Senior leadership
Simon Dennis
Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer
(Also Interim Chief Executive & Monitoring Officer for the Office of the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire)
Every Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) must have a Chief Executive. His role is to support and advise the PCC as well as assisting with statutory duties.
The Chief Executive works with the PCC, Chief Constable, Chief Finance Officers and other senior managers to make sure the PCC’s vision, strategy and priorities are delivered. As a result, he ensures there is rigorous scrutiny of all activities. He also provides leadership to the OPCC.
In addition, the Chief Executive is the Monitoring Officer. He must identify any breach of the law, maladministration or injustice. Therefore, he must also promote the highest ethical standards.
Michael Porter
Chief Finance Officer and Deputy Chief Executive
(Also Chief Finance Officer for the Office of the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire)
The Chief Finance Officer (CFO) is the PCC’s financial adviser. As a result, he works works closely with the Chief Executive, helping the OPCC to resource and deliver strategic objectives.
The CFO must, therefore, ensure financial implications, opportunities and risks are fully considered. He also must make sure actions are in line with the PCC’s financial strategy. He champions good financial management, ensuring public money is safeguarded and used appropriately, economically and effectively.
A collaboration agreement is provided to the Office of the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire.
Rachelle Kipling
Temporary Assistant Chief Executive
The Assistant Chief Executive (ACE) leads across the OPCC and works closely with Cleveland Police.
She provides direction for the development, delivery, engagement and communication of strategic programmes.
The ACE is responsible for two key programmes:
- Delivery of the Police and Crime Plan
- The equality, diversity and inclusion agenda via the Everyone Matters team.
The ACE liaises with the Police and Crime Panel to ensure the support and oversight of the PCC’s work. She also advises on continuous improvements to standards and ethics at a senior level.
Rachelle Kipling is the Commissioner’s Officer for Victims in Cleveland. However, she has taken up the role of ACE to cover for Lisa Oldroyd while she works as Acting PCC. Rachelle will serve as ACE until an agreed date after the 2021 PCC election.
Criminal justice and/or victims commissioning and partnerships
Supporting victims and reducing re-offending are key PCC commitments. Therefore, staff members commission and work with a range of local organisations on both priorities.
Victim services commissioned by the OPCC include the Victim Care and Advice Service. It provides emotional and practical support to vulnerable victims of crime.
A range of specialist services support victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and illegal cultural harms.
The OPCC organises and supports a number of multi-agency groups, chaired by the PCC. Groups work in partnership to make sure they are offering end-to-end services to support victims and witnesses, to rehabilitate offenders and reduce re-offending.
Commissioner’s Officer for Victims – Vacant
Commissioner’s Officer for Crime, Offending and Justice – Chris Guttridge
Communications and community engagement
As part of her statutory responsibilities, the PCC carries out extensive consultation and engagement. OPCC staff organise and support engagement as well as helping to ensure issues discussed are fed back to the force, feature in service planning and are built into future service development.
The PCC communicates widely via the website, social media, a monthly newsletter and other media.
Commissioner’s Officer for Consultation and Engagement – Sarah Wilson (part time)
Commissioner’s Officer for Communications and Information – Hannah Smith
Support Officer for Communications and PCC Services – Judith Dunn
Strategic Media Advisor (call-off contract) – Ian Cross
Office management, support and casework
This team deals with telephone enquiries and correspondence. As a result, an important part of their work is public casework.
Casework includes problem solving, responding to statutory requests, researching and providing information to a range of organisations and individuals.
Community Hub Advisor – Jayne Harpe
Community Hub Advisor – Hayley Relph (part-time)
Community Hub Advisor – Charlotte Rumins
Acting Community Hub Advisor – Amy Forsyth
Business Administration Apprentice – Annaleis Banks
Organisation chart
OPCC Organisation Chart – April 2021 (application, 117kB)
Demographic information
This information has been provided by Cleveland Police’s Human Resources department. It has been collected via Equal Opportunities Monitoring data.
Total staff
30 (excludes volunteers and committee members entitled to expenses)
Percentage identifying as female
80%
Percentage disclosing a disability
0%
Percentage identifying as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME)
6.67% (23% of OPCC staff did not disclose their ethnicity)