To receive questions from (and provide answers to) members of the public that are relevant to the panel’s functions.

Questions should be no longer than 100 words and sent to Democratic Support, Plymouth City Council, Floor 3, Ballard House, West Hoe Road, Plymouth, PL1 3BJ or democratic.support@plymouth.gov.uk

Questions must be received at least 5 complete working days before the meeting.

Q: “Given that D & C Police have spent a considerable amount in being an inclusive organisation can the PCC tell me what initiatives she has taken to ensure that her office reflects the communities she serves in, actual proof not straplines.”

Alison Hernandez, Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner gave the following response:

• Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly is an area of great diversity. The 2011 census numbers showed low numbers of non-white British residents (at 5%) but I know that this will have changed in recent years and I am awaiting the results of the 2021 census. But the diversity of our communities is not about ethnicity alone, we also need to acknowledge the diversity in age, disability, sex, orientation, and lifestyles across such a large geographic area.

• My role is to represent the people that I serve, am I do this by ensuring that my office reflects our communities in everything we do. I work closely with the Chief Constable and on this, and my Police and Crime Plan includes specific commitments to ensure that we reflect our communities needs in the war we work and thrive in diversity, and to champion community cohesion and tackle hate crime.

Policy and Commissioning

• My team uses a range of tools to ensure evidence-based policy making that reflects the needs of our communities.

This includes:

§  Demographic data about our communities

§  Qualitative feedback through surveys and focus groups

§  Feedback from your correspondence

§  Engagement with representatives of specific communities such as business networks, farming networks, faith groups, as well as groups representing those with protected characteristics.

• I ensure that, where appropriate, I include representatives from different diverse groups and communities on decision making and policy development boards and groups to inform my work and that of my team.

• In addition we also have a lived experience advisor scheme where community members can use their experience of the criminal justice system to effect change and work with us to co-design new service responses.

• I use this data and evidence to develop plans, policies and inform our commissioning, and specific impacts on those with protected characteristics are carefully analysed through Equality Impact Assessments.

• In my Commissioning it is essential that I reflect and meet the needs of our communities. This is done through commissioning needs assessments, equality impact assessments and engagement and consultation with people who will use our service. Currently, our victim care provision provides specialist support for all protected characteristics, including age, ethnic background, sexuality, gender and disability.

• Through our new victim care contract with Victim Support we have just established two new victim care services for people with disabilities and those from a minority ethnic background which were two known gaps in local provision in Cornwall.

Public engagement

• In addition to using data and listening to our communities in policy making and planning, my team undertakes significant work to ensure that we keep our diverse communities up to date on what we are doing, and that they know how to contact me if they need to. This includes ensuring that hard to hear communities are notified of opportunities to engage in community engagement exercises.

• The office has a strong social media presence, and we have significant increased our reach and numbers of followers in recent years, with a total of 16,064 followers (January 20, 2022)

• In 2019 my communications and engagement team attended a significant number of diverse community events and funded Torbay’s first Into the Mix diverse community festival. Covid-19 severely limited the number of these types of event that were held in Devon and Cornwall, although we remained committed to supporting, and in some cases funding, diverse communities events when they did take place or took place virtually. These included Cornwall Pride, Crediton Diversity Festival, Plymouth Pride and the Plymouth Respect Picnic In the Park.

• Of particular concern is the challenge facing policing organisations in relation to engaging younger age groups. My team have been working with the force on a youth engagement strategy which will assist me in ensuring the views of young people are better taken into account.

• I also am extremely grateful to my 371 Councillor Advocates who represent the people of their communities, and help my office reach a greater number of people and once again would like to encourage all Panel members to join us as an Advocate and encourage their colleagues to do the same.

Recruitment

• Representation in recruitment is also an important part of reflecting our communities. As part of the uplift programme we have seen an increase in under-represented groups joining as police officers since the introduction of the Positive Action Strategy. However, the number of police officers from minority ethnic backgrounds is not yet reflective of our diverse communities.

• Devon and Cornwall Police is one of the largest employers in the area and has clear and transparent recruitment processes. My office shares the recruitment process with the force. My office employs around 30 full time equivalent members of staff, who are mostly Devon or Cornwall residents. My team come from a variety of backgrounds, including from across the UK and international citizens.

• I will not be commenting on individual protected characteristics of my staff, but am pleased that my team reflect diversity of sex and age. However, I recognise that more can be done to increase representation of colleagues from minority ethnic backgrounds.

• I have recently introduced two new apprentice posts which have been filled by local people from the 18-24 age range. I have also recently welcomed two new graduates from the local area into my Policy team. I am also proud to currently have in place an all-female executive management team.

• My office offers a range of flexible working policies to increase inclusivity, and we promote new opportunities across a range of channels to attract the widest range of applicants, including targeting representative bodies of underrepresented and harder to reach communities.

Question 2

Q: Can the panel seek assurances to the question I asked on 9 July 2021 that an update will be provided and if not be directed to where those updates can be found? Will the items raised be featured on the work programme and would the panel give some notification?

A:

• On 9th July 2021 Cllr Singh raised his concern that as a British Sikh who is proud of his identity he was not able to record his ethnicity as Sikh when recording a hate crime, rather than as a religion, which is an option within current national reporting frameworks.

• I answered this question in full in July and since then there have been no changes to national systems and therefore my response remains as given at that time.