Agenda item

Questions on Joint Arrangements

(time limit 15 minutes)

 

Greater Manchester Combined Authority

27th November 2020

18th December 2020

29th January 2021

Greater Manchester Transport Committee

11th December 2020

Commissioning Partnership Board

22nd October 2020

28th January 2021

GM Police, Fire and Crime Panel

16th November 2020

Health and Wellbeing Board

10th November 2020

AGMA

11th December 2020

Greater Manchester Waste and Recycling Committee

14th October 2020

Miocare

22nd October 2020

National Park Authority 

13th November 2020

 

Minutes:

Council was asked to note the minutes of the following Joint Authority and Partnership meetings and the relevant spokespersons to respond to questions from Members.

 

The minutes of the Joint Authorities and Partnerships were submitted as follows:

 

Greater Manchester Combined Authority

27th November 2020

18th December 2020

29th January 2021

Greater Manchester Transport Committee

11th December 2020

Commissioning Partnership Board

22nd October 2020

28th January 2021

GM Police, Fire and Crime Panel

16th November 2020

Health and Wellbeing Board

10th November 2020

AGMA

11th December 2020

Greater Manchester Waste and

Recycling Committee

14th October 2020

Miocare

22nd October 2020

National Park Authority

13th November 2020

 

Members raised the following questions:

 

 

1.    Councillor Hamblett asked the following question in relation to page 114 - Greater Manchester Combined Authority 27/11/20 – Item GMCA 188/20 – Bus Reform

“I would question the wisdom on investing huge sums of money on improving bus stops when there are less-and-less bus services using them; surely we need investment in more bus services first, especially as we emerge from Lockdown, before we invest in bus stops.

Can the relevant Cabinet Member tell me how much the recent improvements to local bus stops have cost the hard working council tax payers of this borough? And can I also ask who decided that these ‘improvements’ required the removal of the sensory tactile paving which assists the sight-impaired to access public transport?

 

Councillor Fielding, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills, responded that Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) secured funding through Growth Deal 3 for a ‘Bus Passenger Access Enhancements Project’ which would upgrade 505 existing bus stops across Greater Manchester with the aim of improving the passenger experience and delivering improved journey times for buses, whilst ensuring facilities were compliant with accessibility standards.

The chosen delivery method for this work in Oldham was for our own Highways Operations service to deliver these works on behalf of TfGM and therefore the available funding of £232,000 came into the transport capital programme. By the end of the project (due to complete in May 2021) it would have upgraded 46 bus stops within Oldham. The bus stop upgrades would include: raising kerb heights; footway treatment; the provision of a bus stop clearways; and the replacement of bus stop poles/plates.

As part of these works Oldham had not removed any tactile surfacing to the bus stops. The bus stop improvements were designed and constructed to TfGM guidelines, which were developed from GMPTE guidance used in Greater Manchester since at least 2007.

 

2.    Councillor Harkness asked a question in relation to Page 131 – Greater Manchester Combined Authority 27/11/20 – Item GMCA 211/20 – No Child goes Hungry

“Now that the Chancellor has decreed in his recent budget that the £20 weekly uplift in Universal Credit payments will only be extended until the end of September, what will the leaders of the ten GMCA authorities be doing to continue to put pressure on government ministers to change their minds and make the uplift permanent? And will that include seeking the support of those Conservative MPs who now represent Greater Manchester constituencies?”

 

Councillor Fielding, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills, responded that the Council was developing an Anti Poverty Strategy and clear action plan and was working with communities and partners on this at the moment. One of the key strands of the plan focussed on lobbying  national government for permanent change on issues such as the £20 Universal Credit uplift, sustainable funding for the Local Welfare Provision scheme to support residents in crisis and to reduce food poverty, particularly for our children and young people over the holiday periods.

The Council would to liaise with GM authorities and GMCA on poverty issues to get the best outcome for residents across the region and where it could speak across party political boundaries to speak as one voice for Greater Manchester, it would. 

 

3.    Councillor Sykes asked a question in relation to Page 165 – GM Police, Fire and Crime Panel 16/11/20 – Item PCFP/18/20 – iOPS Update

“I first raised the deficiencies of the iOPs Integrated Operating Policing System over two years ago. This system was meant to seamlessly replace three existing police computer systems to provide enhanced capacity to Police officers and criminal prosecutors. The reality has proven vastly different.

I have written to or met with the Greater Manchester Mayor and senior police officers to complain about it several times. Quite simply it has never been fit for purpose – and it has led to crimes not being properly recorded, victims not receiving a prompt and professional service, and prosecutors being unable to proceed with court cases. Even Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary reported that police officers had ‘very little confidence’ in it and were ‘frustrated’ by a system that does not always return ‘accurate results’.

Yet the Mayor and Deputy Mayor as our Police and Crime Commissioners keep insisting that the system will eventually prove its worth. Two years on can the Council’s representative on the panel provide us with any real reassurance when this system will eventually work, or has it in fact proven to be just a blackhole into which public money has been poured, wasted on a system that was never fit-for-purpose?”

 

Councillor Williams responded that going live with iOPS in July 2019 was a huge challenge for GMP. The old legacy systems were failing and end of life - they simply had to be replaced. It was also necessary to introduce new technologies which allowed GMP to build for the future and to be more 'mobile' with our technology. Despite the scale of that challenge much of the new iOPS platform had worked well and was supporting staff in delivering a good service to communities.

iOPS Mobile and iOPS Dashboard were already working well with further updates coming very soon to both these products. There would be a new iOPS Dashboard next month and it was hoped to soon introduce 'mapping' to the dashboard so that demand could be in different ways. This year iOPS Mobile would also be upgraded making it easier to submit crime, intelligence and other events while 'out and about.'

GMP was also pleased with iOPS ControlWorks, the Command and Control system. It was used by several Police Forces and was a stable system which was serving the needs well. GMP had deliberately chosen not to upgrade ControlWorks for a period of time following go live, to allow the system to bed in, a decision which had reaped benefits during Covid-19. They were upgrading to the latest version however, over the next 12 months.

iOPS Cognos was the data warehouse. Cognos was a popular tool used by many others and GMP had some good reports and products that allowed the service to interrogate the data. But the data warehouse was only as good as the data put into it and there was work to do to improve data quality.

It was with iOPS PoliceWorks, the Records Management System where there were the most problems and the most feedback had been received. This was the newest of the iOPS products and was the one that had been the most challenging. GMP had worked hard to fix many of the bugs in PoliceWorks since it went live, and a number of planned upgrades with additional features had already been delivered. The most recent version upgrade in January delivered significant search enhancements, which was something end users were keen to see. But there was still much to do, and there was a packed programme of works to improve it even further over the next 12 months. This work included:

·         Short medium and long term work to further improve the speed and performance of PoliceWorks

·         Further enhancements to search, crime (allowing us to address some of the issues highlighted during the recent HMICFRS victim services assessment), intelligence and safeguarding

·         PoliceWorks version upgrades - 6 planned between now and June 2022

·         Data quality work, prioritising duplicate nominals in the system

The iOPS training and communication plan had also recently been refreshed, to ensure that staff were well supported in their use of the various iOPS products.

All of this work had taken place within a well-organised project management team, which was rightly subject to scrutiny and governance both within GMP and from key local and national stakeholders.

In relation to some of the Councillors specific examples - quite simply it had never been fit for purpose – and it had led to crimes not being properly recorded, victims not receiving a prompt and professional service, and prosecutors being unable to proceed with court cases. Even Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary reported that police officers had ‘very little confidence’ in it and were ‘frustrated’ by a system that does not always return ‘accurate results’.

Crime recording - iOPS was not specifically referenced in the HMICFRS victim service assessment, and the issues highlighted by the Inspector went back several years before iOPS. That said, making it easier for staff to record and manage crime was clearly crucial, and iOPS had a real part to play in that. GMP had prioritised fixing remaining crime bugs and delivering further enhancements. The iOPS Mobile upgrade later this year for example, would make it easier for staff to record crimes while out and about, and keep victims updated

Service to victims - iOPS Mobile was actively supporting the victim service work. A recent example was the Making a Difference platform, delivered in conjunction with Victim Services. It allows staff to access via their mobile devices, local support directories to signpost those in need. This included the ability to send pre-formatted texts and emails. The team were also looking at electronic victim contact cards, to further improve the service.

Case files - The complexities of the various partner systems involved meant that there would always be isolated failures, as there were with GMP's legacy case file system. However, there were issues following iOPS go live, where too many cases failed the electronic transfer to CPS and the Courts, which impacted on justice delivery and confidence. This was a priority for the team throughout Autumn 2019 and into early 2020, and the issues had been much improved.

 

4.    Councillor Chadderton asked the following question in relation to Question on GMCA minutes 18th December 2020 item GMCA215/20 page 134 of the Green Book

“I welcome the announcement from Transport for Greater Manchester and the Greater Manchester Mayors office, that Royton has chosen for investment as part of the Bee Network programme and that the Rochdale Road corridor, currently served by the 409 bus, has been identified as a Quality Bus Transit scheme. Both of these things will bring welcomed investment into Royton Centre, making Royton more accessible for walkers and cyclists and recognising that Royton is in need of improved public transport and improved connectivity links. Can the Leader advise what the timescales for both of these are?”

 

Councillor Brownridge, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Culture, responded that the Bee Network improvements for pedestrians and cyclists in Royton would be delivered by March 2022. There would also be investment in Royton through the Government’s Active Travel Fund with a scheme on Sandy Lane-Rochdale Lane, which would be delivered in the new financial year once the public had been consulted. In addition, the new Toucan crossing in the centre of Royton would be finished in the next couple of weeks.

In terms of the Quality Bus Transit proposals for the Rochdale-Oldham-Ashton corridor, these were being investigated by TfGM. GM had allocated £10 million of its Transforming Cities Fund 2 to deliver early measures on northern and orbital Quality Bus Transit Corridors, which could include this corridor, although no decisions had yet been made on where the £10 million would be invested. The funding deadline was March 2023.

 

5.    Councillor Hulme asked the following question in relation to page 114 - Greater Manchester Combined Authority 27/11/20 – Item GMCA 188/20 – Bus Reform

“Yesterday, GMCA announced it had voted to recommend the implementation of a franchising model for Greater Manchester’s bus network. Please could the Leader explain what this change would mean for the people of Saddleworth North and Oldham as a whole, who Had seen services cut back and been let down by private companies for too long”

 

Councillor Fielding, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Economy and Skills, responded that the mayor was due to make his decision imminently and GMCA leaders had voted in favour of the recommendations to franchise. Saddleworth had been subject to early cuts in service along with Diggle and Greenfield. More recently, cuts had extended to parts of the Borough nearer the city centre eg Woodhouses, which had no bus service other than at peak times. Services had been with drawn from all over Oldham when operators were not making the profit they wanted. Franchising would bring services back under the control of locally elected and accountable politicians, who would be able to set routes, fares, vehicle standards, timetable and even the colour buses were painted. This model had always been in place in London. It was hoped the Mayor would take the decision and bring responsibility for services back locally.

 

RESOLVED that:

1.         The minutes of the Joint Authorities and Partnership meetings as detailed in the report be noted.

2.         The questions and responses provided be noted.

 

 

 

Supporting documents: