South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner
Newsletter
Christmas 2018
“For some, Christmas is an important religious festival.
“People will find their way to services in churches – from Christingles to Midnight Mass – to sing carols. In my part of Sheffield we also celebrate by singing carols in pubs. We sing ‘While shepherds watched their flocks by night’ to the tune of ‘On Ilkley moor baht ‘at’. But also local carols with local words and tunes. My favourite is ‘Chiming Christmas Bells’. One of the wonderful things about South Yorkshire are these local carols.
“But Christmas has also become a much wider celebration. I have non –religious friends who send me Christmas cards. I have Muslim, Sikh and Hindu friends who do the same. This is because the attitudes and values that Christmas encourages are key for creating good relationships between all people in every community. If we all lived in these ways, our life would be happier and the world would be a better place.
“These are the attitudes and values that the coming of the Christ child evokes in us – love, joy, gentleness, peace, generosity.
“But – if I can put my Police and Crime Commissioner hat on – as we celebrate this year perhaps we can also remember for a moment those who will be working over Christmas to keep us safe – the men and women of the emergency services.” especially those in the Ambulance, Fire and Rescue and Police services.
“It would be a wonderful Christmas if none of them were called out over the festive season. If, for instance, none of them had to attend a road traffic collision because someone decided to have a drink and get into a car and drive home, and none of us stopped them.
“So, let’s make it a very happy Christmas for ourselves, our families and friends – and for those who will be working as well.”
Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner is seeking the views of residents in South Yorkshire on setting the council tax precept for policing for the financial year starting in April 2019.
Last week the Government announced the Provisional Police Grant, providing details of the force-level allocations of central Government funding for 2019/20.
The police budget is made up of the allocation plus money raised from the council tax precept and other government grants. The Government set a limit on the amount of money police and crime commissioners can raise from the precept. This year that amount has been set at a maximum of £16 Band A & B properties, (which make up the majority of households in South Yorkshire) or £24 (£2 per month) for a Band D property.
I met with Steve Kavanagh, Chief Executive of Millwall FC, and Kathryn Gate, Chair of the supporters’ club, together with Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts.
The purpose of the meeting was to see how matches involving Millwall and South Yorkshire clubs could be policed in such a way that the good supporters would feel safe and the bad would be dealt with effectively.
It was a very positive meeting. The DCC agreed to meet the club before the next scheduled fixture, possibly in London, and to assign a South Yorkshire police officer to act as liaison with the club.
There was general agreement that we all want to see football matches arranged and policed in ways that reduce the demand on police resources and enable the well-behaved supporters - the majority – to know they are being kept safe.
Dr Billings has responded to the Government’s announcement of the Provisional Police Grant, which sets out the force-level allocations of central Government funding for 2019/20.
The Government is enabling Police and Crime Commissioners to increase the council tax precept by up to £24 for the coming year (or £2 per month) for a Band D property. The amount raised from council tax precept, along with the money provided by the Government in the form of grant funding is what makes up the annual budget of each police force.
The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner has considered options for a change in governance to the Fire & Rescue Service.
Dr Billings recently commissioned an assessment of the different available governance models to improve and strengthen collaboration between the police and fire services, available under the Policing and Crime Act 2017.
The report, ‘Policing and Mental Health: Picking up the Pieces’, was today (27, November 2018) published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
In the report it highlights how the police are increasingly being used as a default service for people suffering from mental health problems and that there needs to be a radical rethink and a longer-term solution to what has become a national crisis.
Dr Billings spoke at an event in Sheffield Town Hall on Monday, 26 October at which the Sheffield Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy was launched.
Many of the city's voluntary organisations that seek to help women and children caught up in domestic abuse and sexual violence were present.
Dr Billings said: "I am pleased to support the Sheffield strategy. At a time when all public services are being squeezed it is essential that we all collaborate and make the best use of the resources and expertise we each have.
s we head towards the season of goodwill it’s worth thinking about how much we might need it.
One of the features of the last few years has been the breakdown in civility in so many areas of our life together.
We used to pride ourselves as a nation on the fact that while we might disagree on many things we always expressed our comments about those with whom we disagreed in a civilised and respectful manner.
Dr Alan Billings attended the Proud of Barnsley Awards at the Metrodome on Friday, 16 November 2018.
The event is organised by the Barnsley Chronicle and has been held annually for the last seven years. It celebrates individuals and organisations that have done things to make people proud of Barnsley.
The Commissioner sponsored the School of The Year Award and presented to this years winner Meadstead Primary Academy.
Following a meeting chaired by HMCIC Sir Thomas Winsor of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS), last week, it was confirmed that the significant improvements made by the force over the past two years, are such that SYP will no longer be subject to an enhanced level of monitoring.
These measures are put in place by HMICFRS when a force is deemed not to be responding to or not succeeding in managing a cause of concern. The force is placed into what could be described as ‘special measures’ and results in a greater level of scrutiny.
South Yorkshire is to receive £1,245,680 from the Home Office Early Intervention Fund for two projects to target young people at risk of becoming involved in crime.
Dr Alan Billings said: “This funding is extremely welcome. My office worked in partnership with the four local authorities – Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley – to help secure this funding. Both bids have been successful. This is unusual but reflects well on those who have worked to hard to put the bids together.
Dr Billings was the opening speaker at a roundtable discussion ‘Between Care and the Criminal Justice System’ held in HMP Hatfield in Doncaster on Monday, 5 November 2018.
The roundtable was organised by Darren Coyne, Project Manager of the Care Leavers’ Association, and brought together representatives of key organisations such as the police, local authorities and the prison service, that seek to help those who are or have been in care.
“The Mayor of London says that it will take a decade or even a generation before London can turn round the rise in violent crime. This is a counsel of despair. It is not how we see things in South Yorkshire.
“I accept that we need to learn from experiences elsewhere. Glasgow is often cited, and similar methods were tried in Cincinnati, with some success.
Across the world, Christian communities remember All Saints and All Souls – the faithful dead.
In this country, many of us will at some point find ourselves saying the words, ‘Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot’ – calling to mind Guy Fawkes and his, fortunately, failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and impose some absolute monarch on us. Read more
