Agenda item

The Mayor’s plan in draft for review and recommendations from the Panel.

Considered

The Mayor’s draft Police and Crime Plan 2025/29.

The Panel heard from the Deputy Mayor about how both the local and national context has been considered by the Mayor in the development of the Plan, particularly with issues such as neighbourhood policing. The Deputy Mayor also outlined how the consultation incorporated work with insight groups and that it had been important to get representations from victims of crime.  Colleagues at the OPFCC were thanked by the Deputy Mayor for their work on this and it was highlighted that timescales had been challenging to pull a draft together.

The Panel highlighted that it would be beneficial to more explicitly state the Mayor’s ambition around the following in the final plan:

a.      reducing re-offending, including provision for schemes on early prevention and restorative justice;

b.      tackling online harm

c.      tackling County Lines

d.      tackling hate crime

In terms of re-offending, the Deputy Mayor highlighted in particular that a lot of work is commissioned but also that as North Yorkshire is fortunate to not have large numbers of serious offenders the area does miss out on programmes to tackle certain types of re-offending which she is looking to address.  Under the rubric of the MCA the Deputy Mayor is looking at services around housing and drug/alcohol abuse across both local authorities and how this can be built upon.  Tackling re-offending was felt to be a core component of the draft Plan, along with a continued commitment to restorative justice.

Discussion highlighted the need to ensure victims’ service commissioning for all-age services where feasible in relation to supporting survivors of sexual violence; both in relation to ensuring support for children who are victims and as such providing early preventative work but also recognising that trauma can be experienced by survivors many years after incidents have taken place. 

Members were keen to highlight that consideration will need to be given to some of the kinds of metrics identified in the plans to ensure that performance is being measured in the right way.  An example was provided that reference is made to increasing the satisfaction with the police of victims of domestic abuse, but not of victims of sexual violence.  In addition, if child sexual exploitation cases are monitored through statutory service referrals then this may risk missing those dealt with by non-statutory services.

Members were advised of the commitment to looking at all-age services where possible and that under the Domestic Abuse Act, the Deputy Mayor will need to ensure services are provided to children identified as at risk of being exposed to domestic abuse.  It was also helpful to hear about the Deputy Mayor’s recent discussions with NHS and other partners around supporting victims.

It was further highlighted by the Panel that roads policing may be better placed within early intervention and prevention rather than protection in the plan.

The Panel expressed support for the aim to make the plans more accessible to a wider readership in terms of length, style and format.  However, it was felt that there is a balance to be struck between providing a succinct summary and ensuring that all relevant detail is meaningfully included.  In particular it was felt that the plans would benefit from more baseline metrics, where these are helpful, in order that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor can be confident in monitoring progress made by the services and so that the Panel are also able to effectively scrutinise the Mayor’s performance. 

It was noted in the meeting that the example of the Thames Valley Police and Crime Plan had been viewed as ‘best practice’ during the development exercise.  It was felt by some of the Panel that the presentation of this model may enable a better balance between these principles for York and North Yorkshire in the final versions. 

In addition, the Panel reflected that the Mayor may wish to consider including a Foreword in order to help set some context and sense of direction to both plans in terms of priorities, challenges and goals.

Resolved

That the Panel supports the ‘direction of travel’ of the Mayor’s draft Police and Crime Plan 2025/29 but that the Panel’s report will highlight the specific points and concerns raised in the meeting for further consideration by the Mayor.