PCC opens Regional Independent Custody Visitors Conference

On Saturday (23 June), we welcomed almost 50 Independent Custody Visitors (ICVs) from around the county to hear about a range of innovative developments in Norfolk custody from Chief Inspector Rob Wicks. Also speaking were Chief Executive Officer, Sherry Ralph, from the Independent Custody Visitor Association (ICVA), updating attendees on developments in training and Professor Layla Skinns from the University of Sheffield who shared details of her studies on how to support detainees with understanding their rights and entitlements whilst in custody.

The conference was opened by the Police and Crime Commissioner, Sarah Taylor, who welcomed all of the ICVs and thanked them for their work and dedication as volunteers.

Thanks also to all the staff at the Charles Burrell Centre, a wonderful community resource.

ICVA's Chief Executive Officer, Sherry Ralph, reflects on her visit to a Police Investigation Centre and the Eastern Regional ICVA Conference

Last Friday and Saturday, I was delighted to travel to Norfolk and undertake a visit to one of the shared custody services between Norfolk and Suffolk, that being a Police Investigation Centre (PIC) in Wymondham, Norfolk. This suite, although some years old now, has been subject to some changes over the last couple of years.

The constabulary were able to attain a Home Office grant to put in some new graphics, screens and child friendly cells as part of a trial of ‘nudge theory.’ This means in practice that there are graphics on the walls and the ceiling of each cell regarding making positive changes for detainees in terms of employment, goal setting, mental health support and more, to help ‘nudge’ detainees to speak to Liaison and Diversion during their time in custody. The PIC also had specific child friendly cells, which have an area on the wall for drawing, targets for use with foam footballs and extra text above the cell bells to remind and encourage rights and entitlements. The doors for child cells are painted a different colour, so as to clearly delineate from adult cells on approach. Cells are also fitted with screens, which show the date and time and can be used for Inspector reviews (more on other uses of those later).

There is no doubt that this is still a custody centre, but it is a custody centre with a different look and feel to many I have visited, and in a positive way!

On day two of my visit, I was privileged to speak to ICVs at the Eastern Regional ICV conference. I spent some time talking about examples of impact from ICV work, from national work streams to the excellent examples we received from you all each quarter. We looked briefly at what prevention means in terms of monitoring visits and talked through some of the upcoming ICVA work streams. I also spent some time asking ICVs to reflect on why they volunteered, what they get from being an ICV and what they would say to new recruits, which I have returned with to include in recruitment materials and volunteer events/our social in the future, so massive thanks to the ICVs for their input!

Also speaking was Dr Layla Skinns, pictured below with myself and Simon Atherton, host scheme manager for the conference. Dr Skinns shared some of her research, and gave the ICVs the details of how her research is using some of the in cell technology offered by the Norfolk and Suffolk suites. You can find the full details of the research here. Please do give the page a read, but to give you a very brief overview, Dr Skinns has developed four separate animations for use in custody:

Your time in police custody and your treatment
Your rights and entitlements in police custody
Your welfare and wellbeing
Your safety and security

All of the videos are open source and downloadable for forces and schemes to use, so please do take a watch and use these excellent resources. If you do use them, and we hope you do, please could you contact Layla Skinns email: l.skinns@sheffield.ac.uk, and let know her that you are downloading the videos and how you intend to use them as that will really support her team in the evaluation of the project.

If you're interested in becoming an Independent Custody Visitor, please visit our Custody Visiting Page below:

Custody Visiting Page