Agenda item

a)    Current crime profiles – a presentation covering OPCC COVID governance, crime profile an trends from March-May

 

b)    Sickness and resilience within Wiltshire Police

 

c)    Cash flow implications of Covid19

 

The Commissioner presented his report setting out data reported in the four-week period ending 10 May 2020, compared to the equivalent four-week period in 2019 contained in the agenda pack.

 

Points made included:

 

National Position

 

·         That reported Crime nationally had reduced by 24%. Week on week trends suggested that the implementations of lockdown had influenced these large reductions

 

·         Serious violent crime had reduced by 29 %.  Trends had been difficult to interpret, but all forces were reporting reductions

 

·         Shoplifting had decreased by 53%. It is anticipated this reduction will be maintained. Whilst more stores begin to open, there was heavy focus on security to support social distancing and monitor customer behaviour

 

·         Other forms of acquisitive crime including vehicle crime had reduced by 41%, with residential burglary reducing by 35%

 

·         Recorded rape had reduced by 27%, with all forces recording reductions

 

·         Recorded domestic abuse incidents had increased by 4%. Trends in DA were not consistent across all forces and remain aligned to trends in 2019 with increased reports on both bank holiday weekends

 

Wiltshire’s Position

 

·         That reported Crime reduced by 26.6%,slightly above the national reports of 24% although trends do reflect the national picture

 

·         Serious violent crime had reduced by 21.7%, 7.3% lower than the national reports for the same time period

 

·         Shoplifting had decreased by 62%. Wiltshire also expects maintained reduction as reported nationally

 

·         Other forms of acquisitive crime including vehicle crime had reduced by 36.9%, with residential burglary reducing by 50.7%. 15.7% above national reports

 

·         Recorded rape had reduced by 36.4%, 9.4% above the reported national average

 

·         Recorded domestic abuse incidents had increased by 17%. DA levels during Covid had remained within predicted levels, although the last week (w/c 11th of May) saw the lowest level of reporting since lockdown began

 

·         Some Wiltshire Police work plans had been delayed or altered due to Covid

 

·         In early March a bid for an extra 52 tasers had been granted by the Home Office

 

·         The Commissioner was partaking in regular conference calls with MPs and Council leaders due the lockdown

 

·         Wiltshire Police remained on-track with officer recruitment, with some 40 students starting their police degree

 

·         The use of ICT and mobile technology had helped back office staff to continue running the business from home

 

·         Wiltshire Police and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner had continued to work well during the lockdown

 

·         The Commissioner paid tribute to all officers and staff for their hard work and dedication during the pandemic

 

The panel were then given the opportunity to discuss the report.

 

Points made included:

 

·         County lines disruptions during the lockdown

 

·         Assaults on officers during the lockdown

 

·         Wiltshire Police plans to re-open police stations whilst the main office hubs were closed

 

·         The rise of domestic abuse during the lockdown

 

The panel requested that the OPCC provide figures of all Wiltshire Police issued fixed penalty notices, include any that were rescinded during the lockdown period.

 

The Chairman thanked the Commissioner for his report.

 

Chris McMullen – Director of People and Change, OPCC presented a report which outlined Wiltshire Police sickness and resilience.

 

Points made included:

 

Managing Sickness

 

Implemented COVID categories to enable us to understand our workforce

 

COVID categories:

 

·         Working from home: Symptomatic – Individual and line manager agreed they can still work

 

·         Working from home: Family/Co-habit symptomatic – Having to isolate for at least 14 days in line with national guidance, but could still work

 

·         Dependants’ Leave: Dependent symptomatic and staff member unable to work from home

 

·         Dependants Leave: Dependent non-symptomatic (e.g. school closure), staff member was able to work full or reduced hours from home

 

·         Specials Leave – For those whose role would not allow them to work from home and they could not do any other work

 

·         COVID-19 – Counted as Sickness. Unwell with suspected or confirmed COVID19 and unable to work

 

·         COVID-19 – Lock- down. Only for staff working from home based on Government guidance

 

·         Sickness Cell analysed and supported COVID absence on a daily basis (welfare, recording, testing)

 

·         Support materials in place for the Force and OPCC, discussing many topics such as anxiety, finances, line management, and working from home

 

Wiltshire Police Covid Sickness Summary

 

·         108 people had been off sick with COVID since 9 March (5.3% of organisation)

·         This had equated to 913 days away from work

·         52% Police Staff, 48% Police Officers

·         102 people had been working from home with COVID symptoms

·         All staff with vulnerabilities had been assessed, recorded and acted upon if necessary

 

Business Continuity

 

·         Since the start of this incident, Wiltshire Police had put in place a Capacity, Deployability and Surge capability

 

·         This articulated how the Force would operate should resilience level drop due to COVID-19

 

·         It defined all functions which were Essential, Desirable and Not Critical, their key functions and operational options to maintain service delivery

 

·         Finally, it outlined the mechanism for making immediate decisions required to maintain the essential services of the Police

 

·         In support of Business Continuity, a Qliksense app had been built which provided a dynamic overview of available resources

 

The Chairman thanked Chris McMullen for his report, and noted that he was pleased that Wiltshire Police had a good handle on its sickness and deployability.

 

Clive Barker - Chief Finance Officer, Wiltshire Police presented a report which outlined the Covid-19 impact on Wiltshire Police’s cash flow

 

Points made included:

 

·         That the Government had not formally agreed any police funding for Covid costs.  However on the 6 May 2020 a request for information was received from the Home Office, this contained the following pointers;

 

·         HM Treasury to agree increased flexibility on half of the £168m ring-fenced grant for the Police Uplift Programme to help meet forces’ Covid-19 cashflow pressures.

 

·         From June, Wiltshire Police would be able to draw down its allocation of this funding on a monthly basis to meet a proportion of its additional Covid-19 related spending as well as officer recruitment where it continued to take place.

 

·         The 20,000 officer uplift remained a top Government priority, and it encouraged forces to continue using the ring-fenced grant for this purpose where they were able to, whilst recognising the need to be flexible and supportive of other unexpected financial challenges at this difficult time.

 

·         However, this £84m was also intended to relieve immediate pressures on cashflow and support forces for whom recruitment may had slowed due to Covid-19 disruption. It was therefore not “earmarked” exclusively for Covid-19 expenditure, nor would it represent the total money available to forces for Covid-19 pressures, but should be regarded as an early payment against those costs where they were needed and where recruitment had slowed due to the pandemic.

 

 

The Wiltshire Funding Position

 

·         Wiltshire were awarded an Uplift grant of up to £1.384m to recruit 49 officers, 50% of this is £0.692m.

 

·         Wiltshire remained on track to hit the Uplift headcount target of 1074 (1046 fte) (this included secondments).  The recruitment was planned throughout the year with two intakes planned in the last three months of the financial year.  This may lead to some funding slippage.  The lack of certainty in this statement exists because no grant forms had been issued to date from the Home Office.

·         With current demand the estimated cost to Wiltshire Police was circa £0.108m (excluding PPE).  So assuming the current spending levels occur until September the cost estimate (including 2019-20 costs) was £0.666m.

 

The Chairman thanked Clive Barker for his report.