Custody capacity service improvement review – progress against the improvement plan

Report: 12
Date: 17 March 2005
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an update on the work of the Custody Directorate arising from the recommendations of the Service Improvement Review concerning custody.

Abbreviations and acronyms used in this report:

ICVA

Independent Custody Visitors Association

MPS

Metropolitan Police Service

MPD

Metropolitan Police District

MPA

Metropolitan Police Authority

NOMS

National Offenders Management Scheme

IAG

Independent Advisory Group

PS

Property Services

PPS

Premier Prison Services

PFI

Private Finance Initiative

PECS

Prison Escort Custody Service

SIRCC

Service Improvement Review into Custody Capacity

A. Recommendations

That the report be noted

B. Supporting information

Update on implementation plan agreed by PPRC on 12 July 2004 and to the report submitted to PPRC on 19 January 2005

See Appendix 1 for some amended timescales and summary of current position for individual recommendations.

R1 Establishment of single Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Lead

1. Commander Hitchcock appointed.

R2 Formation of Custody Directorate

2. The Directorate established but is short of staff by 1 Policy Developer (Band D), 2 Analysts (Band Ds) and 2 Admin Support (shared).

R3 Establish Borough Custody Manager

3. Job Description defined, Custody Managers appointed for each Borough

R4 Formation of Custody Policy and Standards Unit

4. The unit is short of staff by 1 Policy Developer (Band D) and 1 Admin support (shared with Partnership Co-ordination (Rec. 5)

5. This unit has been given lead responsibility for the research papers for Assistant Commissioner Godwin re the intended Beacon Projects (see paragraphs 33 and 34). This has created some slippage with regards to the Bi-annual Scan and Performance Needs Analysis (see Appendix 1 items 4.1 and 4.3).

R5 Formation of Custody Partnership Co-ordination Unit

6. The unit is short of staff by 1 Admin support (shared with Policy and Standards (Rec. 4).

7. The London Custody Forum has been established to bring together key agencies and partners working within the Criminal Justice System in London with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Custody Directorate. Aneeta Prem represents the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) on this group. The Forum provides an integrated multi agency strategic group to assist in the development and dissemination of policy, guidance and good practice with a view to improving the provision of custody services to London. The inaugural meeting was held on the 24 February 2005 and further meetings will be held quarterly.

8. The Custody Directorate is working closely with the MPA Community Engagement Committee and ICVA towards the implementation of Independent Custody Visiting for London. This follows the review by Ian Smith, OBE and the MPA/ICV Conference held on 12 February 2005. The Custody Directorate is participating in the work of the MPA Programme Board to ensure learning from ICV’s visits, is both actioned promptly and shared across the MPS.

9. The Custody Directorate will shortly be addressing the Memorandum of Understanding with the Immigration Service with the object of renegotiating its current terms.

10. The Custody Directorate is working closely with the National Appropriate Adult (AA) Network, “Rainer” (a company providing AA services) and other appropriate adult services in London with the aim of improving the service for London through education of appropriate adults and a more formal response structure.

11. The Custody Directorate is working with the Diversity Directorate and the Central IAG of the MPS to create a purpose/specific IAG for the Custody Directorate. This initiative is with the Diversity Directorate at this time.

R6 Formation of Strategic Custody Planning Unit

12. The unit is short of staff The unit is short of staff by 1 Analyst (Band D) and 1 Admin support (shared with Tactical Planning Unit (Rec. 7)

13. A key MPS objective is to increase the availability of police station custody sites (cells) in order to increase the arrest rates and enable the MPS to deliver its key business of detections and Offences Brought to Justice. One option for providing addition cell space is to set up "overflow" site facilities around the MPS, which could be opened as and when required for specific events and operations both locally or corporately.

14. Carey Way, Wembley (Brent Borough) has been identified as being suitable for consideration as an overflow site for North West and West London as follows:

1. At present, plans for the new site have a narrow perspective in solely being used for the new Wembley Stadium events. Carey Way (police station) has the capacity to be used for other non-stadium based operations when it is not hosting events. It can act as charging centre for other MPS events such as Notting Hill Carnival as well as providing overspill for periods of peak demand and as custody facilities for specialist operations.
2. The original plans for Carey Way were for five cells only. This did not take into account the benefits of using Carey Way for non-stadium events. Intervention by the Custody Directorate has ensured that this matter has now been addressed. Feasibility studies have been conducted by Property Services and the capacity can be increased to ten cells without impacting on additional space used by Catering Services. This makes it a viable custody suite but further work is being conducted by the Custody Directorate in partnership with Property Services to see if we can increase this capacity further to, around twenty cells. This would provide a significant increase in capacity, in a much-needed area.
3. It is the Custody Directorate’s vision that this facility should be upgraded with as many cells as possible, to provide the best custody capacity. The vision would then extend to use of this facility as a cluster base, for surrounding boroughs to use and utilise outside the purely Foot-balling events and thereby maximise the premises to its optimum availability and for cover of local custody suites whilst they undergo refurbishment, such as the safer cells project. An additional usage could occur around other general operational needs, or for specific special crime directorate’s prisoners or other overflow purposes.
4. At the present time the Custody Directorates awaits further consultation and agreement with Property services around the maximum cell capacity design and the issue of funding. When the building‘s design is agreed and funding found, negotiations will need to take place with the Borough Commander for Brent with regard to local agreements over staffing and local protocols for the usage of these premises.

15. Wood Green Police Station (Haringey Borough) has been identified as being suitable for consideration as a “cluster” site which would operate as a full time custody suite for use by Haringey and surrounding Boroughs as follows: -

1. The Service Improvement Review of Custody Capacity (SIRCC) indicates that Haringey alone will require an additional 41 new cells based on the Review Team’s modelling of demand of 360,000 detainees per annum/MPS at a 95% service level). Wood Green has a large rear yard, which will provide additional space for modular cell construction and thus increase capacity.
2. Work is progressing to utilise the existing site at Wood Green Police Station. Site visits by PS and the Directorate have identified great potential for a significant number of cells to be provided. Initial figures of 20-25 may be expanded upon.
3. A Custody Estates Programme Board involving all stakeholders has been set up. Its inaugural meeting took place on 25 February 2005. Regular meetings have been scheduled to take place at which the overall strategy for providing the right number of cells/infrastructure in the right places across London can be planned and coordinated.

16. Merton (Wimbledon) Police Station has been identified as requiring a minimum of an extra 18 cells. It's current provision is far from adequate for the Borough. By utilising existing available space adjacent to the existing custody facility, capacity could be drastically increased to beyond this figure to around 20 -25 cells. Discussions with PS and stakeholders are currently underway to examine options and estimate costs and timescales.

17. It has been necessary to re-define target dates for implementation of this aspect of the action plan with priority being given to Boroughs with the greatest immediate need. Further cluster sites are being identified in areas requiring a significant increase in cell capacity. This approach will alleviate pressure on the Boroughs served by these sites and provide additional accommodation for Boroughs undergoing upgrade work. Reducing distance and travelling costs for Boroughs will keep the cost per detainee being processed kept to a minimum.

18. Funding streams have not yet been finalised for implementation of these and future projects. However, Property Services have indicated that they have the funding for much of the capital spends within their budget.

19. The Custody Directorate are researching the use of mobile/semi permanent cell/custody facilities which could be installed whilst building work is being undertaken at existing police sites and removed when the work is completed. There would be financial and operational benefits from officers not having to travel to neighbouring stations and from being able to use these facilities at Borough charging sites for pre-planned events to reduce the impact of such events on those individual Boroughs. However, at present the number of such units and the cost per unit are not known.

R7 Formation of Tactical Custody Planning Unit

20. The unit is short of staff by 1 Analyst and 1 Admin support (shared with Strategic Custody Planning Unit (Rec. 6)

21. Since the SIRCC report in early 2004, a number of custody suites have either been opened or closed. Thus site visits have had to be conducted to provide a clear and contemporary picture of our available estate.

22. Consultation with Public Order Branch (CO11) has led to an agreement to seek Charge Centres through the Custody Directorate rather than through Boroughs. Custody Requirements now form an automatic part of their planning and is to be incorporated in their policy document currently being rewritten.

23. An up to date picture of the current cell availability is being developed. Current usage is being controlled and conflicting closures prevented. Close liaison has been developed between PS, Custody Managers and the Custody Directorate to solve issues in fast time rather than allowing them to become a major problem.

24. Custody Management Information is being collated and PI's developed so that borough performance can be measured at monthly Performance meeting chaired by the Directorate. These forums have now started and are already proving to be a useful tool to share good practice and drive forward changes together. A standard weekly monitoring sheet is being developed to ensure that the requirements of all the parties involved are met (i.e. Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU), Directorate, MPS and MPA)

25. Discussions are taking place with both the National Strategy for Police Information System (NSPIS) implementation team and the Modernising Ops teams to ensure that where Custody Business overlaps with theirs, clear agreements are in place.

The MPS Custody Estate

26. Currently 53 fully operational designated (s.35 PACE) police station Custody Suites that are operated on a full time basis. A further 20 such stations are operated on an overflow/special operation basis. This provides the MPS with a combined total of immediately usable detention facilities of 790 cells and 151 detention rooms.

27. The quality of the station facilities ranges from Victorian buildings to the most modern facilities such as at Wembley and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) sites such as Lewisham and Sutton. The number cells varies considerably from as few as 2 up to 57.

28. There are 27 other police stations, which are currently non-operational, either because of the condition of the custody facilities or lack of police officers and staff to operate their custody facilities in accordance with Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) and the Codes. These sites are being visited to assess their current use and condition with a view to either recommending that the site be sold or put to better use by the MPS.

Premier Prison Services

29. Premier Prison Service, commenced operations in September 2004. The activities are monitored through Custody Manager-Borough reporting. The service delivery by Premier to the MPS and Prison Service can best be described as poor, though some slight improvement is evident. It is, however, difficult to determine the true performance of PPS as they have yet to provide any meaningful performance data as required of them within their contract. The Custody Directorate alongside the courts are exerting pressure upon both Premier Prison Services (PPS) and National Offender Management Scheme (NOMS) (through whom the contract is managed) to ensure this is provided. For Premier, ineffective Information Technology (IT) and an aging fleet of vehicles caused problems at the outset. Premier have since improved their IT facilities however the promised new fleet of vehicles by December 2004 is still not in place. The latest date for the new vehicles is 7 March 2005. The Custody Directorate is still working closely with Premier and has contributed to their operational efficiency by redesigning the notification form, visiting their control room to understand their difficulties and communicating clear directions to custody staff. Regular meetings take place at which Premier Senior Managers are asked to account for their poor performance.

Implementation of SIR Review – progress report

30. This report sets out the current work of the Custody Directorate. Details of proposed new time scales for action plan are shown in the adjoined Appendix 1.

Matters arising since the implementation plan agreed

Operation Beacon

31. This project aims to introduce new and radically improved custody systems into three boroughs in order to ascertain if efficiency gains can be achieved if rolled out across the whole MPS. This will include civilian detention officer(s) custody staff being utilised as an in-putting role, as well as custody Nurses, forensic officer and Case progression unit (CPU) evidential advisor. This project is still in the early research and planning stage, awaiting the submission of the report to A/C Godwin and the subsequent decision from him, as to which direction he wishes to progress this scheme.

32. These sites are Redbridge, Islington and Tower Hamlets. The project is still in the planning and research stage. This work, however, will require staff to be diverted from SIRCC recommendations.

33. The Beacon project including the proposed report for AC Godwin will enable the Custody Directorate to identify efficiency improvements, specific costings and potential savings around staff and systems. They would then pilot the schemes at the stated boroughs with regular monitoring throughout against a benchmark established at the outset. This project will be the subject of regular updates to the MPA (PPRC). It is anticipated this report will be submitted to A/C Godwin by the 11th March 2005.

C. Race and equality impact

The introduction of the Custody Directorate enables the MPS to develop and introduce corporate operating procedures that will ensure fairness and equality across a range of custody services. Through the introduction of an Independent Advisory Group and a London Custody Forum, the Directorate will enable external partners and the public to influence custody policy and practice in the future.

The Directorate recently published a revised policy around custody risk assessment that provides a clear structure for identifying individual detainee needs. This policy compliments the new Case Disposal Policy that removes the potential for individual bias within the charging or case disposal process.

The Directorate has established an internal programme/project management system that ensures that the diversity implications around each and every new piece of work are considered at an early stage and that these are both documented and acted upon.

D. Financial implications

As stated in paragraphs 19 and 20, the Custody Directorate are currently providing some generic costings alongside alternative custody models for the consideration of ACTP. When the preferred option(s) are known, these will be mapped across the corporate estate to determine the cost per BOCU of providing custody services and systems. It is too early to provide any more specific data until these options are decided and/or tested through the Beacon project.

What is known is that PS currently have, funds identified for much of the capital projects (upgrades and new builds). However, the new custody models rely heavily upon support staff for the custody officer and this cost may be considered new business and, thus, the subject of future bids to the MPA (PPRC).

E. Background papers

• None

F. Contact details

Report authors: C.I. Thomas – Custody Directorate

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

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