Custody issues

Report: 5
Date: 22 February 2010
By: Chief Executive

Summary

As part of the MPA restructure the post of ICV Scheme Manager was abolished and replaced by the Criminal Justice and Oversight Team Leader post. This reflects the long term aim that the remit of the post, and the ICV Team, is expanded to provide an oversight of criminal justice and custody developments on behalf of the Authority. Further to the report delivered to CECF in June 2009 outlining the ICV Manager’s wider custody oversight responsibilities, this report provides members with updates from the MPS working groups that the Team Leader attends.

A. Recommendations

That members

1. note the contents of the report
2. consider the invitation to attend Herald Programme Board meetings
3. consider and provide guidance on what information would be valuable to them in future reports

B. Supporting information

Context

1. In addition to managing the ICV Scheme, the Criminal Justice and Custody Oversight Team Leader sits on a number of regular MPS working groups. These include the Project Herald Programme Board, the Borough Based Custody Centre Project Board, the Safer Detention Working Party and the Terrorism Act (TACT) Project Board.

2. The report to CECF in June 2009 gave an outline of the history and purpose of the boards. The purpose of this report is to provide members with an update from these boards and an overview of custody developments. Detailed reports form part of submissions to the Strategic and Operational Policing Committee and the Estates Panel of the Finance and Resources Committee.

Project Herald

3. The Herald Programme Board has met 3 times since the June 2009 report and reported on the developments of the 2 separate strands of the project – a change in medical and health service provision and the increase in number and enhanced role of Designated Detention Officers (DDOs) in custody suites.

4. A report to the September 2009 Strategic and Operational Policing Committee outlined the changes in the Forensic Medical Examiner (FME) services in line with the medical and health services provision strand of Herald. (appendix).

5. Phase 1 of the roll out of Custody Nurse Practitioners CNP is complete with full strength nursing teams in place in Westminster, and recruitment and appointment almost complete in Lewisham and Croydon. Phase 2, which will see nursing provision in Islington and Tower Hamlets, will be complete by March following training in February. As anticipated, nurses are now dealing with 95% of detainees and detainee medical or health issues.

6. The diminishing call on FME services will mean a reduction in the FME sub-areas, which serve all 32 London boroughs, from 19 to 17 in April. This is expected to be reduced to 8 sub-areas by the end of 2010. The money to fund the CNP roll out will come from the reduction in FME costs.

7. A Nursing Director will be appointed as part of the Clinical Governance arrangements for the medical and health services in custody. This is congruent with the appointment of a Medical Director to oversee FME clinical governance in autumn 2009.

8. A centralised recruitment programme for DDOs is continuing alongside training packages which deliver enhanced skills. Enhanced DDOs, able to input detainee data into NSPIS [1] are intended to enable custody sergeants to take a supervisory role. Responsibility to authorise detention will remain with custody sergeants. DDOs with enhanced skills are now operational in 15 boroughs. By April they will operate in 22 boroughs and the roll out will continue into 2011/2012.

9. A consequence in the increased employment of DDOs will be a reduction in the number of PCs and sergeants employed in custody. ICV panels have noted a significantly improved service in custody suites where permanent custody staff are employed and anticipate the DDOs programme will provide further benefits to detainees.

10. DDOs will also have an active role to play in the Virtual Courts programme.

11. Commander Tony Eastaugh, Chair of Project Herald, suggested an MPA member be invited to future Herald Programme board meetings. Members

1 National Strategy for Police Information System. The MPS electronic custody record application.
are asked to consider this invitation or whether they are happy to continue with officer representation.

Borough Based Custody Centres (BBCCs)

12. The BBCC Programme Board meets every 6 weeks.

13. The new purpose built custody suites at Fresh Wharf in Barking and Dagenham and Leyton in Waltham Forest are progressing as planned. Scheduled opening dates are September and October 2010 respectively.

14. A new police station with custody facilities will be on line at Heathrow this year. There are some outstanding issues over facilities owned by BAA at the Polar Park site but property services are close to a resolution.

15. Work is continuing on a feasibility study for a new custody facility at Wood Green in Haringey. Considerations include the site mapping and cost implications of including a patrol base. Opening is scheduled for late 2011/early 2012.

16. The proposed new facility at Windmill Road Croydon is at the first design stage. The next stage will be community consultation. Planned opening date is 2011.

17. The addition of Integrated Prosecution Teams (IPT) and Virtual Court facilities, as well as the ongoing digitalisation of CCTV facilities will lead to an increase in anticipated technology costs. However, some equipment will be transferred from current stock there should be no programme cost implications.

Safer detention

18. The Safer Detention Working Party (SDWP) meets 4 times a year to provide a multi-skilled forum and assist in the dissemination of policy, guidance and good practice aimed at preventing deaths or adverse incidents in custody suites.

19. A system of recording Successful Interventions (SIs), where incidents which may lead to self-harm are prevented, is now in place. SI details are recorded on a redesigned, 1-page SI form. SDWP reviews the reports to identify patterns or risk and this information can lead to recommendations for change in SOPs and training. The number of SIs recorded from January to November 2009 was 592. In support of the process an SI team is carrying out a programme of visits to BOCUs where SIs are not being reported. An SI newsletter is also produced and disseminated in which staff are informed of SIs, search techniques and updating PNC as appropriate.

20. In 2009 Dr Ian McKinnon from Newcastle University was commissioned by Emerald to carry out a review of questions asked of detainees at the risk assessment stage of detention. Existing questions are not scientifically tested but based on custody officers’ experience, Home Office and PACE diktat and the ACPO Guidance on the Safer Detention and Handling of Persons in Police Custody (2006). Dr McKinnon spent a week in each of two custody suites. MPS will review his findings when available. The aim is to ensure custody staff have a sequence of logical questions that can assist in the appropriate care plan for the detainee.

21. A custody handover guidance document has been developed by the Emerald Core Business Team. The guidance is to help implement the handover procedures outlined in the ACPO Guidance on the Safer Detention and Handling of Persons in Police Custody (2006). The dissemination of the guidance document resulted in concerns being raised about time available to conduct an effective handover; the impact of shift patterns; the extent of detailed information on each detainee to be relayed. Ealing have undertaken a pilot to implement the guidance which will end in March.

22. Camden BOCU is running a pilot whereby a paramedic from London Ambulance Service (LAS) travels with local police in a response vehicle.

23. NPIA is considering the development of a national qualification for DDOs as part of initial and ongoing training. A Gaoler Training Package developed by NCALT commenced in January 2010. The package originally consisted of CBT [2] modules but has been improved and expanded by MPS and will become an integral part of training offered to DDOs and PCs.

Provision for detainees held under the Terrorism Act

24. The refurbishment of Paddington Green was completed on July 1st 2009 and the suite is operational and available for TACT detainees. Paddington Green is the most suitable facility in the country under the ACPO National Strategy for cell deployment until the new builds are complete.

25. Contractors have been commissioned to progress the work at the preferred new facility site and the first design team meeting took place in November 2009. Building contractors are expected to be on site in June 2010.

26. Letters will be circulated to local residents in Southwark, the borough where the preferred new facility will be sited, in the week commencing 1st February as part of the planned engagement strategy. A follow up public meeting is planned. A meeting has also been arranged with the Imam from the local mosque.

27. The project board agreed in principal to a request from the Witness Protection Unit to use the new facility when not in TACT use. As this will prevent the facility from standing idle for long periods the Unit were advised to make a formal proposal.

28. A Prison Governor’s assessment declared Walworth custody suite as no longer fit for purpose to house Category A prisoners. The board approved funds to upgrade the facility which will then offer contingency to the new Southwark TACT facility.

29. Funding is for the provision of new TACT facilities is secure until 2011. March 31st 2011 is the deadline to spend CT bid money provided by the Home Office. A commitment to spend is not acceptable. The scheme is on track at present but further Local Authority planning permission is still outstanding. Negotiations are continuing with the Home Office over potential overruns but the project will be underwritten by SO.

Emerald and HMIC/HMIP inspections of custody suites

30. A 6 year programme of inspections of all custody facilities in the UK by HMIC/HMIP is underway in line with Human Rights legislation. Inspections can be announced or unannounced. 5 MPS custody suites at Lambeth, Ealing, Tower Hamlets Enfield and Hackney have been undertaken. Review of the inspections has led to a new forensic exhibition SOP, replacement of refrigeration facilities and a review of cleaning contracts.

31. Emerald inspection teams continue to support the process by providing supportive inspections. Action plans based on the inspection findings are created and addressed by the BOCU.

32. Although Emerald inspections are not made available to ICV panels (or CPEGs) custody managers are invited to raise and discuss the findings at ICV panel meetings. ICVs will be directed to HMIC/HMIP inspection findings when published. Findings are often congruent with issues raised by ICVs though the professional nature of the inspections and the narrow remit of custody visiting means that findings are more detailed and technical than can be reasonable expected to be raised by the custody visiting process. The Criminal Justice and Oversight Team Leader will meet HMIC/HMIP Inspection Leads in March to explore ways that ICVs may be able to inform inspections.

General custody issues

33. The Criminal Justice and Oversight Team Leader meets the Custody Directorate (CD) Lead every 6 weeks to raise issues that have been escalated via ICV panels. The issues raised are regional, long term or have been unable to be resolved at borough level.

34. Blanket and track suit supply issues have been identified. ICV Coordinators will monitor supply procedures in their boroughs to identify areas of good practice which can then be disseminated.

35. The ICV Team have identified a single point of contact with UK Border Agency transport services in order to raise issues around the collection of immigration detainees from MPS custody suites.

36. CD, alongside the ICV Team and ICVA will produce guidance on reasonable requests for the use of language line/interpreter facilities where detainees who don’t speak English appear to be vulnerable or distressed. The guidance will be customised and delivered to ICVs and custody staff.

37. CD has invited the ICV Team, and potentially ICV Chairs, to review and comment on the training provisions for custody inspectors, custody sergeants and DDOs.

C. Race and equality impact

An MPS equality impact assessment was carried out into the preferred option for the provision of safe and secure custody facilities for TACT detainees.

D. Financial implications

None for the purposes of this report.

E. Background papers

Appendix - Report to SOP Sept 09

F. Contact details

Report author(s): James Tate, CJ and Custody Oversight Team Leader, MPA

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Appendix 1

Impact of changes in the use of forensic medical examiners on custody provision

• Report 11 presented to the SOP committee on 3 September 2009.

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