by Eloise Peabody-Rolf
I attended
Takeover Day at the Police and Crime Commission Office on Friday, 22nd November 2013. I wasn’t too sure about how the day would pan out,
but I found it excellent – it was fun and very informative, and during the
course of the day we took part in several activities designed to help us
understand the responsibilities and activities of the Police and Crime Commissioner
and his team.
The ‘Takeover Team’ consisted of eight
students: three year 11 pupils from Oaklands School in Waterlooville, and five
members of the Hampshire Youth Commission, ranging in age from 15 to 20.
We started the day with introductions,
both of ourselves and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner from Rob
Jarman, the Deputy Commissioner, who gave us an overview of what the OPCC does.
We then had a tour of the offices and were introduced to the other members of
staff who briefly described what they did. It was interesting to chat to the
staff to learn about their roles.
Next we had the commissioning exercise,
with 2 members of staff who work with Simon Hayes on allocating funding, Alan
and Caroline. In this exercise we learnt about the problems facing
Commissioners when people or groups ask for funding, how they prioritise and
decide who to award money to, as well as what the groups have to prepare and
include in their submission to the Commissioner. We were split into two
groups both containing three members, one focusing on ‘Drugs and Alcohol
Misuse’, and my group thinking about ‘Healthy/Respectful Relationships’.
After some discussion we presented our project proposal to the panel of
Commissioners, briefly describing what we would plan on doing, our proposed
pilot scheme, how we would spend the money, how we would find out if people are
being affected, where and who we would aim our pilot at, and how we know if we
have achieved our objective and helped the people being affected. We had to
calculate the funding we would require from the PCC based on how long our pilot
scheme would last for, prices for office supplies, who we would employ,
etc. The presentation felt a bit like Dragons' Den ! There was a big
difference between the groups, especially in the amount of money being asked
for. Our group focused on domestic abuse; we decided that children learn from
their parents and if one or both of their parents is abusing them or their
other parent, they could learn the behaviour was acceptable and they may copy
the action, increasing the problem. We asked for £17,500 to run a pilot,
whereas the other group asked for £200,000 to fund their proposal, a huge
difference of £182,500.
We then had the opportunity to create and
design marketing materials with Emma for the planned Police and Crime
Commission Work Placement Programme, working in 2 groups of 4 people. We
came up with designs for a logo, website pages, and materials to advertise work
placements, postcards and posters, which we then presented to the
Communications team. This was great, as our ideas will actually be used on the
PCC’s website and as promotional ideas!
After lunch we had a mini COMPASS
(Commissioner's Performance, Accountability, Scrutiny and Strategy meeting)
session on Anti-Social Behaviour, for the first part we asked our questions to
Simon Hayes and then it was our turn to be questioned by Simon Hayes. We gave
Simon our perspective, giving him our ideas on what we think causes Anti-Social
Behaviour, such as peer pressure and boredom. Like all COMPASS meetings,
the meeting was recorded and will be put up on the PCC’s website.
We finished our day with a round up, the
students and PCC staff discussing what we all thought of the day, what we
learnt from each other and will take away. Overall I think the day was a
great experience. The best bit for me being the commissioning process exercise,
learning how services are commissioned as well as some of the complexities
involved in funding them.
The day gave me an insight into the work
Hampshire’s PCC, Simon Hayes and his office, and in particular their decision
making processes, and some of the challenges they face. I enjoyed meeting
and working with the Takeover team on the exercises, and having the opportunity
to discuss our views on the PCC’s activities and priorities with Simon and his
staff.
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