CPS Board meeting minutes - May 2020

Friday 22 May 13:00 – 15:40 
Microsoft Teams Meeting

Members

Max Hill QC, Rebecca Lawrence, Monica Burch, Mark Hammond, Simon Jeffreys, Caroline Wayman

Guests

Sandra McKay, Mark Gray, Dave Cass, Moi Ali, Chris Sharp

Secretariat

Head of Private Office, Board Secretariat

Item 1: Minutes and Matters arising

1. The Board reviewed and agreed the minutes of last meeting and progress was noted against outstanding actions noting;

• The success measures data is expected to come to the Board in September; and
• The recruitment data on protected characteristics should be ready to come to the Board in June.

Item 2: Update from the CEO

2. Rebecca Lawrence, Chief Executive Officer, provided an update to the Board on the strong working relationships between the members of the Executive Group on a variety of pieces of work, especially the business plan and covid-19 related work. 

3. Rebecca noted that recruitment is continuing in spite of COVID-19. She shared that Baljit Ubhey has been made permanent as the Director for Strategy and Policy, and provided an update on the Chief People Officer recruitment.

Item 3: Covid-19 Response and Recovery

4. Mark Gray, Director of Digital, Commercial and Estates, presented the paper, and highlighted key issues to the Board, such as the backlog of cases with the CPS has been reduced, but has caused an increase in backlog of cases waiting to be heard.

5. On the future working programme, he noted that the exercise is highly inclusive and there has been a wide range of feedback from across the country.

6. Sandra McKay, Director of Communications, reflected that internal communications was key to how the business responded to COVID-19, rolling updates have been provided to staff. She noted the benefit of having business continuity plans in place to aid the response. The Director and CEO have regularly issued staff blogs and videos.

7. On external communications, Sandra highlighted the collegiate work with partners, in particular the press conference with the NPCC and CPS with regards to COVID-19 charging offences.

8. Rebecca Lawrence thanked the communications team for their successful public messaging. Rebecca noted that care would need to be given to the impact of working from home, and the messaging surrounding this, as for different cohorts of people there are positive and negative impacts of the new way of working.

9. The Board thanked and commended Sandra and Mark for their work so far, both internally and externally. They thanked Nadia Stockdale-Ayre for an excellent paper.

10. The Board considered the following;

• Additional investments being made for staff in terms of equipment
• Making the most out of the opportunities that have arisen from COVID-19
• Union engagement
• Management of staff annual leave
• Changes to staff workflows 

There was discussion on all of these points which were all already under consideration.

Item 4: Independent Assessor of Complaints Update

11. Moi Ali, Independent Assessor of Complaints, presented her first annual report to the Board. She shared that she intended to improve complainants’ experience of the process, she undertook this by reviewing previous correspondence and subsequently changed the letter templates and tone. Moi had also produced a leaflet detailing her remit and what she can and cannot do; all in a language which is easily accessible. She noted she has felt very welcome and supported by the CPS and her team.

12. Moi noted the workshop she has launched with the complaints units in the area, which focussed on making sure empathy is at the heart of the letters. Through this she has also become a point of contact and support for the areas.

13. The Board discussed and considered;

• What needs to be put in place to make a significant improvement in the CPS
• The occasions on when payments are made, and care needed to be taken around compensatory and consolatory payments are made
• How to move forward the themes that come out in the report; and
• How to embed the learning from the IAC into the CPS

14. The Board asked to have a paper on how the actions from the IAC are taken forward in the business and the changes implemented. [ACTION M1]

Item 5: Q4 Area/ Division Performance Report

15. Dave Cass, Deputy Director for Operational Performance, presented the report, highlighted the key changes to operating procedures in light of COVID-19, particularly;

• The move to daily reporting to identify changes and issues as they arise for rapid response
• Staff abstraction rates throughout remained within tolerances
• Backlog of cases within the CJS
• Initial reduction in police receipts now increasing again; and
• Streamlining of Area Performance reviews

16. The Board then considered;

• the possibility of having metrics which demonstrate where the backlog of cases are in the system
• Having trends and visualisations in place on the new reporting data to help understanding of what good looks like
• The use of public interest guidance, and analysing why a case is dropped; and
• Data on backlog monitoring, and agreed to have continued conversations with CJ partners on reduction

Item 6: CPS Annual Report and Accounts Update

Chris Sharp, Director of Finance, provided an overview of the current status of the Annual Report and Accounts. He highlighted the financial statements and the reallocation of funds in light of COVID-19 to IT equipment.

17. The Board responded that they appreciated the joint welcome statement from Max Hill and Rebecca Lawrence, and the overall document reads better than earlier reports. The Board thought that some reports could go further into the detail that is currently provided.

18. The Board agreed for Chris Sharp to share a suitable version of the report for line by line review with the Secretariat for distribution to Board members for comment, and for any comments or impressions to be sent to the Secretariat. [ACTION M2]

Item 7: Q4 Corporate Performance Report

19. Chris Sharp, Director of Finance, highlighted key areas for the Board to be aware of which included an update on rape prosecution workflows, and on the COVID-19 impact on domestic abuse, online crimes, COVID-19 related fraud cases.

20. The Board raised the success measures in regards to Proceeds of Crime and the need for review in line with 2025 strategy. The full piece of work on success measures will come to the Board in September.

Item 8: AOB

21. The Board discussed the Board Effectiveness review and agreed this would be owned by Simon Jeal, but for now would take shape as an interim light review.

22. The Board agreed to send any items to be considered for the June agenda to the Secretariat next week. 

Secretariat 
May 2020