Agenda item

Guide time: 3.45 – 4.15pm

RESOLVED that: the work program for 2022/23 should include the following matters:

a)  The Panel agrees the proposed scope for scrutiny work on Early Intervention activity, subject to the following amendments: 

?-  Mrs Shields and Councillor Lunn would be added to the membership of the working group.

?-Miss Woodhouse would be involved in reviewing the draft report.

b)  The Panel agrees to hold (virtual) pre-meetings ahead of future Panel meetings following publication of the agenda papers. 

c)  The Panel requests that a private briefing session with the Chief Constable on Northamptonshire Police’s current priorities, challenges and performance be arranged around the Panel meeting on 1^st December 2022 or as soon as possible afterwards. 

The Democratic Services Assistant Manager presented the report setting out the Panel’s overall work programme for 2022/23. The Panel was also asked to consider and agree the draft scope for proposed in-depth scrutiny work on early intervention, which had been drawn up by members appointed to the working group set up for this purpose. The draft scope was being presented to the current meeting with a view to enabling this work to progress.

The Panel considered the draft scope. Councillor McGhee, as the suggested chair for the working group, emphasised that it would be excellent for the Panel to commit to this valuable piece of work, which would be carried out constructively and with a view to assisting the PFCC.

The PFCC commented that work by the Panel on early intervention could assist in ensuring that relevant partners such as the two Northamptonshire local authorities were working together to best effect. This would reflect that expenditure by the OPFCC on early intervention represented a relatively small proportion of overall expenditure in the county.

Panel members made the following additional points:

·         The choice of topic reflected that the Panel saw early intervention as an important part of the PFCC’s remit.

·         The two local authorities in Northamptonshire should be involved in the work as evidence-providers.

·         Mrs Shields and Councillor Lunn expressed an interest in being involved in the working group. Miss Woodhouse also offered to contribute at the report-writing stage if this would be helpful.    

The Chair subsequently invited Panel members to raise any points on the overall work programme that they wished the Panel to consider. A Panel member reiterated that the Panel should invite the Chief Constable to attend the Panel meeting on 1^st December 2022 to give an overview of the force’s current priorities, challenges and performance. Panel members commented that it might be more productive to hold a separate briefing session on this topic, as the Panel had done in the past. This could possibly be organised around the next Panel meeting, although the two sessions would need to be co-ordinated effectively.   

The Chair advised that the National Association of Police, Fire & Crime Panels had recently discussed the use of pre-meetings by different panels to identify and co-ordinate lines of enquiry ahead of their formal meetings. The Panel considered the potential benefit and practicalities of adopting this approach. It was highlighted that a separate pre-meeting held between the publication of agenda papers and the respective Panel meeting could be organised as a virtual meeting.

RESOLVED that:

a)   The Panel agrees the proposed scope for scrutiny work on Early Intervention activity, subject to the following amendments:

·         Mrs Shields and Councillor Lunn would be added to the membership of the working group.

·         Miss Woodhouse would be involved in reviewing the draft report.

b)   The Panel agrees to hold virtual pre-meetings ahead of future Panel meetings following publication of the agenda papers.

c)   The Panel requests that a private briefing session with the Chief Constable on Northamptonshire Police’s current priorities, challenges and performance be arranged around the Panel meeting on 1 December 2022 or as soon as possible afterwards.