Staffordshire Police Authority

Periodic Report of Chair on Authority Matters

Appointment of Chair and Vice-Chair

1. Report - The Police Authority, at its Annual Meeting on 7 June 2010, appointed David Pearsall as its Chair and Peter Vigurs as its Vice-Chair for the coming year. 

Former Members - Thanks

2. Report - The Police Authority has expressed its thanks and appreciation to Frank Lewis, MBE for his substantial contributions to the work and development of the Authority since 1995. Members of the Authority have also wished him well in his role as Vice-Chairman of Staffordshire County Council.

Mr. Lewis served on the Police Authority since its inception as a separate body corporate in 1995, and previously on the Police Committee of the County Council from 1977 to 1981 and 1986 to 1995.

New Members – Welcome

3. Report - The Authority is pleased to welcome Frank Chapman as a new Councillor Member with effect from 28 May 2010.

Appointment of Chief Executive to the Authority

4.  Report – The Authority is seeking to appoint a new Chief Executive on the retirement of the current post-holder, Alan Wallis, in October 2010.

This appointment comes at a pivotal time for both the Police Authority and the Force and the Authority will be looking for a person with inspirational leadership qualities and strong and dynamic strategic thinking to work with the Authority to meet the profound and important challenges ahead.

The successful candidate will be someone who the Authority can trust to continue to develop the existing open, honest, challenging and constructive relationship with the Chief Constable and his Executive Team and the Authority’s key partners, to ensure that the people and communities of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are kept safe and reassured by the Force delivering quality services, professional excellence and value for money.

The selection process for the post of Chief Executive is to take place on 21 July 2010.

Appointment of Assistant Chief Constable (Crime and Operations)

5. Report – In February 2010 the then Assistant Chief Constable Douglas Paxton was appointed Deputy Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police.

The Authority, at a Selection Panel on 6 July 2010, appointed Jane Sawyers as the new Assistant Chief Constable (Crime and Operations) following a rigorous selection process. Mrs. Sawyers was previously Acting Assistant Chief Constable with Staffordshire Police from April 2009 to July 2010 and previously from June to September 2009.

Mrs. Sawyers has carved out an excellent career in Staffordshire Police and will continue to be an asset to the Force in her new role.

Medium Term Financial Strategy

6. Report – The Authority has reviewed its Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2011/16, built on previous strategies and incorporated policies and developments arising from the Policing Plan, the Workforce Plan etc.

The MTFS has been prepared over a five-year timescale to better reflect the challenges arising from the effects of the recession on public finances and including the reduction in central government grant for 2010/11 of £1.7m announced recently. The MTFS assumed that Central Government Funding would be reduced by 2% per annum between 2011 and 2016 and that Council Tax would be frozen in 2011/12 and 2012/13, and would increase by 1% per annum thereafter.  Specific assumptions had also been made regarding pay awards and financing costs to fund the capital programme, together with a provision for new commitments, a contingency for the Olympics and a Replacement Fund. 

The MTFS has particular regard to the need to review the situation on an on-going basis, including (i) when the outcome of the Budget and the Comprehensive Spending review are known, during the autumn; (ii) improvement priorities; (iii) the resources available; (iv) expenditure assumptions and forecasts; (v) value for money, efficiency and cost reductions required; (vi) the capital programme; (vii) the risk statement; (viii) the sensitivity analysis; (ix) the reserve strategy; (x) sustainability and environmental impact; (xi) procurement; and (xii) diversity and equality.

The Authority faces an extremely challenging position for the period 2011/16, including the need to identify savings of £12.2m in 2011/12 and the requirements to ensure that  the Communities First Strategy delivers the savings required in the MTFS, whilst meeting the commitments to the levels of resources for neighbourhood policing, responsiveness, specialist investigation and protection and prevention. 

Provisional Revenue Outturn 2009/10

7. Report – The provisional revenue outturn of £183.205m for 2009/10, as compared to a budget of £184.605m, resulted in an under spend of £1.4m (0.8%). The Authority has noted the summary of provisional movements on reserves and balances and the proposals in respect of carry forwards into 2010/11.

Final Capital Outturn 2009/10

8. Report – The Authority’s capital spend up to 31 March 2010 amounted to £12.848m and included £5.223m on building projects, £3.578m on IT projects and £4.047m on vehicles.  The Authority has noted the reasons for slippage on individual projects and other movements in the Capital Programme.

Force Performance Review 2009/10

9. Report – The Authority has reviewed the performance of the Force for the period 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010 against the ten key performance objectives for 2009/10 that showed that the Force had achieved eight out of the ten indicators, with an 8% decrease in all crime from 21,061 incidents to 19,397 incidents as compared to 2008/09.

83% of residents were satisfied with the way in which local police responded to issues of anti-social behaviour (ASB) for the year to 31 March 2010, increasing from 80% for the half year to 30 September 2009.  Residents in these areas were seeing police officers continuing to work closely with partners to improve the quality of life for local people. By listening to local priorities and concerns and addressing crime and anti-social behaviour through a combined approach, police, local councils and other partners were focusing on dealing with those issues that mattered most to local residents.

‘Operation Safer Nights’ had seen an increased reassuring policing presence in busy town centre areas throughout the Authority’s area that focuses on reducing incidents of alcohol related town centre violence. Partnership working with local councils, health authorities and a number of other agencies is providing invaluable support to those enjoying the facilities within our town centres.

Targeted initiatives such as ongoing activities in the Springfields area of Rugeley, the introduction of ‘The Right Stuff’ amateur boxing club in Huntington and the introduction of Section 30 ASB orders the Doxey and Burton Manor Square areas of Stafford are just some examples of the successful partnership work being carried-out to support local communities. Neighbourhood officers are focused on being recognisable faces to local residents and communities; and hosting increasing numbers of community forums and events across the county, thereby enabling them to get to know local people and communities even better and keeping them safe and reassured.  Such officers regularly encouraged local communities to talk with them and are regularly out and about in schools, at social events and attending community clubs to introduce themselves and deal with any local issues and concerns.

Figures for serious acquisitive crime (including burglary, personal / business robbery and theft of/from vehicles) had reduced by 12% from 3,268 reported incidents to 2,877 during 2009/10, and business related crime dropped 23% from 2,901 to 2,245. Public satisfaction for the way officers were dealing with these crimes reached 87% for the 12 month period ending 31 March 2010.

During 2009/10 police officers detecting more crime; with serious violence detection rates increasing to 56.3% from 50.0% in 2008/09 and detection of incidents of household burglary, vehicle thefts and robbery up to 17.3% from 13%.

The Authority has commended the Force’s performance for 2009/10 but know that, although incidents had fallen over the last twelve months and communities are telling the Force they are even more satisfied with the way it is responding to calls for service that the Force is in no way complacent.  The Chief Constable has given his full commitment to continue to focus on listening to local people and working with partners to keep our communities feeling safe and reassured during 2010/11.

The Authority and the Force will be considering the implications of the Home Secretary’s announcement at the ACPO/APA Conference on 29 June 2010 that the single confidence target and the Policing Pledge will be scrapped with immediate effect. In particular it will be important to be clear on the effects of this on the monitoring, review and challenge of Force performance for 2010/11 onwards.
 
Communities First Programme

10. Report – The Authority has received an update from the Chief Constable on the Communities First Programme that provides a blue-print for the Authority and the Force to keep the communities of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent safe and reassured by the achievement of three strategic priorities, namely: delivering a quality service; delivering professional excellence and delivering value for money.

The re-shaping of the Force, announced in April 2010, will provide a new local policing structure from April 2011, streamlining the organisation to respond to the challenges of performance targets for 2011/12 onwards and the tight on-going financial constraints.

The Authority will continue to drive the strategic direction of the Force and the scrutiny and challenge of its performance, whilst ensuring that the developments of the Communities First Strategy better align scarce resources to operational requirements and the needs and priorities of communities.
Annual Governance Statement

11. Report - The Authority has reviewed its Annual Governance Statement setting out how it has complied with the Code of Corporate Governance adopted and the requirements of Regulation 4(2) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2006 in relation to the publication of a Statement of Internal Control. 
 
The statements reviewed the key elements of the systems and procedures comprising the governance arrangements and the Authority’s responsibility for conducting, at least annually, a review of the effectiveness of the governance framework.   This included the review of internal audit and the review of the operation of internal control, which were being maintained and reviewed by a corporate governance group, including officers of the Authority and the Force.

Inspection of Police Authorities

12. Report - Stephen Kershaw, Director of Police Reform and Resources at the Home Office has recently advised on the Government’s thinking on the inspection of police authorities in the transition period before the introduction of directly elected individuals. Future inspection of police authorities will focus on the most important things they do and be carried out in a proportionate manner. The Government wishes to move to this approach once the current tranche of inspections (not including Staffordshire, who had been a pilot area for the inspections in April 2009) had been completed and have asked the Audit Commission and HMIC to publish a second thematic report by the beginning of September 2010 detailing the inspections completed by that date.

The Police Minister has identified the priorities for police authorities as securing value for money and achieving cost savings and managing significantly constrained resources, while maintaining the impact of frontline policing. HMIC have been asked to consider how existing value for money inspections can be brought together with a health check of police authorities, without weakening the current assessments or losing a clear judgement on the effectiveness of individual authorities in carrying out their statutory functions.

Further updates on the future of police authority inspections will be made in subsequent reports.

Police Authority and Chief Constable’s Joint Annual Report 2009/10

13. Report – The Authority has previously agreed that the annual reports of the Chief Constable and the Authority should be combined into one document to avoid unnecessary duplication.

The Joint Annual Report 2009/10 is a relatively short document, focusing on key outcomes and the role of the Authority and has been published on the Authority’s website - www.staffordshirepoliceauthority.org.uk.

MRS. C.G. HEATH                   MR. H.C. BRIAN AND MR. R. CONTEH
Nominated Police Authority      Nominated Police Authority Members
Staffordshire County Council    Stoke-on-Trent City Council