Issue - items at meetings - Discussion with Chair, CSF

Discussion with Chairman,  Community Safety Forum.

Plus report of the Director of the Environment.

26.1    The Chairman welcomed Councillor Simson as Chairman of the Community Safety Forum to give a 6-monthly update on the work of the Forum. The draft minutes of the 18 October Community Safety Forum were tabled.

26.2         Councillor SImson said the Street Pastors were very active. She had personally seen them making a big difference in helping to support vulnerable people every Friday night.

26.3    The Local Action Teams and meetings of the LAT Chairs were also productive in dealing with issues in detail. Much work was being done to respond to late night noise problems in various areas of the city. Minimum service standards had been launched for victims and witnesses of anti-social behaviour. The Family Intervention Project was also achieving success. The White Night on 30 October had been amazing including different faith groups singing and performing from the balcony of the Partnership Community Safety Team offices.

26.4    Looking at the crime trends report, overall crime had reduced by 4.8% compared with the same period last year. Violent crime, motor vehicle theft and hate incidents had all decreased.

26.5    The data had not been so good for domestic violence and sexual violence. However it was a positive development that more people felt able to report and some of the data referred to historical incidents. More offences were being detected with a high percentage of successful court cases.

26.6    The CSF meeting had been updated on the management of demonstrations by the Police. Engagement with residents prior to a recent demonstration had been commended.  The Forum had also received the scrutiny panel report on Support Services for Victims of Sexual Violence.

26.7    Councillor Simson and the Commissioner for Community Safety answered questions on developing the minimum standards for anti-social behaviour victims across the City and the RISE programme delivered in schools.

26.8    Asked about the future funding of the Partnership Community Safety Team, the Commissioner said that at present Community Safety Services were funded via ring-fenced budgets. It was important to maintain front-line services and the potential impact of significant changes would need to be clear. 

26.9    Senior representatives of partner organisations were meeting to identify priorities, any duplication and where saving could potentially be made. Investing in integrated offender management would lead to savings elsewhere. For example some underlying causes of crime can be identified and diversion measures initiated; early intervention could help support individuals and also reduce the significant costs of criminal proceedings. The Intelligent Commissioning pilots were a good opportunity to develop this; and work to reduce Prolific and Priority Offending was expected to benefit from a similar approach.

26.10  Regarding monitoring performance in the absence of national indicators, the meeting heard that reporting would continue in a similar way so that trends could still be identified. A peak in crimes and incidents may be the result of the activity of just one person.

26.11  The Chairman thanked Councillor Simson for a thorough progress report.

26.12 RESOLVED that the report be noted.