The Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel met to discuss the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner's (PFCC) Public Safety Plan, the operation of enabling services, and financial updates for both the Fire and Rescue Authority and policing. The panel endorsed the latest version of its work programme, with the addition of topics including the impact of street drug dealing and police governance reform proposals. The panel also requested reports on the outcomes of a conference on violence against women and girls, further information on victims of violent crime, and updates on performance against the Public Safety Plan.

Delivery of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner's Public Safety Plan for Northamptonshire 2025-30

The panel requested that the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner provides a report to the Panel meeting on 4 December 2025 on performance on the three missions and four tests set out in the Commissioner's Public Safety Plan.

Danielle Stone, Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner's Public Safety Plan is framed by three core missions: visible, accessible community services; professionalism and standards; and strong partnerships. These missions are underpinned by four tests that will be used in the delivery of outcomes and actions.

The plan includes a focus on community engagement through roundtable events with religious groups, retailers, and those concerned with road safety. These events aim to gather direct feedback and inform action. The Study Tour programme delivers crime prevention measures to improve public confidence and feelings of safety. Insights gained from these tours have informed the development of the forthcoming Crime Prevention in a Box initiative, scheduled for rollout in early 2026.

Accountability Boards are run monthly for both the police and fire services to address performance metrics and specific issues of concern. The OPFCC Performance team has developed a Police Performance Dashboard in collaboration with Gloucestershire OPCC to provide a transparent, data-driven view of key performance measures across all forces, enabling comparative analysis and supporting accountability at a national level.

Key areas of focus for the police include burglary, violence and sexual offences, retail crime, total crime volume, domestic abuse, and neighbourhood crime. For the fire service, key areas of focus include demand, standards of response, overall pumping availability, and home fire safety visits.

The strategy in this crucial area focuses on prevention, accountability for perpetrators, and building trust in policing. Key priorities include increasing detection and prosecution of serious offences, reducing reoffending, and ensuring victims can access timely support and achieve justice. On 1st December, Danielle Stone launched the Women's Safety Charter, calling on businesses and organisations to act on violence against women and girls.

Policing Finance Update

The panel noted the Policing Finance Update. The forecast outturn for policing at Quarter 2 shows a total projected net overspend of £387k.

There is forecast to be a small underspend on the Police Pay budget. Most of the pressures on the Chief Constable's budget have arisen due to the overtime requirement for Local Policing, Investigations and Protecting Vulnerable People due to increases in demand. Call volumes are particularly high and result in overtime pressures for control room staff despite recent uplifts in staff numbers.

Almost £1m of the variance is due to enhancements to neighbourhood policing expected to be funded by the additional ringfenced Neighbourhood Policing Grant¹. Inflation on some large contracts, insurance and key IT systems have added pressure along with changes to the number of officers seconded to regional units.

Early financial modelling indicates that an uplift will be vital to provide sufficient funding to the force to balance budgets, maintain resources and make necessary improvements. As such, the public consultation was launched on 10th November 2025 to gather the public views on a £14 precept increase. The consultation is available via the PFCC website.

Fire and Rescue Authority Finance Update

The panel noted the Fire and Rescue Authority Finance Update. The forecast outturn for NCFRA at Quarter 2 shows a total projected net overspend of £443k.

The net overspend on the Chief Fire Officer's budgets mainly relates to firefighter costs and inflation. Pay Awards given across the sector are higher than budgeted with no additional government funding made available. The wholetime firefighter budget has been overspending due to a higher number of firefighters in post than previously expected.

Early financial modelling indicates that an uplift will be vital to provide sufficient funding to the service to balance budgets, maintain resources and make necessary improvements. As such, the public consultation was launched on 10th November 2025 to gather the public views on a £5 precept increase. The consultation is available via the PFCC website.

Operation of Enabling Services

The panel welcomed the progress made by Enabling Services in Northamptonshire. The Enabling Services function supports Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service with a range of business support functions.

The agreed vision for enabling services is to transform and provide excellent enabling services to both emergency services in the most efficient and effective manner, supporting the frontline to do their jobs and deliver excellent services to the public.

The current functions and structure are as outlined below. In total there are 403 staff (including the ACO) and 37 police officers in enabling services.

The Chief People Officer heads up human resources and organisational development. The Chief Finance Officer heads up finance and payroll. The Chief Assets Officer leads the assets department. The Chief Digital Officer leads the digital, data and technology department.

Police Governance Reform

The panel noted the update on proposed reforms to policing governance announced by the government.

Sarah Jones MP, Minister of State for Policing and Crime, wrote to the panel to set out the proposed reforms to policing governance that she announced to Parliament. The first of those reforms will be to abolish the PCC model at the end of the current term in 2028 and transfer police governance functions to Mayors of Strategic Authorities wherever possible, or to elected local council leaders where it is not.

Where it is not possible to transfer PCC functions to Mayors, the government will instead create new local Policing and Crime Boards to bring local government leaders together to oversee the police force in their area. These Boards will be made up of the leaders of each upper tier authority from the force area and supplemented by up to two co-optees. They will be supported by a Policing and Crime Lead, akin to a Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, to carry out day to day activities on their behalf.

The role of Police and Crime Panels will also be abolished in 2028.

Police, Fire and Crime Panel Work Programme

The panel endorsed the latest version of its outline work programme, subject to the addition of the following topics:

• The impact of street drug dealing and the action being taken to address it in Northamptonshire
• The implementation and impact of Police Governance Reform proposals

The panel also noted the update on actions taken in response to previous resolutions by the Panel.

Delivery of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner's Public Safety Plan for Northamptonshire 2025-30

The Panel requested that the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner provides a report to the Panel on the outcomes of the conference on violence against women and girls on 10 December 2025.

The Panel identified the following matters as potential topics for future scrutiny:

• Protection of vulnerable adults from crime and community safety risks
• The role of citizens in community safety
• The OPFCC complaints and customer service functions

The Panel requested that the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner provides further information on the breakdown of victims of violent crime in Northamptonshire.

Minutes

The minutes of the Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting held on 18 September 2025 were approved.