To receive feedback from the last meeting of the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel. 

36.1           Members received an update from Councillor R E Garnham, the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel, on matters discussed at the last meeting of the Panel held on 8 September 2015.

36.2           Councillor Garnham advised that the Police and Crime Commissioner had indicated that he would be happy to come and talk to the Committee rather than just providing written answers to the questions posed by the Committee at its last meeting. However, Councillor Garnham had felt that written responses were important and as such he had pushed for them. They had now been circulated by Democratic Services. In terms of the meeting on 8 September, he advised that the main agenda items had focussed around a presentation from the Chief Constable on the Constabulary’s “New Operating Model”.  There had also been a presentation regarding various schemes that were aimed at meeting the Commissioner’s Safe and Social Driving objective. Although the “Finance Update” had appeared as Agenda Item 8 this had been a verbal report only as the Commissioner had stated that the papers were still confidential until the Constabulary had met later that week. Therefore no finance data was actually tabled. It had been highlighted that the minutes of the meeting on 16 July had included a recommendation from the Police and Crime Panel to the Police and Crime Commissioner that he redraft his Annual Report to include “relevant statistics” and reissue the report.  The statistics that had been requested were around the levels of crime in the County.  The Commissioner had stated that he was not prepared to include this data and therefore the Annual Report would remain unchanged.

36.3              The meeting had received a short report from the Chief Executive and it was clear that the Constabulary was still awaiting various reports from the Inspector of Constabularies on Effectiveness and Legitimacy, Custody Centre Operations and the Constabulary’s approach to Domestic Violence, Child Exploitation and Safeguarding. In terms of the new operating model, the Chief Constable, and Superintendent Richard Cooper, had given a very informative presentation.  The slides were available on the County Council’s Police and Crime Panel website and he urged Members to read them -http://glostext.gloucestershire.gov.uk/documents/b11117/New%20Operating%20Model%20presentation%20Tuesday%2001-Sep-2015%2010.00%20Police%20and%20Crime%20Panel.pdf?T=9 Reassurances had been provided over the importance the Constabulary attached to maintaining neighbourhood policing and the number of Officers devoted to this task had increased from 84 to 95.  The main focus of neighbourhood policing would be “tackling harm and vulnerability”. Local Policing Officers would be assigned to one of three core roles: Incident Resolution (IR - previously known as “Response”); Local Investigation; and Neighbourhood Policing. It was stressed that flexibility was inherent in those roles as Officers may perform all three roles depending on local and County priorities. Incident Response Officers for Gloucester and Cheltenham would be based in Bamfurlong, whilst for rural areas including the Forest of Dean, the Cotswolds, Stroud and Tewkesbury, Incident Response would remain local to those areas. Whilst named local Neighbourhood Policing Officers would remain it was expected that there would be a reduction in their attendance at formal meetings and events.

36.4           Members had also received an update on mobile frontline policing. The presentation had included a brief update on this, along with a list of “what success will look like” factors.  These included Officers remaining on patrol and not having to return to base for more briefings, completion of forms whilst out on patrol, using GPS, mapping and cameras and spending more time with victims and investigating crimes and patrolling. The topic of safe and social driving was one of the Commissioner’s main aims and priorities and the Panel received an excellent presentation from Louise White, the Commissioner’s Safe and Social Driving Coordinator.  The presentation could be found on the County Council’s website http://glostext.gloucestershire.gov.uk/documents/b11118/Safe%20and%20Social%20Driving%20presentation%20Tuesday%2001-Sep-2015%2010.00%20Police%20and%20Crime%20Panel.pdf?T=9 and Councillor Garnham urged Members to take a look. Of particular note were the three schemes aimed to help young people improve their driving skills: Drive IQ Gloucestershire; IAM Courses; and the Pathfinder Programme, all of which he felt were excellent.

36.5           The Police and Crime Commissioner had given a brief verbal update explaining that no financial information could be tabled as papers were still confidential at this stage and would need to be debated internally by the Constabulary at a meeting later that week.  The Commissioner had highlighted that the forthcoming crime service review at the end of the year would lead to more budget cuts and financial challenges; perhaps as much as between £15m to £20m.  Changes were also being made to the Policing Funding Formula and these changes were subject to ongoing consultation. The Panel restated its wish to support the Commissioner and, at a forthcoming work planning meeting, discussions would be held over what documentation/data was needed for the Panel to achieve that aim. The next meeting of the Panel would be 5 November and a work planning session with the Constabulary would be held on 22 September 2015. Councillor Garnham invited any questions from Members before 5 November and he could then ask them at the Panel meeting. 

36.6           The Chief Executive explained that, in terms of local management of the police units in Tewkesbury Borough, he felt Inspector Goga was working well in partnership with Borough Council Officers and other partner organisations in the area. The Chief Executive shared concerns about neighbourhood policing and the risks had been pointed out. The Police and the Police Constable had put forward a management system which they felt would work and he was sure the Police and Crime Panel would monitor this carefully, as would Borough Council Officers locally. Inspector Goga had indicated that he was committed to working hard with partners locally to ensure the system worked and the Borough Council would do its best to try and get the best local outcomes for its Parishes. A Member commented that the Chief Executive had previously undertaken to provide Members with a contact telephone number for the Local Policing Team and, in response, the Chief Executive indicated that Inspector Goga had only just returned from leave but he would speak to him and get something to circulate to Members.

36.7           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the feedback from the last meeting of the Gloucestershire                          Police and Crime Panel be NOTED.