Agenda and minutes

It was proposed, seconded, and AGREED that Mr I.D. Ould OBE CC be elected Chairman of the Board for 2019/20.

Mr. I. D. Ould OBE CC in the Chair

Attendees were asked to submit nominations for Deputy Chairman for 2019/20 however no nominations were received.

RESOLVED:

That this agenda item be deferred until the next meeting of the Board to enable a candidate for Deputy Chairman to come forward.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2019 were taken as read and confirmed as a correct record.

Minute 47: LSCSB Performance Update – Quarter 3

With regard to the Board’s resolution that officers be requested to produce a report regarding aggravated burglaries it was noted that aggravated burglary was on the agenda for this meeting of the Board.

Minute 48: Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner Update

The Home Office had allocated £100 million to police forces for tackling knife crime and Leicestershire Police would receive £1.5 million.

The Chairman requested that an Action Log be created for the Leicestershire Safer Communities Strategy Board to enable members to keep track of whether actions had been followed up. It was agreed that the Action Log would be a standing agenda item at every future meeting.

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 Chairman sought and obtained the agreement of Members to vary the order of business from that set out in the agenda taking agenda item 12: Child Sexual Exploitation ahead of agenda item 7: LSCSB Performance Update.

The Board considered a report of Donna Smalley, Service Manager, Children’s Social Care, Leicestershire County Council which provided an overview of the work and progress to date of the Child Criminal Exploitation, Missing and Modern Slavery Team based within the multi-agency Vulnerability hub. A copy of the report, marked Agenda Item 12, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        Over the previous year over 50 children (age 13-18 years) in Charnwood had been identified as being involved in drug manufacturing, distribution, CSE and associated criminal activity. Some of these children were currently involved in these activities whereas others were no longer at risk. Leicestershire Police had launched Operation Lionheart to target County Lines activity involving the sale and distribution of drugs and Loughborough was part of the Operation. Work was taking place with Joint Action Groups, representatives from Community Safety Partnerships, and housing departments at District Councils. Charnwood Borough Council offered to provide any assistance they could.

(ii)       The Chairman thanked the Police and Crime Commissioner for the money from the Strategic Partnership Development Fund which was being used to tackle Child Sexual Exploitation. The work in Leicestershire was highly regarded nationally.

(iii)      In two weeks time Detective Inspector Helen Schofield was to begin work as the LLR Strategic Child Criminal Exploitation Lead which would involve assisting the Police and working with partnership agencies. The funding for this post was for one year and then it would be reviewed.

(iv)      Community Safety Partnerships were asked to nominate a representative to provide a presentation on how the CSPs were linking in with partnership agencies to tackle serious crime and violence.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the contents of the report be noted;

(b)       That officers be requested to provide a presentation for a future meeting of the Board on the work Community Safety Partnerships were undertaking with partners to tackle serious violence.

The Board considered a report of Rik Basra, Community Safety Co-ordinator, Leicestershire County Council, the purpose of which was to update the Board regarding Safer Communities Performance for Quarter 4 of 2018/19. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 7’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        The rolling 12 month figure for repeat Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference referrals had increased by 9% compared to the previous year. This was because the figures previously only related to repeat offences involving violence or threat of violence whereas now they related to any further contact from a perpetrator.

(ii)       There had been a sharp reduction in offending by IOM & PPO Offenders and Rik Basra agreed to investigate this further and report back to the Board.

RESOLVED:

That the performance information for Quarter 4 of 2018/19 be noted.

An oral update will be provided by Paul Hindson, Chief Executive, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Board received an oral presentation from Paul Hindson, Chief Executive, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner on the work of the Strategic Partnership Board.

As part of the presentation the following points were highlighted:

(i)        A Business Plan was being developed for the Strategic Partnership Board which would be shared with the Leicestershire Safer Communities Strategy Board. The work of the Strategic Partnership Board would focus on the following themes: Partnership, Prevention and Community Leadership. Sub-groups were being developed which would focus on the following areas:

·       Integrated Offender Management, Multi-Agency Public Protection  Arrangements and how the two workstreams can be more closely aligned.

·      Victims and Vulnerability.

·      People and Place Board. Paul Hindson thanked the probation services for their Community Payback work. An event had been scheduled for 6 August 2019 regarding the Public Health Approach which had worked well in Scotland and a planning group would be formed to take this work forward in Leicestershire.

(ii)       There were also themes which cut across the sub-groups such as Serious Organised Crime which Superintendent Sian Walls was leading on. The Strategic Partnership Board was also looking at the issue of Mental Health and people that went missing from the Bradgate Unit at Glenfield Hospital and other NHS units. Collaboration was also taking place with Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust to look at how their funding could be aligned to the work of the Strategic Partnership Board.

(iii)      The reforms to probation services which were taking place linked in well with feedback that the Strategic Partnership Board and Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner had given.

(iv)      Further work needed to take place regarding Information Sharing and a sub group of the Strategic Partnership Board was working on this. An Information Sharing Agreement had been drafted which required signing off by partners.

(v)       In future the Strategic Partnership Board would be providing more support to Community Safety Partnerships and Angela Perry, Executive Director, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner would be linking in with Community Safety Partnership representatives to initiate this.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

A presentation will be given by Detective Chief Inspector Chris Baker, Leicestershire Police.

The Board received a presentation from Detective Chief Inspector Chris Baker, Leicestershire Police, regarding aggravated and violent burglary in Leicestershire and how it was being tackled by the Force. A copy of the presentation slides is filed with these minutes.

Arising from the presentation the following points were noted:

(i)        According to the statistics burglary had increased but violent crime had not increased. However, the statistics did not fully reflect the increase in violent offences because some offences were recorded as robbery or assault rather than aggravated burglary.

(ii)       Burglary offences had traditionally been evenly distributed between the City and County area however in the previous two months offences had been concentrated in the Greater Leicester area. The reasons for this were unclear though it was speculated that it could be linked to an increase in tensions between rival drug dealers. Drug dealers enforced debts by entering people’s homes and taking goods. In response to a request that Community Safety Partnerships be provided with information regarding the distribution of offences it was explained that NPA Commanders should pass this information on. Detective Chief Inspector Chris Baker also agreed to ensure that the Harm Reduction Unit kept Community Safety Partnerships updated.

(iii)      Leicestershire Police were investigating whether there were any links between the various victims of Aggravated Burglary in order to ascertain how they were targeted in the hope that this would lead the Police to apprehend the perpetrators. A questionnaire had been circulated to victims regarding their backgrounds however as yet there was no lead to explain how those individuals came to be targeted. 

(iv)      The Police and Crime Commissioner provided assurance that Aggravated Burglary was a priority for Leicestershire Police and that he regularly raised the issue with the Chief Constable and was pleased with the way the Force was responding. It was difficult to measure the impact of measures that had been implemented to reduce the amount of aggravated burglaries and a common methodology was needed. A possible way of getting an idea of the impact of the measures was to look at the trajectory of offences post and prior to the action that was taken by the Force. Detective Chief Inspector Chris Baker agreed to take this suggestion back to the FIB analysts.

(v)       Concerns were raised regarding a spate of burglaries in the Hinckley and Bosworth and North West Leicestershire areas where the perpetrators were dressed as police officers. Community Safety Partnerships needed to increase public awareness of these crimes. In the Harborough area use had been made of Twitter to increase public awareness of community safety issues.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

The Board considered a report of Sean Arbuthnot, Prevent Coordinator, St Philips Centre, which provided an update on local Prevent delivery and plans for the future. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 10’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        The number of Prevent referrals for the County area had increased and there was now almost a 50/50 split between City and County. This was in line with national trends.

(ii)       Ten Prevent projects were to be implemented in the coming months to include workshops in schools, theatre productions, bespoke youth outreach, mentoring and sports engagement. Whilst these projects would be focused on Leicester City the Prevent Coordinator would divert resources to the County area where needed.

(iii)      A national independent review of Prevent was due to take place in August 2019. The person to conduct the review had not yet been selected though job advertisements had been advertised.

(iv)      A football event was held at the King Power Stadium, Leicester during Ramadan to encourage different groups from within the Muslim community to engage with each other.

(v)       In response to a request for CSP Chairs to be provided with Prevent statistics for their localities it was explained that this information was collated and managed by Bill Knopp, the Prevent Manager at Leicestershire Police.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted.

The Board considered a report of the Leicestershire County Council Community Safety Team which provided an update on the work being undertaken in partnership across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB). A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 11’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        The ASB data in the LSCSB Performance Report was obtained from the Community Based Survey however future performance reports would include additional Key Performance Indicators and ASB would be one of those.

(ii)       The Hinckley and Bosworth Community Safety Partnership had created the Endeavour Tactical Group which included a paid co-ordinator who could access police and council databases and analyse all the data. If the co-ordinator identified trends they would contact different partners to see how the problems could be tackled. It was suggested that a presentation on Endeavour could be provided at a future meeting of the Board.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the contents of the report be noted;

(b)       That a presentation be provided for a future meeting of the Board on the Hinckley and Bosworth Endeavour work.

The Board considered a report regarding the work of the Leicestershire & Rutland Safeguarding Adults Board (LRSAB) and Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 13’, is filed with these minutes.

The report was presented by James Fox, Board Manager, LRSAB and LSCB. Apologies were given on behalf of Simon Westwood, Independent Chair, LSCB.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted.

The Board considered a report of Grace Strong of the Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland Community rehabilitation Company (DLNR CRC) regarding notable developments, challenges and key issues relating to DLNR CRC. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 14’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        In an update to the information given in the report there were now to be 12 probation regions in England and Wales. All case management was to be carried out by the National Probation Service. The Ministry of Justice were to release a blueprint of the reforms the following week.

(ii)       It was intended that nationally £20 million would be allocated to ‘Innovation Partners’ to provide Unpaid Work and Accredited Programmes though this funding was yet to be signed off by the Treasury.

(iii)      There was to be a dynamic framework for the commissioning of resettlement and rehabilitative interventions, commissioned and delivered locally where possible however there were concerns that this could lead to fragmentation of services and they would not be as local as desirable.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the contents of the report be noted;

(b)       That officers be requested to provide a further report on probation developments for the December 2019 LSCSB meeting.

The Board received a report from Michael Hopkinson, Deputy Head, National Probation Service (NPS) regarding notable developments, challenges and key issues for the NPS. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 15’, is filed with these minutes.

It was acknowledged that the National Probation Service had experienced problems with engaging with partners and attending meetings. However, it was hoped that as the size of the organisation increased under the probation reforms the NPS would be able to engage with partners more effectively.

It was noted that the Ministry of Justice were keen to carry out stakeholder engagement regarding the new prison at the site of the former HMP/YOI Glen Parva, though Board members questioned whether the Ministry of Justice appreciated the extent of partnership engagement which was required. It was suggested that a presentation could be given to the Board regarding the new prison.

RESOLVED

(a)       That the contents of the report be noted;

(b)       That officers be requested to provide a presentation for the December 2019 Board meeting regarding the new prison at the site of the former HMP/YOI Glen Parva.

Future meetings of the Board are scheduled to take place on the following dates all at 10:00am:

20 September 2019;

6 December 2019;

20 March 2020;

26 June 2020;

25 September 2020;

11 December 2020.

RESOLVED:

That future meetings of the Board take place on the following dates all at 10:00am:

20 September 2019;

6 December 2019;

20 March 2020;

26 June 2020;

25 September 2020;

11 December 2020.