Executive Board Minutes – 25 June 2024
MINUTES EXECUTIVE BOARD
25.06.24
9-13:30 in the Haigh Room, HQ and via Microsoft Teams
Attending: | David Skaith (DS) – Mayor of York and North Yorkshire – Chair
Tim Forber (TF) – Chief Constable, NYP Scott Bisset (SB) – Deputy Chief Constable, NYP Jonathan Dyson (JD) – Chief Fire Officer, NYFRS Simon Dennis (SD) – Corporate Director & Deputy Monitoring Officer, OPFCC Tamara Stevens (TS) – Director of Delivery & Assurance, OPFCC Amanda Wilkinson (AW) – Director of Public Confidence, OPFCC Michael Porter (MP) – Chief Finance Officer, OPFCC Mathew Walker (MW) – Deputy Chief Fire Officer, NYFRS Louise Branford – White (LB-W)– Head of Finance & S151 officer, NYP Lisa Stitt (LS) – Assistant Chief Officer Enable Maeve Chappell (MC) – Corporate Communications Lead, enableNY Jenni Newberry (JN) – Director of Commissioning & Partnerships, OPFCC Sarah Davies (SJD) – Executive Assistant OPFCC Xanthe Tait (XT) – Director Evolve Legal Services Mark Ayres (MA) – Interim Director of Public Confidence, OPFCC James Farrar (JF) – Chief Executive, YNYCA |
Presenting: | |
Guests: | |
Apologies: |
1. |
Welcome, Introductions & Apologies |
DS welcomed the meeting. | |
2. | Action Log/Minutes |
Minutes approved from previous meeting. One date error change 2023 to 2024 | |
3. | North Yorkshire Police |
a. Current and significant issues emerging
A verbal update was taken. TF informed the Board that there has been a significant spike in demand due to the hot weather, particularly on the coast. This means there is increasing pressure on the Force Control Room but the ACC lead for this is completing work to address this. 999 call performance is holding up but demand is expected to be high for the next 6 -8 weeks through the summer months. The European Football Championships and frequent late kick offs will also mean an increase in demand. b. For Information and Discussion A verbal update was taken. TF updated the Board on crime rates and the work being completed around retail crime. Initiatives have been piloted in coastal areas – the team from the coast attended the COT meeting to talk about what is happening in Scarborough. Patterns of retail crime have proven to be insightful, and the team have a lot of engagement with the retail community to build confidence. This practice may have potential for expansion across the force area. Police race action plan – there is information to suggest that the National Black Police Association have chosen to withdraw their support for it. They have left it to the local associations to choose if they want to support the work of the local forces. The local association in NYP have chosen to continue their support for the work here. SB informed members that he would be happy for any of them to attend the Police Action Plan Board. A report will come to the Board on a date to be arranged for members to see the work so far. [post meeting note: further developments in this regard have occurred since EB – a short discussion paper has been included on the July agenda] DS asked if NYFRS have done anything similar and JD provided an update on the Culture review. c. Third party reports including update on HMICFRS progress against actions Response Policing Week this week and celebrating this – the COT team are out and about with the teams. Work continues on the Plan on a Page which will set out what is required to deliver the Police and Crime Plan. JF asked if a paper could be brought to the meeting regarding priorities for both services for the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor on key areas they would like focus on and ones that could be shared with other Mayors. Focus on neighbourhood benefits – put money into that and it will be spent correctly and increase public confidence. Mental health is a national issue. A paper will come to a future meeting to assist the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor with issues to raise at a national level in this respect. Action: Date to be fixed for NYP paper on the Race Action Plan to go on the forward planner. |
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4. | North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service |
a. Current and significant issues emerging
Local – welcome to AW as she commences her secondment to NYFRS. JD updated members on the recent correspondence and talks with the Unions in relation to various matters both nationally and locally. Detailed discussions on these topics were had amongst members with reassurance provided to the Mayor that he will be updated on the progress of the items once more is known. Changes that have been brought about as a result of the transition to the Mayoral Combined Authority were highlighted by JD who provided a clear update on the position as they currently stand. JD informed members of the key items from the last Senior Leadership Board meeting and highlighted the current financial position. A paper will come to this Board at a future point and will be added to the work plan. Action – paper to be scheduled on NYFRS financial challenges – to be added to Work Programme b. Third party reports including update on HMICFRS progress against actions JD provided an update on the significant progress being made. The causes for concern are national ones, not local to NYFRS. Members were informed that the Services have started HMI forums to show what is being done. These are recorded on Teams and sent out for people to see the steps being done. So far the first one has been completed with a positive response to it. |
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5. | enableNY |
a. Current and significant issues emerging
LS briefly updated members on issues from the work plan. |
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6. | |
7. | Legal Services |
XT updated members on items that are subject to Legal Professional Privilege. Actions from these items will be added to the actions list and shared with members privately.
Action – a separate closed meeting to be convened to discuss specific matters relating to procurement and a report brought back to this Board in July. A further update was provided on ongoing work in Evolve Legal Services and XT informed members she would be happy to share the outcomes from the next ELS board with all. |
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8. | Finance |
No items for the meeting | |
9. | OPFCC |
a. Commissioning & Partnerships
JN provided and update on Commissioning and Partnerships from the papers that were circulated to members in advance of the meeting. Key elements from the reports were highlighted to members for discussion. Further discussions outside of the meeting to take place. b. OPFCC updates SD noted that Jo Coles attended the Police Fire and Crime Panel confirmation hearing and received unanimous approval from members. Jo will commence in role in early July. Risks and pressures in the Customer Service Team (and the recovery plan and ‘embedding model 3’ plan) will be discussed in a meeting with the Deputy Chief Constable later today in preparation for the HMICFRS Integrity Inspection fieldwork. c. Devolution Closing Transition Board this week to identify what is left to be completed from the transition work and what needs allocating to business as usual. There may also be the need for a closing Strategic Steering Group. JF suggested that Devolution can come off the agenda imminently and we can move to a strategic item now that the transition has been completed. |
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10. | Risks |
a. NYP
SB provided an update on the current risks on the risk register and items that have been to the Risk and Assurance Board. b. OPFCC Risk registers for the OPFCC presented for noting. Risk target for the Customer Service Team discussed. Monthly reports to come to EB with figures from the Customer Service Team. C & P risks overview provided by JN. Detailed discussion was had by members in relation to some of these risks. |
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11. | Communications update/ Forward planning |
MC provided members with an update on work from the Comms Grid. The team have been working collaboratively with the Combined Authority and the OPFCC comms teams. | |
12. | YNYCA OPFCC matters for discussion |
SD spoke to the paper circulated in advance of the meeting. The discussion paper is for initial feedback only at this stage, with a view to adapting meeting conventions after the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire & Crime takes office and determines how she wishes her full-time governance role to be exercised.
SD invited members to discuss the papers in relation to changes to the meetings. JF agreed that a reset was timely. JF expressed the view that would like to see a dashboard from each area, NYP, FRS, OPFCC, Enable and ELS. He felt that this would be easier for the services to populate and put together. SD agreed that there was merit in the performance dashboard approach but may duplicate materials deal with more transparently at the Online Public Meetings. TF suggested that the current Chiefs Catch up meeting did require a refresh in terms of purpose but was not supportive of it being a minuted meeting. SD clarified that the paper proposed a ‘gist’ record of each discussion. TF also suggested that there needs to be an Independent Ethics Panel. [post meeting note – the IEAB met for its second sitting on 27 June 2024] JD spoke from an NYFRS perspective and said that he felt the CCU should not be formalised and that we need to ensure there is not a repeat of meetings. Maybe an EB pre-meet could be an advantage? JD also stressed that he needs time with the DMPFC once she is in role. SD explained to members that he will take away the product of the discussion and feed back to Jo and David. It is ultimately their choice how they choose to hold the services to account and what meetings they feel are needed. Responding to the suggestion raised by JF, XT explained that the role of Evolve Legal Services is different and that she couldn’t produce a dashboard for the meeting. XT felt that it would be beneficial to review how items come to this board and to ensure that they meet any legal requirements prior to being produced at the meeting. Governance processes are in place and it is important to ensure that anything requiring a decision are grounded in that proper process. JF suggested that SD, TF and JD meet to agree on an approach to bring this forward to a future meeting. Action – following initial dialogue with the incoming DMPFC, further discussion to take place between SD, TF and JD on refined recommendations. |