Written evidence from Vera Baird QC,
Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria [PCC Progress 45]

 

Thank you for providing the opportunity to submit evidence to the Home Affairs Committee inquiry into Police and Crime Commissioners. As the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria I have enjoyed a challenging yet rewarding year. Here is an outline of the current arrangements in Northumbria which we feel are being demonstrated to be effective as a means of governance and we would like to add that the position of PCC as a whole is far more dynamic than anything attainable under the former Police Authorities.

 

The effectiveness of commissioners in reducing crime and delivering an effective police service

 

As you will know, crime is rising nationally. I believe this to be the case specifically, in 17 forces across the country.  In Northumbria crime has increased by 7% compared to the daily average calculated from total crime for 2012/13; however this is an improvement on levels recorded earlier in the year (+11% at the end of April 2013). It is notable that reducing crime is a commitment in the police and crime plan and the speed and impact of the police response locally to this increase are noteworthy.

 

The rise, at least in acquisitive crime, in Northumbria, is anecdotally attributable to the current environment of austerity, public sector cuts and high unemployment causing poverty. We are working to see if there is a link between this increase and first entrants into crime which would make this point clearer. Although it is perhaps difficult to prove it may be that the rise in low level violent crime may be a combination of earlier interventions by police to prevent incidents in the night time economy from escalating and, we believe, a welcome increase in the reporting of violence against women and girls, especially domestic violence.  This may be as a consequence of VAWG being a priority in the Police and Crime Plan as well as the subject of a regionwide strategy, which has been recently published. 

 

In Northumbria there is a significant reduction in anti-social behaviour following the featuring of this issue as a priority in the Police and Crime Plan. The cut is 10%, 6233 incidents.  In addition, confidence in the police is high and our fifth priority of putting victims first is showing fruit in the involvement or a range of victims in specific police training and our commitment to pass victim-survivors onto an appropriate agency even if they don’t want a criminal justice solution to their issues.

I would add that the notion that, as the Home Secretary frequently says 'police only job is to tackle crime' is misguided (or whatever phrase she usually uses - please check) This is, as the Stevens Review said, to push them back to an out of date responsive police model when they contribute far more widely to the community's well being, as Stevens sets out

In my opinion the effectiveness of Commissioners has been:

  1. In strengthening both the profile and the efficacy for the public of local police governance. The existence of PCCs is increasingly well known and we not only have a lot of correspondence on policing issues but attend hundreds of groups to discuss and our pre-PC Plan consultation was widely taken up. They are aware that there has been a significant shift of power to them in that, historically, while police may have been open to consultation they are now obliged to respond effectively to the public's issues raised by me, since I hold wide powers and control their budget. That awareness encourages trust and confidence.
  2. In turn in making the police understand that they are subject to direct public accountability as to performance, priorities and about confidence issues through an elected intermediary who is there for the public and not for them.

 

 

The role of commissioners in holding their Chief Constables to account

In the past year we have developed robust and wide ranging frameworks to enable me to hold the Chief Constable to account. I hold regular meetings with the Chief constable and I would consider that, although we do not always agree, we have a strong and effective relationship and can disagree while retaining mutual respect.  By attending the senior management board meetings I have the opportunity to watch over the CC's own monthly exercise in performance management and planning within the force work and I hear first-hand experiences from the area commanders and other department heads within the force. I am then able to raise any issues of concern to me from those meetings, with the CC herself at our fortnightly joint business meetings. 

 

Detailed quarterly performance meetings are held at OPCC and this provides a further opportunity to challenge performance and consider the delivery of the police and crime plan and the Chief Constables delivery plan in close detail looking at progress against key objectives, actions and targets. This regular challenge gives me a chance to ensure that the priorities and issues identified by local people are delivered with objectives and actions. This meeting is attended by me, the DPCC and the Chief Executive.

 

In addition, we get a view from 'the coalface' through the DPCC, a former police officer, who engages with Neighbourhood Teams and 24/7 officers to understand the operational impact and the workability of our plans to ensure that we are providing what we intend - the best service to local communities.

As two organisations the OPCC and Northumbria Police work to a joint business cycle which is progressed and developed through fortnightly business meetings with the OPCC management and the Chief Constable and her team. As mentioned above, this is an opportunity to raise issues from the SMB with the CC, although it has a wider purpose.

 

I have also taken the opportunity to strengthen the democratic nature of my role by including local people in my scrutiny role. This is progressing and developing three areas:

  1. The implementation of Advisory groups, who represent the protected strands in the Equalities Act 2010. I work closely with the Advisory Groups who help me to shape future policy for the OPCC, support performance management and scrutiny work, and provide me with an insight into needs and priorities of local communities particularly amongst those who are vulnerable. They help me to define training needs too.
  2. I have appointed an Independent Police Complaints Scrutiny Panel made up of members of the public who review a regular sample of completed police complaints files and raise issues relating to handling, resolution, timeliness of response and, most importantly, the culture of how complaints are handled. There will be a system of lesson-learning from this impacting not only on the Professional Standards Dept but to be disseminated force-wide to improve service. The Panel will also highlight consistent good work, so the appropriate acknowledgement can be communicated and areas of good practice highlighted and rolled out.
  3. As part of the recently launched a North East Violence against Women and Girls Strategy we will develop a rape case scrutiny panel, of independent members, to look at failed rape cases with the aim of ensuring better handling and outcome of cases. We expect that this will develop to other kinds of case such as hate crime, once we are confident of the methodology.

 

The role of Police and Crime Panels in holding their commissioners to account

There were early difficulties with the Northumbria Police and Crime Panel in Northumbria. Some, but not all, local leading councillors on the Panel found it hard to replace their own geographical political and economic interests with the duty to scrutinise the PCC, in particular around funding for Community Safety Partnerships and setting the precept. I suspect that, contrary to what I first thought, if, as is now the case in some parts of Northumbria, council leaders are not the panel representatives but councillors who have experience of overview and scrutiny that might be better achieved. (I can engage with council leaders through other channels and I provide both councillors and MP’s with a regular email newsletter.) We ask members of the Panel to come along to events and visits in their areas to try to strengthen our relationship and their understanding of some of my issues.

 

The division of functions and staff between commissioners and chief constables following the stage 2 transfers under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011
 

From Northumbria I have submitted the following proposal, following consultation with the Chief Constable and the Northumbria Police Unison and GMB branches. I have proposed the ‘maximum transfer option’. The outcome of this, if approved, will be that a small core staff in the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) will support me directly in fulfilling my statutory role and all the warranted and non-warranted police staff that I currently employ will transfer into the employment of the Chief Constable at 23:59hrs on 31 March 2014. This transfer of 1,846 staff will be carried out in in accordance with the Cabinet Statement of Practice on Staff Transfers in the public sector. This transfers my current rights, powers, duties and liabilities in connection with their employment contracts to the Chief Constable of Northumbria. Whilst I and the Chief Constable have distinctly separate roles and legal identities our functions are acknowledged to have interdependence, there is an explicit expectation and duty on every member of staff in Northumbria Police to provide the required services to both to myself and the Chief Constable to assist in fulfilling our joint responsibility in serving the public and to carry out their separate statutory functions. Notwithstanding the distinct legal identities and other obligations, my functions and those of the Chief Constable are acknowledged to have such interdependence as to permit the sharing of significant areas of business support that allows our distinct and separate roles to be carried out effectively and efficiently – and, in my own case to provide me with the resources to maintain strategic oversight of the Police performance and to hold the Chief Constable to account on behalf of the public. This will happen via the establishment of a Service Level Agreement which will allow for servicing such shared interests whilst, at the same time, providing each of us with the capacity to fulfil their different responsibilities. The sharing of these services will enable both myself and the Chief Constable to access support services when needed, enabling us to fulfil our duties and achieve better value for money. The services included in the SLA are:

The SLA provides a framework for expected standards, key deliverables, and communication protocols, flexibility of staff, performance review, and resolution of issues, conflicts of interest and confidentiality. Both myself, and the Chief Constable are committed to this agreement and it will be reviewed annually or at any other time as necessary by agreement. It underpins and demonstrates a statement of intent to work in partnership and define an effective working relationship. A copy of the full submission is available on my website. 

 

The role of commissioners in budget and precept setting
The role of the Commissioner is primarily to ensure that local policing meets the needs of local communities, whilst also ensuring delivery of the Strategic Policing Requirement.  I work with the Chief Constable and her business needs and to ensure that the budget and precept plans take into account priorities identified by local communities and the findings of the force strategic assessment. In addition engagement with communities can be used to explore local views in relation to a precept freeze or increase.

 

 

The effectiveness of commissioners in promoting local policing priorities.

 

I have referred to this above but the heightened profile of the Police and Crime Commissioner role is key to the promotion of local policing priorities, in my case as set out for the Police and Crime Plan by over 15,000 people.  This will be subject to review through the strategic assessment. I have produced the plan in Easy Read format, and have recorded a short film with sign language to reach out more widely. I have established Advisory Groups covering all protected characteristics as part of the Equality Act 2010 and work with these groups to help promote the key priorities, commitments and actions that the Police and Crime Plan outline. The delivery of my plan is supported by planned media and social media campaigns helping to reach even more audiences and engage them in the future of policing in their area.

 

In the summer of 2013 I put together a short leaflet for each area command summarising the work I have carried out since my election and the local policing priorities that will be focus in their local area. This leaflet went through the door or every household in my force area helping to build peoples understanding of my role as well as informing them of the local focus the police will take in their area. In my opinion the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner is very much about promoting local priorities and encouraging local people to get involved in shaping the future of policing, both things I feel local Commissioners are best placed to do.

 

Progress on establishing collaboration agreements with other commissioners, policing organisations and partners

 

In Northumbria we have made great progress collaborating with others to deliver commitments in our Police and Crime Plan. I have worked very closely with my fellow PCCs Barry Coppinger in Cleveland and Ron Hogg in Durham to produce a regional Violence against Women and Girls Strategy, setting out a shared regional vision and a range of actions to end this violence. The strategy will allow us to share learning and resources and ensure a truly joint up approach to tackling this vitally important issue to people of the North East.  We will further collaborate and work with partners to deliver the strategy over the coming year.

 

We have recently entered into a formal collaboration agreement with our regional PCCs and police forces to establish a North East Regional Special Operations Unit (NERSOU). NERSOU is the first of its kind in the country and the joint team will provide a more efficient and effective provision of regional intelligence, asset recovery, regional organised crime, protected persons, prisons intelligence and undercover operations. The benefits identified include greater resilience and flexibility in the use of highly skilled specialist staff, reduction in duplication of roles and resources and enhanced capability and capacity. The drive of Commissioners in the region was instrumental to the successful negotiation of this collaboration.

 

I aspire to work closely with local universities and higher education establishments to further enhance delivery of our policing priorities and policing capability. This closer working relationship with academia is something I know the College of Policing is very keen to promote and nurture.

 

The Police and Crime Commissioner has a very clear role in bringing together the police, public and other organisation to achieve common goals and can exert influence in many arenas to bring things together for a successful outcome.

 

Transparency of and reporting by commissioners to date

 

Transparency is key to building trust and confidence in police governance. I work hard to ensure that what I do to hold the Chief Constable to account is evidenced and made available in a way which will help to build this confidence, bringing the police and public closer together. I am pleased to report that my office meets all of the statutory requirements placed on it by Section 11(1) and (2) of The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 which requires an elected local policing body to publish any information specified by the Secretary of State by Order. The legislation requires me to publish on my website a wide range of documents including information on:

 

Most importantly I promote transparency in my decision making with a clear process and format for reaching, recording and publishing key decisions. My website is updated with details of my key decisions as soon as they are taken helping to ensure up to date and timely information is available for everyone.

 

Written evidence from Vera Baird QC,
Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria

December 2013