Agenda and minutes

[The Chairman and Vice Chairman have notified that they are unable to attend the meeting.]

The Vice Chairman, Cllr. Trevor Pendleton, attended the meeting and so the Election of a Chairman was not necessary at this stage.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and all those present introduced themselves.

The minutes of the meeting held on 1 December were taken as read and confirmed as a correct record.

There were none to note.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interests in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations were made. 

The report will be presented by Rik Basra, Community Safety Co-ordinator.

The Board considered a report from Gurjit Samra-Rai, Community Safety Manager, which gave an update on the performance of the Safer Communities Department for Quarter 3 of 2017/18. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 6’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussion, the following points were raised:

i)             Regarding the level of ‘dwelling house burglary’ and whether the data could be broken down to detail the number of offences involving shed burglaries, the Board was informed that this would be investigated, along with the possibility of providing the data at a district level;

ii)            Data showing the number of referrals to United Against Violence and Abuse (UAVA) was now available at a district level and would be discussed at the next meeting. However, data for Integrated Offender Management was not yet available at a district level;

iii)           Leicestershire Police had developed an action plan ‘Operation Pioneer’, to explore links and forensic trends for the areas of concern detailed in the performance report. The Board was informed that support with delivery of the action plan at a local level from the Community Safety Partnerships was welcomed.

RESOLVED:-

a.    That the Quarter 3 of 2017/18 performance report be noted;

b.    That officers would explore whether the performance data for ‘burglary rate’ could be broken down to detail the number of shed burglaries included, and whether this could be provided at a district level; and

c.    That the level of referrals to UAVA be discussed at the next meeting.

A verbal update will be provided by Chris Thomas, Head of Service Early Help and Safer Communities, Leicestershire County Council.

The Board received a verbal update from Chris Thomas, Head of Service Early Help and Safer Communities at Leicestershire County Council, regarding the Strategic Partnership Board (SPB) which was held on 20 March 2018.

The Board was informed that the focus of the SPB meeting had been to discuss how repeat demand could be rationalised, especially in relation to children missing from home and repeat victims of Child Sexual Exploitation.

Paul Hindson, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner informed the Board that he chaired the SPB Executive and at the last meeting a stocktake had been taken to determine the current state of provision and the future direction. Strategically, themes were established to drive operational delivery and many projects were underway. However, a coherent strategy was needed to draw all action together and ensure consistent delivery. It was planned that the SPB would drive this forward and would seek to build better infrastructure using existing partnerships to bring greater collaboration. The plan would be developed within the following core principles:

·         Without incurring additional costs or resources;

·         Building on existing initiatives;

·         Be of benefit to all providers; and

·         Engage communities.

RESOLVED:-

That the update from the Strategic Partnership Board be noted.

The report will be presented by Gurjit Samra-Rai, Community Safety Manager at Leicestershire County Council.

The Board received a report from Gurjit Samra-Rai, Community Safety Manager at Leicestershire County Council, which provided an overview of the demand work being considered to inform strategic understanding, across the partnership, of the challenges associated with increasing demand in both volume and complexity within reducing resources. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 8, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussion, the following points were made:-

i)             That work was still progressing in order to bring together partners to collaborate across priority work areas in order to manage demand in areas of high service pressure. The aim was to build on activity already in place, at a regional and local level, and had been fuelled by public sector cuts;

ii)            An overarching aspect of all priority work areas was the ability for partners to share information. It was recognised that there was a high level of information sharing protocols in place although more could be done and this was vital to the success of the work. Work was still underway to develop procedures and plans, although it was expected that these would be in place from early summer 2018; these would be shared with the Board;

iii)           The Board expressed concern regarding the level of engagement with Turning Point and their attendance at local Community Safety Partnership meetings which was welcomed by CSP Chairs. Additionally, it was suggested that it may be useful to explore with Public Health, the contractual requirements regarding how and when information and data was shared by them as this was currently supplied on an annual basis, although it was needed more frequently to be of benefit to the CSPs. Increased engagement with Turning Point was welcomed and it was agreed that they would be invited to attend the next meeting of the LSCSB;

RESOLVED:-

a.    That Turning Point would be invited to attend the next LSCSB meeting and officers would speak with Public Health regarding the contractual obligations.

The report will be presented by Donna Smalley, Service Manager Child Sexual Exploitation at Leicestershire County Council.

The Board received a report from Donna Smalley and Bally Raju of the Child Sexual Exploitation Hub which provided an update on the development of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Multi-agency Child Sexual Exploitation Team and the deployment and progress of the Strategic Partnership Development Fund (SPDF CSE) project. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 9, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussion, the following points were made:-

i)             The Multi-agency CSE Team worked jointly to raise the profile of the CSE Hub and the service offered with parents, communities and partners. Focused work had also been undertaken with health professionals in order to identify young people who may be at risk of CSE. The work of the CSE Team in Leicestershire had been highlighted as best practice nationally and the County Council had made a firm commitment to have a permanent team based at Wigston Police Station;

ii)            Officers had seen an increase in the number of younger children who were victims of CSE, especially through the use of social media, and also an increase in the number of boys affected. Significantly, the majority of children affected by CSE lived at home with parents. Focused work was being undertaken to increase parents’ awareness about keeping children safe online;

iii)           The CSE Team had adopted a ‘train the trainer’ approach, training teachers in primary and secondary schools to identify and support children. A support package was available;

iv)           Regarding young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN), the CSE Team recognised that young people aged 18 with SEN were still vulnerable; the Department of Adult Services was a member of the CSE Board;

v)            Regarding information sharing, the Board was asked to disseminate information within their communities and networks, to encourage people to identify and share information. It was highlighted that all information, however small, was vital to building a picture of CSE. The CSE team was well connected locally; a CSE officer attended all Joint Action Groups and visited schools. The Board agreed that it would be beneficial to know which schools had not engaged with the CSE Team so that CSPs could support activity locally;

vi)           It was acknowledged that the 20% reduction in the number of episodes of missing children was significant; an equal reduction had also been recorded in Leicester City and officers informed the Board that they would review the data available;

vii)         The Board highlighted that it would be beneficial for CSE issues to be notified to CSPs so that they could be built into the Delivery Plan which was currently being developed;

RESOLVED:-

That information on the key CSE issues for each district would be sent to Community Safety Partnerships.  

Mr. T. J. Pendleton CC, Vice Chairman, left the meeting at 11.30am as he was due to attend another meeting. A vote was held which supported Cllr Malise Graham MBE as Chairman of this meeting.

Cllr. Malise Graham MBE in the chair.

The report will be presented by Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Batchelor, Leicestershire Police.

The Board received a report from Detective Inspector Mark Ringrose of Leicestershire Police which provided an update on the recent and current activity taken to address Domestic Abuse (DA). A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 10, is filed with these minutes.

The Board was informed that an awareness campaign was underway nationally to address the issues related to acid attacks. It was proposed that legislation would be changed so that it was unlawful to possess items that could be used in an attack.

RESOLVED:-

That the report on recent and current activity taken to address Domestic Abuse be noted.

The report will be presented by Grace Strong, Regional Manager for Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Community Rehabilitation Company.

The Board considered a report from Grace Strong, Regional Manager, which provided an overview of recent developments within the Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland Community Rehabilitation Company (DLNR CRC).

The Board welcomed the fact that the DLNR CRC would attend future meetings of the LSCSB and the apology for reduced engagement previously.

Arising from discussion the following points were raised:-

i)             The Transformation Programme had brought about a number of changes to organisational structure and the core operating model of the DLNR CRC. This had also resulted in greatly reduced capacity to fully engage in strategic partnerships. Future engagement would be focused on those partnerships concerned with reducing reoffending;

ii)            The DLNR CRC had adopted a hub and spoke delivery model. Three generic Case Management Teams operated in Leicestershire and Rutland, based in the Leicester City Office; a fourth team was located with Integrated Offender Management. The service was delivered at a range of community sites across the county and offenders could choose which site they attended, so as to increase engagement and reduce reoffending;

iii)           The finance of the CRC had changed and a large proportion was now based on the volume of offenders passing through the court system, which had reduced in recent years. Additionally, other predicted sources of funding had not been forthcoming; all of which had presented a challenging financial situation for the DLNR CRC;

iv)           Issues had been experienced by the CRC with data collation and availability in recent years, with a two year time lag in the analysis and publication of reoffending statistics. DLNR CRC in Rutland had developed the capability, through development of the Reoffending Analysis Tool (RAT), to track cohorts in real-time and analyse data at a more local level. The Board welcomed the news that the intention was to eventually break down the data to a district level. RAT data would be presented to the LSCSB through the performance report.

RESOLVED:-

That the report on the Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland Community Rehabilitation Company be noted.

The report will be presented by PC Anthony Andrews and DS Gary Bee from Leicestershire Police.

The Board considered a report from DS Gary Bee and PC Anthony Andrews of Leicestershire Police regarding the work of the Foreign National Offenders Desk. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 12’, is filed with these minutes. Additionally, a presentation was received, a copy of which is filed with these minutes.

The Board was informed that collaborative working across partners and members of the LSCSB was welcomed and encouraged. The Board was reassured that all work related to such cases would be handled by the Foreign Nationals Offenders Desk; there would be no additional work for local councils.

RESOLVED:-

That the report on the role of the Foreign National Offenders Desk at Leicestershire Police be noted.

Concerns were raised by CSP Chairs regarding the process operated by the County Council to approve the use of deployable CCTV cameras. The Board was assured that this was being considered by the Community Safety Team in conjunction with Senior Transport Officers and that the solution would be discussed at the LSCSB Senior Officer Group.

The next meeting of the LSCSB is scheduled to take place on Friday 15 June 2018 at 10.00am.

The next meeting of the LSCSB is scheduled to take place on Friday 15 June 2018 at 10.00am.