Agenda and minutes

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

This item was deferred from the previous meeting as there were no nominations for Deputy Chairman.

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED that Cllr. M. Rickman be elected Deputy Chairman for 2019/20.

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 June 2019 were taken as read and confirmed as a correct record, subject to amendment to minute 5: Matters Arising - Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner Update, so that it reads:

“The Home Office had allocated £100 million to police forces for tackling knife crime and Leicestershire Police would receive 1.4 million.”

Further to minute 10(iv) Paul Hindson provided an update that the Information Sharing Agreement had been signed off by some partners and awaited signing by others.

Further to minute 16: Probation Update, it was noted that the Ministry of Justice intended that the new prison at the site of the former HMP/YOI Glen Parva would be completed by 2022. Officers were requested to provide further information to Board members regarding the prison before the next Board meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the status of the LSCSB Action Log be noted.

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. 

A presentation will be provided by Andrew Jeffreys, Policy Officer, Leicestershire County Council.

The Board received a presentation from Andrew Jeffreys, Policy Officer at Leicestershire County Council which provided an update on the refresh of Leicestershire County Council’s Equality Strategy for 2020-2024. A copy of the presentation slides is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman asked officers to give consideration to whether the Equality Strategy should be considered again at a future meeting of the Board before the final version was published.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

Rik Basra, Community Safety Coordinator, Leicestershire County Council will present this report.

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 1 of 2019/20. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 7’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        The Safer Communities dashboard was now available online and there was a link to it in the Performance report. The dashboard was a draft version and any comments on the format were welcome. Members asked that for future meetings the full web address for the dashboard be provided in the report. For each offence type the dashboard provided a percentages to show whether the offence was on the increase or decrease and where the data was available the numbers of offences were also included.

(ii)       The Safer Communities dashboard was entirely separate to work being carried out by Jonathan White a data analyst at Leicestershire Police though officers would link in with Jonathan White to make sure work was not being duplicated.

(iii)      A member reported that there was a lack of confidence in the business community that commercial burglaries would be dealt with effectively, which led to under-reporting from businesses. In response Superintendent Walls agreed to look into this matter further.

(iv)      The Integrated Offender Management data was published annually. Quarterly data was not available.

(v)       Paragraph 14 of the report provided data in the form of percentages from the Reoffending Analysist Tool which measured offending over the previous 12 month period. Members asked if in future reports they could receive the precise numbers of how many offenders were monitored and how many re-offended rather than just the percentages.

(vi)      There had been a spike in vehicle crime across LLR including the Districts of Blaby and Harborough. Criminals were entering houses in order to take the car keys and steal the car and this would be recorded as a burglary, however if the car was stolen without the house being entered the burglary figures would not be impacted. Leicestershire Police had been providing the public with car signal blockers which could be used to prevent thieves from amplifying the key fob ID in order to gain access to the vehicle. However, these devices had been so popular that Leicestershire Police had no devices left to hand out. Members suggested that the Leicestershire Matters newsletter could be used to make the public aware of the threat and the measures that could be taken to protect against it. The County Council social media outlets could also be used.

RESOLVED:

That the 2019/20 Quarter 1 performance information be noted.

Simon Holden, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, will present this report.

The Board considered a report of Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) marked ‘Agenda Item 9’, which provided an update on their work. The Board also received a presentation from Edward Rodgers, Station Manager Community Safety, LFRS. Copies of the report and the presentation slides are filed with these minutes.

Whilst LFRS wished to carry out more community engagement such as attending supermarket carparks to raise awareness of community safety issues, resources had to be prioritised and at times LFRS had to focus on attending the homes of vulnerable people such as the elderly. Where community events were likely to be attended by vulnerable people then LFRS would try and ensure a representative was present. The Home Safety Checks conducted by LFRS covered more broader social issues than just fire prevention hoarding. The Community Educators that carried out the Home Safety Checks were able to assess a person’s mobility and likelihood of suffering a fall and help put measures in place in case an accident occurred. They were also knowledgeable of referral pathways so other agencies could become involved. LFRS linked in with First Contact Plus and the Lightbulb Project. LFRS often attended the same property on more than one occasion because it sometimes took several visits before the message was taken on board. A new evaluation tool was in place which monitored the impact of Home Safety Checks and assessed what caused the public to change their behaviours.

LFRS also liaised with partners such as District Councils to ensure that the design of buildings incorporated fire safety.

LFRS held roadshows to promote road safety where the public could use Virtual Reality goggles and a crash simulator. LFRS intended to carry out greater engagement with schools using these tools and asked Board members to put them in touch with any schools that would be interested in hosting a roadshow.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report and presentation be noted.

A presentation will be provided by Paul Hindson, Chief Executive, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Board received a presentation from Paul Hindson, Chief Executive, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner which provided an update on the work of the Office and the Strategic Partnership Board (SPB). A copy of the presentation slides is filed with these minutes.

In response to a question from a member it was explained that the Strategic Information Management Group (SIMG) was a group of Information Managers from local authorities across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and the Police that came together regularly to discuss Information Sharing Agreements and General Data Protection Regulation issues etc for the partnership across LLR. The SIMG sat under the SPB Executive Board and supported the Executive Board in drafting Information Sharing Agreements etc.

It was clarified that the achronym ‘ACEs’ was an abbreviation of Adverse Childhood Experiences and ‘VCOP’ was short for Victim Code of Compliance.

A member requested that the papers for the Strategic Partnership Board be circulated electronically.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

The report will be presented by Detective Inspector 1121 Chris Barratt, Leicestershire Police.

The Board considered a report of Detective Inspector Chris Barratt regarding Integrated Offender Management (IOM). A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 11’, is filed with these minutes.

It was explained that IOM assessed the family members of offenders to see whether they would benefit from intervention from other agencies and schemes such as Supporting Leicestershire Families, and appropriate referrals were made by IOM.

It was clarified that IOM did assess the training needs of the offenders they dealt with and linked in with the job centre and employers in order to improve offenders’ employment prospects. The Community Rehabilitation Company also had an employment team, plus an organisation called Leicestershire Cares carried out work encouraging businesses to employ offenders. It was more difficult for a person to gain employment when they did not have a permanent address therefore finding offenders accommodation was a priority.

A member asked whether the 389 High Risk Offenders that IOM managed could be broken down into Districts and Chris Barratt agreed to provide this information after the meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted.

A presentation will be provided by Chris Brown, North West Leicestershire District Council.

The Board received a presentation from Chris Brown, Team Manager, Stronger and Safer Communities, North West Leicestershire District Council regarding the work the Community Safety Partnership carried out to address serious crime and in particular tackle County Lines illegal drug exportation. As part of the presentation a video was shown which had been created to raise awareness of the County Lines problem.

It was highlighted that a key part of the partnership working was sharing of intelligence and information. North West Leicestershire District Council shared accommodation with Supporting Leicestershire Families which made partnership working easier.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

A presentation will be provided by Grace Strong, Strategic Director, Violence Reduction Network.

The Board received a presentation from Grace Strong, Strategic Director, Violence Reduction Network on the aims and structure of the Network and how its implementation was progressing. A copy of the presentation slides is filed with these minutes.

It was explained that the Home Office funding was in place until the end of March 2020 and it was not known whether the funding would continue in the next financial year. Board members were asked to write to their MPs in support of the funding being continued. The aims of the Violence Reduction Network went beyond the Home Office expectations and the vision was a long term one. The Strategic Plan covered a 10 year period and it was expected that it would take some time before all the aims were achieved.

It was intended that there would be close working between the Violence Reduction Network (VRN) and Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs). Small working groups would be set up containing representatives from CSPs and the VRN.

An innovative project known as ‘RedThread’ was already in place in emergency departments in other areas of the country, where specially trained workers engaged with people who were treated in the emergency department for stabbing type injuries, and negotiations were taking place with the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust about the adoption of a similar scheme in Leicester’s Hospitals. It was proposed that the service specification used by Redthread would be adopted in Leicester to a large extent.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled to take place on 6 December 2019 at 10:00am.

RESOLVED:

That the next meeting of the Board take place on 6 December 2019 at 10:00am.