Discussion on crime and policing in Manchester with the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and Deputy Mayor, Baroness Beverley Hughes.

The Committee welcomed Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, and Baroness Beverley Hughes, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• That Ward Councillors across Greater Manchester had been raising concerns about the performance of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) over a number of years but that it had taken the report of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) for action to be taken and how could Ward Councillors be involved and make their voices heard in future;
• Serious youth violence, including the need for a trauma-informed approach and for improved information-sharing;
• How much could realistically be achieved given the funding cuts;
• The closure of police stations and the loss of that as a link between the public and the police;
• What was being done to improve the 101 non-emergency telephone number;
• Concern about the level of communication with victims of crime after they had reported the crime; and
• Concern about an increase in car crime and burglaries and a lack of visible policing on the streets.

Andy Burnham informed Members that he had had concerns about GMP when he was an MP and that he had brought that experience into the role of Mayor of Greater Manchester.  He outlined the journey from 2017, when he was elected as Mayor, to the HMIC inspection of 2020, which had judged that the service provided to victims of crime by GMP to be a serious cause of concern.  As part of this, he highlighted the review of how GMP and partner agencies had responded to Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), the Kerslake Report into the preparedness for and response to the Manchester Arena Attack and issues with GMP’s computer system, which he advised, the Deputy Mayor had asked for a review of.  He reported that these had created a picture of the issues within GMP, the final piece of which had been the HMIC report, which had made it clear that fundamental change was needed, resulting in the decision to change the leadership of GMP.  In response to the Member’s question about how Greater Manchester could avoid getting into this situation again in future and how Members could be involved, he recognised the importance of engagement with local Councillors and highlighted the introduction of named accountable police teams at a neighbourhood level and meetings with local Councillors and MPs, including police accountability processes taking place in public.  He advised that improvements had been made in GMP and that he felt confident that further positive changes would be seen in 2022.

Baroness Hughes agreed that the involvement of local Councillors in contributing to, monitoring and scrutinising changes was essential and advised that this was best focused at the local level.  She outlined the changes to the leadership structure since the new Chief Constable had started, including the appointment of new Chief Superintendents for each borough, and how these changes contributed to improved partnership working, communication and problem solving in neighbourhoods.  She encouraged Members to engage at a local level and recommended that the Committee meet with their Chief Superintendent, if they had not already done so.  She informed the Committee how the new Chief Constable was holding meetings with officers, down to sergeant level, communicating the new ethos, following which officers were committing to a pledge about their role in the locality.  

Andy Burnham advised Members that the importance of a trauma-informed approach was recognised across public services in Greater Manchester and that, once this approach was adopted, it changed the ways of thinking and approaches to supporting people in relation to a range of issues, including CSE and homelessness.  He offered to provide a note to the Member who had raised this on the adoption of the trauma-informed approach across Greater Manchester.

Andy Burnham informed Members that, although funding cuts from 2010 to 2017 had negatively impacted on GMP, there were already issues with the internal culture of the organisation and that the way the cuts had been implemented had also been part of the problem.  He highlighted the decision in 2017 to introduce the precept on Council Tax to provide additional funding to GMP which had enabled them to recruit more police officers and advised that central funding was no longer being reduced and GMP was now receiving an uplift in funding.  He advised that last year he had not felt it appropriate to give GMP the full precept that they were asking for, following the concerns that had been raised about their performance, but that, with changes having been made and the new leadership, it was important now to provide this additional funding; however, he emphasised that his focus was not just on funding levels but the implementation of the Chief Constable’s Plan and making improvements in key areas such as the response on the 101 non-emergency telephone number. He encouraged Members to hold their local police teams to account for delivering on GMP’s commitments.

In response to a question from the Ward Councillor for Hulme,Andy Burnham highlighted the work of the Violence Reduction Unit, in particular work on a community-led approach to serious youth crime and violence, including a number of pilots across Greater Manchester, one of which was in Moss Side, and the learning that was coming out of those pilots.  He advised that he would welcome the Ward Councillor’s input into those pilots.  In response to the question about police stations, he stated that, while it was not possible to revert to the previous situation of having police stations in every area, as part of the move to having a named accountable team in each neighbourhood, it would be possible to have a base or some way for the public to physically access that team, for example, through a regular surgery at a local library.  He advised that enabling people to have access to their neighbourhood police team was important in connecting the teams to their communities and building relationships, recognising that not everyone would want to use online communication.

In response to the question on serious youth violence, Baroness Hughes recognised that information-sharing was key, not only where a homicide had taken place but to identify a young person in difficulty at an early stage and to intervene to protect them.  She outlined the multi-agency approach of the Violence Reduction Unit and the community involvement in the pilots taking place.  She highlighted the Bill currently going through the House of Lords which would place a duty on local authorities, the police and a number of other agencies, to collaborate to prevent serious violence, including information-sharing.  

In response to a question about domestic abuse, Andy Burnham reported that the Gender-Based Violence Strategy had been published last year.  He advised that culture change was needed both in the way victims were supported and in relation to the casual harassment of and unacceptable behaviour towards women and girls, noting the link between this and more serious abuse, and he informed Members that the new Gender-Based Violence Board was working on these issues.  In response to a question about GMP’s IT system, iOPs, he advised that large parts of this did now work well but one part of the system, PoliceWorks, had not been working properly, that a review of PoliceWorks was underway and that a decision on how to resolve this was due to be made in the early part of this year.

Andy Burnham reported that GMP now had the right leadership and the right policy in place and that, with local politicians holding them to account, significant improvements could be expected.  He informed the Committee that he would happy to come back to them in future.

Baroness Hughes informed Members that a new Chief Superintendent had been appointed to lead the contact centre which dealt with 101 and 999 calls and crime recording and the process of grading and responding to incidents.  She advised that this new Chief Superintendent had an excellent track record and detailed plan for improving the service and, having identified that this area was under-resourced, a recruitment exercise was taking place.  She advised that the recording of crime had significantly improved but recognised the Member’s point about contact with victims after they had reported a crime and outlined some of the approaches being trialled to address this, including an appointment system for officers to visit victims in serious but non-urgent cases, training for officers on what was expected of them and contact cards for officers to hand out.  In response to a Member’s question about what was being done to address issues in the Cheetham area, she advised that she had raised this with the Chief Constable.  She reported that organised criminal gangs were at the root of the problem but that it created a lot of other kinds of crime and disorder which affected local people.  She advised that work was periodically taking place in the area to disrupt this activity and reported that the National Crime Agency was also working on this issue but that international gangs were behind this which made it difficult to disrupt.  She reported that identifying and pursuing leaders of serious and organised crime was one of GMP’s areas of strength.  In response to a Member’s question, she outlined the approach and purpose of Operation AVRO, a force-wide initiative that delivered a surge of extra resources and specialist officers to a different district within Greater Manchester each month.

In response to a Member’s question about work to address gender-based violence, Baroness Hughes informed Members about the first Board meeting which had recently taken place and the planning that was underway on how the strategy would be implemented and progress monitored.  She informed Members that this was a multi-agency Board, including people with lived experience of gender-based violence.  In response to a Member’s question about the police’s frontline response to domestic abuse and other gender-based violence, she acknowledged that, based on a review which had taken place, there were some concerning attitudes and behaviours from some police officers and, following this review, a training programme, Domestic Abuse Matters, was being rolled out to all responding officers. 

Baroness Hughes advised the Committee that tackling car crime and burglaries linked in directly with the commitment to rebuild neighbourhood policing which had been referred to earlier.  She advised that there was now a commitment for police to attend every burglary and robbery in person and that, since this pledge had been made, police had attended 92% of burglaries in person, which was a significant change from the previous situation.  She reported that most car thefts were organised by criminal gangs so this needed to be addressed at a number of different levels.  In response to a Member’s question, she advised that more civilian staff would be recruited to enable police officers who were doing those roles to get back to policing.

In response to a Member’s question, Baroness Hughes advised that police School Engagement Officers were not about criminalising young people but about building relationships.  She reported that there had been a lot of engagement with schools, pupils and parents about this and that they were only in schools if the school wanted that.  She agreed with the Member’s point about the need to recruit more officers from under-represented groups and drew Members’ attention to GMP’s Race Equality Report, advising that the Chief Constable was very involved in and committed to this work.  In response to a Member’s question about road safety, she advised that the new Deputy Chief Constable had a track record of developing road safety work and was developing a strategy on this for GMP.

Decision

To thank the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for attending.