Agenda item

11.05am

The report of the PCC provides an overview of the progress of the Force Review to date, and the remaining work to complete.

It explains the expected benefits of the changes proposed through the Force Review on Local Policing and in particular to Neighbourhood Policing, as well as the changes for Crime & Criminal Justice. It sets out the current savings position and plans for delivery of the agreed savings.

The report of the PCC provided an overview of the progress of the Force Review to date, and the remaining work to complete.

It explained the expected benefits of the changes proposed through the Force Review on Local Policing and in particular to Neighbourhood Policing, as well as the changes for Crime & Criminal Justice. The current savings position and plans for delivery of the agreed savings were also provided.

The PCC reported that the move to 5 Local Command Units would release resource for neighbourhood policing. Upon completion of the first three phases of the Force Review would deliver over £8m of savings.

Details of the structural changes and the impact on Thames Valley were reported.

The five-area model would consist of Local Command Units in Oxfordshire, Berkshire West, Berkshire East, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

A Member referred to the lack of detail provided in the report in relation to the configuration of the Local Command Units and that the first three phases of the Force Review had been completed with little information available for the Panel. 

Members’ Questions

(1)   A Member referred to the paragraph on crime and criminal justice which was brief and did not provide enough information on the new Crime and Criminal Justice structure which was required. The PCC was asked to provide a more substantial report to a future meeting.

[The PCC replied that the report focused on local policing and was what the Panel had requested, however, he was more than happy to bring a fuller report back on the new Crime and Criminal Justice structure, linking it in with the wider custody 2025 strategy which looks at the locations of custody, staffing scale, what other services could be co-located. A conversation had taken place with the Head of Criminal Justice at how people in custody could be looked after.] [ACTION : PCC] 

(2)   A Member commented that neighbourhood policing had been effectively delivered in his area with the teams strengthened and higher visibility. Reference is made to neighbourhood policing, community policing and local policing; it needed to be clearer on what these definitions were.

[The PCC reported that in Thames Valley, local policing would describe those officers who were locally geographically based and under a local commander and part of the local response teams. Neighbourhood policing are in neighbourhoods, to be preventative. Community policing were involved in the wider community engagement and would involve the use of Special Constables, working with retailers (tackling shoplifting).

(3)   In relation to neighbourhood policing, the number of police officers had increased, but the number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) had reduced. The PCC was asked whether there had been a cost benefit analysis and were there any Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor performance after the implementation of the changes brought about by the review. The PCC was also asked to assure the Panel that there would be a crime reduction with this review.   

[The PCC replied that the increase in constables in geographic neighbourhood teams was important. PCSO numbers have reduced. For this financial year, some of the funding for the vacant posts allowed the funding of police officers for this year. The intention was not to permanently reduce the establishment of PCSOs.

There was active recruitment taking place to replace the PCSOs who had predominantly left their roles to become police officers with the Uplift Programme. The PCC commented that he would like to tie PCSOs a little bit longer into their contracts, but this was difficult in a difficult market.

In relation to KPIs, there were several areas to look at. On crime, the PCC said he wished there would be a link to the change in organisational structure with a reduction in crime, however, you needed to look at the wider context of what was going on.

There would be KPIs around the finances, to monitor the budget to make sure that forecast savings were being made. Regular work was taking place with the Chief Finance Officers of the Force and of the Office of the PCC monitoring the current planned savings for this financial year and savings not yet identified. An important area of monitoring would be around the workforce, monitoring retention, sickness, stress, psychological sickness etc.]

(4)    The PCC was asked about section 6 of the report and the target of £15m on savings. In the last five-year period, in terms of what Council Tax payers have had to pay and the level of increases compared to CPI and RPI. The Police precept increase has been significantly higher than both the CPI and RPI levels. Also, over the last 10 years, the number of households in the Thames Valley has increased by around 10% which means there are more households contributing into the pot. The PCC was asked if savings were being made and where was the increased money going? Was there a shift away from reliance on the Government grant to the Council Tax residents have to pay more. This amounted to around £40-£50 more per household.

[The PCC referred to the challenges of inflation, pay rise increases, increase in the South East allowance, the costs of vehicles such as electric vehicles. There were significant work builds such as the new police station in Reading. Pension Costs had increased for the Force.

Recruitment to the Rural Crime Task Force as part of the Uplift Programme, and the additional 80 police officers were funded by the Police precept increase. This helped with the growth in neighbourhood policing.

The funding formula had still not been revised which disadvantaged TVP. Reference was made to Durham where the funding per head was much higher than Thames Valley. Thames Valley deserved a better settlement and was in the bottom half of funded forces. 

The PCC commented that like local authorities, difficult decisions around funding had to be made.] 

(5)   The PCC was asked about the data breaches which had occurred with Greater Manchester Police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland and how secure was TVP in this respect.

[The PCC replied that there were concerns nationally, however, good IT security work had been carried out in TVP with Hampshire. However, there was always the risk of data breaches with third parties.]

(6)   The PCC was asked for his views on the Home Secretary’s comment that all crimes would be investigated by the Police.

[The PCC commented that in Thames Valley, all burglaries were investigated by TVP. Any crime where there was a line of enquiry was investigated.]

RESOLVED -   That the report of the PCC together with the responses given to Members’ questions be noted.