Minutes of the Senior Command Team Meeting
Monday 5 October 2009

Present:-

CC Meredydd Hughes (Chair)
DCC Robert Dyson
DF Nigel Hiller
PS Andy Wilson (for Fire Service item only)

249 Declaration(s) of Interest

There were no declarations of interest.

250. Presentations

Jamie Courtney, Director of Service Delivery and Richard Chandler, Area Manager, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, attended the meeting and gave a briefing on the current industrial relations situation and developing contingency arrangements. They thanked the Force for the support they had received from the Contingency Planning Department.

Standing Items

251. Minutes from SCT Meeting 7 September 2009

The minutes were approved as a true and accurate record.

252. Action Schedule and Work Programme

There were no action updates due. CC Hughes commented that there was only one item on the work programme with an assigned date and asked SCT members responsible to allocate projected dates.

253. Portfolio Issues

CC Hughes

• CC Hughes advised that ACPO is conducting a process of reviewing its business and how it is organised. He will be attending a meeting in London as part of this process on 22nd & 23rd October and would therefore be unable to attend the Police Authority meeting scheduled for 23 October. DCC Dyson confirmed he would attend the Police Authority meeting.

DCC Dyson

• Raised the question as to whether to continue to hold Policy Advisory Group Meetings (PAG). The last one was in February of this year with the next scheduled for November. Ops Commanders meeting and QRD appear to be picking up issues that in the past would have been raised/discussed at PAG. DCC Dyson to canvas the opinions of PAG members to determine their views as to whether or not to continue with this forum. If PAG does continue then a topic for further discussion could be budgets and savings.

• DCC Dyson said that he had had sight of some of the papers being presented at the Police Authority seminar to be held on Friday 9 October 2009. CC Hughes advised that a presentation he was to give at the seminar would be similar to the one he delivered at QRD in September and will include putting the question to the Police Authority of ‘How do we meaningfully look to use the financial resources for this year within the year?' The SCT Office Manager, Mrs Alison Fletcher, to produce a condensed paper combining the suggestions for savings from QRD and from the respective meetings held by the OMAs, Business Managers and Personnel Managers.

• DCC Dyson said that Operation Diamond will play a part in delivering savings from districts and departments and will present their efficiency savings through SCT and submission to DF Hiller. DF Hiller advised that Mrs Lorraine Booth and Mrs Debbie Carrington have already commenced work on HR planning and have been asked to report their findings to ACC Whyman.

DF Hiller

• Updated colleagues on the sale and purchase of various properties.

• The Regional IT Workshop at Thorpe Park was held on Friday 2 October and was beneficial, with every IT Team Leader in the region attending. The event gave the team leaders the opportunity to question Richard Erland on the ISIS programme and Chief Constable Maxwell and Director of Finance Hiller on all aspects of regional working. Key themes were discussed to improve service and reduce costs were shared data services, remote working and virtual IT teams.

254. Force Performance

DCC Dyson briefed colleagues on recent Force performance and outlined that overall crime was down by 12.2% as at 4th October 2009. More serious violent crime continues to show an increase.

Decision Papers

 

255. Chief Inspector - Planning HRD

In ACC Whyman's absence, DCC Dyson presented this report, the purpose of which was to seek the approval of SCT to replace the planned Band G Police Staff role with a Chief Inspector into the role of Planning and Analysis Lead Officer, for an initial 12 month trial period.

SCT considered this new post and would welcome a further discussion as to whether this is a growth post and how it would relate to areas within the Personnel Department in order to gain a broader understanding of how the issues would progress.

ACTION: ACC Whyman

Discussion / Information Items

256. ACPO Autumn Conference

CC Hughes outlined the likely issues to be covered at the conference. He asked colleagues to attend if diary commitments allow.

257. HMIC Report - Delivering the Policing Pledge

This item was taken in closed session

Audit Reports

258. None

Papers to Review

259. Police Authority Papers

Business Support Committee 16 October 2009

259.1 Write Off Report - Non Stop Events Ltd.

Approved

259.2 VFM Strategy

Approved

259.3 Training School Update

Approved

259.4 Regional ICT Strategy

Approved

259.5 Workforce Modernisation Seminar

Approved

259.6 Inward Investment Risks and Exit Strategies -

Approved

259.7 Efficiency and Productivity Gains

DF Hiller pointed out that the Force was midway through the three year strategy and has currently achieved 57% of the three year target at 9.3%. This includes gains carried forward from 2007/08. Several suggestions to improve the paper were considered and DF Hiller to ask the authority to re-write the paper accordingly.

259.8 Health & Safety

Approved, subject to very minor corrections.

259.9 Employment Monitoring Report

Paragraph 8.1 - Mrs Lorraine Booth be asked to include the evidence surrounding the research and where SYP are positioned out of the 43 Forces.

Approved, subject to above amendment.

Police Authority 23 October 2009

259.10Joint Risk Management Strategy

Approved

260. Ops Commanders Minutes 1 October 2009

Noted. DCC Dyson requested that the minutes of this forum continue to come to SCT.

Standing Items

261. Notification to Police Authority

No issues

262. Notification to Force

No issues

263. Any Other Business

Yorkshire Ambulance Service Flu Issues - CC Hughes advised the Senior Command Team of the correspondence received from the Ambulance Service regarding the latest information in respect of the potential flu pandemic and the threat of its impact on resources. YAS will set up a liaison arrangement with the Force once they are aware of restrictions in their service and will agree contingency plans.

SCS Restructure - DCC Dyson had been given the latest version of this paper by Detective Superintendent Thompson. SCT requested more detail as to where the money required was going to be sourced from.