Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr Peter Hutton – Wiltshire Council & Cllr John Smale – Wiltshire Council.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 5 September 2019.

Decision:

·       The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 5 September 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chairman reminded the panel members that there would be a part II paper re agenda item:8 which would be considered at the end of the meeting.

The Panel welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you wish to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the first page of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

Members of the public are able to ask questions in relation to the responsibilities and functions of the Panel at each meeting. Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the Head of Democratic Services at Wiltshire Council no later than 5.00 pm on 3 clear wkg days before meeting. Please contact the officer named on the first page of the agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

A question from a member of the public had been received:

This discussion relates to the setting and monitoring of targets for the Wiltshire and Swindon Police organisation, specifically related to the 12% increase applied to the 2019/20 precept charge

It seems that the Home Office guideline is that the police organisation not set any forward looking quantitative targets of what it is expected to achieve. but to measure past performance of what has happened.

It alsoseems thatthis philosophyis setout asguidelines, and,whilst adheringto these guidelines for Home Office purposes it does not preclude the organisation setting forward looking quantitative targets for its ownpurpose.

There is an argument that measuring historic performance in the current form is necessary, but not sufficient. The current measurement seems to be comparative to the organisations own past performance and that of peer organisations. By example, both base indices could be poor, the comparison could show excellence, and yet the actual performance delivered in real terms could be poor. The true value of retrospectiveperformance measurementis greatlyimpaired unlessit isrelative toprior set quantitative and objective forward-lookingtargets.

Setting this aside for the moment.

In March 2019 the organisation applied a 12% increase in the precept charge. The rate of inflation at that time was 1.9% and has remained average 1.9 year to date. The precept rate increase was 6x the rate of inflation.

The increase was justified on increasing police headcount by 50 operational

personnel. (reference: Wiltshire Police and Crime Panel -Thursday 7 February 2019)

There appears to be no record of any discussion that established a commitment as to what improvement in crime statistics was intended to be delivered from this increased precept charge and consequential increase in headcount. Related to the preface observation; there was no commitment made to any quantitative objective(s) that were intended to be delivered as a result of this increase.

Further, by relying on a retrospective measurement philosophy it would appear not to be possible to determine if any change in performance is a result of the increased resources or performance of the underlying resources.

It is recognised that the income of the organisation should keep pace with inflation, or change if so determined by the Home Office and central Governmentfunds

However, it seems unreasonable to increase the precept charge by a factor of 6 without contemporaneously committing to quantitative performance targets intended to be delivered as a result of the increased revenue. A singular target of adding 50 headcount bears no relationship to any intended outcome of operationalperformance.

There follows 2 recommendations

It seems that, in addition to adhering to Home Office guidelines, the organisation could also set forward looking quantitative targets. Doing so would then give context to the justification for any extraneous preceptcharges.

It is requested that the Committee seriously consider applying this Philosophy.

Any future increases in the precept charge, by  a  rate  greater  than  the rate of inflation, should  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

Chief Constable Kier Pritchard gave a presentation that gave a progress update which highlighted:

·       Strategic context

·       Foundations of a high performing organisation

·       The immediate and compelling issues for Wiltshire Police

·       Wiltshire Police - workforce

·       How we are Wiltshire Police performing

The panel members were given the opportunity to question the Chief Constable and to discuss the presentation.

Panel members raised concerns re the lack of visibility of Community Police officers in their respective communities.

The Chairman thanked the Chief Constable for attending the meeting and giving his presentation.

The power point presentation is attached.

The Commissioner presented his report setting out the quarterly performance data – Quarter Two 2019-20 (1 July to 30 September 2019) contained in the agenda pack.

Points made included:

·       In early October the Home Office announced the Police Uplift Programme and the officer recruitment targets for every police force in England, in a drive to increase police by 20,000 over the next 3 years. This announcement was supported via an additional £750 million the government pledged to support up to 6,000 additional officers by the end of 2021.

·       The additional allocation for Wiltshire Police was 49 additional officers for year one (2020/21) and this was in addition to the additional 41 police officers being recruited for 2019/20, as a result of the police precept increase.

·       Despite the positive news regarding the Police Uplift Programme the announcement of the General Election on 12 December and the dissolution of Parliament has meant that, unlike in previous years, it would not be possible to announce a provisional settlement in December. This caused some consequential uncertainties around budget setting for the next financial year and the Commissioner awaited the outcome of the settlement figure and the potential effect on the Uplift and the additional 49 police officers pledged.

·       Post-election Ministers would be required to make decisions on both the size of the settlement (including on reallocations and precept levels) and the timing of any provisional and the final settlement.

·       That the Chief Constable had advised the Commissioner that a number of changes would be applied to CPT through a phased approach. In the New Year, you would see the CPT model move from seven to eight teams with the amalgamation of Swindon into one policing team, the division of the current Wiltshire North CPT into two teams and the Wiltshire West CPT division into two teams.

·       All CPTs would see the introduction of a dedicated neighbourhood team working alongside colleagues performing a response role. The neighbourhood team, led by a neighbourhood inspector would strengthen community policing, focusing directly on working within the community, offering greater contact with the public and a problem solving approach.

·       The neighbourhood inspectors were now in post and would develop their teams over the coming months.

·       That there were 11,856 crimes recorded during quarter two and 44,340 in the 12 months to September 2019.

That this represented 1,258 more recorded crimes (2.9 per cent) compared to the previous 12 months.

That the recorded crime rate per 1,000 population for Wiltshire in the year to June 2019 was 61.2 crimes. This was significantly below the most similar group (MSG) average of 73.0 crimes per 1,000 population.

Action points

·        That the OPCC would supply statistics re Special Constables hours deployed – number of hours spent on independent patrols carried out by Special Constables.

·       That a meeting would be arranged between PCP and OPCC to discuss Police sickness, with a written report coming to the March PCP meeting.

Deep Dive – Service Delivery Plan 2019 – Quarter 2 Report – Priority 2: Protect  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

Kieran Kilgallen – Chief Executive, OPCC introduced two reports:

The Monitoring of Professional Standards, Integrity and Complaint Appeals – April 2018 to March 2019

A report which provided information pertaining to the monitoring of professional standards, integrity and complaint appeals, for the period April 2018 to March 2019.

The report was derived from the Independent Adjudicator’s report to the Commissioner’s Monitoring Board, and it used data sourced from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), Wiltshire Police and the Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).

The Commissioner had to satisfy himself that the reported information gave a reasonable indication of the efficiency and effectiveness with which the Force handled complaint and conduct investigations, monitored and responded to potential corrupt practice and integrity matters. The information also covered the handling of complaints against Chief Officers and complaint appeals by the OPCC and IOPC. 

The report was noted by the panel.

Complaints Reform

A report which provided an update to the Police and Crime Panel on the complaints reforms and was for information only.

The Home Office had been considering reforms to the complaints system for some time. The reforms put in place a customer-focussed system, which was quicker, more transparent and effective, with local oversight. It would be less adversarial for officers and staff and it would increase the public accountability of PCCs.

Issues could be resolved informally where appropriate, provided the complainant agreed. The Force and OPCC would log everything to ensure that data was captured on all matters raised. OPCC would record more serious matters so that they were dealt with formally by the Force.

The report was noted by the panel.

The Chairman thanked Kieran Kilgallen for the reports.

A report was provided which gave a summary of the developments of the performance measures for the PCC and Police and Crime panel related to areas of Community Policing Teams (CPT).

That over the last 18 months work had been undertaken to develop a range of information in which to monitor and understand resourcing levels in CPT. This had been an iterative process as the OPCC and PCP work trying to distil a complex resource and staffing mechanism into strategic indicators.

Since the last report, the Force had made some proposed changes to the CPT model in order to best deliver community policing within the County.

Members were asked to note the report and the updated measures for monitoring CPT resourcing levels.

Members were asked to note the need to continue to develop short term absence data.

Members were asked to accept the revised information, which would be included in the performance framework.

Members were asked to take note of the work being done to improve resourcing levels within CPT.

The Chairman felt that the report was a good analysis of the performance measures.

The report was noted.

Kieran Kilgallen – OPCC gave a verbal update.

Points made included:

·       That Clare Mills - Head of Corporate Communications & Engagement was now heading up the department.

·       That previous surveys had been carried out as telephone survey.

·       That a new set were being drafted and would then be signed off by the Chief Constable and Police & Crime Commissioner.

·       The new process would be an online “survey monkey” survey.

·       First rollout of the new survey was expected to be during May 2020.

The Chairman requested that the OPCC provided the PCP with the agreed questions.

The Chairman thanked Kieran Kilgallen for his update.

The members questions report included in the agenda pack was noted.

To note the forward work plan.

The Forward Work Plan was noted with the following additions.

The PCP requested that the following reports came to the March meeting:

• Wiltshire Police IT Systems

• Officer Recruitment and Training

To note the future meeting dates below:

• 16 January 2020 - Devizes Corn Exchange. (PCC Budget 2019/20 and MTFS)

·         6 February 2020 - County Hall, Trowbridge. (Formal consideration of PCC Precept proposal)

·         19 March 2020 – Monkton Park, Chippenham.

The next meeting of the Police and Crime Panel will be on Thursday 16 January 2020 - Devizes Corn Exchange. (PCC Budget 2019/20 and

MTFS).

Future meeting dates were:

·       Thursday 6 February – County Hall, Trowbridge

·       Thursday 19 March – Monkton Park, Chippenham

·       Thursday 4 June – City Hall, Salisbury

·       Thursday 3 September – Corn Exchange, Devizes

·       Thursday 10 December – Swindon Borough Council Offices

The report was noted by the panel.