Purpose – to provide an update on update on the latest HMICFRS field inspection.
Minutes:
Zoe Metcalfe – North Yorkshire Police Fire & Crime
Commissioner attended the meeting to provide an overview
of the progress and improvements against the inspection
reports produced by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary
& Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
It
was noted the PFCC was required to seek the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer’s perspective on HMICFRS reports and to publish a response. It was also noted those HMICFRS inspection
reports were just one part of the information about the efficiency and effectiveness of North Yorkshire Police
(NYP) and North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (NYFRS)
used by the PFCC to hold both Chief Officers to account.
The PFCC confirmed she had acknowledged the progress made
whilst being robust in her challenge to both Chief officers where
necessary. In particular, she had:
·
Immediately convened
and live-streamed
Public Accountability
Meetings where she scrutinised
both Chief Officers on their
progress against their HMICFRS improvement
plans.
·
Received monthly progress
reports from both chief
officers on their HMI improvement action plans at meetings of the Joint Executive Board (the most
senior joint strategic decision making and scrutiny body in
the
corporate governance framework).
·
Restructured the
Office of the PFCC to bring
greater focus to delivery
& assurance. The Office
had also adopted its first-ever Delivery
Plan describing how the team had delivered and assured the Police & Crime Plan, and Fire and Rescue Plan.
·
Introduced a new
Assurance
Framework within the PFCC
office, to continually monitor and assess delivery of outcomes against priorities in both plans and cross-referenced those to HMI assessment
frameworks.
·
·
Amplified the
complaints function into a full Customer Service
Team to independently manage complaints and expressions of
dissatisfaction (and compliments) about NYP and NYFRS, ensuring an impartial and fair review of matters raised.
In regard to NYP, the PFCC confirmed she had not been satisfied with their performance
in
those areas of enduring concern
identified and had continued to robustly
scrutinise and
drive assurance on behalf of the public. This
included overseeing the
following operational and corporate improvements:
·
Investment in
the Force Control Room, in respect of 101
and 999 but also in respect of child and adult safeguarding,
resulting
in significantly improved response times.
·
Improving safeguarding structures and processes, with an additional
49
officers and additional
funding
leading to an increase in police officers
in
frontline roles, specifically on response
policing
(total 1,663 FTE of which 1400 were operational staff).
·
Step changes in the reduction of
backlogs within the crime recording
and
occurrence management
unit
and addressing the backlog in digital forensics.
·
Delivery of Leadership Programmes to almost 300 supervisory personnel, and the introduction of Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity modular development and training programmes.
·
A revised and refreshed overarching vision and ‘plan on a page’ focusing NYP staff and
officers on the
Force Values of Impartiality, Integrity and Respect –
and
the approaches of
Being Victim Focused, Working in Partnership, Targeting Offenders, Intervening Early, Problem Solving, and Being Inclusive.
·
A NYP Staff Survey (completion
rate 61.8%), and a public trust and confidence survey to gauge trust and confidence in the policing response across
York and North Yorkshire.
·
A refresh of NYP’s Workforce Plan and adoption of a revised system of governance to drive, challenge
and
assure progress in areas of concern.
· The introduction of Tactical Risk and Assurance Meetings to ensure attention to improvement
plan
delivery with escalation where necessary.
·
Investment in 60+ new police vehicles; reintroduction of the rank of
Chief Superintendent; an increase in the number of detectives and in the size
of the safeguarding team.
·
The renegotiation of the
strategic intent between NYP and NYFRS to enable
improved collaboration.
Members
were pleased to note the improvements
made and the PFCC confirmed that publication of the outcome report from the latest PEEL inspection carried out by the HMICFRS at the end of 2023 was expected in a
week. She also confirmed the new chief constable would be in place as from 1 April
2024, and that he had already started recruitment
for
a new Deputy.
In
regard to HMFRS, the PFCC confirmed that following an inspection in
spring 2022:
·
A new Chief Fire Officer and Deputy Chief Fire Officer had
been appointed, who in turn had built a
new
Strategic Leadership
Team
to lead the Service
into a strong, professional, and sustainable future.
·
A rigorous ongoing programme
of improvement had been implemented and the Chief Fire Officer had put in place immediate plans to address the 2 causes of concern raised. Those had
been reviewed by HMICFRS at the end of January 024
and the huge strides forward had been recognised, resulting in both causes of concern being lifted by HMICFRS.
Their next full inspection is due
at the end of 2024.
·
A Community
Risk Profile
had been created, to include stakeholder’s social,
economic and
demographic information enabling the Service to understand
the risk across York and North Yorkshire.
The information had been fed into the new Risk & Resource model
which the public were consulted on in summer 2023, and its implementation had
increased prevention and protection
work across communities; provided
permanent
investment
into
prevention and protection teams; improved the availability of on-call fire engines in rural
areas; and estate improvements such as £1.1m at Ripon Fire Station.
In response to Members
questions, the PFCC confirmed:
·
The Fire Service’s financial planning was sound with a balanced budget - she acknowledged it had been underfunded for a generation which
had led her to negotiate successfully with central government for precept flexibility
in 23/24 bringing in
additional
funding of £800k that year.
·
Neighbourhood Policing Teams had been
restructured and there was sufficient funding available to enable the Service
to achieve an outstanding rating. She
also acknowledged that the continuity
of officers in a patch helped improve relations with residents and communities.
·
A bid for funding from central
Government had been made to help address ASB hotspots – Councillor Williams was
pleased to note there was evidence that low level issues were been identified
and addressed in Ripon, and Councillor George Jabbour confirmed the increased
visibility of NYP in the Ryedale area.
·
The use
of technology in support of policing was currently underused but would play an
integral part going forward.
Having noted the progress made, the Chair thanked the PFCC for attending
and it was:
Resolved – That the
verbal update provided by the PFCC be noted.