Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED:

It was proposed, seconded, and AGREED that Mrs. D. Taylor CC be elected Chairman of the Board for 2021/22.

Mrs. D. Taylor CC in the Chair

RESOLVED:

It was proposed, seconded, and AGREED that Mr. N. Bannister CC be elected Deputy Chairman of the Board for 2021/22.

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

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 March 2021 were taken as read and confirmed as a correct record.

There were no matters arising.

The Board considered the LSCSB Action Log.

It was noted that there were several actions on the log rag rated as green and they could now be removed from the log.

RESOLVED:

That the status of the 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.

Mr. N. Bannister CC declared that he was employed by the Crown Prosecution Service for the East Midlands and as a result could have a personal interest in some LSCSB agenda items and would give consideration to whether he was precluded from joining the discussion on any future agenda items, but there were none on the day’s agenda that he felt he could not take part in. It was agreed that Mr Bannister’s employment with the Crown Prosecution Service would be recorded as a standing declaration for every LSCSB meeting.

No other declarations were made. 

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

The Board considered a report of Gurjit Samra-Rai which provided an update on the passing off the Domestic Abuse Act and the implications arising from the Act. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 8’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)          The Act placed a greater emphasis on local authorities to provide accommodation to those victims of domestic abuse that had become homeless as a result. This would be a challenge for local authorities in Leicestershire as not all District Councils had their own housing stock; some used registered landlords. Most of the available housing stock was in Leicester city. As part of the Strategic Needs Assessment consideration would be given to the amount of accommodation that would be required for domestic abuse victims and Women’s Aid would be contacted to help with the figures. The Needs Assessment would also consider how much accommodation would be needed for males and whether it would be segregated from females. Segregation would be easier if dispersed accommodation was used.

(ii)         There was also a lack of appropriate accommodation for victims of domestic abuse that had physical disabilities and there was a risk that if care homes were not adequate victims would choose to return to the property where the abuse occurred.

(iii)       Currently there were informal arrangements in place between District Councils for when a Domestic Abuse victim needed to be provided accommodation in another District. Work was underway to formalise these arrangements.

RESOLVED:

That the Board:

(a)        Notes the contents of the report;

(b)        Supports the production of a Needs Assessment as outlined in paragraph 11 of the report;

(c)        Agrees the proposal outlined in paragraph 16 of the report for a collaborative approach towards the district / borough DA funding.

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

The Board considered a report of Gurjit Samra-Rai which provided an update on the Community Trigger Appeal process in Leicestershire. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 9’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)          The Community Trigger Appeal process related to ensuring that the correct procedures had been followed, rather than making a new decision on the Community Trigger application.

(ii)         Whilst it was not intended that in Leicestershire Community Trigger Appeals would be managed by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) as they were in other areas of the country, consideration was being given to whether the OPCC should play a role in the process.

(iii)       A partnership Task and Finish Group had been set up to review the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Community Trigger Policy and the Group was currently redrafting the Policy. Consideration was being given by the group to the Community Trigger threshold which currently stated that if an individual has reported Anti-social Behaviour 3 or more times within a 6 month period then the Community Trigger could be activated.

(iv)       A member raised concerns that the general public were not aware of Community Safety Partnerships nor the Community Trigger process and would not know that the Community Trigger option was available to them. In response it was explained that the information was required to be published on District Councils’ websites, however members pointed out that this would exclude those people that did not have access to the internet. Elected Members and partners such as Victim First could help publicise the process more widely.

RESOLVED:

(a)        That the Board agrees to a peer Community Safety Partnership led community Trigger Appeal process being implemented.

(b)        That an update on the Community Trigger Policy be brought to a future meeting of the Board and training on the Policy be provided to members.

This report will be presented by Grace Strong, Strategic Director, Violence Reduction Network.

The Board received a presentation from Grace Strong which provided an update on the work of the Violence Reduction Network and the new Serious Violence Legal Duty. A copy of the presentation slides, marked ‘Agenda Item 10’, is filed with these minutes.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

Inspector Bill Knopp, Leicestershire Police Prevent Team will give a presentation.

The Board received a presentation from Bill Knopp, Regional Prevent Co-ordinator, on the work of the Police Prevent Team. As part of the presentation the following points were made:

(i)          The Police Prevent Team was based at Spinney Hill Police Station and comprised of 1 sergeant, 4 officers and 2 additional members of staff.

(ii)         The majority of the work of the Police Prevent Team was early intervention which involved identifying and safeguarding those people that were believed to be at risk of radicalisation. Work also took place with people that had been convicted of terrorist offences and managing their release from prison into the community.

(iii)       The Prevent Team staff were seconded to Counter Terrorism policing in the East Midlands which meant that they were part of a wider network both regionally and nationally which meant that the Team could work across and outside of the region.

(iv)       The beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic saw an increase in referrals of people that were vulnerable partly due to increasing mental health issues amongst the population. However, Quarter 4 of 2020/21 saw a large decrease in the amount of referrals. The Prevent Team had to adapt its ways of working due to the pandemic such as holding events online and in police station carparks rather than outdoors however there was a high level of confidence that good support was still provided to people at risk.

(v)        Most of the organisations represented on the Board were subject to the Prevent duty and this required them to train their staff on the signs of vulnerability and how to make a referral.

(vi)       There were some inconsistencies in the level of referrals being made by different organisations and even between schools in the same geographical areas. It was therefore important for the referrals to be tracked and analysed to help understand why there were inconsistencies.

(vii)      Partners were being asked to support and contribute to the Counter Terrorism Local Profile and the data for the Profile would be collected in September 2021.

(viii)    An Inquiry Report into the Manchester Arena bombing had just been published which identified learning points from the attack. One of the key issues in the Manchester Arena terrorist attack was that a bystander had not had the confidence to report what they had observed. It was expected that these learning points would be disseminated locally to Leicestershire.

(ix)       The Prevent Team were advised not to get involved with public protests unless the protests became aggravated and the behaviour of the protesters was aggressive.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

This report will be presented by Paul Hindson, Chief Executive, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Board considered a report of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner which provided an update on the work of the office with specific regard to the Strategic Partnership Board and future developments. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 12’, is filed with these minutes.

In response to a question it was confirmed that the funding from Safer Streets 2 was in place and contracts were ready to sign. The Police and Crime Commissioner stated that he intended to give these types of initiatives greater publicity so that the people that could benefit from them knew what was available.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report be noted

Bob Bearne, National Probation Service, will give a presentation.

The Board received a presentation from Bob Bearne which provided an update on the Probation Service unification process. A copy of the presentation slides, marked ‘Agenda Item 13’, is filed with these minutes.

Bob Bearne explained that the unification would mean that the caseloads of the National Probation Service and the former Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) would be merged. There would be less specialist teams and the former CRC staff would require training to enable them to work on the more complex cases.

A member raised concerns that Housing Teams at District Councils were not being given enough notice when prison inmates were being released and required local authority accommodation. In some cases the notice given was less than 36 hours. In response Bob Bearne acknowledged the concerns but pointed out that sometimes the Probation Service was given little notice themselves from the prison or courts that an inmate was going to be released. Bob Bearne provided reassurance that a pre-release prison protocol was being put in place which would address these issues.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

This report will be presented by Rik Basra, Community Safety Coordinator, Leicestershire County Council.

The Board considered a report of Rik Basra which provided an update of Safer Communities Performance for 2020/21 Quarter 4. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 14’, is filed with these minutes.

RESOLVED:

That the 2020/21 Quarter 4 performance information be noted.

Nick Dann and Raj Singh from the Ministry of Justice will give a presentation.

The Board received a presentation from Nick Dann and Raj Singh of the Ministry of Justice regarding the Glen Parva Prison Project. A copy of the presentation slides, marked ‘Agenda Item 15’, is filed with these minutes.

In response to a question regarding employment opportunities created by the Prison Project members’ attention was drawn to the Glen Parva Prison Project newsletter for May 2021, also filed with these minutes, which stated that 91 new jobs had been created and over 1200 days of work placements had been provided to people facing challenges to employment which included the delivery of pre employment training programmes on site as part of the Lendlease Academy. Members were also informed that Crown House, one of the prison contractors, had held a virtual ‘meet the buyer’ event for local businesses.

LSCSB members were invited to visit the Glen Parva Prison and the Chairman accepted this offer. Raj Singh agreed to arrange this at the appropriate time.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the presentation be noted.

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled to take place on Friday 24 September 2021 at 10.00am.

RESOLVED:

That the next meeting of the Board take place on Friday 24 September 2021 at 10.00am.

It was suggested that training could be arranged for LSCSB members on relevant topics such as Prevent and Probation and agreed that this idea would be given further consideration.