Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked representatives from the Police and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for attending for the Chief Constable and the PCC as they were at a meeting with the Home Secretary.

 Cllr. Ian Hardiman attended for Cllr. Sally Chambers.

Apologies had been received from Cllr. Sally Chambers, Andy Champness, Bill Longmore, David Shaw and Keith Roberts.

Declarations of Interest were made by: Cllr. Phil Grove who was in receipt of a police pension; Col. Tony Ward who was member of the Trust, Integrity and Ethics Committee and Helen Barker who was a Trustee of the Youth Support Service.

Members of the public wishing to take part (asking a question or making a statement) should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by email indicating both the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case Monday, 7 December 2015).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number / email address listed below.

None.

To confirm the Minutes of the Panel meeting held on 20 October 2015.

The minutes were declared to be a correct record of the previous meeting and were signed by the Chairman.

The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) explained that the Chancellor's announcement that the policing budget would not be reduced was welcomed but the exact amounts would not be known until the end of next week. Some cuts would still be necessary but would be achieved through the current plan.

Details of the 4 objectives the Panel wished to examine were given in the agenda report.

During the discussion the following main points were made:

Objective 2 - Alcohol and Violent Crime

It was confirmed that there was a spike in the Violence against the person with injury figures which was partly due to changes in recording practices following the HMIC crime data integrity inspection. There would need to be a new benchmark established at the new higher level.  The Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) explained that they were taking advice on how to record earlier crimes which were reported along with a current crime.

The Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) was working well in Hereford; Worcestershire's MASH was in place but only recently established and Telford and Shropshire's were imminent.  The new Police IT system would help make improvements and ensure value for money and would further improve joint working with social services.

Objective 3 – Reduce the harm caused by drugs

The Drugs Strategy had three main aims: To reduce supply, reduce demand and reduce harm. The Deputy PCC felt that early intervention, education and prevention were the key to reducing demand. Outreach and Youth Workers had a key role in going into schools and there was also a role for parents. One panel member felt that education about drugs needed to start at an earlier age.

Panel members also felt that the public needed to play their part in reporting suspicious events.  The Deputy Chief Constable agreed that the police could be more effective with help from the community and organisations such as the fire service and it was important for the police to believe they could make a difference in the fight against drugs and be ready to adapt to changing circumstances such as dealing with legal highs.

It was felt that the 200 who were drug tested on arrest was not a very high number as it was known that a high percentage of crimes involved drugs in some way. It was agreed that collaborative working was the way forward and then, once people had got into treatment programmes, the issues of how to make the treatments more effective and how to keep people in treatment were being looked at.

Panel Members were impressed with the Cadets who went into schools in Herefordshire, which was important as youth services had been severely reduced or scrapped in Shropshire.  The Deputy PCC agreed they were excellent role models and explained that interim funding was being supplied to Shropshire to help with some of the gaps in youth support.

It was clarified that any information gained about suppliers during drug driving arrests was passed onto the relevant officers, but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 142.

A presentation will be given at the meeting

Glyn Edwards, Head of Commissioning for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner gave a presentation to update the panel about the Community Safety Partnership Commissioning Framework.

The framework was an agreement between all partners that would allow for a longer term approach to delivering against need rather than having 12 month grants to the CSP. This would provide a collaborative approach and value for money.

The Partnership was analysing levels and patterns of crimes and looking at existing projects. This information was then being mapped and plotted against population and crime trends to ensure that funding was being targeted to areas of greatest need.

Scorecards were used to collect information on a range of topics and showed outcomes and indicators, baselines, the current situation and what could be done better.  The domestic violence scorecard was shown as an example.

The next steps were for CSP clinics to be held to assess the scorecards and recommendations would be produced by the end of December 2015.  Data sets (for example from the NHS) and training in the use of the heat maps would be made available to the CSPs and then programmes linked to crime trends and priorities would be developed from February 2016 onwards.

In response to questions Mr Edwards clarified that:

·         There was now one CSP in the north of Worcestershire and one in the south.

·         The heat maps would be available to the public and it was felt that this would be helpful as it would allow parish councillors to be more knowledgeable and any discussions with public safety officers would be more informed.

The Chairman mentioned that Suzanne was leaving her role as Governance and Scrutiny Manager at Worcestershire County Council for a new position with the Government Ombudsman. He thanked her for her work with the Police and Crime Panel and wished her well in her new job.

The Chairman noted that the next meeting of the Panel would be on:

2 February at County Hall, Worcester.Starting at 1.30pm.

There would be meetings of the Task and Finish Groups looking at the Precept and the Police and Crime Plan before the next main meeting of the Panel.