Alison Hernandez (Police and Crime Commissioner) introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

a)     Acting Chief Constable Jim Colwell had been active in driving the improvement in public contact.

Jim Colwell (Acting Chief Constable) added:

b)    In 2022 His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) labelled the 999 and 101 service as inadequate;

c)     In September 2024, HMICFRS discharged their concerns around the Devon and Cornwall 999 and 101 service;

d)    The improvement in the service had been delivered through a range of leadership and management interventions within the contact resolution centre;

e)     Although new technology had taken a long time to come online, when it was implemented it transformed the service that was offered to the public;

f)      The focus had been on process and stripping out less effective bureaucratic processes, leadership management and performance culture;

g)     There were control rooms and contact centres in Exeter and Plymouth, at which 999 and 101 call management was handled; 

h)    13 Police Enquiry Offices had opened since 2020, with four more due to open in 2024 in Ivybridge, Liskeard, Exeter and Tavistock;

i)      There was high digital demand being submitted through the online portal;

j)      At its worst, there were in excess of 3000 emails waiting to be responded to, and the average response time was 18 days;

k)     Devon and Cornwall Police had worked with the private sector on how they manage core handling challenges and well as alongside best performing forces nationally, including Humberside;

l)      The introduction of call-backs had been effective at reducing wait times for the 101 service;

m)   Other improvements included:

i) A new performance network for the command;

ii) Enhanced training for supervisors and staff;

iii) Different shift patterns to align resource to demand more effectively;

n)    There was a national endeavour to bring a consistent website offering to all 43 forces;

o)    The Police Enquiry Offices strengthened the connection to local communities and provided the space and time for face to face contact;

p)    Due to investment in digital demand resources, Police Enquiry Offices could now deal with online queries when not handling face to face enquiries;

q)    The HMICFRS published an assessment in January 2023, using rolling three month data from November 2021 to January 2022, showing Devon and Cornwall Police were only successfully answering 85% of 999 calls within ten seconds, with an average wait time of 13 seconds. The national service level agreement was for forces to hit 90% of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds;

r)     Current performance of Devon and Cornwall Police showed 93% of 999 calls were answered within 10 seconds, with an average wait time of 5 seconds;

s)     In the latest published data, Devon and Cornwall Police was ranked 16^th nationally, with 30,000 999 calls answered in August 2024;

t)     Between November 2021 and January 2022, only 47% of 101 calls were being answered within the self-imposed target of 20 minutes, with seven out of ten calls being abandoned due to wait times;

u)    Current performance showed that over 90% of 101 calls were being answered within 20 minutes, with an average wait of seven minutes;

v)     Since the call-back function had been introduced there had been 26,000 requests, with a success rate of 98.1%;

w)   In August 2023, the average wait time for a 101 call was 40 minutes. This was now currently less than five minutes;

x)    In August 2023 the average wait time for a response to an email was 19 hours, this had now been reduced to less than 9 hours, with 93% of emails being answered within 24 hours.

In response to questions, it was explained:

y)     There were no concerns that the performance of 999 and 101 services could not be maintained;

z)     Although they were policed differently, rural communities were just as important to Devon and Cornwall Police as urban communities;

aa)  The data used in the HMICFRS PEEL Report from July 2024 dated back to the Summer of 2022, which was why it stated Devon and Cornwall Police were still in ‘special measures’. This had been challenged and HMICFRS has completed another audit which had shown sustained and sustainable performance uplifts;

bb) Positive communications had been released around the positive change in 101 service, which had seen an increase in calls to the 101 service;

cc)  Thanks were given to Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Leaper and Head of Contact Services Dan Thorogood for their support to the Acting Chief Constable in elevating the 999 and 101 performance;

dd) The online contact function for Devon and Cornwall Police could be found on their digital contact portal;

ee)  There were 300 visits a day to Police Enquiry Offices throughout Devon and Cornwall.

The Panel agreed to note the report.