28 March 2023

​Record of actions and decisions

Title: Chief Officer's Management Board - Strategic
Date: Tuesday 28 March 2023
Venue: Clift Suite and Virtual Microsoft Teams

Attendees

Name	Role
DCC Peter Ayling (Chair)	Chief Constable
DCO Ian Drysdale	Deputy Chief Officer
ACC Tracey Harman	Local Policing Directorate
ACC Simon Wilson	Crime Operations Directorate
T/ACC. Nigel Brookes	Central Operations Directorate
PSE Alison Brett	Rep: HR and Learning & Development
ACO Gavin McKinnon (MT)	Director of Corporate Communications
T/ACO Jules Donald	Director of Support Services Directorate
PSE Jonathan Castle	Chief Finance Officer
PSE Sonya Gransden	Chief of Staff
DCI Garry Cook	Staff Officer to the DCC
PSE Nicola Endacott (Item 4)	Head of Intelligence and Data Analysis
PSE Gary Beautridge (Item 4)	Head of Corporate Services
PSE David Jedrzejewski (Item 6)	Head of Business Services
T/ACC Simon Parkes (Item 3)	Guest, ERSOU
PSE Alison Pavis (Minutes) (MT)	Senior Executive Assistant

Apologies

• CC Tim Smith
• ACC Andrew Pritchard
• ACO Richard Leicester

1. Approval of the record from Tuesday 28 March 2023

The record was approved.

2. Matters arising/action updates:

Action 21/23 - discharged
Action 22/23 - discharged
Action 23/23 - discharged

3. ERSOU Performance

T/ACC Parkes provided an overview of ERSOU performance for chief officer’s information.

The Chair thanked T/ACC Parkes for his presentation.

New Action 24/23:

ACC Pritchard to review opportunities to utilise ERSOU capabilities more effectively for taskings through force TT&CG with a focus on sensitive intelligence, high end capabilities, and NTE support, with proposals to come back to a future COMB for chief officer discussion.

4. Force Strategic Assessment and Control Strategy

Mrs Endacott provided an overview of the circulated documents with recommendations as follows:

• the force TT&CG meeting and associated divisional and SCD T&CG Groups should be aligned to the new Control Strategy and task appropriately based on the approach adopted
• a review of the T&CG processes and associated meetings (SOP, PVP, Crime Series, Offender Management) is carried out to ensure they are fit for purpose and delivering against the Control Strategy
• it is recommended that each Control Strategy theme is allocated a senior lead to drive forward the intelligence and activity around the Control Strategy

The following decisions for approval were sought:

• this section of the Chief Officers Management Board on 28 March 2023, to be officially designated as the Strategic Tasking and Coordination Group for 2023 in line with the National Intelligence Model requirements
• agreement of the Control Strategy for 2023/24 or agreement of proposed changes
• the development of the Strategic Intelligence Requirement is remitted to the Director of Intelligence for Serious Crime Directorate

Decisions:

Chief officers agreed the principles of the new Control Strategy, with further views (such as the addition of fraud) to be provided to PSE Endacott by Friday 31 March.

The Chair set out that a Strategic Tasking Group at COMB would be formed to take place on an annual and six-monthly basis, to ensure sufficient time is dedicated to discussion on the Strategic Assessment and Control Strategy, with due cognisance also of the FMS.

NEW ACTION 25/23
Mr Beautridge to develop an outline proposal for DCC Ayling’s consideration in a month’s time on the Strategic Tasking Group agreed on an annual basis, with six-month review. The proposal should include reinvigoration of the force TT&CG process and the effectiveness of the SIR.

5. Finance update (period 11) February 2023

Mr Castle presented the monthly update report to chief officers for information.

Decisions

Chief officers agreed in principle to set up a contingent liability. DCO Drysdale and PSE Castle would provide a brief to the chief constable for his approval.

DCO Drysdale agreed to liaise with the chief constable with regards to PCSO redundancy provision.

Chief officers thanked Mr Castle for his comprehensive, clear and well-informed financial update.

6. Body armour stock and supply chain issues

Mr Jedrzejewski presented the briefing update to chief officers and requested approval to:

• temporarily suspend the current body armour replacement programme due to be completed in January 2024 before becoming business as usual
• reintroduce confidence testing of body armour at the expiry of the manufacturer’s guaranteed protection period as a contingency should the force have difficulty in sourcing supplies of body armour due to the short-term supply chain issues as highlighted in the National Police Chief’s Council circulated dated 9 March 2023

Decisions

Chief officers approved the recommendations and decisions outlined within the supporting paper.

It was agreed that oversight of the body armour stock risk would be remitted to the Uniform and Equipment Gold Group chaired by T/ACC Brookes.

It was agreed that the Head of Business Services would liaise with Corporate Communications to agree a joint release with Essex Police for a Spotlight communication to inform and reassure officers regarding body armour supply and that damaged kit would still be replaced at the earliest opportunity.

7. Any other business

There were no items declared.

Date of next meeting

Tuesday 11 April 2023.