Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 December 2014 were taken as read, confirmed and signed.

There were no questions received.

The Chairman indicated that he had agreed to consider an urgent item raised by Mr. D. C. Bill CC in regard to the theft of ATMs at various locations around the County.

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

Col Robert Martin declared a personal interest in respect of Agenda Item 5 as the Trustee of “Warning Zone” which was in receipt of some funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner (Minute 112 refers).

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

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner concerning the Proposed Precept for 2015/16 and the Medium term Financial Strategy. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 5”, is filed with these minutes.

In introducing the report, the PCC delivered a speech, the content of which is set out below:

“This is my third budget as a Police and Crime Commissioner and you will be unsurprised to hear that the deliberations have not been any easier this year. Despite that, we have not been swayed from the Strategic Plan, you will recall that the approach which was taken in my first year allowed investment in frontline PCSOs and volunteer capacity in the second and this year we have had to overcome some unprecedented top-slicing last year and again, this while implementing a very significant transformational change programme.

As you are all aware, we are at the tail end of the current spending period, which has rightly focused on addressing this nation’s need to balance the public purse, this in-turn leading significant funding cuts in public services, across the board.

Within Leicestershire Police, much of the easier savings activity was undertaken before my arrival and that particular well of opportunity ran dry perhaps more quickly than in other organisations and for this I thank the strong leadership and prudent financial management which was evident in those preceding years. But now, together, the Chief Constable and I have agreed a way forward with a transformational change programme - a programme designed by his experts that will deliver a quality policing service and enhance our ability to tackle the issues that cause concern to most of our communities, a way that will keep policing visible, that will tackle demand and meet reasonable public expectation and which will critically remain within an ever reducing budgets.

We have done everything within our power to close the gap identified in my first Police and Crime Plan and the associated Medium Term Financial Strategy. It is a fact that the Force has delivered or has identified over £38 million in cashable efficiency savings since financial year 09/10. But I think we all appreciate that we cannot balance the books on willpower alone. As you will see from the MTFS in your papers, further challenges are looming. Even this coming year we had to take into account the £5.7 million reduction in our government funding. A sum that was only £1 million more than that previously indicated in the December settlement. The position is again compounded by the overall policing pot being top-sliced to pay for the development of other initiatives and organisations, the Home Office Innovation Fund, against which, as you know, we can bid, the Independent Police Complaints Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies, and so on…

Quite frankly, whilst I acknowledge that those do bring certain benefits, I would very much prefer it if the money was coming from someone else and someone else was picking up the bill.

You will have seen that our MTFS gives a financial view out to 2019/20, as it must. But this in itself is a real challenge as our work has had to be based upon the single year of funding information given to us, putting an inevitable level of uncertainty in to that forward planning in the outer years. For sure though, the next comprehensive spending review, whatever the outcome of the General Election in May, is extremely unlikely to be anything other than incredibly difficult to deliver.

On the basis of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 112.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner concerning an update on the current position with respect to grant applications for 2015/16. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 6”, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from the discussion, the following points were noted:

·                The PCC confirmed that the process of awarding grants was without bias. A recommendation of the Grants Panel was made to the Commissioner, who had been happy on all occasions thus far to go with the Panel’s recommendations;

·                The importance of providing feedback to unsuccessful applicants, including feedback showing the outcomes for successful bidders, was stressed as a means of enabling them improve at the next round of applications. Unsuccessful applicants were signposted to other sources of funding, where appropriate;

·                Quarterly evaluations were required of successful applicants to enable a close and stringent monitoring of their progress;

·                Concern was expressed that identification of geographical areas for whish funding was available should so far as possible reflect ward boundaries.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner concerning an update on the consultation and risk assessment methodology applied by Leicestershire Police throughout the Force Change Programme process. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 7”, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from the discussion, the following points were noted:

·                An EIA on the impact of the Programme on communities had not been carried out, however the Force, with the PCC, had gone to great lengths to ensure that communities were aware of the Programme and able to comment on the effect it would have on frontline policing, including through attendance at a number of public engagement sessions. The Chief Constable was happy to bring this work together into one document for the benefit of the Panel;

·                A group would be monitoring the effects of the Programme and specific issues such as rural response times, which the Police were happy to share with partners. After a period of around 3 months there would be a full evaluation of the Programme which would be reported to the PCC and then the PCP. The Panel suggested the benefit of evaluations also at 6 and 12 months;

·                The PCC stressed the importance of public satisfaction and confidence surveys as a means of ensuring that the Programme was making a positive difference on communities;

·                The Chief Constable explained that recent correspondence from the Police updating partners on the Change Programme had made some reference to child abuse as “incidents” rather than a “crimes”; it was not in any way intended to underplay the importance of such crimes. There was a national standard for crime and incident recording, which the Chief Constable was happy to share with the Panel;

·                A Strategic Risk Assessment was completed in conjunction with the Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire forces to ensure that the Force was able to cope any potential firearms threat. The threat for the forces was currently regarded as “severe” which meant it now had parity with the country as a whole. Weaponry and protective supplies had recently been upgraded to take account of this.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the proposed methodology for evaluating the Force Change Programme be shared with Panel members.

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner concerning an update on a review of historic Child Sexual Exploitation cases at Leicestershire. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 8”, is filed with these minutes.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The next meeting of the Panel is scheduled to take place on 9 February 2015 at 1.00pm.

It was NOTED that the next meeting of the Panel would be held on 23 March at 1.00pm.

The Panel considered this matter, the Chairman having decided that it was of an urgent nature due to the severity and frequency of these crimes taking place around the County.

With the agreement of the Chairman, Mr. Bill CC addressed the Panel by asking for the Commissioner for assurance that action was being taken to safeguard premises with ATMs and that the matter was being addressed and prioritised.

The Chief Constable reported that investigations were ongoing into five offences in Leicester and Leicestershire and that similar offences had taken place outside of the County. The enquiry was being dealt with by senior officers at the Force. Discussions were ongoing with the Co-Operative Group in an effort safeguard against further offences.

RESOLVED:

That the update of the Chief Constable be noted.

The Chairman and members of the Panel wished to put on record their congratulations to Deputy Chief Constable, Simon Edens and a former Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Steph Morgan (retired) who had been awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in the 2014 honours list.