Response to the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner - Consideration of Annual Report

Mr B Adams
7 July 2023

Ref: Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel - 3 July 2023 - Consideration of Annual Report 2022/23

Dear Mr Adams, 

In accordance with Section 28(4)(d) of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, I am writing on behalf of the Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel to formally report to you their views on your Annual Report for 2022/23 following consideration of its contents at the Panel’s public meeting on 3 July 2023.

I summarise below the main points of interest and concerns as discussed by the Panel. The minutes of the meeting which are on the Panels website provide a summary of the complete discussion which was wide ranging and covered issues which were not part of the Annual Report.

The Annual Report sets out your priorities and the progress you have made in the last 12 months. You reassured the panel that you were confident that the new leadership in terms of both the Chief Constable and the Chief Fire Officer was resulting in improved confidence in local services. The ‘engage’ process which was as a result of the HMICFRS inspections was proving valuable and services were showing improvement. The Panel was reminded that you held performance monitoring meetings with both the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer to hold them to account. The Panel felt that the public needed to be able to see base line data, so that they could see the rate of improvement. You reminded members that this information was available on your website and the meetings could be attended or watched via the web cast. It was suggested that a link to the website could be added to the Annual Report.

There was a wide discussion at the meeting on public perception of the Police service, in particular the 101 service and officer behaviour and accountability. Regarding your foreword in the Annual Report, it was felt that to mention the behaviour of other forces in a manner that may be interpreted as downplaying the problems in Staffordshire was inappropriate. At the meeting you agreed to revisit the wording.

Anti-social behaviour remained a priority and the panel discussed the need for full access to CCTV and surveillance information from all sources. You explained that there were many operating systems and managing the amount and type of information coming into the system was challenging. You felt that the project this year would be to understand and develop ways of working together to establish what was available and how it could be used. The Panel felt that this was appropriate, and they understood the link with the work of the Community Safety Partnerships to help formulate local solutions.

The Panel discussed the current pilot of Fire crews of three in South Staffordshire, for on-call crews. You explained that these were normally used as a backup response and wouldn’t normally be expected to be working alone. The Panel would like to see the results of the pilot prior to any decisions taking place on the rollout throughout the county.

The Panel thanked you for your update and look forward to seeing future updates which will demonstrate the progress on delivery of your Strategy.

This letter will be published on the Panels website. You are requested to publish it on your website alongside your Annual Report.

Yours sincerely

Bernard Peters
Chair - Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel