Agenda item

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

Members received some advance slides and a presentation from the Commissioner and Chief Executive setting out an update on delivery against the Police and Crime Plan 2016-2021 (see Item 7 in the Minute Book).

The Panel had received some initial slides which gave an overview and summary of on-going, delivered and future projects. The projects reported through the slides saw a fairly even distribution across the four Plan priorities, and a summary had been provided with the slide pack. Also included within these were decision notices which the Commissioner hoped would satisfy the Panel’s previous recommendations around transparency. These would be provided in all future updates.

A selection of recent events the Commissioner had attended were listed in the second presentation, which enabled the voices of the public and communities to be heard, and the Commissioner and his staff the opportunity to meet people and hear their priorities and concerns.

The Youth Commission had undertaken a piece of work on mental health which had been forwarded to the Public Health team in Hampshire for inclusion in the future Public Health strategy.

Councillor Bound commented on the outcomes of the most recent Police and Crime Plan working group, where helpful conversations had been held with officers about the progress made against the Plan. From this, three areas had been highlighted by the Plan working group for consideration at this meeting, which centred on court films, cyber ambassadors and cyber behaviours. On the court film project, the Plan working group had been pleased to see this work progress, but had challenged why the timescales had been extended, and what the benefits of this project would be. On the cyber ambassadors programme, the Plan working group wished to understand how the Commissioner would measure the impact of the project, and how the learning from this would be shared.

In response to questions, the Panel heard:

·         The court films would be publically accessible and shared with partners for further signposting. The aim was for anyone attending court, but primarily victims and witnesses, to view these in order to understand what to expect, including what facilities are available. It had been decided that films would be best to convey this message, as often people preferred to access information instantly and via the internet.

·         That the court films project timescales had been extended due to staff sickness, so further time had been added to see this project through to completion.

·         That it would be helpful for the lead members for mental health in local authorities to connect with the Youth Commission’s report on mental health.

·         That the cyber ambassador project, titled ‘Go Fish’, had seen the Commissioner and police colleagues visiting schools with ambassadors in the region to highlight the campaign. So far it was felt that the messages had landed well with the target audience, with children and young people keen to protect themselves online as a result. The internet impacted young people in every part of their lives, and was much more integral to school life, so it was important to focus education projects around the safe use of cyberspace.

·         Adult education in relation to safe internet use was also important too, and the topic of ‘cyber’ would be a continuous  theme across the Plan priorities for the Commissioner. The issue of cyber crime was less visible than other types, but was growing in the number of people it affected across the policing area.

·         The figures reported in the presentation in terms of public engagement were low in comparison to other events held, but the Commissioner wished to be transparent about the number of people being reached. The Commissioner was keen to increase the breadth and reach of his engagement, and to undertake further work communicating his role and work to the public.

The Panel thanked the officers and Commissioner for a clear and informative presentation.

RESOLVED:

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