PEEL Assessment 2023-25: Nottinghamshire Police

Directed at: Nottinghamshire Police

The force should expand its independent scrutiny of stop and search and use of force The force needs to increase the capacity of its scrutiny panel so that it can review more cases. This will help the public of Nottinghamshire to have more confidence that the force’s use of its powers is being robustly monitored. The force has an independent scrutiny panel that reviews both stop and search and the use of force by its officers. This panel meets four times a year, alternating between stop and search and use of force. This means that scrutiny over each area is only carried out every six months. We observed these panels and found that they reviewed a very small number of cases at each meeting. Given the time between each meeting and the low numbers of cases being reviewed, this is an insufficient level of audit. It also reduces the opportunity for the force to receive valuable feedback. Nottinghamshire Police

The force needs to do more to support and develop personnel from under-represented groups Policing relies on the consent of the public to operate effectively. To achieve this, it is essential that the police are representative of the communities they serve. While improvements have been made across England and Wales, some specific roles and ranks still lack the diversity needed to properly represent communities. It is important that forces identify the barriers that prevent people from under-represented groups making progress and take steps to address them. During our inspection, we found that Nottinghamshire Police had identified some barriers to representation of minority groups in specialised roles, and was working to rectify them. The force has a diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) strategy, which is aimed at reducing disparities and creating a culture of inclusion in the workplace. There is a good range of personnel networks across the force for staff and officers from under-represented groups. But these networks told us they hadn’t been consulted about the DEI strategy. The networks felt that they could do more to help the force support people from under-represented groups if there was better communication with senior leaders. The force needs to formally develop its approach to support people from under-represented groups if it is to retain and develop talented officers and staff. Nottinghamshire Police

The force should make sure its leaders are visible to personnel at all levels so that they are appropriately supported and encouraged to improve performance Chief officers in Nottinghamshire Police are committed to being visible to the workforce. We were told that chief officers communicate with staff and officers in several ways, including chief officer roadshows and online blogs. However, in our inspection we found that many staff and officers didn’t regularly see their senior leaders. ome couldn’t tell us their names, especially those working in the more remote parts of the force. Some of the workforce told us that they felt disconnected from their senior leaders and lacked confidence in their support. The force’s current training programme for its leaders also needs to improve. The force told us they are developing plans to create a leadership academy, which will create a range of new training opportunities for leaders at all levels. It is still working on this, but it has clear plans in place and has already introduced new leadership training for its operational first line managers. The force told us that it is planning to develop a wider range of training programmes tailored to an individual’s position within the force and their level of leadership. Nottinghamshire Police

The force should publish its stop and search data, including any indications of disproportionality and reasons for this When a certain group of people is affected by police action in a way that is substantially different from people not of that group (for example, if people of certain ethnicities are stopped and searched more frequently), this is referred to as ‘disproportionality’. Nottinghamshire Police

The force needs to improve its systems and management processes to support effective problem-solving The force should make sure that: • it puts in place clear and consistent management processes to support the use and supervision of problem-solving plans; • it develops an effective system for storing problem-solving plans that officers and staff know how to use; and • central prevention hub and frontline supervisors continue to provide support and feedback to officers and staff, to help establish improved standards of problem-solving. The force knows that it needs to put in place processes for effective problem-solving and use it more widely so it can reduce harm and demand. Although we found some good examples, these tended to reflect specific initiatives and weren’t widespread. Officers and staff who have been trained to problem-solve are not consistently applying the use of the scanning, analysis, response and assessment problem-solving model. Although the force set up a prevention hub in May 2023 to raise the standard of problem-solving, we found that many personnel didn’t know the remit of the unit and weren’t aware of the services it provides. As a result, services such as analytical support and problem-solving surgeries weren’t being used by personnel. Operational units within the force and its partners (such as the local authority) use a range of processes to record and operate their problem-solving plans. The force has two separate databases for problem-solving. Officers and staff are often unsure which database to use and, in some cases, can’t log onto or use them. This has led to some personnel not formally recording their problem-solving activity, because they see the process as too bureaucratic. As a result, the force doesn’t have an overview of which problem-solving activity has the best results and struggles to identify best practice. A single effective system for recording problem-solving activities will help the force to understand which problem-solving works best, and how to use it to achieve sustainable results. Nottinghamshire Police

The force should improve the way it consults all its diverse communities to make sure their needs are identified and used to influence its priorities The force should make sure that: • its overall engagement strategy drives neighbourhood police team engagement activity at a local level; • its engagement group improves its processes to help understand how the force is engaging with its wider communities across all platforms and mediums; and • each local policing area understands all its communities, especially those that traditionally have a weaker relationship with the police. Neighbourhood police engagement plans should be tailored to reflect this. At the time of our inspection, the force had recently produced a strategic engagement strategy to underpin its approach to public engagement. However, this hadn’t been adapted into an easily understood guide that personnel could apply in their everyday activity. As a result, we found that some officers and staff struggled to explain how they structure their engagement activity to meet the needs of different communities. Getting local communities involved in regular engagement improves communication and understanding between the force and the communities it serves. It also provides community members with the opportunity to influence policing in their local areas and to set local priorities. We found that the force had ongoing two-way discussions with its communities. One example of this is Notts Alerts, a media platform set up by the force in October 2023. This allows the force to send out crime prevention messages and receive feedback from the public on policing activity. Nottinghamshire Police

The force needs to attend calls for service in line with its published attendance times and make sure the caller is updated if there are delays The force is not attending grade two (priority but not emergency) calls for service within their published attendance time of 60 minutes. In the year ending 31 December 2023, the force attended 47.4 percent of these incidents within 60 minutes. In 38 of the 77 cases we examined, the force didn’t respond to the incident within the required attendance time (whether downgraded or not). This delayed response can lead to the force missing opportunities to safeguard victims or collect evidence. We also found that the caller wasn’t updated regarding a delay in 11 of the 37 relevant cases. Failing to update victims can mean losing public confidence and investigative opportunities. The force needs to improve how quickly it responds to incidents and make sure that the caller is updated when there are delays. Nottinghamshire Police

The force doesn’t consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims The force isn’t always achieving acceptable outcomes for victims of crime. The number of victim-based crimes the force solves following an investigation is low. It needs to understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims. In the year ending 30 September 2023, Nottinghamshire Police recorded 88,247 victim-based crimes. Of these, 11 percent were assigned an ‘offences brought to justice’ outcome. This is within the normal range compared to other forces across England and Wales. been revised since. British Transport Police and City of London Police data are excluded from the England and Wales rate. Total police-recorded crime includes all crime except fraud. For a full commentary and explanation of crime and outcome types please see the Home Office statistics. have been revised since. Victim-based crimes are defined as all police-recorded crimes where there is a direct victim, such as an individual, an organisation or corporate body. Between the year ending 30 September 2022 and 30 September 2023, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned outcome 15 ‘Evidential difficulties; suspect identified (victim supports action)’ by Nottinghamshire Police remained stable, going from 9.4 percent to 9.2 percent. The average for proportion of crimes assigned outcome 15 across forces in England and Wales was 12.8 percent in the year ending 30 September 2023. Nottinghamshire Police

The force should make sure it has a sustainable secondary review process for domestic abuse to provide prompt risk assessment and referral to support services for vulnerable victims During our inspection we found that the domestic abuse safeguarding unit had a backlog of referrals awaiting secondary assessment. These referrals, known as domestic abuse public protection notices (DAPPNs), are made when officers attend incidents relating to domestic abuse, stalking or honour-based violence. Officers are required to include a risk assessment about victim vulnerability, including a grading of the risk as standard, medium or high. The assessments are then subject to a secondary review by specialist officers, to check that the level of risk has been correctly graded. This helps to make sure that the force refers vulnerable people to the support and specialist services they need. It also makes sure that high-risk cases are considered for referral to a multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC). At the time of our inspection, the force had over 600 DAPPN assessments awaiting triage, many of which had been waiting for several weeks. Personnel told us that this was caused by insufficient staffing levels. None of those awaiting initial assessment were graded as high risk. They also informed us the backlog was being prioritised based on how long they had been waiting, with the oldest cases being reviewed first. This meant that cases weren’t being assessed on risk levels or aggravating factors, such as • the victim being a repeat victim; • the victim being the subject of a previous MARAC referral; • the offender being a serial offender; • there being children at the location where the incident took place; or • evidence to suggest that drugs, alcohol or weapons were a contributory factor. This means that victims who should have been graded as high risk could experience delays in being referred to the specialist support or services they need. Our inspectors carried out an audit of the backlog. They found some cases that were clearly high-risk in nature and should have been prioritised for referral. The force should make sure that: • it reviews the current backlog of DAPPN risk assessments to make sure victims and families receive the safeguarding support they need; • it prioritises assessments according to the level of risk, as confirmed by a secondary assessment, and makes prompt referrals; • It has sustainable safeguarding systems and processes in place to protect vulnerable people; and • it has enough properly trained personnel within the domestic abuse safeguarding unit to manage current and future demand. Nottinghamshire Police

The force should improve its processes for identifying breaches of preventative orders and taking enforcement action to keep victims safe Preventative orders (also known as ancillary orders) are used to reduce the risk of re-offending and increase safeguarding for victims. These include Domestic Violence Protection Notices (DVPNs), Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) and Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs). Officers dealing with incidents involving these types of abuse should consider applying for such orders as part of their support for victims. However, in our victim service assessment we found that this happened in only 11 of 16 cases where it would have been appropriate. We found that frontline officers had limited awareness of the use of preventative orders such as D POs and D PNs and couldn’t explain the application process to us. In the year ending 30 September 2023, Nottinghamshire Police recorded 31,146 domestic abuse-related incidents, which equated to 26.8 such incidents per 1,000 population. This was higher than the rate across all forces in England and Wales of 19.4 domestic abuse-related incidents per 1,000 population. Despite this, during the same period, the force made 164 DVPO applications, equating to DVPO applications made in 1 percent of recorded domestic abuse-related crimes. A similar number of DVPNs were authorised during this time (165). Nottinghamshire Police