Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr Wheeler.

Cllr Humphries substituted for Cllr Wheeler.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 18 March 2014 (copy attached).

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 March 2014 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Leader.

There were no Leader’s announcements.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public. This meeting is open to the public, who may ask a question or make a statement. Written notice of questions or statements should be given to Kirsty Butcher of Democratic Services by 12.00 noon on Thursday 12 June 2014. Anyone wishing to ask a question or make a statement should contact the officer named above.

It was noted that no requests for public participation had been received. The Leader did however explain that, as usual at meetings of Cabinet, she would be more than happy to hear from any member of the public present on any of the items on this agenda.

To receive a presentation from Paul Mills and Rachel Kirby on the ongoing work around the neighbourhood policing project and operational policing.

Rachel Kirby, Systems Thinking Lead gave a detailed presentation on the work of her team in reviewing customer access and getting knowledge of Wiltshire Police Systems.

The team had spent time gaining knowledge and understanding the current operations systems; and had developed a purpose statement, “Keep me safe and protect my community”, based on talking to members of the public and observed demand. Case studies had identified issues with handoffs, a number of different systems being used and the creation of preventable demand.

The police were presented with two options – to stay as they were or to move to redesign with testing. With the agreement of the police the principles of redesign were established from the check phase and the current focus is on developing a one stop ‘respond, resolve, record’, community focused approach for its customers. This will be tested live on new demand (a report of a theft) in the Trowbridge sector from 30 June 2014; the design will then be refined and further tested until it is fully robust in operational use. .This will in turn inform what roles and structures are required. Once capacity had been released, work will focus more on being proactive in preventing crime and addressing the root causes of crime and antisocial behaviour in our communities.

The Chief Constable, Pat Geenty congratulated the team on their work to date, highlighting that Wiltshire was the only force going through an end-to-end redesigning process. Existing systems had been built up over 170 years and it was hoped that silos would be broken down and staff would be put back into the community teams. He recognised the difficulty in transitioning from one system to another and hoped that the system would expand over time, providing information on why crimes were happening and moving the focus to prevention. He welcomed the support of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Wiltshire Public Service Board recognising the review would not work without public partnerships.

The Committee confirmed its support for the redesign, recognising the similarities between it and other projects.

When questioned on whether the redesign had the support of the Ministry of Justice, Mr Geenty noted that the permanent secretary would be visiting next week. Police on the front line had been engaged by the systems thinking team, involved in making changes and designing the right IT solution. A key part was training and ensuring it was right for the individual. 

Mr Geenty noted that public satisfaction surveys had shown that Wiltshire Police were third best in the country for dealing with crime, increasing 7 points in the last 12 months. The relationship with the public was improving, possibly due to increased visibility.

The Committee thanked Rachel for her presentation.

Paul Mills gave a presentation on community engagement, including the purchase of community alert software called Neighbourhood Alert. This was currently used by Thames Valley Police who in two years had 80,000 members sign up to use it.

Neighbourhood Alert was free  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

To receive a presentation by John Rogers, Head of Systems Thinking and Customer Access.

John Rogers, Head of Systems Thinking and Customer Access, gave a presentation on the system review of intermediate care that had been started as a result of the Better Care Plan, a new government initiative on care for the frail elderly.

He detailed the complex processes involved in placing people into intermediate care, and issues around delayed transfers to care and duplication of roles.

A detailed case study was being developed from existing records, and discussions with stakeholders were planned to decide what the ‘check’ stage would involve and what it would deliver as part of the Better Care Plan.

The committee recognised that community services needed to be in place and available to provide a different option to the acute route.

In response to questions it was confirmed that the care pathway was the best way to bring together service providers and it was important to see the disbenefit to patients of being in acute beds when they would be better placed in a different care setting – ideally their home. There were no plans to put wardens back into care homes.

The Committee thanked John for his presentation.

To receive a highlight report on projects and programmes by Ian Baker, Head of Programme Office.

Ian Baker, Head of Programme Officer presented a report which provided an update on the position of projects and programmes as at 31 May 2014.

Resolved:

The Committee noted the report.

To receive a highlight report on the systems thinking programme by John Rogers, Head of Systems Thinking and Customer Access.

John Rogers, Head of Systems Thinking and Customer Access presented a report which detailed the position of the systems thinking programme as at 31 May 2014.

Resolved:

The Committee noted the report.

Any other items of business that the Leader agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.