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 new GET SAFE support and protection approach to child criminal exploitation.

The Annual Update on developments in relation to Community Safety in Worcestershire

The Senior Public Health Practitioner introduced the Report and he 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 2018/19 outcomes and activity.

There was a requirement to adapt to changing community safety and criminal activity.  The Council, as a significant Responsible Authority, was committed to further understanding the problems and finding preventative and operational solutions to minimise risk and harm to the population.

The Directorate of Public Health and other Directorates would continue to ensure that systems assurance and rigour was embedded in the Council's responsibilities for community safety, but it was noted that there were increasing challenges in the system both for the Council and its partners.

In conclusion, the Board was advised that the Council continued to meet its own duties relating to community safety as far as it reasonably could and made a significant contribution across Worcestershire and West Mercia through its leadership role and its commissioned services.

Main Discussion Points:

·         the importance of the role of local councillors was emphasised in terms of local intelligence to inform and improve services.  It was noted that the Community Safety Partnerships had a local ward and district focus and some Councillors sat on these bodies.  Local Policing Teams also welcomed support from local councillors

·         It was confirmed that at the present time, the dissolution of the West Mercia and Warwickshire Strategic Alliance was not having strategic impact on services.  However, the Safer Communities Board was keeping a watching brief on this

·         The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner (DPCC) explained that the Alliance had been set up 6 years ago, but there were some anomalies with the arrangement which were not acceptable to West Mercia. Local policing was split out in April 2019.  The West Mercia Police and Crime Panel held the PCC to account and would continue to receive updates in respect of the Alliance

·         Data monitoring of crime reduction strategies was referred to and how the Council was carrying out its monitoring role.  The Senior Public Health Practitioner advised the Board that there were challenges around this and although there was a range of data available, it was used for different purposes. Looking ahead, the Council was looking to develop a data set in partnership with Police analysts that could be more meaningful for monitoring purposes.

West Mercia Police and Crime Panel (PCP)

The Chairman of the PCP updated the Board on the recent work of the Panel.

At its last meeting, the Panel looked at the Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) Draft Annual Report, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) 'Peel: Police Effectiveness 2017 An Inspection of West Mercia Police' - Update Report, Police & Crime Plan Activity and Performance Monitoring Report (January - March 2019) and the Commissioning Activity of the PCC Including the Changes to Victim Support Services.

The PCP also received briefings in respect of the dissolution of the Strategic Alliance and fire governance (as necessary).

The Chairman urged the Board to watch the PCC’s holding to account sessions with the Chief Constable which were available on Facebook.

GET SAFE

Presentations on the Get Safe Agenda were made by the Independent Chairman of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Partnership, Assistant Director Family Front Door and Partnerships, Director (Designate) Social Care & Safeguarding and Detective Chief Inspector, West Mercia Police.  Copies of the presentations would be circulated after the meeting.

'GET SAFE' was the Worcestershire name for the multi-agency support and protection for children and young people at risk of Criminal Exploitation. It brought together and identified criminal exploitation risks that children and young people faced today across the UK, including: Gang-related activity, Sexual Exploitation, Trafficking, Modern day Slavery, Absent and Missing, Forced Marriage, Honour Based Violence and Female Genital Mutilation, and Criminal Exploitation. The GET SAFE Partnership was committed to tackling Child Exploitation and supporting victims and their families who experienced this.

GET SAFE also linked to existing forums to ensure joined up working and identification of risk and vulnerability. These were:

Ø  GET SAFE Strategic Group for wider strategic responses and overseeing GET SAFE Action Plan

Ø  Missing Mondays that looked at the education issues for this group of young people

Ø  Channel Panel (radicalisation of children and young people)

Ø  Youth Justice – a new panel on criminal offending due imminently

Ø  West Mercia MATES (tactical response)

Ø  SOCJAG North and South (serious and organised crime)

The representative from West Mercia Police highlighted that there was a lot of passion and motivation amongst partners for the GETSAFE agenda which was linking with national best practice too. The Strategic Vulnerability Team looked at all of the work across West Mercia and nationally.  As a result of the Serious Violence Strategy, the Violence and Vulnerability Unit (an external Unit) offered three levels of support, which the PCC had commissioned and taken up all three levels of support offered. There was also the West Mercia wide draft Strategic Framework Review due to be disseminated shortly.

The Officers were commended on the presentations and it was suggested that District Councils should receive the presentations too.

Main discussion points:

·         It was questioned whether there were any tangible improvements from the partnership working which could be identified as a result of GET SAFE initiative. Officers advised that it was too early to say

·         It was confirmed that young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) were on the GET SAFE radar

·         Multi-agency data sharing was not prohibited by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and was encouraged

·         Whilst the cross-service approach was working well, the agencies involved were developing a new framework for assessments.  The current one was based on early help and children assessments, hence focused on parenting capacity.  It was planned to be able to use the new framework from January 2020

·         Front line staff working directly with children were always encouraged to refer any concerns to the Family Front Door.  In addition, guidance and tools were available on the GET SAFE website and information through the Designated Safeguarding Lead’s (DSL) Network

·         A Member suggested that it was also important to work with GP’s to encourage information sharing and in response was advised that this was happening and over the last few years improvements had been seen.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the meeting, the Board commended Officers on GET SAFE and were very encouraged by the partnership approach to this very serious issue.

In summary, it was agreed that:

·         The Board would be updated on the progress of the data set being developed in partnership with Police analysts to enable more meaningful monitoring of crime reduction strategies

·         The Lead Member for Crime and Disorder would work more closely with the Chairman of the West Mercia Police and Crime Panel

·         The GET SAFE presentations would be shared with District Councils and they would be encouraged to champion the initiative.