Election? What election?
Delegates at the Labour Party conference have fingers held up in the political air keen to detect early signs of the winds of change. Their eyes are on the medium term horizon of the 2015 general election as they interpret mixed messages in the polls about their party’s and leader’s popularity.
But there is a more immediate contest that seems not to have registered with many: the election on November 15 of the first generation of police and crime commissioners.
Yesterday evening I attended a packed Fabian Society question time held in the Victorian cathedral of civic power that is Manchester Town Hall. In nearly two hours of debate and discussion no mention was made of the election by delegates or the panel. This is worrying.
Of course Labour opposed the reform which introduced elected commissioners. But now across England and Wales, apart from London, the party’s candidates are out on the doorstep trying to convince an oblivious electorate to turn out to vote. If the political class is disengaged, how can we expect the electorate to come out and vote on a dark evening in November?
But there are some signs around the conference that the campaign has finally got off the starting blocks. Earlier in the evening I took part in a roundtable event about the potential of police and crime commissioners hosted by think tank IPPR and sponsored by G4S. Around the table were five candidates including Tony Lloyd MP, who is Labour’s candidate in Manchester, along with the shadow crime and security minister Diana Johnson MP.
Vera Baird, who is running for office in Northumbria, kicked off the discussion by pointing out that the role of the commissioners is to act as the voice of the community on policing, channelling the concerns of the local population into decisions on budgets and police priorities. She dismissed critics who say that politicians shouldn’t be involved, underlining that politicians are exactly the sort of people who have the skills to represent voters in decisions on spending public funds and how local public services should be run.
Inevitably with G4S at the table and the recent furore over Olympics security, much of the discussion focused on where the lines might be drawn on involving the private sector in delivering policing. John Shaw from G4S pointed out how much his company already delivers services for the police in many areas including running custody suites, including in Wales, where father and son team Alun and Tal Michael, both at the meeting, have the labour ticket for the north and south constabularies.
Interestingly it was John who first raised the issue of mental health and policing, saying that over recent years they had seen an increase in section 136 use in the police forces they are involved in. This is one of the key areas where police and crime commissioners can make a real difference.
Picking up this discussion, I outlined the key messages from the two briefings for police and crime commissioner candidates that we launched last week. There was a consensus around the table that the commissioners will have a key role in bringing partners to the table to start to coordinate the services that are needed to address the multiple and complex needs of many repeat offenders, especially among young adults. I suggested to the candidates that they ask their police chiefs to draw out information on people who are the subject of repeat arrests in their area and then focus delivery of evidence-based solutions for that group. The potential reductions in police time and resources will be even more important given the budget cuts that will have to be managed over the next few years.
There was interest among the candidates about the potential for commissioners to work with the local health service, councils and other commissioners to improve coordination and integration of services. However, the size of the constabularies and the number of different commissioning bodies they will cover is a worry to candidates who will inevitably be under pressure to keep their own offices to a minimum to avoid accusations of diverting resources from the frontline. Ensuring that their teams have the skills and experience needed to ensure high quality joint commissioning will have to be on the to do list straight after the election.
Over the next few weeks candidates will need to find a way to explain to the public how their approach to the role will lead to improvements in policing and reductions in crime in an era of tightening resources. The discussion at this fringe showed there is a real appetite among the first generation of candidates to make a difference through partnership.
There are a number of other fringe meetings bringing together police and crime commissioners at the conference and it will be interesting to see how much interest there is among delegates for these. Tomorrow I will be speaking at the Transition to Adulthood fringe meeting about the briefing for PCCs on young adults which we are launching alongside the party conferences. More on that tomorrow.
