Meeting documents

To receive a presentation from the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Members received a joint presentation from the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner on ‘Working Together to Serve the Public’ (attached as an Annexure to these minutes). Prior to the session the Panel had provided the PCC with some key lines of enquiry to shape the presentation and assist with the discussion.

The PCC introduced the Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) for Devon and Cornwall, Sharon Taylor, who was also the senior responsible officer in the strategic alliance work.

Following a question from the member from Purbeck District Council regarding whether there was any progress towards regional policing and if any legislation was likely to be forthcoming, the ACC advised that around 9 months ago an approach was made to the Home Office by West Mercia and Warwickshire but the Home Secretary rejected the position at the time.  Now there was a different Home Secretary in post and regional capability was being examined all the time in the light of recent terrorist activity which was managed under a different legislation.

In respect of post alliance management the ACC was encouraging PCCs to think about this and watch the landscape develop. There was a natural coalescence of meeting structures at force level, finance still had to present 4 sets of accounts so there were still some limitations.  The PCC added that there was a shadow Strategic Alliance Audit Committee in place. The PCC from Devon and Cornwall noted that once they were through first six months there would be an opportunity to look at a shared vision in terms of a joint Police and Crime Plan.

In response to a question from the Chairman regarding technology the PCC advised that regional procurement had been in place for the past 3 years. In respect of officers moving between the three counties, the ACC advised that already a lot of mutual aid in place especially around weekends and there were now new employment opportunities and posts were advertised across the Alliance

Regarding prioritisation of requests from both forces, the ACC advised that the Alliance department served both forces, there was a single process and single policies for any such requests and a Joint Head of HR worked very well.

A member whilst recognising that the greatest success of the alliance so far had been the achievement of £3.6m savings, greater resilience and a greater flexibility of resources asked how higher standards could potentially be achieved.  The ACC advised that all the benefits in business cases were tracked to enable teams to step up into a new space thereby reducing the duplication of effort.

Following a question regarding specialist teams e.g. helicopter, firearms and forensics, The ACC advised that the Helicopter was now a national resource, firearms were part of the alliance and forensics were a regional capability now.

In respect of TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006), the ACC advised that best decision was to TUPE people, each force would be a host force for specific functions and the best way was to TUPE them over to ensure a balance of staff. There was an ambition to carry out a harmonisation of terms and conditions in the future.  With regard to the possibility of joint logos, the ACC advised that to get vehicles rebranded at present would not add any value, uniforms and badges on the other hand were precious to each force area and any discussions on this would probably incur a long and lengthy discussion at the Board.

In response to a question about co-location in respect of the 750 miles of coast and the issue of illegal immigrants in relation to small harbours, and the fact that there were no motorway in Dorset as yet, the ACC advised that they would only co-locate where feasible as it was recognised there could be a lot of unnecessary travelling. Resources would mainly stay where they were for now.

The PCC from Devon and Cornwall summarised by recognising the importance that the two PCCs had a good working relationship to enable some real lengthy work to happen in order to make the savings, but this had now turned into a learning opportunity of how to do business better.  The biggest challenges were around terms and conditions and TUPE arrangements.

Noted