NBPA NECMEETING MINUTES
National Policing Improvement Agency
Yew Tree Lane
Pannal Ash
Harrogate
North Yorkshire
HG2 9JZ
12th January 2012
Present
Charles Crichlow – GMPTony Smikle – NPIA
Bevan Powell – METWendell Henry – Kent
Jas Basra – DerbyshireTheresa Peltier - Bedfordshire
Pam Hooker – KentBharat Narbad – South Wales
Kermal Singh – Avon and Somerset Lloyd Ledgister – Cambridgeshire
Paul Knowles – Avon and Somerset Patrick Jalloal – Dyfed Powys
Michael Mayfield – NorthumbriaAlex Riley – Durham
Queam Azam – NorthumbriaWinston Christie – West Midlands
Mebs Ahmed – Lancashire John Awosoga - City of London
Zaf Qazi – Cumbria Alicia Shaw – Hertfordshire
Stephen Kappel – Cleveland
(1)Welcome
The President welcomed all NEC Reps and thanked those in attendance for making the effort to attend our National Executive meeting.
(2)Apologies
Apologies have been received from Humberside, Wiltshire, BTP, Surrey,
The President explained to all present that Ashley Johnson from Hertfordshire had received an NBPA award at the Conference in Edinburgh. As she was not in attendance to receive the award the President asked the Hertfordshire NEC Rep Alicia Shaw to receive the award on her behalf.
(3)Review of Minutes
The minutes were reviewed and accepted as a true record and therefore was signed off accordingly.
(4)Actions
Action 1 – CompletedAction 2 – Completed
Action 3 – CompletedAction 4 – Completed
Action 5 – CompletedAction 6 – Completed
Action 7 – CompletedAction 8 – Completed
Action 9 – CompletedAction 10 – Completed
Action 11 - Completed
(5)President + Cabinet Updates
CCUpdated those present with the Presidents activities since the last meeting and explained that the newly accepted post holder profiles would determine the way future reports would be reported upon.
ACTION No1 – Send Cabinet member post holder profiles to NEC. SB
TP – Updatedmembers on ‘Women in policing’ explaining how arrangements were being made to arrange for a meeting with the BAWP lead to discuss Gender agenda 3 and members were encouraged to express their interest if they wished to be involved.
BP – Explained to members his involvement and work he had been doing with the CJS national support associations. He stated that he was meeting with the leads of ABPO, RESPECT, CPS and MOJ on 17th January 2012 to discuss further joint working ventures but wanted all BPA’s to be involved.
ACTION No 2 – Send info regarding the above to members together with letter to Chief Officers to support Symposium event SB
CC – Commenced a discussion requesting all present to explain what if any impact the Lawrence trial verdict had made locally. All views were consistent and extra views as follows: -
Derbyshire –There was not much local media coverageof the verdict
Dyfed Powys – There has been no feedback from our Chief. This result means a lot to the Met but what does it mean to a small force or me?
Kent – The verdict was no surprise, I’m more surprised that nothing has been done to the officers who were responsible for their ineffective actions!
NPIA –As there is nothing tangible the question can be asked ‘what now?’
South Wales – We have had nothing to say as we have no access to our Chief and the verdict will make no difference to our situation
Avon and Somerset – We are fortunate to be able to have close contact with our Chief and would suggest that all revisitthe 70 recommendations and liaise with your own Chief’s.
Cambridgeshire – This has put the spotlight back on all BPA’s and put us back on the radar. The question is has any lessons been learned?
Durham – The result has highlighted the BPA;we are awaiting leads for the way forward.
Northumbria - Budget cuts are being used to explain the curtailing of grassroots BPA work in our area. We thought they were guilty and wondered why there was such a long time line before the police took it seriously. It was too slow. We should all re-visit our Chief and ask now that the verdict is back can you give us an update.
West Midlands – Extended thanks to the NBPA Leadership who had highlighted a way forward.
Hertfordshire – Explained how the first 24 hours from the verdict the national media coverage was good and positive however on a local level it was really low. There was nothing really to report and we must be mindful that it could happen again. We must therefore remind ourselves of the 70 recommendations.
Lancashire – Publically there has not been much re-action to the verdict in our area. Privately we knew they were guilty and we are likely to be beaten up all over again. We have a challenge and that is to try to get people to understand difference and to react genuinely and sincerely.
City of London – It is clear that there is a lack of understanding and people are not on the same page at all. We should re-visit the recommendations and look for an external assessment.
Cumbria – Quite confident that things have improved and comfortable that SIO’s are fully up to speed with what to do should this type of incident occur again however not sure whether Lawrence has registered here.
Cleveland – We have missed a real opportunity. We have been relying on people to fix something that they have no idea about. Only 1 or 2 recognise and understand the use of the term ‘Institutional racism.’ We have a real job to explain this. Access to Chief Constables means nothing, it is more important to have access to the Police Authority.
Cleveland has been looking at the issues and an internal review has been commissioned, interviews set up and all BME officers in this area will be spoken to.
Staffordshire – The General Secretary explained that media wise locally there was not much coverage and the verdict simply re opened up an old wound where no one was keen to stir up issues that the service and the general public considered as sensitive and uncomfortable.
Nationally however there had been an overwhelming response from journalists, reporters and broadcasters from all media outlets. The response, engagement and the way we facilitated the media requests was considered overwhelmingly acceptable by the feedback received.
Metropolitan – The Lawrence’s have been fighting for justice for 19 years. They have changed the face of policing so we have to recognise this fully. On behalf of the MET BPA I would like to thank the NBPA President Charles Crichlow for his overwhelming support to the Met BPA and the support he has personally given with the collaborative media responses to the Lawrence verdict.
The Equality Act (Presentation)
TP–The Vice President introduced the Equality Act Presentation to all present. It was explained that this was a valuable piece of legislation which all BPA’s should be fully up to speed with. Due to amount of content and the limited time the VP offered her services to BPA’s to deliver training day inputs at their individual forces.
ACTION No 3 – Send Equality Act Presentation to all BPA’sand invite requests for further input to local forces SB
(6)Treasurers Report
ZQ Gave a detailed explanation as to the NBPAfinancial status and provided a written report which was handed to reps in attendance. (See Appendix A)
Appendix A
National Black Police Association
Financial Position Paper
National Executive Committee Meeting
11th January 2012
Current monies in accounts as at 11th January 2012
Community - £3426.96p
Premium - £497.61
Current - £7369.89 (This includes £6750 restricted re the Karin Mulligan Scholarship fund)
Current monies owed
Expenses Payments
The Cabinet are trying to keep these to a minimum but they are still necessary to keep business going. At the moment there are significant amounts owed to each Cabinet member but we are trying to reduce these gradually as more money comes in.
I want to alert everyone to the fact that following a re- trawl of conference invoices for 2009 and 2010, it is clear some BPA’s or delegates have not paid. I will be in touch with each BPA for you to double check your force has paid. Sometimes these things are missed or the invoice goes to the wrong department and is not paid. If we can we would like to get this money but if you wait for my email then check you have paid, as this will be a very useful exercise for us.
2011 Conference
It is anticipated that the 2011 Conference will raise us a net profit of about £9 to £10,000. A great deal will depend upon the deal our President enters into with Lothian and Borders Police but we are hopeful the profit will allow us to build in the coming year and clear expenses owed to cabinet members.
Accounts
The accounts for 2010-2011 will be submitted to the Charity Commission by the 31st January deadline and will reflect that our GMP debt has been discharged. The re trawl I ask for above will also potentially allow us to retrieve fees already invoiced for and also have the opportunity to claim any VAT back we have already paid on these sums.
Notes
- We have a monthly direct debit payment re insurances we require which costs £81.26.
- We have a monthly direct of £28.50 to Orange re our broadband service and one to H3G of £17.48 for further broadband.
- We pay £133.80 per month for storage of NBPA docs and materials and still need a BPA to come forward and offer us some storage space so we can avoid paying this and become as lean as possible.
Zaf Qazi (Treasurer)
(7)Scrutiny Committee Update
The Scrutiny Lead MA informed all in attendance that the present SC team were consistently monitoring NBPA activity by ensuring attendance to Cabinet meetings and liaison with the Treasurerthus keeping fully abreast of all things from the SC point of view and consequently at this time there were no issues to report to the membership.
(8)Subscriptions Update
SBand ZQ Reported on the few BPA’s who had paid their NBPA annual subscription. The discussion concentrated on the fact that BPA’s required an invoice prior to making this payment. Members were informed that every invoice forwarded resulted in the NBPA having to make £40 payment to VAT and often the NBPA was paying this sum and not receiving any remittance from the invoices sent out.
It was agreed that NEC Reps should contact the NBPA Treasurer direct and request an invoice and this would be sent thus guarantying the return of the remittance and avoiding the NBPA incurring VAT bills etc
ACTION No 4 – Send info regarding the payment of annual subscriptions to BPA’s informing that annual subscriptions fee’s are due and only if an invoiceis required to make the payment will one be sent. SB
(9)Media Update
The General Secretary informed that in excess of 40 plus requests for interviewhad been received regarding the Stephen Lawrence result. Charles Crichlow, Bevan Powell and Leroy Logan facilitated all the requests including radio, tv and newspaper replies. After discussion colleagues agreed that the messages and comments released from the NBPA were positive and in line with image the NBPA wished to promote for the future. d
CC – A discussion took place about social networking and its uses. Twitter accounts encouraged.
ACTION No 5 – Send email to encourage and inform members to use twitter SB
(10)Proposed AGM Dates for 2012
The General Secretary explained that consideration should be given to deciding on the proposed date for the forth coming NBPA AGM 2012. After discussion it was agreed that 16th 17th and 18thOctober 2012 was the date we should be working towards.
(11)Local BPA Updates
All present gave an input during their report on the impact of the Lawrence verdict. So a further update was not permitted at this agenda point.
(12)Diary Dates
No diarydates have been submitted
ACTION No 6– Write to BPA’s requesting them to submit dates of events so that these can be entered into the NBPA events calendar. SB
(13)AOB
Date of Next meeting TBA April 2012
ACTIONS
ACTION No1 – Send Cabinet member post holder profiles to NEC. SB
ACTION No 2 – Send info regarding the above to members together with letter to Chief Officers to support Symposium event SB
ACTION No 3 – Send Equality Act Presentation to all BPA’s SB
ACTION No 4 – Send info regarding the payment of annual subscriptions to BPA’s informing that annual subscriptions fee’s are due and only if an invoice is required to make the payment will one be sent. SB
ACTION No 5– Send email to encourage and informing members to use twitter SB
ACTION No 6– Write BPA’s requesting them to submit dates of events so that these can be entered into the NBPA events calendar. SB
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