Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda item

Agenda item

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) Inspection Report - 'PEEL: Police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy 2018/19 An inspection of West Mercia Police'

Minutes:

In 2018, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) notified all police Chief Constables and PCC’s of its intention to revise its PEEL inspection programme, by combining the three separate force inspections of ‘efficiency’, ‘effectiveness’ and ‘legitimacy’ into one integrated inspection.  To facilitate this new approach all forces in England and Wales were to be inspected on up to 10 key areas, with subsequent inspection reports published in tranches in line with the inspection programme.

 

As part of the second tranche of the inspection programme West Mercia Police were subject to an initial onsite inspection in January 2019 and the Inspection report was published at the end of September 2019. 

 

West Mercia was judged as ‘requires improvement’ in all three areas: effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy.  The report set out each of the areas for improvement (AFIs) and recommendations with a brief summary of the work either being done or being considered to address the report findings.

 

The PCC advised that he and the Chief Constable had taken the unusual step of issuing a joint media release in respect of the Report reaffirming their commitment to delivering improvements, whilst strongly refuting some of its findings.  The Chief Constable and PCC and had written to HMICFRS to voice their concerns that sections of the document around efficiency and the ending of the Alliance with Warwickshire were out of date, not evidenced, not reflective of the current position and contained misleading inaccuracies.  They recognised that some things needed to improve, and work had begun on these immediately following the inspection, but West Mercia were in a fundamentally different place from when the Inspection was carried out.

 

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

 

·         A Member questioned why ‘efficiency’ had previously been graded good and was now ‘requires improvement’.  The PCC referred to the media release and pointed out that report had failed to reflect the benefits communities would see when police in West Mercia were no longer financially supporting a neighbouring force and did not recognise that some functions, such as local policing, moved to a standalone structure earlier this year with absolutely no detriment to public service or risk to public safety.  The PCC reiterated that he and the Chief Constable had written to HMICFRS to voice their concerns that sections of the document around efficiency and the ending of the Alliance with Warwickshire were out of date, not evidenced, not reflective of the current position and contained misleading inaccuracies but he was keen to move on.

·         7 recommendations had been identified in respect of ‘Investigating Crime’, the response to which was being led by a Detective Superintendent who had a small project team in place.  A key indicator of the success of the action taken would be to achieve a ‘good’ grading at re-inspection. 

·         There was a trial in Shropshire on the Analysis & Service Improvement and Service Delivery & Continuous Improvement teams audit of the timeliness of responses. It was agreed that the Panel would be provided with an update on this.

·         The PCC reiterated that elements of the report were helpful in giving the force areas where improvements are needed, while acknowledging other areas where clear, significant improvements had been made. He reassured the Panel that he would continue to hold the Chief Constable to account to ensure progress was made and sustained. The Chief Constable concurred with this.

·         The Chairman of the Panel asked whether it would be necessary for the PCC to amend the Policing Plan to achieve better results.  The PCC advised that he would continue to adapt and change as appropriate, as well as reviewing the holding to account process for the Chief Constable.

·         The PCC was congratulated on the significant improvements made around tackling serious organised crime in a short space of time.

 

In conclusion, it was agreed that the HMICFRS would be invited to a meeting to discuss the findings of the report in more detail.

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