Agenda and minutes

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

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 September 2019 were taken as read and confirmed as a correct record.

There were no matters arising.

The Board considered the Leicestershire Safer Communities Strategy Board Action Log, a copy of which, marked ‘Agenda Item 4’, is filed with these minutes.

Rik Basra, Community Safety Co-ordinator, Leicestershire County Council, updated the Board regarding the status of each action on the log.

With regard to Action no. 5 and the briefing on Glen Parva prison which had been postponed until the Board meeting on 20 March 2020, concerns were expressed that this meeting was several months away and information regarding the prison could be required before then. Consequently officers agreed to give consideration to whether a meeting could be arranged prior to March 2020 to provide information regarding the prison or whether information could be circulated in the meantime.

With regard to Action no. 7 it was noted that the next edition of Leicestershire Matters was not due to be published for a few months therefore consideration needed to be given to whether other media could be used to raise awareness of car thefts in the meantime.  Reassurance was given that Leicestershire Police were running campaigns on their website and Facebook pages regarding car theft, and Community Safety Partnerships had also been active in publicising the issue using local newsletters. The Chairman requested that officers give consideration to whether content relating to car theft could be placed on the County Council website before Christmas and Rik Basra agreed to look into this. The Board acknowledged the importance of still using Leicestershire Matters to disseminate messages as this was delivered to every property in the County.

RESOLVED:

(a)        That the contents of the Action Log be noted;

(b)        That action no. 1 ‘Prevent Statistics for each CSP area’ be removed from the Action Log as it was not possible for this action to be completed.

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. 

This report will be presented by Rik Basra, Community Safety Coordinator

Leicestershire County Council.

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 2 2019/20. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 6’, is filed with these minutes.

Clarification was given that the data in the report for Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) was taken from the Leicestershire Police Storm database but not the Sentinel (ASB Case Management) database. Some incidents of ASB were recorded on both databases therefore if both databases were used for the report there would be duplication. It was reported that some Community Safety Partnerships considered both Storm and Sentinel data and looked at trends and differences across both. In future it was intended that the Sentinel database would be linked to the Niche database which would make it easier to provide combined data for ASB in reports. The Chairman stated that he found it useful that the ASB data had been broken down into three categories: nuisance, environmental and personal. The Police and Crime Commissioner emphasised that in his view ASB was underreported therefore the true figures were likely to be higher.

It was confirmed that the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) data in the report related to the region. In response to a question officers agreed to give consideration to whether national data could be provided in future reports to enable comparison of trends between regional and national data.

RESOLVED:

That the 2019/20 Quarter 2 Performance Update be noted.

This report will be presented by Rik Basra, Community Safety Coordinator

Leicestershire County Council.

The Board considered a report of Rik Basra, Community Safety Co-ordinator, Leicestershire County Council which enabled the Board to review the Community Safety Agreement (CSA) and governance arrangements designed to support CSA management. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 7’, is filed with these minutes.

RESOLVED:

That:

(a)        The content of the report be noted;

(b)        The continued use of the Community Safety Agreement in its current format and design be approved;

(c)        The Community Safety Agreement governance arrangements as set out in the report be approved.

A presentation will be provided by Lydia Patsalides, Regional Manager, Crimestoppers.

The Board received a presentation from Lydia Patsalides, Regional Manager, Crimestoppers on the work of Crimestoppers in the region. A copy of the presentation slides, marked ‘Agenda Item 8’, is filed with these minutes.

Lydia Patsalides offered to attend any Community Safety Partnership meetings as required.

In response to a question it was clarified that Crimestoppers did not have strong links with Childline but they did work with the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

This report will be presented by Rachel Burgess / Sharon Stacey, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council.

The Board considered a report from Rachel Burgess, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, which provided an update on the Endeavour Partnership work. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 9’, is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman complemented Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, and particularly their Housing Department, for the work they had carried out in relation to the Endeavour Partnership.

It was noted that as it had worked well in Hinckley and Bosworth with the Endeavour Co-ordinator being trained to access police records, other Districts such as Charnwood Borough were employing their own co-ordinator with the same access to police databases.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted.

Paul Hindson, Chief Executive, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is going to present this report.

The Board considered a report from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner which provided an update on the work of the Office. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 10’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)          With regards to the work being carried out to enhance employment opportunities for ex-offenders, consideration was being given to whether rules around vetting should be looked at as currently this was preventing some organisations from employing ex-offenders.

(ii)         The funding for the Violence Reduction Network of £880,000 was required to be spent before 31 March 2020 however a letter from the Home Office had indicated that additional funding would be provided for a further 12 months (although this was not binding on any new Government). The Violence Reduction Network was establishing a new service in the Emergency Department at Leicester Royal Infirmary to support young people that presented with serious violence related injuries. The Violence Reduction Network was looking for a key point of contact in each locality to help with what local services were available and Board members would be contacted regarding this in due course.  The Violence Reduction Network was conducting a Strategic Needs Assessment across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland and would be liaising with Community Safety Partnerships to obtain local information, case studies and data to feed into the Strategic Needs Assessment. Workshops would be taking place in January and February 2020.

(iii)       Training was being planned across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland to ensure that staff were aware of the Public Health approach which was now being used in Leicestershire.

(iv)       With regards to partnership working the Police and Crime Commissioner met regularly with the Cabinet Lead Member for Community Safety at Leicestershire County Council to discuss community safety issues.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted.

The public are likely to be excluded during the following item of business in accordance with Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972:-

CSP Response to SOC/Violent Crime- Charnwood/ Op Lionheart

RESOLVED:

That under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 7 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and that, in all circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information:-

CSP Response to SOC/Violent Crime- Charnwood/ Op Lionheart.

A presentation will be provided at the meeting by Supt Shane O’Neill, Leicestershire Police.

The Board received a presentation from Superintendent Shane O’Neill, Leicestershire Police, and Julie Robinson, Charnwood Borough Council which provided an update on actions taken to tackle Serious and Organised Crime in Leicestershire and the lessons learnt.  The presentation was not for publication by virtue of paragraph 7 of Schedule 12(A) of the Local Government Act 1972.

With regards to Operation Lionheart a Board member questioned what intelligence was required to assist this type of operation, what community work was required, what planning could be put in place to ensure issues which arose at the time the operation became live could be dealt with, and whether information sharing be improved. It was suggested that partners could provide answers to these questions at a future Board meeting.

RESOLVED:

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

(b)        That officers be requested to provide a further update regarding Serious Organised Crime at a future Board meeting.

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled to take place on 20 March 2020 at 10:00am.

RESOLVED:

That the next meeting of the Board take place on 20 March 2020 at 10:00am.