Agenda item

Report of the Public Health Manager attached.

The Committee considered the report of the Public Health Manager which provided an update on the progress of the partnership and also progress against the key actions.

The report set out the details of the overall position, areas of significant progress/achievement and areas for further action/monitoring.

During the discussion, the Committee’s comments/enquiries included the following areas:

• Role with the Partnership – the Council currently chairs the Partnership and we could influence the police on how they work and use funding by Police Crime and Commissioners (PCC) for projects (some of these include the disruption of criminal gangs, domestic violence groups, counter terrorism groups etc).

• Partnership’s governance structure – the Responsible Authority Group (RAG) would appoint a Chair on an annual basis in April. This would feed into an officers’ group which produces action plans.   

• Rationale for the Partnership – joined up skills/resources together to deliver community projects in both Chorley/South Ribble.

• Partnership meetings – The RAG would take place twice a year and special meetings would be arranged if there were any special circumstances arising. Community Safety meetings would take place every month to discuss various issues.

• Partnership’s engagement with the community – police presence and listening to what people had to say. Surveys would be carried out on which areas of concern people would like to focus on. The Council also carried out a residents’ survey on whether people feel ‘safe in their area’.

• Measuring success – the priorities were set at the conference and this year it would focus on online crime because this was an upcoming issue. The actions were frequently reviewed at meetings which also considered what funding/impact this funding had. The officers’ group would continue to monitor what had been set out by partners in the action plan. The partners would be very much disjointed if the partnership did not exist.

• Responsibilities (Crime & Disorder Act 1988) – the main objective was to keep people safe

• National challenges being mirrored – the main challenges were the reduction of police officers and to mitigate this the Partnership try to work more efficiently and smarter.

• Increases in all burglary/theft – a lot of hard work goes into the detection of burglaries. Resources were used during night time hours to eradicate this issue some operations deployed include covert operations. This work was very much ongoing and significant results were achieved. Burglaries were split into two categories (residential and commercial businesses).

• MARAC Conferences – this was where actions (needs/support) were assessed and put in place to enable the victim to feel safe/protected and ensure there was no reoffending from the perpetrator.

• ‘Target hardening’ – this was where robust targeting takes place were an individual released from prison of domestic violence were continuously being monitored by a team of officers to help keep the victim safe.

• Tackling child sexual exploitation – the Partnership would work closely with schools and funding had been obtained from the Office of the PCC for project work in raising awareness and helping young people understand what texting may lead to. Snap chatting/texting was a major issue (“known as the dark dark web”) in the detection/prevention of these crimes. Some diversionary activities and measures had also been carried out with a youth group in Leyland.

• Crime reduction – Multi Agency Teams were similar to Domestic Violence Teams where a reported crime would be discussed by partners on how to tackle those individual issues with the resources and concerns in those particular areas.

• Police and Crime Commissioner funding – the £10k was for projects for South Ribble. As a community we did get some other forms of funding for other areas of work.
• Community Safety Action Plan (timescale) - the action plan would be delivered to the RAG at the end of April on an annual basis.

• Additional research (South Ribble) – to raise the Partnership’s profile and promote positive messages on the good work undertaken by partners.

RESOLVED (Unanimously):

That:

1. the Partnership’s future reports to Scrutiny Committee include more measurable outcomes and measures of success.

2. further consideration be given to the Partnership engaging more effectively with young people and youth groups.

3. a more proactive and structured approach to child sexual exploitation be developed by the Partnership.

4. the Partnership explores potential external funding sources to help deliver its objectives.

5. the Committee welcomes the Partnership’s commitment to raise its profile and promote positive messages.

6. future reports include resident confidence/safety perception data, including trends and comparisons.