Information

Welcome and introductions.

 

Attendees:

PFCC Danielle Stone (DS)

DPFCC Marianne Kimani (MK)

Jonny Bugg (JB)

Paul Fell (PF)

Vaughan Ashcroft (VA)

Louise Sheridan (LS)

A/CC Ivan Balhatchet (IB)

A/DCC Ash Tuckley (AT)

 

• DS welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

 

Previous minutes and action log

 Outstanding actions from the Action Log have been updated.

 

 

Force matters of priority performance update.

 The Chief Constable has adopted a suite of performance measures and targets relating to Force matters of priority for 2024/2025.

The Commissioner requires a report that outlines progress against these to this point.

The paper should also set out at a high level how the Force are planning to move to deliver its policing plan for 2025/2026 and align it to the developing PFCC safe and Sound Plan.

 

• The report provided was taken as read.
• The Chief Constable advised that the policing plan for 2025/26 was covered in detail at the recent leadership event which both the Commissioner and Chief Executive attended.
• IB advised that the set of KPIs linked to the previous Chief Constable’s Matters of Priority are closed.
• A new 3-year plan on a page has been produced and will be shared via a number of seminars that are planned for November and December with Inspectors and Sergeants.
• IB will attend all of these.
• The Commissioner asked what is different from the former Matters of Priority and what is being proposed now.

• IB confirmed that whilst the previous KPIs were helpful, they need to be more aligned to her new Safe and Sound Plan
• There are currently far too many KPI’s and were introduced without consultation with the workforce.
• He is keen on consultation so that everyone understands why certain measures are in the plan.
• JB asked how many metrics would be in the new plan?
• IB confirmed this is still to be decided but would like to see fewer front facing metrics that can be monitored. For example, drugs – He does not want measures that demonstrate how busy people are rather how effective they are and how we demonstrate outcomes.
• Measures and associated outcomes should be focussed on overall community safety.
• The Commissioner expressed concerns about communities being fragmented and children becoming more vulnerable as a result.
• IB confirmed that policing in communities is important but not the only factor. Other agencies have to be involved too for example, homelessness and youth provision – solving that problem does not have primacy with the police but recognising that it is a key driver for ASB in the town centre for example which is an issue for the police to deal with.

• If partners do not help to address the underlying reasons for homelessness and street drinking, then police moving them on from the town centre just moves the issue to somewhere else in the town.
• There was a discussion about the need to have a county level public safety meeting with chief executives to look at key issues such as ASB, homelessness, drug and alcohol dependency, serious violence and youth issues.

Action – JB and DS to give this further consideration along with how to secure their attendance and frequency of the meeting with a view to setting strategic direction, governance and escalation routes for county wide solutions.

• There was a discussion about the Child Exploitation Hub, the Observatory and the MASH.
• IB confirmed all of these initiatives are being hosted by the police who are also picking up the cost of the accommodation.
• It remains a struggle to get partners to the table and to obtain countywide data from others for the Observatory.
• Without true partnership working it is impossible for local authorities to understand the drivers of crime and health representatives are desperately needed at the table to contribute.
• Need to agree at a county level what are the key community safety issues, what are the drivers for them and what as a collective are we going to do.
• Some things can be done collectively others done in isolation but need some way to hold each other to account on delivery.
• There was a further discussion about themes and the chief constables proposed STRA and Control Strategy.

• The Force is returning to a Control Strategy approach rather than the Matters of Priority developed under the previous Chief Constable.
• IB provided assurance that he has fortnightly tasking and is implementing a quarterly control meeting.
• AT advised he is introducing a Continuous Improvement Board which will also monitor against HMICFRS metrics.
• There was a discussion about retail crime and an increase in shoplifting.
• IB advised that the spike has largely been caused by the increased confidence in shops to report it.
• There was a discussion on Domestic abuse arrest rates and the forces positive arrest policy.
• IB confirmed that he wants to see more charges and positive outcomes not just arrests.
• Domestic abuse accounts for a third of demand so it is a balancing act between getting to an incident and doing a good job to then not deploying fast enough to another incident so the victim withdraw their report.
• There was a discussion on delivery of key metrics such as Neighbourhood crime, knife crime and burglary all of which are tracking improvement.
• The Commissioner stated one measure of success is that more women are using public spaces and want to go out in the evening therefore there is a need to give them confidence that it is safe to go out and be able to back that up with crime data and activity.
• JB reiterated that he would like have a better understanding of the top five to eight things are and how they will be measured.

 

Assurance statement:

The Commissioner supported the move to the new approach that was proposed by the Chief Constable.

She asked that the Chief Constable provide additional assurances to her Chief Executive in relation to the measures that the Force intended to utilise in order to judge success against the new developing Control Strategy.

The Commissioner commended the approach that the Chief Constable intended to take to address all staff in relation to the new approach, demonstrating clear leadership.

 

 

AOB

 There was a discussion about the new DA investigation unit.

• AT confirmed that it will be doubling in size and officers moving into it have now been identified.
• AT agreed to update Marianne on when officers are likely to be in their new roles once the appropriate notifications to shift pattern changes have been completed.

Action – AT to share DA investigation timeline with MK.

 

No further business was raised