Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Bobbie Dove and Norman Decent (Bournemouth Borough Council), and Janet Dover (Dorset County Council).  Substitute, Don McQueen attended for Bournemouth Borough Council.

It was clarified that the local rules meant that substitutes were not normally part of the Panel and as such they would have no voting rights.  In terms of future membership, it was confirmed that this would be made clear.

Panel members are required to comply with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 regarding disclosable pecuniary interests.

§     Check if there is an item of business on this agenda in which the member or other relevant person has a disclosable pecuniary interest.

§     Check that the interest has been notified to the Monitoring Officer (in writing) and entered in the Register (if not this must be done on the form available from the clerk within 28 days).

§     Disclose the interest at the meeting (in accordance with the County Council’s Code of Conduct) and in the absence of a dispensation to speak and/or vote, withdraw from any consideration of the item.

The Register of Interests is available on Dorsetforyou.com and the list of disclosable pecuniary interests is set out on the reverse of the form.

There were no declarations by members of disclosable pecuniary interests under the Code of Conduct.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 29 June 2017.

The minutes of the meeting held on 29 June 2017 were confirmed and signed.

Matters Arising

Minute 68 – Police and Crime Plan 2017/21

It was noted that Pillar Lead volunteers would be discussed later on the agenda at minute 81. In addition, it was confirmed that an item had been added to the work programme for the Panel meeting on 10 November 2017 on Knife Crime.

Minute 69 – Police and Crime Plan Monitoring Report

It was noted that new quarterly reporting format and approach would be discussed later on the agenda at minute 81.

It was also agreed that an informal meeting would be held between the Chairman and the Treasurer to discuss the still extant finance anomaly discussed at the previous meeting namely:

·        The re-introduction of the Major Operations Reserve of £1.2m and the additional £1.8m in the Capital Cash Flow/Capital Reserves funding line.

A question was asked in relation to 101 calls, noting that the Deputy PCC was no longer in post, in relation to his lead role in the performance of the service.  The PCC provided an overview of the service performance improvement and undertook to share data outside of the meeting with all members.  It was recognised that Cllr John Russell would continue to attend the Customer Service Improvement Panel which would consider the performance and complaints.  An update on complaints handling as the pilot progressed to also be provided for members.

Minute 70 – PCC’s Draft Annual Report 2016/17

It was noted that the Panel’s feedback had been considered and included in the 2016/17 Annual report.

Minute 75 – Work Programme

The preparations for the Panel Training session on 8 December 2017 were progressing well.

Public Speaking

There were no public questions received at the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 21(1).

There were no public statements received at the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 21(2).

Petitions

There were no petitions received at the meeting in accordance with the County Council’s Petition Scheme.

To receive an update of progress against the Police and Crime Plan Q1 2017/18 from the Police and Crime Commissioner. 

Members of the Panel are asked to review the performance of the Police and Crime Commissioner against those objectives contained in the Police and Crime Plan.

The Panel considered a report by the PCC which informed members of the progress against the Police and Crime Plan and Priorities 2017-21 in order to enable members to scrutinise activity and the achievement of outcomes. The report included changes in the reporting framework to better reflect the performance of the PCC and OPCC against the new plan priorities and commitments, using a new ‘dashboard’ style of narrative. 

The Chairman announced that to assist in the active liaison, monitoring and scrutiny of the Police and Crime Plan, the Panel had appointed ‘Leads/Champions’ for each of the four ‘Pillar Themes’ in the Plan as follows:

i)       Protecting People at Risk and Harm – Cllr Andrew Kerby / Cllr Byron Quale

ii)     Working with our Communities – Cllr Bernie Davis / Cllr Mohan Iyengar

iii)    Supporting Victims, Witnesses and reducing Reoffending – Cllr Barbara Manuel / Cllr Bill Pipe

iv)    Transforming for the Future – Iain McVie (supported by Mike Short in respect of Finance and Cllr John Russell regarding Customer Service)

The Pillar leads would meet with the PCC prior to the next meeting of the Panel in order to discuss the detail on how this initiative would be progressed.

The Chief Executive of the OPCC expressed thanks to members and officers for their assistance in developing the performance monitoring report into a document which would better report on the activity of the PCC and his office, and could be used internally to reflect back and externally to report on the delivery of Plan.

The PCC provided commentary for members on the performance against each of the Pillars in the Plan.  He also clarified that the forecast outturn for Transforming for the Future was an overspend of £885k, not £858k as shown in the report.  The Panel discussed the following updates from the PCC:

·        Digital Dogs – Dorset was the first Police force in Europe to have two dogs with the capability to ‘sniff out’ digital items.  Members were briefed on the role of these dogs in the use of locating mobile devices, USB sticks, SD cards, hard drives, computers and computer chips.  The PCC outlined the recent successful use of these dogs in over 50 warrants executed across the UK, including Hampshire, Essex, South Wales and North Yorkshire.

·        101 Service – The development of a 6 month pilot on an ‘Expressions of Dissatisfaction’ initiative to better understand and deal with long term complaints with the aim of recovering service failure early and avoid them turning into long running complaints was noted.  The pilot would include 6 existing staff from across the Strategic Alliance.

·        Problem Solving Forum – The forum would consider societal issues where there was no single owner, such as homelessness, which whilst not inherently a policing issue did impact on Police activity. The forum would consist of two areas serving the ‘voluntary/third sector’ and ‘statutory agencies and partners’, with the aim of bringing all information together to find solutions in a multi-agency style.  The Panel was encouraged to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 81.

To receive a report that confirms that the OPCC has identified and applied for Central Government Grants and also for members to review PCC allocated grants to assess the success rate and utilisation of secured funding.

The Panel considered a report by the Chief Executive of the OPCC in relation to Government Grants and Commissioning.

Members were informed of the opportunities available to the OPCC for grant funding and community safety funding for PCCs including a range of ring-fenced grants for specific purposes, and non-specific grants such as the Core Police Grant.  It was noted that in recent years the level of grant funding had been top sliced and part of this amount was provided as a Police Transformation Fund to those authorities who submitted successful bids for additional funding, but this also funded national initiatives as well.  From four recent bids made only one had been successful which would fund a victim lawyer and would provide £120k over a two year period. Unfortunately feedback on unsuccessful bids was not available, but anecdotally it was explained that some would be taken forward as National Crime Agency projects.

The PCC was keen to take opportunities to make strong bids, and the existing Evidence Based Policing Board had been tasked with horizon scanning for future opportunities and supporting the bidding process by generating ideas and developing bids.  It was also reported that the use of an App  is being explored which could be used to capture ideas from across the entire workforce and enable those people with strong ideas to be involved with developing their ideas into bids.

In terms of the real term impact on finances, the PCC confirmed that only part of the top sliced funding was made available to PCCs and that national lobbying and representations had been made to the Government about this.

In relation to commissioning through the Safer Dorset Fund it was explained that there were two main groups of funding; firstly around £50k was available through a Community Grant Scheme made to voluntary sector organisations for £100-£3000 projects which aligned with the Police and Crime Plan; and secondly there was a Major Grant Scheme which required more robust bids (30-40 projects) which included collaborative working with partners to meet the strategic priorities of the Police and Crime Plan.  The Major Grant Scheme methodology was discussed in detail by members who were satisfied that there was a robust process of bidding, set criteria, implementation, review, evaluation, and assessment of projects to ensure that they delivered against their original aims.  It was further explained that evaluation took place on a joint basis where bids included multiple partners. The Community Grant Scheme was less prescriptive in order to encourage communities to come forward with projects and not be discouraged by bureaucracy, but there was still a requirement to evidence outcomes.

The Chairman asked if information could be shared regarding the success of projects against priorities in the Police and Crime Plan and against what was spent, particularly in respect of value for money and return on investments.  It was confirmed that evidence was available, and published on the PCC’s website, regarding the monitoring and evaluation of projects which would be circulated outside of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

To receive an update from the PCC of progress and key risks associated with the Strategic Alliance Project against the Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOE’s) identified by the PCP.

The Panel considered a report by the Chief Executive of the OPCC as an update on the progress of the Strategic Alliance between Dorset and Devon and Cornwall Police forces.

Members were informed that there were 27 business areas approved for inclusion in the Strategic Alliance, with 17 as live areas providing a mixture of operational, support and back-office services.  It was confirmed that the timescale, budget and resources all remained on track, and were monitored regularly through a variety of governance structures to the Strategic Alliance Executive Board. There was also a robust risk process in place which was monitored through the Programme Direction Group.

The development of business cases was explained as difficult as there was a need for flexibility to adapt the detail as there were often unknown challenges in developing business areas.  A further risk related to the delivery timescales of the business cases.  There was also a detailed and robust post implementation review process, but there was a need to get better at measuring and assessing outputs to the public.

The Chief Executive of the OPCC drew attention to the original aim of the Alliance to make 8-10% financial savings, but it was confirmed that the focus was now on service improvements first.  Following questioning, it was confirmed that the targets outlined in the report for savings and the impact of transformation were originally felt to be conservative, but actually resulted in being quite accurate.

The programme team working on the Strategic Alliance was made up from seconded staff from across both forces, and there were additional costs of £400k to deliver the overall savings of £10.5m. It was confirmed that the savings achieved of £1.1m to date were not subject to any reduction from redundancy payments or any other factor of change.

The Panel asked for further information to be shared in the next report in relation to the defined outcomes from the changes made so far and how they aligned with the priorities of the Police and Crime Plan, together with the benefits delivered to the wider business, delay in savings from changing business cases, and the impact of restructuring and workforce planning from the savings made.

A question was asked about any future further alliance with other policing areas in the south west region.  It was clarified that continued alliance with Devon and Cornwall as the priority, but there were a large number of structures already established which sat well at different levels through regional operational units and the PCC and Chief Constable remained fully committed to further developing regional capability.

Resolved

1. That the report be noted.

2. That further information be included in the next report on the Strategic Alliance as outlined in the minute above.

Following on from discussion at the last PCP meeting, to receive a report from the PCC setting out the approach and actions to protect vulnerable people and the impact and effect that this has had on outcomes.

The Panel considered a report by the Chief Executive of the OPCC regarding the Protecting Vulnerable People portfolio, which included thirteen challenging and complex strands which linked with the Police and Crime Plan.

It was explained that the challenge was how to identify and respond to vulnerable times in people’s lives at the right time, largely in areas where there were no criminal justice outcomes.  The importance of multi-agency and partner working was highlighted as integral to the success of the work being taken forward.  In addition, there was an imperative to encourage reporting by victims and those witnessing vulnerability in others, which would be targeted through campaigns and engagement.

In terms of Panel scrutiny of the portfolio, it was suggested that Domestic Violence be scrutinised through a whole family approach to identify ways to protect families.  It was noted that this would be considered at the next meeting on 10 November 2017.

In addition, further information was requested in regard to the missing persons strand of work for the next meeting.

Resolved

That the following items be considered by the Panel at its meeting on 10 November 2017:

·         Domestic Violence

·         Missing Persons

To provide the Panel with an insight and knowledge of this important area of work and activity.

The Chief Executive of the OPCC introduced a report on Police Response Investigation and Safeguarding Model (PRISM), initiated by PCCs in Dorset and Devon and Cornwall, as a new operating model across the Strategic Alliance from April 2017 which would include the best practices from each of the Dorset and the Devon and Cornwall forces and introduce other new working practices to elevate the Alliance to provide excellent joint services.

Ahead of any formal consultation, engagement had taken place with staff and the public, victims and non-victims about contact channel preferences, which identified the importance of the speed of updates on crimes.  Dealing with crimes would be dealt with through a new model with a primary focus on safeguarding, and duties would be shared amongst multiple officers to provide a quicker service.

The Panel welcomed the ambition of the programme and suggested that there would need to be more information provided regarding funding, although it was appreciated that service delivery improvements were the main focus.  It was also felt that more information as a driver for staff empowerment and enrichment would be helpful.

The Governance elements of the programme were also summarised, and members were reminded that this was the beginning of a transformation programme over the next five years.  Further detailed work would be undertaken to include financial and risk information as the programme moved forward.

Noted

To discuss and agree the forward work schedule for the Panel and ensure that priority and funding consideration is given to current and emerging issues.

The Panel considered and agreed its Work Programme for the remainder of 2017.  Following discussion, it was confirmed that the following items would be added for consideration on 10 November 2017:

• Pillar lead contributions
• Knife Crime Report

The following items would also be scheduled into the work programme:

• Strategic Alliance moving forward
• Domestic Abuse (Minute 84)
• Missing persons (Minute 84)
• Spotlight scrutiny on Disclosure and Barring Service – to be undertaken by Cllrs Kerby, Quayle and Pipe

Resolved

That the work programme be updated accordingly.

To answer any questions received in writing by the Chief Executive by not later than 10.00am on Tuesday 19 September 2017.

No questions were asked by members of the Panel.