Agenda item

The Panel was provided with an overview of activity undertaken by the Police and Crime Commissioner in support of the Safer West Mercia Plan and an update on police performance.

By way of introduction, the PCC made the following points:

·         The PCC had been pleased to see the force-wide impact of the new Chief Constable and her appointment had been positively received across the workforce.

·         There had been significant success in securing Government funding, including the Safer Streets bid which had a particular focus on reducing violence against women and girls and was the highest per population in the country.  The PCC was grateful for the work done by his office and partners.

·         The latest position in relation to the Alliance split and ongoing provision of IT services was noted.

·         The PCC had not been impressed by the level of response to the latest Annual Town and Parish Council Survey and recognised the need to improve the level of engagement.  He acknowledged that it was not possible to get any closer to local communities than the Parish Council and would welcome any ideas from Panel Members on how engagement could be improved.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were raised:

·         The Chairman congratulated the PCC on the external funding that had been obtained and recognised that it was a significant sum.

·         However, he was disappointed that the split from the Alliance with Warwickshire was still ongoing and expressed concern that money provided by the taxpayers of West Mercia was still being used in this way, especially when the West Mercia Force had its own IT problems.  In response, the PCC reminded Members that West Mercia was now providing a service to Warwickshire rather than being in partnership.  West Mercia had supported Warwickshire as needed and this was felt to be the right thing to do and was appreciated by the PCC of Warwickshire.  The Chairman acknowledged the reassurance.

·         In response to a question about investment in IT, the PCC reminded the Panel that there was a broad ICT transformation programme.  Running a large ICT system was a complex operation and, now that the force had sovereignty, it could quickly move to deliver the benefits of the programme.

·         When asked about the benefits to residents of West Mercia of providing services to Warwickshire, the PCC reminded the Panel about overhead sharing and joint investment opportunities.  The current arrangement was on the basis of full cost recovery and supported a consensual and planned separation of business.

·         The Chairman noted that it had been an active decision to have an agreement on West Mercia’s terms to continue IT support for Warwickshire and asked whether support would conclude by March 2023 as planned.  In response, the PCC reminded the Panel that the discussion covered a commercially sensitive live contract.  He felt he had made the best decision to support the public and was as confident as he could be that the arrangement would end in March 2023.

·         A Member suggested that it would be useful for the Panel to receive a report on progress on the ICT improvement programme at a future meeting.

·         A Panel Member welcomed the ongoing commitment to victims of modern slavery and the extension of the funding scheme.  He went on to ask about how work on the prevention of modern slavery could be embedded into relationships with partner organisations and members of the public.  The PCC agreed that, although the work mentioned in the agenda report referred to support for victims, work to ensure vulnerable people did not become victims was also essential.  The Police and Crime Plan saw a shift towards a greater proportion of the police budget being focused on crime prevention.  He was keen to get the prevention agenda moving forward and any assistance from local councils would be welcomed.

·         A question was asked about West Mercia’s stance on refusing Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) when the police felt the rules could not be enforced.  The Chief Constable agreed to provide a response outside of the meeting.

·         It was agreed that an update on progress with the Estates programme would be provided at a future meeting.

·         With reference to the autumn roadshows, the PCC acknowledged that some had been more successful than others.  For example, the Shrewsbury Food Festival had been successful as a large number of the visitors lived in the West Mercia area.  The Malvern Show had been less successful as many of those attending had travelled from outside West Mercia.  The ability to hold a conversation with members of the public was important but attendance at local shows needed to be part of a suite of activity.

·         In response to a question about the role of the Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner, the PCC reminded the Panel that there were legal restrictions on what he could delegate.  However, the APCC could assist in maximising engagement.  In terms of the financial impact, the PCC confirmed that this was consistent with the previous ambassadors scheme.

·         With reference to the disappointing response to the Town and Parish Council survey, the Chairman suggested that this may reflect a lack of engagement by the police, noting that parish council meetings in his local area had not been attended by a police officer for some time.  The PCC recognised that this may be the case if parish councils felt they had not seen a police officer for some time and noted that different parish councils had different relationships with the police.  He acknowledged that, although a police presence was not needed at every meeting, there was a lack of consistency in the overall approach.

·         It was noted that only 10% of respondents to the 2021 Town and Parish Council survey felt that the visibility of the police was Excellent or Good.  The PCC acknowledged that this was not good but reminded Members that this was not the only measure and others gave a more positive picture.  The PCC stated that his commitment was clear.  He wanted the community to have confidence in the police and would use these responses to measure this.  To this end, increasing the level of response was important and he would appreciate any help from local authorities to achieve this.

·         With reference to the Community Policing Charter, the PCC suggested that it was important to be flexible to local circumstances across what was a very diverse community.

·         The Chief Constable informed the Panel that she had met many committed staff since she had taken up the post, including in the Safer Neighbourhood Teams.  She felt that the visibility of staff was important, not simply when they were carrying out a specific task.

·         A Panel Member suggested that the diminishing involvement of the police with parish councils and local schools may have an impact on the positive view of the police.

·         The PCC confirmed that he aspired to solve the issue of fly tipping through a partnership approach and had received good applications from the Community Safety Partnerships in Worcestershire but not Herefordshire or Shropshire.  The Chairman hoped that Panel Members would feed this back to their Councils.