Agenda item

The Board was asked to consider the Annual Update on developments in relation to Community Safety in Worcestershire.  There was also an additional focus on the County Council's role, with partners in relation to Modern Day Slavery and Trafficking.

The Director of Public Health introduced the Report and the Senior Public Health Practitioner reminded the Board of the Council's statutory responsibilities, which were summarised in the Report.

Appendix 1 of the Report gave an update on the key areas of focus in respect of 2017/18 outcomes and 2018/19 activity and Appendix 2 detailed the Community Safety Governance Structure in Worcestershire.

Main Discussion Points

·       It was agreed that that the Board would be provided with hate crime data broken down by District

·       The Board requested that future reports included trend data, it was however noted that it was quite complex to provide this for all areas as some areas had more data available than others and it was obtained from a variety of sources.  The Senior Public Health Practitioner acknowledged that data analysis needed to be sharper and advised that it was work in progress to address this.  The West Mercia Police Performance Summary (available here) , produced quarterly  contained some of the relevant data  which the Board would find useful

·       The Director of Public Health also advised that that there was a drug misuse dashboard which was considered by the Health and Well-being Board in May, which could be shared with the Board

·       It was suggested that interested members may find it helpful to attend some of the public community safety meetings to get a flavour of the types of issues discussed.

The Board received a presentation on Modern Day Slavery, copies of which were circulated to the Board.

Following the presentations there was an opportunity for the Board to ask questions. 

Main Discussion Points

·        The Multi Agency Targeted Enforcement Strategy (Mates) had been very successful in Herefordshire and was being rolled out in Worcestershire during August

·        It was confirmed that by and large Worcestershire farmers were paying minimum wage levels and providing appropriate facilities for staff

·       Although the number of modern slavery crimes recorded was negligible, the picture was very complex and currently there wasn’t confidence in the accuracy of the figures

·       It was acknowledged that sign-posting for reporting modern slavery issues was unclear, but if in doubt,  a referral to the Police was always the recommended course of action

·       A Member highlighted that migrant workers weren’t always aware of their rights and some communities were particularly hard to reach. The Police and Crime Commissioner advised that the multi-agency approach was the only way to address such issues

·       It was important to ensure that District, Parish and Town Councils were involved in the multi-agency approach to tackling Modern Slavery and intelligence from communities was key to prompting and supporting investigations

·       It was noted that the County Councils Internal Audit Team were considering the LGA Report on tackling modern slavery: A Council Guide, with a view to benchmarking the Council's position. The Board looked forward to looking at the results of this work when it was available.