Information

Welcome and introductions.

 

Attendees:

PFCC Danielle Stone (DS)

DPFCC Marianne Kimani (MK)

Jonny Bugg (JB)

Paul Fell (PF)

Louise Sheridan (LS)

Vaughan Ashcroft (VA)

CC Ivan Balhatchet (IB)

DCC Ash Tuckley (AT)

ACO Paul Bullen (PB)

Nick Alexander (NA)

Chief Supt Jen Helm (JH)

Suzanne McMinn (SMcM)

 

DS welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

 

PART 1

Sickness

 

• Highest reasons for absence are anxiety, stress and depression. (General life and work related).
• 16% of absences are uncoded. (Not helpful when trying to put support in place). Continue to communicate and educate line managers on the importance of recording the reason for absence.
• There are no gender specific reasons for absence.
• Anxiety is a societal trend, not unique to police forces
• The force has increased Investment and awareness in Occupational Health support and wellbeing.
• Data being discussed is 15 months old, won’t have comparative data until the autumn.
• Short term sickness trend is going up and has been over a period of time.
• Whilst accept that the job is tough and busy, particularly in Response. 16% uncoded shows lack of grip from line managers.

Action – Suzanne McMinn to provide PFCC with a detailed breakdown of sickness levels and reasons by command areas and gender.

Action – AT to receive uncoded data from Suzanne to enable him to grip the issue of line managers not recording absences adequately.

 

Assurance statement

The Commissioner welcomed the overview which was provided on the causes for sickness in the Force. She shared a concern with the Chief Constable over the levels of reasons for sickness that were uncoded, meaning that there were some gaps in the ability of the Force to understand why staff go sick and to make sure that appropriate measures are in place to support them. An explanation was then provided over the interventions that had been put into place in order to improve this situation.

 The Commissioner asked some questions about the types of sickness that might be causing issues. These were reported as being short term sickness absences.

 The Commissioner was assured that the Force had developed systems, processes and activities for sickness management that were as simple as possible to follow but that it still required managers to do what was required of them and at times this was not taking place.

 The Chief Constable made the point that this was still being driven hard by his team and that the staff survey results will be instrumental here in listening to feedback and then showing that they are acting in relation to this, as well as highlighting the importance of managers needing to manage this issue appropriately.

 Overall, the Commissioner was assured that the Chief Constable had effective processes and policy in place to oversee this issue but that there was still some additional work for the Force to deliver to make sure that their application was as robust as possible.

 

Grade 1 response

 

• The first draft of the shift review has been completed including work around Hubs and efficiency.
• Evidence that the drive times have increased as has the amount of time officers spend at the scene.
• Several incremental factors are in play to improve response times including a gold group and phase 3 of GoodSAM
• Looking at analytical products and best practice including a risk matrix of the call queue to ensure right response at right time.
• 4 key areas of focus:

1. Establish measures and monitoring; what targets are; How other forces doing it
2. Meeting needs of public
3. Risk and vulnerability
4. Calls for service

• Complex logistical area of work.
• Interested in how NPT can be utilised in urban areas. What can we learn from other forces and isolated changes that will bring incremental improvements.

• It was agreed that grade 1 response times will be kept under review. The Commissioner felt that more work needs to be done, and she was not assured at this time.

 

Assurance Statement:

 The Commissioner queried why there was seemingly no improvement in the Grade 1 response time relating to urban based incidents and what the issues were that were affecting this. She stressed that she felt the response to emergency calls was a key issue in relation to confidence of local people.

 A lengthy discussion followed outlining the work that had been undertaken in order to better understand the reasons for this declined performance. The Commissioner was informed that the Force had looked at other Forces where this had been an issue and they had reshaped the manner in which cross departmental responses were delivered to improve their performance, and that they were intending to visit those Forces to learn more. She welcomed this and the learning that might evolve from these visits.

 The Commissioner made the point that this performance decline was not new and had been taking place for some time. She indicated she looked forward to improvements being put into place but would want this matter to be brought back to this meeting at a future date.

 

 

PART 2

Budget outturn and monitoring paper

 

The Commissioner requires a formal budget outturn report for Northamptonshire Police for the financial year 2024/25, demonstrating the end of year position for all delegated and allocated budget. This report should include any revised MTFP as a result of this position.

 

The report should also provide a mid year budget position for 2025/26, which in addition to articulating the current budget position should report on the progress of the implementation of any agreed investment plans from 2025/26 and from previous years where these have not yet taken place, and progress against any required savings plans

 

• Nick Alexander provided an overview of the budget outturn, highlighting key variances.
• There are a significant number of vacancies due to vetting delays. This is now improving with vetting times reducing.
• The increased spend on overtime is largely due to higher salaries following recent pay awards, rather than more hours being spent on working overtime.
• There has been a significant overspend in legal expenses.
• Have overachieved on investment income
• On Capital, there is a significant level of expenditure of £5.5m that hasn’t yet hit the budget due to delays in the Estates Masterplan and DDaT.
• The Commissioner was concerned about the level of PCSO vacancies however was reassured that there are 31 new applicants at interview stage for an October intake. Hope to have 15 successful candidates.
• The application window for PCSO’s is now constantly open to applications.

• There was a discussion about the sponsored PCSO scheme with up to four parishes demonstrating an interest.
• This was noted by ACO Bullen who will try and increase the PCSO intake to 18 with the OPFCC underwriting the additional positions. It was agreed by the PFCC that post interview if there were more appointable candidates than vacancies in the base establishment PB and PF will discuss to determine whether we recruit over establishment.

Action – PB to find out how many of the 31 shortlisted for PCSO interviews are appointable.

 

• There was a discussion about Live facial recognition. PB confirmed that the commercial team are working to make sure our framework requirements are aligned with national one. Framework is available for live facial recognition.
• There is a separate discussion about retrospective facial recognition which won’t need to go through same framework and should just piggyback onto the national one.
• On timescales, procurement is expected to be completed in this calendar year with rollout in the next calendar year.
• PF advised that the OPFCC is ready to help with communications with the public about the intended use of FR and the safeguards that are in place and there is good practice examples from both South Wales and the College of Policing.

• The Commissioner reiterated the importance of consulting with communities on why facial recognition technology is important and how it will be used to allay any fears.
• There was a discussion about the Positive Action team.

Action – Marianne to meet with Olatayo on national benchmarking of positive action.

Action – Force to ensure that there is joined up and cohesive plan developed for community engagement about the introduction of live and retrospective facial recognition

 

 

Assurance Statement:

 The Commissioner received this paper, which she thought was comprehensive and of a high quality.

She reiterated as she had done in the past that she had a high level of confidence in the Force and the finance teams to manage the budget allocated to it in an effective fashion.

 The Commissioner sought assurances that the Force were well placed to recruit to its full establishment of Police Community Support Officers for the first point in sometime.

The Chief Constable and Assistant Chief Officer Bullen provided these assurances and following a brief discussion it was agreed that if the opportunity arose there would be a discussion on the principle of underwriting an over establishment position for a short period of time, which would allow retention at full establishment and the possible expansion of the dedicated sponsored PCSO scheme to be resumed.

 

 

Annual internal audit report update

 

The Commissioner requires a report to provide an overview on the findings from the Northamptonshire Police Internal Audit programme for 2024/2025. It should outline all the audits that have taken place with the recommendations made and the level of assurances that the audits have provided.

It should also provide assurances to the Commissioner on the governance arrangements in place for the receipt of audit reports and how they are assessed and actioned once received.

It will be assumed that all recommendations made have been agreed and should report by exception where this might not be the case.

It should outline whether all recommendations made have been implemented or where this is not the case an explanation should be provided as to why this is so and a timescale for implementation and completion should be provided.

• All actions currently green.
• Robust processes in place, no risk issues identified.
• Regional collaboration to be reviewed at regional PCC boards

 

Assurance Statement:

The Commissioner stated that she was assured that the Force had sound and effective processes in place for the engagement of auditors in the internal audit process and in deciding what areas were suitable for audit activity, for the receipt and assessment of audit reports and for the implementation of recommendations and actions that arose from that activity.

 She has one question about where oversight of audits for collaboration units was overseen and was assured that this took place at the regional DCC board.

 

 

AOB

 

No further business was raised