Minutes from ‘Course Board Meeting’

11th December 2007

Present:

C.Insp Natalie Carron

Insp Alison Eaton - Chair

Insp Ali Darge

Insp Julia Pope

Sgt Ian Cheesman

Sgt Kart Prangnell

Sgt Jim Casey

PC Chris O’Leary

PC Brian Rapson

PC Lou Bates

PC Rachael Blackwell-Neal

Mr Peter Stock

Mr Gary Cook

Mr James McDonald

Miss Hazel Brown

Miss Laura Neal

Miss Vicki Parsons – Minutes

1. Apologies:

Representative from Brighton PDU and University of Chichester.

2. Review of previous minutes:

All minutes were read and agreed as a true accurate record. The previous actions were looked at and discussed as below:

Action 1 06/11- Discharged

Action 2 06/11- Ongoing

Action 3 06/11-Ongoing

Action 4 06/11-Ongoing

Action 5 06/11-Ongoing

Action 6 06/11-Ongoing

Action 7 06/11-Discharged

3. Student Board Feedback:

Peter Stock has attended the Student Boards at the 3 sites with the relevant PDO Sgt to discuss any issues that have arisen. This is a good process and good way to find out any issues that need to be dealt with. The themes that came out of all 3 meetings were consistent i.e. Community Placement feedback, Stop Search training is overloaded, Reflective Journals and briefings (Falmer only)…. Ali discussed that all of the above are being looked into currently. Karl & Gary Cook to sit down and look at the briefings at Falmer. Action 1

4. PSD Input including Facebook:

Please re-enforce to all students the appropriate use of Facebook, there was a recent case with PSD

5. Xmas Leave for Cohort 5 and Cohort 7:

For both Cohort 5 and Cohort 7 their A/L is in negotiation with their PDU. This is going to be re-iterated to all students again.

6. Search & Public Order Training:

The feedback that was received about the Public Order training has been excellent, the Search training was good but it was PowerPoint based, there were no practicals. Rachael has spoken to Search and the next time it is run, there are going to start at HQ in the morning for 1 PowerPoint and then to Kingstanding for 3 practicals. Rachael to feedback at next Course Board about the new training. Action 2. There is learning from this, Andy Price went to review the training and is writing a report up on it’s feedback.

7. COPs Update:

There was a seminar held last week which all the PDUs and NSTs were invited to attend, there was a presentation to explain the project which was created and presented by Kelly Critchett. The aim was to get guidance and support from the NSTs, which we did get, it was suggested a week attachment with NST whilst on PDU, ideal place would be Block 2. Local meetings to be arranged with NST for Kelly & Karl to attend to sell this project to them. Action 3. One issue that came up is the lack of PCs on NST at the moment, we would need to get PDU tutors to go out with them. Kelly Critchett has done a lot of work on this so would like to take this opportunity to say a big ‘Thank You’.

8. Foundation Degree Update:

10 students have been approved for the Foundation Degree starting on 16th January 2008 (9 Officers from Cohort 1 and 1 Officer from Cohort 2). The students are currently being registered by Vicki and Hazel. They will only be able to do the Foundation Degree after receiving Independent Patrol.

This is only a pilot. Big thank to go to Tony and Dave for all their work.

9. PDU re-enforcement:

It was discussed about the PDUs being used for Divisional Operations, all PDUs stated that they are used at the minimum, as below:

Brighton & Hove: Football

East: Every Friday Operation Marble

West: Little interference

North: Left alone

PDU Standardisation meeting needs to be arranged soon, they are to be held twice a year, Vicki to arrange meeting end of January. Action 3.

10. RPU Review:

Marcus Stuart and Alan Fleetwood arranged to review the RPU Week, they went and visited all sites to make sure that the course was standardised. RPU has really taken this under their wing and we have positive encouragement from Superintendent Paul Morrison who is training more officers so we have the same people teaching each session. Some issues came up but only small i.e. lesson plans need to be updated, remove the skids, remove the part when the students are standing on major roads. Cohort 7 is going to be huge so the PDUs will need to do the splits to make sure it is equal over the sites. This does need to be a 5 day attachment. Please find attached their full report.

11. Community Placement De-brief:

The feedback from the University is that the Community Placement de-brief has gone back to being presentations and this makes the session far to long. The session should be about group work. East Sussex Division do 5 minute presentations to their Divisional Commanders. In the afternoon on the same day the Fraud Act is taught, does this still need to be taught now that it is in Blackstone’s? Karl to look into this. Action 4.

12. AOB:

The Shift Review team has put a report to Natalie Carron & Chris Morgan, this is then going to be forwarded to ACC Payne. We need to wait for Feedback, Ali Darge to keep us updated. Action 5

Everyday is very important on PDU so why are students being pulled away to go on the Front Desk, dog attachment whilst on RPU Week etc…. Marcus to look at this. Action 6

We have attachments to RPD, NST, PPU- what about CID Training? The answer is that PACs are achieved at these attachments, none would be achieved at CID. They can do an attachment through their sections when on Independent Patrol which needs Divisional Approval.

Thank you for all replies regarding the Pre-Recruitment Events.

Falmer & Eastbourne- still problem with rooms, this is an ongoing issue which is constantly being looked into. Rooms are just not big enough, Hazel is trying to get us all the big rooms.

Alison, Peter, Aidan and James trying to get Skills mark through Skills 4 Justice.

Action List Below

Date of Next Meeting:

29th January 2008

10:00am

Mithras House, MG29

Action List:

Action 1 06/11- Ongoing- Sgt Karl Prangnell to circulate the new exercise proposal for the Sexual Offences session to the 3 sites and to put on the agenda for discussion at next meeting
Action 2 06/11- Ongoing- Sgt Karl Prangnell to obtain a contact at each site for PSD
Action 3 06/11- Ongoing- Ali & Jim to discuss constructive feedback with Gary & Jane as the work that the students do on their placements is very good
Action 4 06/11- Ongoing- Sgt Sarah Godley to send to Jim a good file so he can upload to Student Central
Action 5 06/11- Ongoing- Sgt Karl Prangnell to check that delivery of the Professional Investigations project is standardised across the 3 sites
Action 6 11/12-Karl & Gary to sit down and look at the Briefings done at Falmer
Action 7 11/12-Rachael Blackwell-Neal to feedback at next meeting regarding Public Order & Search Training
Action 8 11/12-Vicki to arrange the next PDU Standardisation Meeting
Action 9 11/12-Does the Fraud Act still need to be taught now it is in Blackstones?
Action 10 11/12-Ali Darge to keep us updated regarding the Shift Pattern Review
Action 11 11/12-Marcus to look at why students are being pulled off the RPU Week to cover Front Desk, and dog attachment?

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