Meeting documents

To consider an update report from the PCC.  

The PCC reported that from the additional £8.5m of additional precept funding there would be a total of 212 new posts, consisting of 69 Police Officers and 143 staff. It was estimated that £6.6m would be allocated for the salaries of these new posts, likely to increase to £8m for the following year.

The Panel was informed that the residual funding of around £2m in the current year would be invested in technology to improve the information and communications available for officers and to improve the services provided.

Reference was made to the £1.3m which would be allocated to the Contact Management system. The PCC reported that the calls to the 101 service were much improved; however, there were times of high demand when there were still considerable delays. 

The PCC reported that £2.5m of the extra funding would be allocated to recruit front line Police Officers which would increase visibility for communities and respond to increasing crime. There would be an additional 26 Police Officers in Local Police Areas and the case investigators temporary contracts would be extended until the end of March 2020.

Questions

(1)          Could the rationale be explained behind the proposal to appoint more police staff than police officers and what impact will this have on the number of police officers on the streets?

[The PCC reported that a number of the extra Police staff were civilians and comprised of investigators and detectives who helped solve crimes, together with an increased number of call handling staff for the Contact Management system. The Chief Constable explained the importance of the additional staff for the Contact Management system which was to improve the average time to answer 101 calls; working towards an average of two minutes in 2020/21.

The PCC reported that the appointment of investigators and detectives had resulted in some success with an increase in the solving of crime. In response to an enquiry regarding data around the number of people calling 101 which had dropped their call, the Deputy PCC responded that as of Monday and Tuesday of this week, the average time for 101 calls to be answered was 25 seconds. The information regarding the number of dropped calls would be provided to Panel Members.] 

(2)       With regard to the recruitment of more investigators to combat the increase in organised and crime such as cybercrime, what work is taking place with investigators to enable the Police to tackle this crime? 

[The PCC informed the Panel that the prevention of fraud was an important issue and referred to high level fraud against people and business costing £190 billion nationally. Police forces did not have the resources to tackle the problem. Prevention of fraud was important; together with the education of the public to enable people were not left vulnerable to cybercrime.

(3)       Could details be provided of what recruitment and retention strategies are in place to ensure TVP were competitive in the Police job market? 

[The PCC reported that TVP was considered an attractive Police Force to work for, however, the Thames Valley region was an expensive area to live, with a lack of affordable housing for new Police recruits. Other areas of the country were more affordable for would be applicants. Reference was made to the recent uplift in Police Officers coming at an opportune time as the Force had just launched a new careers website. In addition, a lot of good work had taken place on recruitment and retention, together with improvements to working conditions, such as in Slough, where there was more parking provision for Police Officers, rest rooms had been improved at Police Stations at Abingdon and Maidenhead. Work was taking place with the Police Federation on improvements which could be made to improve working conditions for officers.

(4)       Reference was made to the cost of housing in the region and the impact this had on recruitment and a comment was made in relation to whether Key Worker Housing schemes had been considered.

[A discussion took place on Key Worker Housing and it was acknowledged that this was dependent on local housing authorities ring-fencing housing stock for this purpose. This could be an area which could be investigated further between local authorities and the Police.]

RESOLVED – That the report and the information provided be noted.