14 May 2025
Minutes of Meeting
Meeting: COT Board
Venue: Conference Room 2, Fulford Road Police Station
Date and Time: 14th May 2025 12:30 – 3:00pm
ITEM 1: ATTENDANCE
CC T Forber – Chair
DCC S Bisset
L Stitt - Assistant Chief Officer
ACC B Moseley
ACC C Clarke
L Branford-White – Chief Finance Officer
R Baran – Head of Corporate Development
T/Chief Insp D Anderson – Staff Officer to CC/DCC
M Chappell – Head of Corporate Communications
S Gardiner – Governance Support Officer
APOLOGIES Non required
ITEM 2: Review of minutes
Summary of Discussion:
The minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed, one amendment required. The minutes were agreed.
ITEM 3: Review of Action Log
Summary of Discussion:
Action #630. Annual Awards. Item on agenda. Closed.
Action #641 – Tutor Officer Numbers. Advert to be published to recruit tutors. A bespoke course will be run on Coast Command with a further course for the force area in January 2026. PDU Inspector had mapped the number of officers/staff requiring tutorship in 25/26. A business case will be submitted on PDU resources and requirements and the benefits of additional tutors. Remitted to the Strategic Workforce Board.
Action #642 – Tutor Officer Payments. Head of People Services presented the board with the proposal subject to minimum of 2 students completing tutorship and subsequently signed off by the PDU Inspector.
Action #648 - Engagement Strategy. ACC Clarke updated Ch Supt Willey had asked for all Engagement Strategies to be updated with a clear plan around expectations and responsibilities. Closed.
ITEM 4: Performance Update
Summary of Discussion:
Report on SharePoint.
Item not discussed due to time constraints.
ITEM 5: People Management
Summary of Discussion:
Leanne Consett Head of People Services joined the meeting.
Unison PIM Call Out. The Head of People provided a background to the paper requesting a decision regarding the payment of on-call allowances for qualified UNISON representatives to support the Post Incident Management (PIM) process (8 x UNISON representatives), to also include overtime if called out.
Historically UNISON Branch Secretary attended all PIM’s with no cost to the Force except overtime payments if called out. This is not in line with national terms and conditions for on call.
An on-call rota would require several people to service it otherwise there is no resilience, and one person cannot be expected to always be on call.
Authorised Professional Practice (APP) for Post Incident Procedures (PIP) recommended access to appropriately trained Federation and Trade Union support, in each police force.
The branch had trained 8 representatives in Post incident Management which was funded by UNISON.
The CC expressed the importance of the PIM’s process for Officers and Staff.
3 options were presented and discussed by the COT.
DECISION – Option 1 - 8 x UNISON representatives to cover On-Call rota providing 24/7 cover - Supported
Option 2 - 8 x UNISON representatives to cover the On-Call rota, providing 24/7 cover (alternative working patter to option 1) - Not Supported
Option 3 - No PIM Cover - Not Supported.
In reference to the £20k budget required to support the unison on-call allowance it was agreed that savings would be made across the Forces budget to provide this required budget allocation.
Regulation 13. Managing Student Officer Probation.
Chief Inspector Bennett from the Professional Standards Department joined the meeting.
The Head of People Services provided a verbal update to COT on Reg 13 to seek a COT steer on the proposed process prior to updating the procedure and carrying out Consultation.
DECISION - COT agreed with the process set out.
COT to be updated following the outcome of the consultation process.
National Wellbeing Survey.
Head of People Services confirmed the force had submitted 3 specific questions to be included in the national survey. The Survey will commence on the 19th May 2025.
ITEM 6: Corporate Communications Monthly Update
Summary of Discussion:
Report on Sharepoint
Maeve Chappell presented the briefing covering the month of April 2025.
CCTV appeals were up in the month of April along with Crime or Collision appeals. The Team had responded to 107 media enquires up by 42 from the previous month and were called out 19 times of which 14 were on a weekend.
Community Messaging had a total of 25687 users at the end of April, with 370 new users added and 293 messages sent. It was noted that the level of signup to the platform had dropped off from its peak in May 2023.
ITEM 7: Awards and Recognition
Summary of Discussion:
Report on Sharepoint
Rebecca Baran Head of Corporate Development presented the paper.
The COT had requested a review of the awards and recognition procedure and commendation categories.
The Chief Constable was consulted, who provided direction that the awards categories were fit for purpose, and did not require any further changes.
However, the Chief Constable requested that the commendations section be amended to incorporate new levels/categories of commendation.
Chief Constables Commendation, Executive Commendaton and COT Commendation.
A discussion took place around awards and the Innovation and Problem-Solving category. It was agreed this category would be separated.
DECISION- The Three categories of commendation will be. Chief Constable Commendation / Senior Leader Commendation / COT Commendation Supported.
CC Commendation. Recipients will be invited to a ceremony along with families.
The awards categories were agreed with the Innovation and Problem-Solving Award to be separated. Supported.
Long Service and Good Conduct Ceremonies will be staggered across the year. Supported.
ACO to be added to the Decision Making Pannal – Supported.
ITEM 8: COT Forward Planner
Summary of Discussion:
The forward planner was reviewed.
ACO Stitt requested the Joint Security Framework paper was added to the forward planner the 21st May Board.
ITEM 9: Freedom of Information Requests
Summary of Discussion:
The Freedom of Information requests were reviewed.
ITEM 10: Urgent Financial Decisions and Updates
Summary of Discussion:
CFO Branford White presented the paper.
Finance Management System.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS) have been given notice on the expiry of their financial management system provision with North Yorkshire Council (NYC), which is due to expire 31st March 2026.
There is a requirement to have a new financial management system in place with a fixed commencement date of 1st April 2026. The purpose of this document was to inform the Chief Officer Team of a collaborative project to centralise the Financial Management Systems of our regional services.
DECISION. The COT supported the centralisation of the Financial Management System.
Joint Buildings and Maintenance Contract.
The contract had been out to tender twice with no interest the first time and 8 suppliers the second. It was also recognised this is a better service than that provided in the past so represents VfM along with increased cost from inflationary pressure.
A discussion took place around the improved service that would be provided from a joint contract and COT agreed the increased cost was in line with the nature of the current market and to be found within the current budget. A paper will now progress to the Support Services Steering Board.
ITEM 11: Any other Portfolio Updates by Exception
Summary of Discussion:
None raised.
ITEM 12: Chief Officer Team Commitments
Summary of Discussion:
The Chief Officer Team Commitments were reviewed for the next two weeks.
ITEM 11: Any Other Business Summary of Discussion:
None raised.
DATE, TIME AND LOCATION OF NEXT MEETING: 21st May 2025
Time: 9:15am
Location: Haigh Conference Room, Alverton Court