Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies received at the meeting.

There were no declarations received at the meeting.

To approve the Minutes of the Community Safety Partnership Working Party meeting held on 14 December 2015, copy attached.

Councillor Campbell proposed, Councillor Bambridge seconded and Members agreed the minutes as a correct record of the meeting of the Community Safety Working Party that was held on 14 December 2016.

Members to receive a PowerPoint presentation

Chief Inspector Sharon Adley made a presentation on the Crime Statistics in the district. She said that the emerging picture regarding the crime rate was a satisfactory one as there was a reduction in victim based crime.

There was a small proportion of violence against person crime in Thanet. Burglary in dwellings was also very low for the period under consideration and so was the burglary in properties other than dwellings.

Members noted the update.

Members to receive a PowerPoint presentation

To include the following:

i)  Safeguarding people vulnerable to committing or being a victim of crime, (Heather Flynn (Integrated Service Manager, Family support, KCC) and Sharon McLaughlin (District Manager, Early Help, KCC) will be in attendance for this item);

ii)  Reducing reoffending.

Members received a presentation from Heather Flynn, Integrated Services Manager, KCC and Sharon McLaughlin, District Manager, Early Help, KCC. There are six target teams working with families who need extra support in Kent. The Margate Task Force (MTF) was also providing invaluable support at the earliest opportunities. Working with young people was a key area for Kent Social Services. Heather Flynn said that the Kent Early Help Youth Worker seconded into the Margate Task Force had weekly activities with Thanet young people who would otherwise be difficult to identify and engage with.

This year, as part of delivery under the safeguarding theme, the partnership has funded workers from the SOS project run by St Giles Trust in London, to come down and provide training for practitioners in Thanet who work with young people to give them greater awareness of the risks of exploitation. In responses to Member query on whether the issues affecting the youth in Thanet had been mapped and what proportion were local to Thanet, Sharon McLaughlin said that she did not have the information readily available at the meeting, and exact numbers aren’t always known, but would look into the breakdown after the meeting She further explained that a workshop is going to be held to map-out the need and target resources to the issues that have been identified.

One Member said that some of the ethnic minority women do not access support group activities and that ways should be found to reach out to them. In response Heather Flynn said that support was available for all to access and that Oasis had produced a document for supporting various groups in different languages. Jessica Bailey, Community Safety Team Leader said that there were also new plans to develop a support hub for minority groups and reminded members of the  Community Safety Fund that could be accessed and bids submitted by any local groups from any part of the district to support work they may be considering in this area.

Heather Flynn also advised the meeting that the PREVENT strategy provided support for people who were vulnerable to radicalisation. Individuals would be referred to appropriate agencies for support. Members indicated that vulnerability to radicalisations was made worse because of increased levels of deprivation. They said that money spent on youth activities was money well spent as such initiatives were meant to work with the youth at an early age and help prevent radicalisation.

Members noted the update.

Jessica Bailey introduced the item. She said that 26 activities had been completed and 4 were underway. Of those not yet complete, this included the Home Office accredited training raising awareness of radicalisation and the national prevent agenda, entitled Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent (WRAP) had been scheduled but not yet delivered, but would be completed by the end of April, including a briefing for members. She also explained to members that ‘CHANNEL’ was a process of co-ordinating activities of support for individuals who were vulnerable to extremist views. She noted that the report would be updated to expand on any acronyms.

The group went through the pre-submitted report and picked out a summary of actions and delivered work under each theme to present to the group.

Chief Inspector Adley said that the Kent Fire and Rescue Services (KFRS) could be invited to the working party meeting to explain to Members their new initiatives on educating children about safety through the newly build Road Safety Centre in Rochester. It was also discussed that KFRS had the funding for transporting schools that would like to attend the training in Rochester, to ensure it was accessible for all, including those from Thanet which the group acknowledged was some distance from Rochester.

Lisa Udale, Senior Probation Officer talked about the Integrated Offender Management (IOM) approach where the National Probation and Rehabilitation Service worked together with other agencies to support ex-offenders and reduce re-offending. The programme was currently working with 20 individuals. The IOM team was now co-located with Kent Police in Thanet, Folkestone and Canterbury.

The group were asked to review the report and raise any questions or concerns that had about any actions not already covered as there were a number of actions within the plan. In response to another Member question C.I. Adley advised that video body worn equipment would be rolled through the county by Kent Police.

She advised that currently all officers who responded to calls wore video equipment on them. She was going to check and advise outside the meeting whether all PCSOs would also be supplied with this equipment. Members said that it would be appropriate to get such equipment for PCSOs because in some Thanet areas like Ramsgate, PCSOs responded to a significant number of calls which required the use of such equipment. Inspector Mark Pearson said that the upgrading of equipment was still an on-going exercise by Kent Police.

Members requested that the report ought to highlight the good that the Community Safety Partnership had done over this current financial year.

Members noted the report.

Report to follow

Jessica Bailey introduced the Plan for 2016/17 and highlighted the annual process:

•  December 2015- January 2016 – Review multi agency data to identify emerging community safety issues for further consideration;

•  December 2015 – stakeholder consultation event (Community Safety Conference) held to canvas views of practitioners on the data and develop focus areas;

•  Draft the Community Safety Plan for 2016/17;

•  Deliver the Plan which runs from April 2016 to March 2017;

•  A thematic approach is proposed in the draft plan for 2016-17

•  Detailed actions sitting under each theme will be formulated by Operational Delivery Groups that would be set up to produce detailed action plans in early April 2016;

The proposed themes for 2016-17

i.  Reducing offending and re-offending;

ii.  Safeguarding our most vulnerable people;

iii.  Improving community confidence and agency collaboration.

A public consultation survey regarding the draft Plan has been carried out and officers said that the response rate greatly exceeded that in previous years with nearly 400 responses.

There was also a much greater response rate from young people this year due to schools asking pupils to complete in PSHE and Citizenship lessons.

Once the Plan has been approved Delivery Groups will be meeting as from April to detail out the Plan for delivery and these details will be shared with the working party.  CI Adley reiterated that the Plan ought to be flexible enough so that the Partnership could response to emerging issues.

Members agreed the following:

1.  To note the updates and prepare a summary for Overview and Scrutiny on the performance of CSP agencies and progress made against the objectives set in the 2015-16 plan;

2.  To recommend the draft 2016-17 Community Safety Plan to the Overview and Scrutiny Panel.