Agenda item

6.1       Police Scotland

Supt. MacInnes referred to the forthcoming retirement of the Chief Constable in December and gave reassurance that policing would continue to be delivered over the coming months.  He referred to ongoing issues of concern at Bilston Glen and advised that reviews and investigations were ongoing.   Officers in the “J” Divison would continue to answer calls and develop a different management structure to ensure incidents were dealt with and all calls were appropriately recognised.  If members of the Board were aware of or heard of any issues he asked them to report these issues directly to him.   Complaint issues were covered in performance reports and in relation to the “J” Division there had only been two allegations since last year.   The complaints process would be turned round as quickly as possible with feedback being given to the complainer, hopefully to their satisfaction.  The new report format would be developed over the coming months and he asked that members of the Board feed back to him their views regarding the content of the report.  He referred to benchmarking and explained that Scottish Borders Council could not be given any information on any of the other local authorities in the Division.   This was being developed to allow local authorities to make comparisons, but it should be borne in mind that the national figures included cities where there was a different crime profile and therefore benchmarking needed to be against other rural areas. All scrutiny reports would be submitted to the Scottish Police Authority and then local authorities would have the opportunity to see the figures.   Figures in relation to the stop and search data would also be included in the scrutiny reports. Supt. MacInnes referred to cross borders operations involving other Scottish Local Authorities and with police in Northumberland.   He referred to the opening of the Borders Railway, although this would bring significant benefits to the Scottish Borders, there would also be challenges with criminals travelling in and out of the area using the railway and local officers had been briefed on railway policing.   Planning meetings were scheduled regarding the Police involvement in all the events taking place relating to the opening of the railway, including an ecumenical service in Galashiels on 6 September.  Police would also be actively involved in The Tour of Britain.    He referred to the forthcoming retirement of Chief Inspector Paula Clark who had been actively involved in setting up the safer communities team  and said it was fitting that she finished her career with safer communities.  He wished Chief Inspector Clark well in her retirement and advised she would be replaced by Inspector Tony Hodges, and they would work together over the next three weeks to ensure there was a good handover.  The Chairman thanked the Supt. for Police officers input in relation to the counterfeit money in Greenlaw, Coldstream and Duns.   Members commented on the turnover of police officers and the Supt. advised that when Chief  Superintendent Imery was unable to attend meetings of the Board he would represent her and it was noted that local Police officers would move on because of career opportunities.     Discussions took place in relation to benchmarking and the sharing of information across local authorities.   John Beresford,  Community Accountability Coordinator, Police Scotland  advised two new members of staff were in place to help with benchmarking issues, and that he could be the conduit if members wished to speak to officers in Dumfries and Galloway.   The Communities & Partnership Manager referred to benchmarking families and advised that Scottish Borders Council was keen to work with Police Scotland to have reasonable comparisons.   It was noted that the Police had an increased interest in Community Councils and a request was made for more proactive low key work from the Police within schools. 

6.2       Members went on to discuss the decriminalisation of parking enforcement and Supt. MacInnes  advised that it at the discretion of local  authorities whether or not to decide on decriminalisation.   Presently, in carrying out their daily business, Police Officers would deal with vehicles which were dangerously or inappropriately parked.  Scottish Local Authorities were all at different stages in dealing with decriminalisation.   A request was made that a report on the Council’s position in relation to the proposals for the decriminalisation of parking enforcement be considered at the next meeting of the Board.  Mr Higgs requested comparison figures between the number of tickets issued before and after the change.

DECISION

(a)     NOTED the report.

(b)     AGREED that:

(i)      the Senior Policy Advisor was asked to make contact with the relevant Council service to bring a report to the next meeting of the Board with an update on the Council’s position in relation to the proposals for the decriminalisation of parking enforcement in the Scottish Borders.

(ii)     Supt. MacInnes provide members of the Board figures comparing the number of parking tickets issued before and after the change.

6.3       Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

There had been circulated copies of a briefing paper by LSO Perry on the Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Initiative explain that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) was committed to supporting the Scottish Government’s Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy which was designed to improve survival rates for those who experienced a cardiac arrest out with a hospital environment.  OHCA was a significant healthcare challenge in Scotland. Approximately 3,500 people underwent attempted resuscitation each year after OHCA, but currently only around 1 in 20 survived to hospital discharge.  The benefits and costs of co-responding; the science around the ‘chain of survival’ and the importance of providing early defibrillation in OHCA cases was well-understood. The Resuscitation Council (UK) advised that for every minute of delay, the chances of successful defibrillation decreased by about 10% and recommended strongly a policy of attempting defibrillation with the minimum of delay in victims of cardiac arrest.   This context presented  a unique opportunity for the SFRS to develop a closer working relationship with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS), bringing major benefit to those suffering OHCA and which would quickly make Scotland an area of best practice for joined up public services in this area.  The SFRS was currently working closely with a range of stakeholders, including trades unions and the Scottish Ambulance Service to develop plans for four OHCA pilots to take place in East Lothian, West Lothian, the Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire later this year. The pilot would see SFRS resources being mobilised to OHCA where their resources could be in attendance before the SAS, in all cases however, the SAS would still be mobilised and would respond as normal. The SFRS response would therefore augment not replace the SAS response.   The evaluation and outcomes from these pilot schemes would be monitored by their OHCA/Emergency Medical Response Strategic Steering Group to assess the effectiveness of SFRS’s contribution in this area and identify the scope for wider implementation across Scotland.   Collaborative work with the Ambulance Service had identified the following Fire Stations as suitable locations for the pilot in the Scottish Borders. These were Hawick, Coldstream and Lauder. There would be a 6-month review period during which it was anticipated that additional stations would be brought into the pilot.   Training of personnel at the identified stations would take place with a view to the pilot going live in October 2015.   Therefore personnel should be suitably equipped and confident, to manage the challenges of an OHCA incident.  It should be a collaboratively designed and delivered programme, built and managed in association with the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS).  Clinical governance for the training and subsequent operational response was being provided by Doctor Jim Ward (Medical Director) on behalf of SAS.

6.4       In response to questions from Members LSO Perry that he had not been involved in deciding which Fire Stations were suitable locations but it was hoped that  after the pilot that further  training would take place and the project would be rolled out to other areas, in particular Jedburgh and Kelso.   A request was made for information to be provided to the next meeting relating to how many cardiac arrests the SF&RS had responded to and the criteria for selection of the identification of the suitable locations.   In discussing statistics for retained crew members it was noted that a new national process was in place which meant that retained fire officers could be in post four months after the post had been advertised, previously this could take up to 12 months.   A member referred to a fire appliance from Edinburgh being seen in Duns and A. Girrity advised although this did not happen regularly gaps needed to be filled strategically. LSO Perry advised that he would prepare a report for the next meeting explaining coverage because of problems with the retained service.  

DECISION

(a)     NOTED the report.

(b)     AGREED that:

(i)      LSO Perry would provide  information to the next meeting relating to how many cardiac arrests the SF&RS had responded to and the criteria for selection of the identification of the suitable locations; and

(ii)     a report by LSO Perry explaining coverage of the SF&RS in the Scottish Borders which had resulted in problems with the retained service.