Police and Crime Commissioner Rupert Matthews has hailed his cohort of Independent Custody Visitors (ICVs) after the team achieved the highest national quality award, saying that it was ‘well deserved’.
The scheme has become one of only six in the country to earn a coveted ‘platinum’ grading – the highest award possible – in the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) awards.
The ICV scheme is managed by the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland PCC’s office, and Deputy PCC Rani Mahal leads the programme. ICVs are independent volunteers from across the community, who scrutinise the standards of custody provision across the Leicestershire Police area.
Deputy PCC Rani Mahal said: “This is a remarkable achievement and thoroughly deserved by every member of the team. Our volunteers continue to go above and beyond to ensure custody arrangements in this county stand up to the highest scrutiny and have driven many improvements to deliver a better quality of care to detainees.
“The ICV scheme is one of the vital ways I’m able to provide oversight and accountability of policing procedures to build confidence and trust among the public. This is so important as without the support and faith of the public, we cannot provide effective policing services.
“This grading secures our position as the joint best-performing area in the country for custody scrutiny. As we know, such an award is not easily achieved, and full credit goes to the entire ICV team for their continued professionalism and dedication.”
Independent Custody Visitors make unannounced visits to the three main custody facilities in Leicestershire – Beaumont Leys, Euston Street and Keyham Lane – to check on the rights, entitlements, well-being and dignity of detainees held in police custody. Their reports enable the PCC to make improvements and recommendations to ensure custody provision complies with national requirements.
Only six schemes in England and Wales achieved platinum level awards, showing exceptional proactive work which included PCCs accompanying ICVs on out-of-hours visits to custody.
As part of the process, scheme managers are required to provide evidence against several key areas including recruiting and training, managing volunteers, communications, holding the force to account, transparency and public reassurance, detainee welfare and investing in and supporting scheme managers.
The QAF awards are run by the Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) to boost public confidence and trust in the processes for monitoring and managing police custody.
Sherry Ralph, Chief Executive at ICVA said: “The quality assurance framework represents a significant amount of additional work to ensure that independent custody visiting is regularly reviewed, improvements are made where they are needed, and excellent practice is shared. I congratulate schemes on their accomplishments and thank them for their commitment."
It is a statutory duty for PCCs to run an ICV scheme. The QAF framework exists to deliver greater consistency among schemes across the UK with four graded levels of performance: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Code Compliant.
We are seeking more Custody visitors!!! Further information available on our website https://www.leics.pcc.police.uk/Take-Part/Independent-Custody-Visitors/Independent-Custody-Visitors.aspx
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Picture Shows (L-R): Sherry Ralph (CEO ICVA), Hina Sharma (Volunteers Manager OPCC), Rani Mahal (Deputy PCC) and Dame Anne Owers (Chair ICVA)
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Posted on Tuesday 12th December 2023