Meeting Chief Officers Strategic Meeting Venue The Green Room, FHQ
Date & time Tuesday 23 February 2016 14:00 hrs Attendees Mr A Pughsley (Chair) Chief Constable
Mr P Brandon Deputy Chief Constable
Mr L Catling Head of Professional Standards Mr P Curtis CC’s Chief Finance Officer Mr I Drysdale Director of Corporate Services Mr M Gilmartin Director of Support Services Ms S Gransden CC’s Staff Officer
Mr G McKinnon Head of Corporate Communications ACC R Price Local Policing Directorate
ACC J Shiner Central Operations Directorate T/ACC S Worron Serious Crime Directorate Ms C Wood (minutes) Executive Support
In Attendance Ms L Lee Forensic Submissions & Intel Manager Ms S Virdee (item 2) Financial Controller
T/D/Supt M Pringle (item 3) Frontier Operations Supt M Wilson (item 4/5) Head of Innovation
Mrs M Porter (item 4) Deputy Head of Corporate Communications Apologies Ch/Supt J Sutton Head of Change
Please note that these minutes will be published on the Kent Police website.
CC Pughsley thanked ACC Price for his magnificent contribution to Kent Police during his tenure and that he would be greatly missed upon his retirement at the end of February. He congratulated ACC Price on overseeing the cultural change from numerical targets to quality of service
performance, which was the first nationally. He also applauded ACC Price’s influence which had led to forcewide co-operation between directorates, most notably Local Policing and Serious Crime.
Ms Lee supervised Chief Police Officers taking personal DNA samples which would be stored for 12 months in accordance with legislation.
Open Session
Code of Ethics
CC Pughsley reminded attendees of the Code of Ethics extract at the top of the agenda and that all
Minutes
1.
Minutes of the previous meetings
The minutes of the meeting on 16 February were agreed to be an accurate record with an amendment to the amendment for the minutes from 9 February was agreed.
Page 2 – Item 5 a) Force Budget 2016/17 – last sentence to read
Local Councils advised of a small rise in the council tax base of 0.8% over the 1.0% which had been anticipated, amounting to a further £710k in the base budget.
2.
Matters arising/actions from the previous meeting
The updated action sheet had been circulated with the agenda and the content noted.
Action 174/15 – Strengthening Financial Control
The paper had been circulated with the agenda and the contents noted. Chief Constable Pughsley thanked Ms Virdee for an excellent paper.
Mr Gilmartin pointed out that the paper had been sponsored by DCC Brandon to ensure that all Directorate Heads were affected by its recommendations.
Chief Officers agreed to the recommendations on pages 3 and 4 which would strengthen financial control across budgets. DCC Brandon agreed to circulate a memo to all budget holders outlining the new financial process for budget underspend allocation.
ACTION Ms Virdee and Mr Curtis to draft a memo for DCC Brandon outlining the new financial process for budget underspend allocation which would be circulated to budget holders.
ACTION Ms Virdee and Mr Curtis to brief the PCC’s Chief of Staff on the new process to avoid applications for funding without Chief Officer sanction.
The remaining actions due at the meeting had been completed and were therefore discharged.
3.
DRR Update
ACC Shiner and T/D/Supt Pringle provided an update on the DRR/DSP funding through the Home Office for officers assigned to frontier operations. He tabled three spread sheets showing the current position. He would meet with PriceWaterhouseCoopers later this week to confirm the number of officers and funding covered by the funding.
A further update and plan for the new DRR/DSP funded posts would be provided when the information to complete was to hand.
4.
Channel Shift/Website Update
The Channel Shift/Website Update papers and presentation had been circulated with the agenda and were noted.
Mrs Porter and Supt Wilson advised that procurement of the website was complete. The project was aligned to Essex Police’s new website and weekly joint meetings were held. CC Pughsley was keen to ensure that plans for the new website and channel shift were included in the PCC
ACTION Ms Gransden to ensure that the Channel Shift/Website Information is included in one of the Chief Officers’ slides at the forthcoming PCC Candidates Briefing on 10 March 2016.
Chief Officers agreed to the recommendation for two dedicated resources working on the channel shift for one year, and agreed to fund the backfill of the posts vacated. The dedicated resources would be sited with the Change Team. Mr Gilmartin, Mr Curtis and DCC Brandon would liaise and agree the funding source for the backfill.
ACTION Mr Gilmartin to liaise with DCC Brandon and Mr Curtis to identify funding to backfill the posts formerly filled by the two dedicated resources now
working on the channel shift project.
5.
Idea Drop
Supt Wilson provided an update on the progress and a demonstration of the Idea Drop software. He confirmed that software licences for all Kent Force members was included in the procurement. Chief Officers agreed that the application would enhance engagement with officers and staff across the Force, either all or selected members. Supt Wilson would arrange for roll out once the internal communications were in place. It was agreed that the management of Idea Drop would be through Corporate Services.
ACTION Mr McKinnon to include Idea Drop in an appropriate CC’s BLOG, with ethical/professional parameters, in liaison with Supt Wilson.
ACTION Supt Wilson to brief Mr Anderton, HMIC, on Idea Drop and how it will be used to engage with officers and staff forcewide.
ACTION Supt Wilson to ensure that FOI S22 is applied to Idea Drop and annual updates published on the Force Website.
ACTION Mr Drysdale to confirm the SPOC for Idea Drop from within the Corporate Services directorate to Supt Wilson for inclusion in the communications plans.
6.
Attendance Management Update
The item was deferred to 1 March.
7.
Exit Interviews Reports
Items a) and b) were deferred to 1 March.
8.
Credit Card Audit & Recommendations
The paper had been circulated with the agenda and the contents noted. CC Pughsley thanked Mr Catling for the excellent report.
Chief Officers agreed Recommendations 1-10 with Option 2 from Recommendation 5, 3.6.3 Purchase of Alcohol.
It was agreed that a letter from DCC Brandon would be circulated to credit card holders reminding them of their obligations to the Force and the current budget constraints together with the
appropriate Code of Ethics advice.
ACTION Mr Catling to draft a letter for DCC Brandon highlighting the changes to SOP V03a and reminding senior officers of their responsibilities including under the Code of Ethics.
9.
RTC Killed/Seriously Injured (KSI) Briefing
The item was deferred to 1 March.
10.
Report on Financial Management 2016/17
The report was circulated with the agenda and the contents noted. Chief Officers thanked Mr Curtis for the update on the Force’s financial situation.
11.
Case File Recovery Update
ACC Shiner provided a verbal update.
• Improvements were continuing with case file quality
• CID and specialist case files were now being reviewed through Op Dice
• Lime analysis was being carried out at two stages and proving effective
• CPS have commented on the improvement in case file quality and timeliness and accepted that other agencies may be responsible for some delays
ACC Shiner advised that Mr Wilkinson had stepped down from Chair of the KCJB at the Development Day. ACC Shiner will take over as Chair person from the next meeting.
12.
Report on Op Castle 2015-16 Efficiency/Effectiveness
The report had been circulated with the agenda and the contents were noted.
ACC Price provided a verbal overview of the operation which had been both effective and efficient with a reduction in expenditure over 2015/16 Op Castle. He highlighted the co-operation between Local Policing, SCD and Tactical Operations which had ensured that identified offenders were targeted and brought to justice.
ACC Price highlighted that outcomes, forensic results around low opportunity DNA items, and out of county offenders could be improved. He would brief T/ACC Jerome who would provide an update at the meeting 5 April.
ACTION ACC Price to brief T/ACC Jerome on the strategic issues which could be improved for Op Castle in 2016/17 and a paper will be presented to Chief Officers on 5 April.
13.
JCOG – Update on Business Services Business Case
Mr Gilmartin provided a verbal update on the Business Services Business Case which had been presented at JCOG on 9 February and provided an update on the number and likely impact on the Kent staff.
Mr Gilmartin confirmed that the HR Change Board had agreed the Business Case on 23 February when the consultation period had commenced. Briefings from the Head of Business Services would be held tomorrow.
14.
Any other business
a) Visit by Head of FBI Europe, Mr Brian Boatig
Mr McKinnon had met Mr Boatig who had expressed an interest in visiting Kent Police to look at how policing was carried out. He would contact Chief Officers to make arrangements for meetings once a date had been agreed.
b) Excellence in Policing Conference - March
Mr Gilmartin advised that Ch/Supt Nix had received an invitation to the conference from
CC Finnigan. It was agreed that Mr Gilmartin and Mr Drysdale would select appropriate staff to attend. It was also agreed that Mr Drysdale would liaise with CC Finnigan to offer an agenda item around the quality performance framework which would also be presented at the NPCC CCC in April. ACTION Mr Drysdale and Mr Gilmartin to select two appropriate attendees for the
Conference on 27 March.
ACTION Mr Drysdale to liaise with CC Finnigan and offer to provide a presentation around the quality performance framework at the Conference on 17 March.
Date of the next meeting
Tuesday 1 March, at 14:00 hrs in the Green Room, FHQ Please note that there is no COSM on 22 March