Agenda item

(To receive a report by Clare Newborn, Community Safety Manager, which provides an overview of the review of the Lincolnshire Community Safety Partnership, the subsequent changes to the partnership structure and priority areas as well as how Lincolnshire County Council is supporting the work of the Partnership)

Consideration was given to a report which provided an overview of the review of the Lincolnshire Community Safety Partnership (LCSP), the subsequent changes to the partnership structure and priority areas and how Lincolnshire County Council was supporting the work of the Partnership.

It was reported that the strategic assessment had been carried out by members of the County Council's Community Safety Team between May and September 2017.  The assessment of the LCSP structures and processes involved a quantitative analysis of LCSP minutes and agendas from 2016/17; LCSP website views and other LCSP publicity; Strategic Management Board (SMB) membership, meetings, delivery plans and risk registers; and analysis products produced for SMBs.  The overall findings of this element of the review illustrated a desire for the partnership to continue the good work it was doing, whilst improving and refining the structures and processes that controlled its activity.  Members were advised that the key recommendations were:

·         The partnership should be renamed the 'Safer Lincolnshire Partnership' (SLP) and all partnership should sit under the Safer Lincolnshire Partnership title.

·         The purpose, functions and responsibilities of the LCSP should be split between two groups with different memberships: the Safer Lincolnshire Partnership Overview and Scrutiny Board (SLP-OSB) and the Safer Lincolnshire Partnership Strategy Board (SLP-SB).  The SLP-OSB would include representatives from each of the 7 district councils, the county council and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).  Partner agencies would be represented on the SLP-SB by strategic leads.

·         A Core Priority Group (CPG) would also be established for each core priority, and the work of each CPG would be directed by the SLP-SB.

Following consideration of the evidence and recommendations, each agency in the partnership was invited to participate in the priority setting process using the Management of Risk in Law Enforcement (MoRiLE) methodology.  Results were amalgamated, scored and analysed and from this work four core priorities were identified by the Partnership and subsequently scrutinised and signed-off by the SLP OSB:

·         Anti-social Behaviour

·         Domestic Abuse

·         Reducing Offending

·         Serious and Organised Crime

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following;

·         There would be more tightly focused outcomes. 

·         Serious and organised crime needed to be split into two main areas as it covered a vast array of offences.

·         It was confirmed that the Partnership did monitor national trends.  It was commented that in the last few weeks, there seems to have been two main issues nationally, networks of people moving drugs along county lines as well as a large increase in knife crime.  It was queried whether Lincolnshire was affected by either of these issues.  Members were advised that Lincolnshire was being affected by the county lines and drugs issue including the exploitation of the vulnerable in drug crime.  Knife crime was not as much of an issue in Lincolnshire, and it was most likely to be a domestic abuse crime if a knife was used in the county.

·         Domestic abuse could be intergenerational and could impact on children and they could suffer as a result, and it was queried what the relationship with children's services was like and how the cycle of abuse could be broken.  Members were advised that this was covered in a number of ways, at a strategic level by the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children's Board, and programmes in schools on crime reduction, as well as education including what a healthy relationship was and what was not, the development of perpetrator programmes.  ARC (Assisting Rehabilitation through Collaboration) tried to prioritise those offenders with families very early on, as the aim was to break the cycle.  The aim was to deal with the offenders on a holistic basis, and also include other member of the family in the process.

·         It was noted that the domestic abuse service had been re-procured, and within the contract, the inclusion of more support for children had been requested.  It was noted that discussions were still taking place in relation to what the therapeutic approach would look like.

·         There was an assumption that a lot of work that went on around substance misuse would have an impact on the local NHS, and it was queried to what extent the authority was involved in working with health colleagues.  Members were advised that there were representatives from public health on the Strategic Board, including the Director of Operation for Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.  Substance misuse and mental health were issues which were being discussed by the Board.  Work was underway to bring services together for people with complex needs in terms of crime and disorder.  There had also been some discussions with neighbourhood teams.  Early dialogue was taking place to ensure that there were fewer gaps for people to fall between.

·         It was queried how often priorities were reviewed.  Members were advised that there was a formal process to review them, with a refresh every 6 months and a full review every 12 months.  However, if there was an emerging issue, the Partnership would be able to convene to discuss the issue in relation to the priorities.

·         With the numbers of Police and Community Support Officers's decreasing it was queried how the Police would deal with this change, and members were advised that a change was need from being reactive to being more pro-active and preventative.  There would be a need to work more in partnership.  There was also a need to change the conditions in which crime flourished. 

·         It was commented that the ARC programme was reducing the amount of offences committed by 50-60%.

·         It was queried what methodology would be used for raising the awareness of fraud.  Members were advised that one of the things that the Core Priorities Group would do was collate information.  It was noted that there was a lot of activity going on in this area.  Trading Standards ran a lot of campaigns on fraud issues, along with distribution of public messages through social media and community events.  Officers would also attend incidents where people had been the victim of fraud to try to prevent further incidents in future.

·         It was queried whether there could be a single message for Lincolnshire in terms of fraud awareness.  In terms of reporting mechanisms, it was important to ensure it was as simple as possible for the public to report and issue.  It was noted that quite a lot of information came from London, but there was work to be done on how things were reported more locally.  Members were advised that a lot of people reported fraud directly to their bank, and the police may not be informed of these incidents.

·         It was noted that rough sleeping was a national issue, and it was queried how this was being addressed in Lincolnshire.  It was noted that ARC and Action Lincolnshire did similar work with similar charities in offices which were next to each other, and there were plans to merge some of these groups so they could focus of the individual they were helping.  It was noted that some behaviours could be cyclical and the aim would be to help people who were at risk of losing their tenancies, and it was also possible that people in this situation could have substance misuse issues and or mental health issues.  It was hoped that if these issues could be tackled, then those vulnerable people would be able to maintain their tenancies, not become homeless and subsequently fall into offending behaviours.

RESOLVED

1.    That the comments made in relation to the report be noted.

2.    That the Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee endorse the Safer Lincolnshire Partnership plan to reduce crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour in the county of Lincolnshire in the coming years.