Agenda item

- Report of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

22.1  Further to Minute No. 12.2 of the previous meeting, Dr. Billings, Police and Crime Commissioner, presented the Engagement and Communications Strategy which demonstrated how the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) would engage and communicate with victims and the wider community and stakeholders.

22.2  Communication and engagement with the public and stakeholders was essential in order to understand what the priorities were and to ensure that their views were an integral part of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s decision making process.  It was also vital to increase public trust and confidence in policing.

22.3  There were numerous ways in which the OPCC currently engaged with the public (as set out in Section 4.3 of the Communications and Engagement Strategy) and would continually strive to seek out new ways of engaging and communicating with many different groups and sections of the community to ensure the processes were as inclusive as possible.

22.4  Throughout the Strategy, it was made clear the commitment to:-

-          Be open, accessible, transparent, accountable and responsive

-          Gather views and involve the community in setting police and crime priorities and commissioning services

-          Inform the community of performance, how they had influenced priorities, how the OPCC held South Yorkshire Police to account and how the public could access services

22.5  A programme of engagement opportunities within the community was being established where members of the public could speak to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and members of the Engagement Team at a variety of venues.  These would be promoted widely within the communities.

22.6  A section of the PCC’s website was currently being developed which would provide information on all engagement activity undertaken since the PCC came into office and would then be updated on a weekly basis.

22.7  As part of the statutory duty to hold the Chief Constable to account on South Yorkshire Police’s engagement activity with local communities, a full review of PACT (Partners & Communities Together) meetings had taken place.  A set of recommendations had been agreed to improve the way the meetings worked and would be rebranded as “Community Safety Meetings” forging closer links with partner organisations to provide a more community-based focus.  Work on this was currently ongoing with the Local Policing Teams and engagement with partners to establish the new meetings in the New Year.  In those areas where PACT was working well there would be no change to the current format other than the name change; in other not successful areas the existing PACTs may be merged with other established community meetings.

22.8  Issues arising from presentation of the report included:-

-          Although the list of community groups, organisations and individuals the Police and Crime Commissioner had engaged with did not specifically mention an older person’s group, almost every group had retired people in attendance.  However, the Commissioner would look at engineering an invitation to meetings in that sector

-          The OPCC had been kept informed of the progress of the South Yorkshire Devolution Deal but no more than that; the Police did not feature in the Devolution document

-          A meeting with the Fire Authority, Fire Chief Officers and the Commissioner to talk about collaboration and efficiencies had been convened prior to the Government announcement of potentially PCCs running the Fire Service and replacing Fire Authorities.  The Home Office consultation ran until 23^rd October

Action:  That the Communication and Engagement Strategy and the Police and Crime Commissioner’s commitment to engagement activity be noted.