Independent Custody Visitor Scheme update

Report: 5
Date: 13 December 2010
By: Chief Executive

Summary

This report details developments in relation to the Independent Custody Visiting Scheme (ICV) since the last report in April 2010.

A. Recommendations

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Context

1. This report aims to provide Members with an update of developments in the ICV Scheme since April 2010, including Scheme performance, issues and concerns and outcomes. The report will also include plans for the Scheme in the next six month period and beyond.

2. The report will include visit data and information presented in a way that attempts to address the request by committee members for more concise and relevant information. This information will appear in Appendix 1.

3. With the launch of an amended service delivery model to ICV panels in January the focus in the first half of 2010 was on monitoring the impact on panel membership and performance. Visit numbers, panel recruitment and retention, and meeting attendance records all indicate that the changes have had no detrimental effect on the delivery of an effective custody visiting scheme and the fulfillment of the Authority’s statutory responsibility. The team will carry out its promised review of the impact of the changes in the first quarter of 2011.

4. The ICV Team has carried resilience concerns throughout 2010. Two members of the reduced team moved into other units at the beginning of the year. One vacancy was filled with the appointment of a full time permanent member. Recruitment to the other vacancy took place in summer but the appointment was frozen pending the outcomes of the Comprehensive Spending Review and the legislation to replace police authorities. As a result the team continues to employ an agency temp to support 6 panels. The ICV Team continues to make every effort to ensure that those panels without a permanent ICV Coordinator receive a service which matches their needs.

Panel performance and membership

5. Visits – There has been a slow but steady improvement in visit performance, particularly in the second part of the year. Several panels have recruited a number of new members, which obviously helps but doesn’t give the full story – a number of panels whose performance has been a concern for years have suddenly started moving towards reaching their visit targets. There are a number of reasons for this. In some cases new blood has invigorated the membership, but in most cases the chairs themselves have shown real leadership - encouraging and cajoling members along with the ICV Coordinator. Although half of the panels fell below the high benchmark of 90% of scheduled visits, only 8 panels fell below 80%.

The ICV Team is not complacent – some panels are still falling short in achieving their weekly visits so we recognise that we have work to do along with chairs and panels to identify reasons and address them. The mitigating factor is not always as simple as low panel numbers. There are individual ICV performance issues and in several cases over the past year, at the instigation of the panels, ICVs have been de-accredited.

6. Membership – Recruitment is ongoing, mainly from existing waiting lists. The long used method of running regular Metro and Standard adverts ceased early this year. However, there are now around half a dozen panels that do need new members so adverts will resume before and after Christmas. Should this method fail to secure the applications in the boroughs that need them, the ICV Team will consider local advertising and conduct a dialogue with each panel around recruitment methods. Current membership is 462 – the highest number of volunteers the scheme has employed.

7. Resignations – there have been fewer more resignations (17) in the last 9 months than in the same period last year and the year before. Every leaver is asked to complete an exit interview or questionnaire as a means of identifying concerns or potential development needs, though some leavers simply stop turning up or become un-contactable. None of those who informed us of their intention to leave said that they had any issues with either the role or the way the Scheme was run.

8. Meeting attendance – Has remained stable though we would have liked to see an increase due to fewer meetings. With only 4 meetings a year there are many factors that can impact on attendance. As a result we may not get a true picture until we can measure it over a number of years. Many members are taking advantage of the sabbatical facility – which is beneficial to panels because it means absences are planned and ICVs who may otherwise leave are retained.

9. Police responses to reports. – The system of sending report summaries to the police at roughly 6 week intervals, and seeking their response, has been almost universally welcomed. The result has been that the tendency to spend a large part of meetings going through visit report forms line by line is removed. Instead, discussions focus on issues or concerns.

Developments

10. A new purpose built custody suite has opened at Leyton and will be visited by Waltham Forest ICV panel. The ICV Team and several custody visitors were given a tour of the facility before it opened for business on November 22nd. The suite has already accepted detainees from Newham during a temporary custody suite closure there and this is a development that may be repeated as new, larger suites come on line. A similar new suite is scheduled to open in Barking in early 2011.

11. MPS has rolled out an initiative called ‘the 4Rs’. On admission, and following a risk assessment, detainees who are intoxicated will have a large magnetic ‘4R’ sticker attached to the cell door. This acts as a prompt to custody staff to carry out regular, thorough checks on those detainees. This clear identification of potentially vulnerable detainees also prompts a dialogue between ICVs and custody staff.

12. A proposal to establish an MPS Detention Command is under consideration by the Territorial Policing Development Board. If agreed, Detention Command would assume full management of custody in London from borough police services. This would include ownership of staff and custody estates. The proposal suggests that this centralised management of custody would enable better use of resources, consolidation of cell numbers and the employment and development of dedicated custody staff. One of the long term implications would be the likelihood of several boroughs losing their existing custody facility with obvious consequences for borough based ICV panels. ICV chairs were informed of the proposal at the recent chairs meeting and they were largely supportive.

13. The roll out of Custody Nurse Practitioners under Project Herald continues on schedule with the latest deployment at Colindale and Brixton custody suites. 9 boroughs now have CNPs in place and as a result the number of FME areas has reduced to 17.

14. The IPCC produced a report from a 10 year investigation into deaths in (and following) police custody. MPS is for the most part ahead of the game in terms of the recommendations on the report. Certainly those recommendations that refer to ICVs contain actions that already form part of London visitors’ routines.

Issues

15. Lambeth custody team are awaiting quotes from Property Services Directorate (PSD) for the fitting of a shower in Streatham custody suite following a long running concern over immigration detainees being held for several days in a suite with no washing facilities. Officers are advised to take immigration detainees to Kennington whenever possible but this can’t be guaranteed. The number of immigration detainees requiring overnight detention has fallen as UKBA frequently issue notices directing the release of detainees, who are instructed to voluntarily report to Immigration offices in Croydon.

16. Reports in local Merton newspapers on discussions between Merton and Sutton police about the possibility of shared services resulted in misinformation about the potential closure of Wimbledon, the only custody suite in the borough. Area Commander de Brunner and Custody Directorate were able to reassure the ICV Team that no such development was planned and this was relayed to the Merton ICV panel. The ICV Scheme Manager will attend the next Merton panel meeting and lead discussions on the medium to long term possibility of closures to custody suites and where that would leave borough based ICV panels.

17. At the end of March the Home Office issued new Codes of Practice on custody visiting. The most contentious amendment was the increase in the level of security clearance required for ICVs to visit detainees held on suspicion of terrorist offences. The new requirement for Developed Vetting (DV) level clearance is considered by all stakeholders to be disproportionate and submissions were made to the Home Office indicating that, not only did no London ICV have that level of clearance, but there was little likelihood that it could be attained in a reasonable timeframe. The result would be that no TACT detainee in London would be in a position to receive a visit while in police custody for up to 28 days. The vetting level was subsequently lowered to Security Clearance (SC) level. While still not proportionate – ICVs are never left unaccompanied with detainees and even the custody staff only have CTC level clearance – the revised level gives the ICV Scheme a reasonable opportunity to establish a pool of ICVs with the requisite clearance. A local agreement was reached with the Commissioner to allow the ICVs with existing enhanced clearance, at CTC level, to continue to visit TACT detainees until such a pool is established.

18. Detainee access to showers and fresh air (outside) is a regular and ongoing issue when detainees are held overnight. The lack of enough or suitable staff (e.g. female staff to supervise showers for female detainees) is often the reason given by custody staff when the issue is raised by ICVs. Visitors acknowledge this but are frequently concerned that detainees are rarely informed that such facilities are available to them. The ICV Team and Custody Directorate are keen to explore means of adopting a pro-active approach by custody staff in line with a change in emphasis towards dignity rather than the simple observance of PACE.

Plans

19. The ICV Team will host an appreciation event on December 13th to thank ICVs for their hard work and commitment during the year. The event will take place at City Hall and will consist of a speech by Commander Nick Bracken, long service presentations to ICVs, canapés, wine and music. An attendance of around 170 ICVs and a dozen or so custody managers is anticipated.

20. Following a review of the ICV self-introduction pilot undertaken by 8 panels we can confirm that there was an increased take-up of visits in all those panels who took part. On that basis we’re happy for panels to use the self-introduction method but we have some conditions attached to this. Each panel will be required to have a full and frank discussion on self-introduction at its next panel meeting. Some panels and individual ICVs have expressed doubt and a certain reluctance and in the interest of fairness panels will be required to give those members the opportunity to express and discuss their concerns before making a decision to use self-introduction or not. The other condition is that guidance, provided by the ICV Team, is in place. The guidance will be based on national standards and the experiences of those ICVs who took part in the pilot. The ICV Team has assured panels that by the time they have discussed and agreed self-introduction we will have the guidance in place.

21. At the Chairs meeting in April panels expressed the wish for the Authority to feed back on issues in a better, more structured way. In response to this the ICV Team will produce an issues bulletin. This will be brief – most issues are dealt with locally and aren’t escalated – but will list the issue, the panel where the issue was raised and what the outcome is. The bulletin will be sent to ICVs, custody managers and MPA Members. It will appear on the MPA website and ICV Facebook page. The first bulletin will be issued in December.

22. Following a presentation at the April Chairs meeting by the Independent Custody Visitors Association (ICVA) which highlighted the need to shift the emphasis on visiting from adherence to PACE to a dignity and human rights focus, the ICV Team plans to host a stakeholder event in early 2011. The aim of the event will be to explore ways to encourage custody staff to take a more pro-active approach in their treatment of detainees and provide guidance to ICVs in looking ‘deeper’ than adherence to PACE. Many ICVs already do this but it’s important that the adjustment in emphasis is embraced by both custody staff and visitors in order to maintain the professional and respectful relationship ICVs have developed with custody staff.

23. Having established that the changes in service delivery to ICV panels has not reduced the effectiveness of the Scheme the ICV Team would like to focus on raising awareness of custody visiting among London’s different communities. The Scheme drafted an awareness raising strategy in 2009, the implementation of which was deferred by the MPA restructure and changes to the team. This strategy will be reviewed early in 2011 and an action plan drawn up to make best use of the resources left in the 2010/2011 ICV Scheme budget.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality Impact

1. The re-launch of recruitment processes gives the ICV Scheme the opportunity to review diversity in those panels that need new members. Should the issue of panels failing to represent their communities be evident the ICV Team will explore targeted recruitment at communities which may be under-represented.

2. A diversity monitoring exercise undertaken in 2008 indicated that although the diversity of panels was not always fully congruent with the demographics of their boroughs, no group was adversely affected in recruitment and retention procedures. The exercise will be repeated in 2011.

Met Forward

3. There are no Met Forward implications arising from this report.

Financial Implications

4. The 2010/2011 budget for the ICV Scheme is currently showing an under spend. Adjustments, including the cost of the ICV social event and the submission of ICV expenses claims, are expected in the first quarter of 2011.

Legal Implications

5. There are no legal implications arising from this report.

Environmental Implications

6. There are no environmental implications arising from this report.

Risk Implications

7. The establishment of a pool of ICVs with enhanced security clearance to visit TACT detainees (point 17) will be achieved through a selection process lead by the ICV Team. It is essential that the ICVs in the pool are experienced, diverse, reliable and supportive of the values and behaviours of the ICV Scheme and the MPA. Because of these criteria selection will be by invitation only. This process may be open to challenge. Draft proposals on selection criteria are under consideration by the MPA Solicitor and MPA Equality and Diversity Officers to ensure they are legal and non discriminatory.

D. Background papers

• Appendix 1 – Table illustrating ICV panel performance, membership, concerns and outcomes from April to October 2010.

E. Contact details

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

For information contact:

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

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