noted that initiatives were in place to free up officer time and Neighbourhood Officers would hand over cases to the Force Investigation Team as soon as possible to enable officers to return to neighbourhood duties. There was also a national pilot for out of court disposals taking place. The Police and Crime Commissioner stated that, as the changes to Neighbourhood Policing were working well it was unlikely that further changes would be made, though it was acknowledged that tight resources would make this challenging;

·         Concerns were raised regarding diary management and whether the appropriate length of time was being allocated for officers to complete the tasks required of them. It was noted that a balance had to be struck between allocating sufficient time for an officer to do a thorough job and making sure that officers were not left unoccupied. The Police and Crime Commissioner provided reassurance that as part of Project Edison he had asked for the use of officer time to be measured and a system known as IR3 recorded where officers and vehicles were at any time and provided data which could be analysed by management. The Police and Crime Commissioner also emphasised the importance of good customer care (ie. officers attending appointments on time) and he agreed to look into whether there were any recurring problems in this area and report back to the Panel as necessary;

·         With regard to the Workforce Blueprint and changes to the management structure of the Force, concerns were raised regarding the proposed reduction in management roles particularly with regard to issues of equality and whether any particular section of the Force would be disproportionately affected by the restructure. It was noted that when funding was cut there would inevitably be an impact on personnel, though the precise details of any changes fell within the remit of the Chief Constable.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner which provided an update on the budget and the proposed precept for 2016/17. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 6”, is filed with these minutes.

The Chief Finance Officer of the OPCC reported the following:

·         The Home Secretary had indicated in a speech on 8 December 2015 that, whilst the national policing budget was being protected, every Force would still need to make savings year on year;

·         As the Ministry of Justice was to have a cut to its funding this would likely impact on Police and Crime Commissioners, with particular regard to Victim and Witness grant funding;

·         The Police and Crime Commissioner would again be consulting the residents of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland on the precept by way of telephone and online surveys. It was intended that a sample of 600 people would be used for the consultation. It was confirmed that whilst the Police did not receive finance from business rates, there was likely to be business owners residing in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland who would wish to contribute to the survey and the link to the website survey would therefore be sent to the Chamber of Commerce for them to forward on to businesses in the region as appropriate;

·         Whilst the Police received all its funding from the Home Office, the Fire Service were still included in the Local Government Finance Settlement. A more detailed update on this issue would be provided at a future meeting of the Panel.

Arising from discussion the following points were noted:

·         In response to a question, the Police and Crime Commissioner agreed to forward to Panel members the exact wording of the questions included in the survey. The Panel emphasised the importance that the OPCC had full regard to the responses given by the public. The Panel also requested that it be made clear to those members of the public who were surveyed which specific areas of policing would be affected by cuts to police funding, in order to demonstrate why increasing the precept may be necessary. The Police and Crime Commissioner stated that it would be difficult to provide this specific information but he would try and indicate which initiatives may be affected if the precept were not raised;

·         In response to a question from the Panel regarding communicating the message to the public that savings were required to be made even though nationally there was no cut to police funding, the Police and Crime Commissioner agreed that this message had to be conveyed carefully and honestly. With regard to making savings the Police and Crime Commissioner stated that Project Edison and the Strategic Alliance with Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire were important and would have been of value even if there had not been a cut to funding;

·         The Chair emphasised the value of initiatives such as Supporting Leicestershire Families which was designed to prevent criminal activities through early intervention. In response the Chief Constable stated that he had committed police time and resource to these types of initiatives.  The Police and Crime Commissioner agreed that this was a very important area of work which could ease the burden on the Force for years to come. It was noted that the Police and Crime Commissioner had prioritised this area of work in his Commissioning Strategy and over the last year had increased the funding allocation by £50,000.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner concerning the structure and budget of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. A copy of the report, “marked Agenda Item 7”, is filed with these minutes.

The Chief Finance Officer of the OPCC reported the following:    

·        The OPCC budget for 2016/17 was £0.998M which was below the national average;

·         The cost of the new Ethics, Integrity and Complaints Committee had been absorbed from within the OPCC budget’s transitional reserve. Members of the Committee had been appointed and a Chair elected. Details of the Committee members would be forwarded to Panel members following the meeting. The Committee had the freedom to investigate any aspect of policing they believed to be appropriate and they had already begun to look at the Force’s use of facial recognition data.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

·         The role of policy support to the Police and Crime Commissioner which had been carried out by Steph Morgan would conclude at the end of December 2015. Whether or not the role would be recommissioned was at the discretion of the incoming Police and Crime Commissioner in May 2016. The roles of the Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer were mandatory, however the existence of all other roles in the OPCC were down to the preferences of the Police and Crime Commissioner;

·         Matt Tapp was the Director of Strategic Communications and Public Engagement at Leicestershire Police and the OPCC. However, as there were occasions when the Police and Crime Commissioner required advice which was independent from the Force Sallie Blair (Communications and Media Lead for the OPCC) was also engaged. Sallie had also been involved in other PCC functions, such as the Victim First service;

·         The amounts in the section of the budget entitled ‘Misconduct Tribunal Costs, Audit Fees’ had varied over the previous 3 years due to two principal factors;

-        the funding required for Misconduct Tribunals depended on how many Tribunals were required during the year;

-        a new internal audit contract with regional partners had led to reductions in audit fees, and the new external auditors came at a lower cost.

·      Plans were in place for the handover process to the new Police and Crime Commissioner in May 2016. An induction plan had been devised and the Chief Executive of the OPCC had produced an information pack for candidates. There was also a partnership landscape document which would be given to candidates, and it was intended to hold an event where the candidates would be able to meet with partners. The outgoing Police and Crime Commissioner had offered to spend time with all the candidates at Force Headquarters and provide them with advice. The Chief Executive intended to liaise with the Panel in early 2016 regarding the Panel’s role in the induction process.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner which provided an update on the review commissioned on Leicestershire Police’s response to non-recent Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) cases. A copy of the report marked “Agenda Item 8” is filed with these minutes.

Concerns were raised by the Panel that the report did not indicate where lessons had been learned from the review. The Police and Crime Commissioner accepted that it would have been helpful for that information to have been included in the report.  The Chief Constable emphasised that, due to the length of time that had passed since the CSE incidents were alleged to have taken place, the learning was fairly limited. However, he reassured the Panel that there was a completely different environment within the Force at the current time which included a greater propensity to accept the credibility of the victim’s claims. Officers were highly trained in the area of CSE and HMIC conducted rigorous inspections.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner concerning the implementation of the NICHE programme. A copy of the report marked “Agenda Item 9” is filed with these minutes.

A question was asked regarding the cost of obtaining the licence for each staff member to access the NICHE database The Chief Finance Officer agreed to provide this information to the Panel in due course.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The next meeting of the Panel is scheduled to take place on 2 February 2016 at 1.00pm.

It was NOTED that future meetings of the Panel would be held on the following dates at 1.00pm:

2 February 2016

15 February 2016

22 March 2016

30 June 2016

19 July 2016

26 September 2016

5 December 2016

Cllr. Govind congratulated Leicestershire Police on the speed and efficiency with which they dealt with a recent robbery incident on Melton Road.

Cllr. Sood expressed her thanks to Leicestershire Police for their attendance and support at recent large scale community events such as Diwali, Hanukkah and Pride.