Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Harper-Davies; Councillor Graham; City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby; Parisha Chavda Independent Member and Salma Manzoor Independent Member.

It was noted that Councillor Morgan was present as a substitute for Councillor Harper-Davies; Councillor Westley was present as a substitute for City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and Councillor Brown was present as a substitute for Councillor Oxley who had replaced Councillor Stephenson as a Member of the panel.

The Chair informed panel members that she would be liaising with Grace Strong Strategic Director of the Violence Reduction Network to arrange a training session around “Trauma Informed” for members and dates would be circulated in due course.

Members will be asked to declare any interests they have in the business on the agenda.

Members were asked to declare any pecuniary or other interest they may have in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Brown declared that he was a Magistrate in Loughborough and Leicestershire and for the purpose of discussion and any decisions being taken he retained an open mind and was not therefore required to withdraw from the meeting.

The minutes of the meetings held on 2^nd February 2022 and 14^th February 2022 are attached and Members will be asked to confirm they are an accurate record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 2^nd February 2022 and the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th February 2022 be confirmed as an accurate record.

None.

None received.

None.

Members to receive a report providing an update of the Corporate Governance Board and overview of Leicestershire Police performance by the Police and Crime Commissioner and his Office.

The Police and Crime Commissioner submitted a report providing an update on the OPCC Corporate Governance Board which included oversight of the Leicestershire Police performance by the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) introduced the report and drew attention to the outcomes of the inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services which resulted in Leicestershire Police receiving three outstanding gradings; four good gradings and no areas receiving a requires improvement grading.

The PCC recognised these outcomes were due to the current and previous leadership and explained how the introduction of the Corporate Governance Board (CGB) system would be used as a proper mechanism for holding the acting Chief Constable to account and to provide the Panel with a clear and transparent vehicle to scrutinise what the PCC was doing to hold the acting Chief Constable to account.

Lizzie Starr acting Chief Executive Officer summarised the report which included overview of the CGB including its meeting procedure, attendance and purpose; overview of the CGBs discussions and action points arising and how outcomes and conclusions from the CGB would be brought to the Panel’s attention in future reports.

It was noted that:

·         In relation to national concerns around electoral fraud the OPCC would raise the policing of elections with the APCC Notable practice forum to further inform the current process and practice locally.

·         All force crime performance data was now being received and the OPCC would be asking for more force analysis moving forwards.

The Chair and Members of the panel welcomed the level of detail provided in the report which they found was useful to see how the PCC was holding the acting Chief Constable to account.

RESOLVED:

                        That the contents of the report be noted.

Members to receive a report providing an update on recent progress in delivering the Strategic Partnership Board’s strategic intent to become a trauma-informed area.

The Police and Crime Commissioner submitted a report updating on recent progress on delivery of the Strategic Partnership Board’s (SPB) strategic intent to become a trauma-informed area.

Grace Strong, Strategic Director, Violence Reduction Network introduced the report explaining the background and research around the correlation with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma with several types of harm and in relation to different types of violence and exploitation which had led to the SPBs intent to work collaboratively across organisations and communities to develop a trauma informed system.

It was noted that:

·         The SPB had agreed a common definition of trauma and that a trauma-informed approach would be guided by four assumptions as set out in the report based upon 4 R’s – realises, recognises, responds, resists retraumatising.

·         Three broad areas had also been agreed to progress the required work namely a LLR wide multi-agency Leadership Group to oversee set up of plan and implementation of plan; an Independent Advisor to be commissioned through VRN to provide expertise and insight in early stages and a temporary Project Lead funded by the OPCC to ensure dedicated resource at least in short term to support the work of the Leadership Group.

·         The Leadership Group were enthusiastic, committed people with good experience including representation from the Police, Local Authorities, Children’s Services, Public Health, Schools, Health Commissioners and the National Probation Service and had met regularly since being formed in August 2021.

·         A structure had been drafted and a framework was being developed for organisations to use on their journeys and there was a lot of interested organisations wanting to become trauma informed and the challenge was making that consistent across the system.

·         A significant help to the progression of the workforce development workstream was the VRN’s successful bid for £319k from the home Office Serious Violence Youth Intervention Fund for trauma informed training which had enabled the VRN to partner Barnardo’s to deliver a comprehensive training programme consisting of 3 modules: Introduction to ACE’s and Trauma Informed Practice; Developing Trauma Informed; and Trauma Informed Organisations.

·         George Hoskins had been commissioned by the VRN as an Independent Advisor to offer his expertise alongside the Leadership Group and he would continue to work with them until end Summer 2022.

·         Interviews for the Project Lead role were scheduled to take place on 20^th  May.

·         This was a long term strategy although there had been impressive partner interest in this workstream.

Members discussed the report which included the following points:

·         In terms of the Leadership Group the City Council was represented and were very active through the Children’s Services area

·         As regards violence impacting on health and wellbeing and mental health it was important to be aware of incidents with a ripple effect to be able to respond appropriately and although this work was about prevention it also involved mitigation when incidents occur.

·         In relation to broadening awareness of Trauma Informed to elected members and across Local Authorities, last year’s funding was prescribed but this year  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93.

Members to receive a report updating on the work of the local Violence Reduction Network.

The Police and Crime Commissioner submitted a report updating on the work of the local Violence Reduction Network (VRN)

The Police and Crime Commissioner commented that the VRN took on a challenging role dealing with long term causes. VRN’s across the country were tackling the same issues and one of the most pressing had centred around concerns of VRNs being funded on an annual basis although they were dealing with long term issues and ongoing projects. Police and Crime Commissioners across the country had been lobbying government to address the disparity of funding and the Police and Crime Commissioner was pleased to confirm that, on 1^st April 2022 Kit Malthouse, the Minister for Crime and Policing had announced a 3 year funding arrangement for the VRN which would see an additional £3.5m investment as well as £1.5m in group funding over the same 3 year period so the force could continue with its evidence informed work and hopefully do more with the funding secured.

Members welcomed the news about funding and recognised the challenge of leading on longer term projects with uncertainty around year on year funding.

Grace Strong, Strategic Director, Violence Reduction Network (VRN) introduced the report and summarised the key elements which included the following points:

·         The VRN Annual report had been produced and was with the Home Officer for comment and would be shared with the panel in due course,

·         Insight into the VRN partnership arrangements, core membership and how it works in partnership.

·         VRN focus was on public based offences which may change in time particularly with the serious violence duty coming in which has now received royal assent.

·         The VRN was strong on community involvement and building in evaluation to demonstrate impact over time.

Attention was drawn to trends in serious violence and a series of graphs based on police recorded crime, showing peaks and troughs that correlated to restrictions and the covid lockdown situation. It was noted there was a slight upward trend over the 3 year period between February 2019 and February 2022. It was advised that the breakdown of offences was more consistent over the last 3 years however some of the increases e.g., Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) were in part due to the reclassification exercise of offences from common assault to ABH and also the role of the night-time economy and alcohol related offending. Members noted the October/November 2021 peaks related to a brief increase in reports of needle spiking but those hadn’t been seen since. It was also noted that the Strategic Needs Assessment provided a more detailed analysis of data including deep dives on different cohorts.

Members were updated on the VRN programme 2021/22 noting this was the second year of delivery of the VRN 3-year Response Strategy which took a universal approach and targeted interventions to communities and areas most at risk; focus in the City was on the east, west and central parts whilst in Leicestershire it was the Charnwood area as they had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94.

Members to receive a report providing an update on development of the delivery plan to accompany the Police and Crime Plan including a timeline for implementation.

The Police and Crime Commissioner submitted a report updating on the delivery plan that would accompany the Police and Crime Plan including a timeline for implementation.

The PCC advised that this update was aimed at showing how the Police and Crime Plan would be delivered and also the mechanism to hold to account the various deliverers.

Lizzie Starr acting Chief Executive Officer explained the status and progress made to date. A delivery report would be compiled to ensure delivery of the Police and Crime Plan was captured in one place and that would be taken to the Corporate Governance Board once a month.

The delivery plan included a number of workstreams with ambitions and aims listed, to ensure all activity was captured and that was aligned to outcomes that would be agreed by the Force and PCC and tailored to activities and performance measures as well as work around baselines.

Members were informed they would have sight of monitoring throughout and details would be published to the OPCC website. 

The Chair indicated that the Panel would like to see the Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to scrutinise the impact of Police and Crime Plan and asked for assurance on whether it would sit as a separate item so it was clear to the Panel it was outcomes/delivery of the Police and Crime Plan objectives.

Lizzie Starr responded that one of the Corporate Governance Board agendas would be focused on the Police and Crime Plan delivery and that would be reported within the Corporate Governance reports. The PCC clarified that he wanted a more formalised structure and hoped it would be clearer moving forward.

The Democratic Support Officer reminded that it was a core duty of the Panel to review key activities and priorities including the delivery and resourcing of the Police and Crime Plan, and it would be helpful not to lose sight of that within other reports and to include as a specific item on the Police and Crime Panel agenda as necessary going forward.

RESOLVED:

That progress to date on the delivery plan to accompany the Police and Crime Plan be noted.

Members to receive a report providing an interim summary of the activity of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Crime Panel to show use of the Home Office Grant Funding for the financial year 2021-22.

Members received a report providing a summary of the activity of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Panel to show use of the Home Office Grant funding for the financial year 2021-22.

A request was made for consideration to be given to any future Member training being arranged to take place in the evenings to accommodate those Members on the Panel who worked full time.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the contents of the report be noted,

2.    That future Member training shall include evening sessions where possible to accommodate Members that worked full time.

Members to receive details of the Policing Protocol Consultation for the purpose of gathering a collective view of the Panel to feed into the consultation responses.

Members received a report providing details of the Policing Protocol Consultation.

It was noted that the intention was to discuss options for feedback however due to the postponement of the April meeting and the deadline for responses to the Home Office being 2^nd May, Members of the Panel were emailed outside of the meeting with the Chair’s proposed response (that she would submit directly in her own capacity) and reminded they could respond too if they wished.

It was confirmed that the Chair’s response had been submitted to the Home Office as advised by email.

RESOLVED:

To note the steps taken in relation to the Policing Protocol Consultation.

The Police and Crime Commissioner is invited to give a verbal update on Home Office funding (if applicable).

Dealt with under the Violence Reduction Network item above.

Members to receive a verbal update on the Community Safety Partnership funding formula.

The Police and Crime Commissioner gave a brief verbal update in relation to the Community Safety Partnership Funding Formula.

Members noted that the way in which the OPCC distributed funding had remained unchanged for about 8-9 years and there were no records of how the decision was originally arrived at. As this was an area dealing with substantial sums of money it was thought important to have a proper formula for how funding was agreed and distributed.

The PCC had explored funding formulas with other Offices of Police and Crime Commissioners across the country and would be consulting with the Community Safety Partnerships in June 2022 to look at various models and receive feedback which would be reviewed and brought to a conclusion to decide a proper funding formula/process that could be implemented for the next financial year.

Members of the panel asked for further information about comparators and their baseline funding formulas which the PCC agreed to provide.

The Chair requested inclusion in the circulation of information to Community Safety Partnerships

RESOLVED:

1.    That the update be noted.

2.    That the Police and Crime Commissioner provide comparative information on baseline funding formulas used across the country.

Members to note the ongoing work programme and consider any further suggestions for inclusion.

The current work programme was received and noted.

Concerns were raised about the staffing situation at the OPCC, noting another senior staff member had gone in a short space of time and that despite requests for a structure of the office that had still not been provided and a full update report was therefore requested on Staffing at the OPCC.

A report updating on the timeline of the Chief Constable recruitment was sought. The PCC advised that the procedure to appoint to Chief Constable was very detailed and would take several months, that process would formally begin in June and the focus would be on ensuring the right candidate for the role.

RESOLVED:

1.    That an OPCC Staffing update report be brought to the next meeting to include details of the effects of churn upon the office and risk management, e.g.  experience or skills lost; operational impact on key projects or priorities; impact on capacity and resources; any disruption to service provision,

2.    That the Panel be kept informed of the timeline of the recruitment process for a Chief Constable. 

The Chair and Members of the Panel took a moment to reflect on the sad loss of former Chief Constable Simon Cole and extended condolences and respects to his family and police colleagues.

To note the next scheduled meeting on Monday 20^th June 2022 at 1pm at City Hall.

Noted the next meeting scheduled for Monday 20^th June 2022 at 1pm to take place at City Hall.