Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from:

• Councillor Dave Stewart, Isle of Wight Council (Chairman)
• Councillor Dave Ashmore, Portsmouth City Council
• Councillor James Radley, Hart District Council

It was heard that in the Chairman’s absence Cllr Jan Warwick, Vice-Chairman, would be chairing the meeting and Cllr Simon Bound had been invited to act as Vice-Chairman for the meeting.

To enable Members to declare to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest they may have in any matter on the agenda for the meeting, where that interest is not already entered in their appointing authority’s register of interests, and any other pecuniary or personal interests in any such matter that Members may wish to consider disclosing.

Members were able to disclose to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest they may have in any matter on the agenda for the meeting, where that interest is not already entered in their appointing authority’s register of interests, and any other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests in any such matter that Members may wish to disclose.

No declarations were made.

To confirm the minutes from the previous meeting.

The drafted Minutes from the 25 January 2019 meeting were reviewed

Members noted that the location of the meeting, stated within the draft minutes, was incorrect as the meeting had been held in Committee Room 3, Southampton City Council, Civic Centre, Southampton, SO14 7LY.

The Minutes were otherwise confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To receive any questions or deputations in line with Rule 31 and 31A of the Panel’s Rules of Procedure.

No questions or deputations were received by the Panel on this occasion.

To hear any announcements the Chairman may have for this meeting.

The Chairman thanked the Commissioner and his team for providing a recent briefing on the Contact Management Platform the Panel. It was also heard that several Members had attended the Commissioner’s Restorative Justice Conference, where they learned of efforts to make Restorative Justice available to all victims across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The Chairman made Members aware that she and the Chairman had hosted an informal meeting with neighbouring Panels of Surrey, Sussex and Thames Valley, in February, at which scrutinising and supporting the Panel’s respective Commissioners regarding collaborative working was discussed. It was heard that the Panel continued to seek opportunities to engage with other Panels and that the Panel’s supporting officer would shortly be meeting with representatives from Dorset Police and Crime Panel to discuss the work of the Hampshire Police and Crime Panel. 

The Chairman also noted the recent passing of Cllr Gerry Shimbart, who served on the Panel from January 2015 to July 2016, as Havant Borough Council’s representative. 

To hear any announcements the Commissioner may have for the Panel.

The Chair invited announcements from the Commissioner, who highlighted the following to the Panel:

·         Recruitment of the 200+ Police Officers, funded by the increase in precept, had commenced. The first cohort of trainee officers were expected to be joining the neighbourhood teams in April.  Members were shown a short video presentation which followed the new recruits during their initial training. 

·         The Contact Management Platform was nearing a ‘go live’ date, with training commencing, and the revised budget was expected to be sufficient to deliver the remainder of the project. Members heard the operational risk had been tested under load and the forces were confident the new system would meet operational demand.

·         Knife Crime was a key emerging threat and Members heard the Commissioner was seeking to engage community partners in tackling knife-related crime as well as reducing the cultural acceptance of carrying and using knifes. In response to Members questions it was heard that the  Commissioner was leading on work with partners look at a joined up approach to engaging with those to engage with those Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) regarding knife crime. Additionally the Commissioner had made £630,000 of additional funding available for youth diversion to maximise the long term value and impact of diversionary activities for young people.

·         The Commissioner was clear that ethical behaviour within the force was a matter taken very seriously and over the last year a number of improvements had been made in the monitoring process, including oversight by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC)

·         The meeting of the leaders of the four upper-tier authorities was now a regular meeting hosted by the Commissioner, with the next meeting scheduled to take place following the Panel meeting.

To receive an update on the latest round of commissioned services.

Members received a presentation from the Head of Commissioning and Partnerships at the OPCC. Members heard:

·         The Commissioner an his team had sought to commission services in partnership with others across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in order to deliver the most from those services and achieve best value for money.

·         Key to successful commissioning was the need to understand the needs of communities and Members heard that the OPCC had made significant progress in sharing data and analysis with others.

·         Through the commissioning programme the Commissioner and his team had sought to have a positive impact on operational policing demand and capacity, to keep people safer than they otherwise would have been.

·         Contracts are awarded where an essential service need is identified and will generally be for larger monetary sums and cover a longer period of time. Nearly all such contracts are managed and funded in partnership and require a significant amount of performance information from those receiving funding to demonstrate how the funding is being used.

·         Grants are generally used for local, short term funding applications and are suited to the needs of those applying.

·         Two commissioning rounds are held by the Commissioner each year. This allows those unsuccessful in the first round, the ability to work with the OPCC to improve their application for the second round where potential in the proposal is identified.

·         Each year the OPCC hold review sessions with the Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) to identify areas for improvement.

Members were shown a short film demonstrating the impact of grant funding provided by the Commissioner to Basingstoke Street Pastors. 

In response to Members questions it was heard:

·         Funding decisions are made based on CSP priorities as well as the those of the Commissioner and Constabulary. The OPCC were concerned to hear that some CSP’s had raised concerns to Members regarding their engagement in the process. The OPCC offered an invitation to all CSP’s to meet with them to discuss and share their thoughts.

·         Those making bids for grant funding were challenged for evidence to support their applications and that decisions were made with an evidence-based approach. Those awarded grants were also expected to provide metrics to demonstrate their success. 

RESOLVED:

That the Commissioning Round 19/20 presentation is noted.

Cllr Craig left the meeting at this point

The chair paused the meeting for a 5 minute comfort break, suspending the meeting from 11:30 to 11:35.

To receive a quarterly update from the Police and Crime Commissioner detailing delivery against his Police and Crime Plan.

Members received a presentation setting out an update on delivery against the Police and Crime Plan 2016-2021. Members heard:

·         The Commissioner had made funding available for a wellbeing programme for the Constabulary. It was hoped that this would help staff feel more respected in their role and enhance the motivation and wellbeing of the force, leading to improvements operational delivery. Hampshire Constabulary would be leading nationally through delivering this programme to police staff and there had been considerable interest from other forces in the programme’s roll-out.

·         The Commissioner and Chief Constable had recently met with MP’s to brief them regarding budgetary concerns in relation to the current funding formula.

·         The work of the Youth Commission was reaching a national audience and they had recently been invited to present at the National Crimebeat 2019 Awards Ceremony.

In response to Members questions it was heard:

·         The level of funding set aside for the wellbeing programme, £761,000, was agreed with the intention that the project be set up in a way that would enable it to be self-sustaining in the future. Funding for this programme was made available by the Commissioner and, as it was not included within the policing budget, had been recorded as a formal decision by the Commissioner.

·         The existing Police Medical Welfare Service provided support for the physical trauma of policing, and adopted a national over-arching process. The intention was for the wellbeing programme to compliment this by being more locally focussed and support police staff with managing the mental impact of their role. It was further hoped that introduction of the wellbeing programme would reduced lost working time, resulting from work-related trauma, and reduce the level of ill health early retirement.

·         £2,250 funding for multi-function pouches was agreed by the Commissioner, following request from the Chairman of the Police Federation. It enabled the centralised purchase of 300 pouches, of an appropriate and consistent quality, for the use of Specially Trained Officers who carry Tasers.

RESOLVED:

That the update on the delivery of the Police and Crime Plan is noted.

To hear an update from the Commissioner relating to the strategic approach to tackling and preventing serious and organised crime related to County lines.

Members were shown a video presentation which explained the local picture regarding county lines. The Chairman offered the Panel’s thanks to the officer featured within the video, which had been prepared by the OPCC in response to the Panel’s request.

Cllr Ken Muschamp and Michael Coombes left the meeting at this point.

In response to Member’s questions it was heard:

·         £330,000 had been committed by the Commissioner to projects across the Hampshire policing area to tackle county lines. 

·         Individuals who had Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) were particularly vulnerable to being drawn into illegal activity by those running county lines and agencies need to work together to protect those young people and vulnerable adults who were being targeted.

·         The use of premises closure orders had increased in response to a direct increase in the identified risk. Confidential lines had also been made available to allow local residents to report concerns without fear of repercussion.

·         The Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner was liaising with  colleagues at a national level to learn from best practice in other areas, with a particular focus on probation. 

·         The Commissioner had questioned why there was still a disproportionate response to stop and search for black males, and would provide a written response to Members questions regarding this. The Commissioner noted that the Chief Constable had expressed a desire for the Constabulary to have the confidence to use ‘stop and search’ powers, and that the use of these powers was closely audited.  Such powers are used to keep communities safe and the Commissioner felt it was important that those approached by officers felt sufficiently assured to co-operate with the process.

·         The Commissioner was consulted in the recent decision to turn off street lighting directly owned by Hampshire County Council between 01:00 and 04:00. The Commissioner was assured by those involved that there was an appropriate variation in how and where this had been applied, and Members heard the Commissioner was maintaining an oversight on any potential impact on community safety resulting from this decision.

RESOLVED:

·         That the presentation on county lines is noted.

To receive a verbal update from recent working group meetings.

Councillor Bound was invited to provide an update on the work of the Plan working group and Proactive scrutiny task and finish group. Members heard:

·         At their most recent meeting the Plan working group had, on behalf of the Panel, scrutinised information presented by the OPCC regarding progress against delivery of the Police and Crime Plan. Areas of interest identified by the working group had been brought forward to this meeting under item eight of the agenda.

·         The Plan working group had also discussed, with the OPCC, progress against recruitment of the 200+ new officers funded by the precept increase. It was agreed that the working group would  monitor, on a quarterly basis, how recruitment and training of these officers was progressing and report back to the full Panel.

·         Work on the Panel’s scrutiny looking at how the Commissioner is ‘Enabling Effective and Efficient Operational Policing’ was progressing well, with a wide range of organisations invited to share their thoughts through an online survey. The task and finish group had also arranged to meet with a number of organisations to conduct face to face interviews to gather evidence for the scrutiny.

·         The task and finish group intended to share a summary presentation of the outcomes of the evidence gathering process at the next Panel Meeting in July, and present recommendations to the Commissioner for agreement by the full Panel in October. 

To consider a report setting out the proposed future work programme for the Panel.

Members received a report from the scrutiny officer to the Panel setting out the proposed work programme for the Panel.

RESOLVED:

That the work programme is agreed.