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Councillors and committees

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Bridges Room - Civic Centre

Contact: Melvyn Mallam-Churchill E-mail:  melvynmallam-churchill@gateshead.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

CSS47

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Sonya Hawkins and Councillor Kevin Dodds.

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Minutes pdf icon PDF 96 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meeting held on 30 January 2018 were agreed as a correct record.

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Implementation of Safer Gateshead Priorities - end of year performance pdf icon PDF 119 KB

Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment

Minutes:

The Committee received a report providing an update of the Community Safety Board End of Year Performance for 2017/2018.

 

It was noted that the Community Safety Board is a standalone themed partnership that has the legal obligation to address the key crime, disorder and substance misuse issues that impact upon the Borough. It was further stated that the Board also has a statutory duty under the Crime & Disorder Act 1998 to product an annual intelligence led Strategic Assessment and Partnership Plan.

 

It was further highlighted from the report that the Partnership Plan complements the Strategic Assessment, bringing together theanalytical findingsfrom theStrategic Assessmentand thekey activities undertaken by the Board in the previous 12 months. The plan also sets out the strategicpriorities thatwill bedelivered uponin theforthcoming year. The priorities confirmed for 2017/18 were:

·         Tackling Violence

·         Combatting Anti-Social Behaviour

·         Addressing SubstanceMisuse

·         Improving Public Confidence

 

An overview of performance statistics was provided showing performance of crime and disorder within Gateshead from April 2017 to February 2018.

 

The Committee noted their concern in the rise of 62% in sexual offenses and the 103% rise in burglary dwelling. The Committee were advised that these rises are a likely result of the changes in the ways crimes are reported and categorised since previous years. It was further noted that the work of Operation Sanctuary had been successful in encouraging more victims of sexual offenses to report these crimes. The Committee felt that further clarity was required on these figures to establish whether the report showed real term rises or changes in reporting.

 

The Committee noted that it would be useful for an appropriate representative from the Police attend in future to clear any ambiguity over the figures presented within the report.

 

A summary of the progress made by the service to date was provided from the report noting key activities undertaken within the first six months of the year.

 

It was asked whether public confidence in the police taking action on incidents was a reason that antisocial behaviour is underreported. It was said that although incidents of ASB are decreasing the issue remains a Council priority,

 

A concern about reporting crime via the 101 service was noted by the Committee, it was felt that this service is often unfit for purpose with long call wait times. It was noted that the Police acknowledge these difficulties and that an additional service ‘Your Northumbria’ has been rolled out as an additional means of reporting incidents.

 

The Committee requested a follow up on this report at a later Committee to address the concerns raised at the meeting.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(i)            The Committee noted the progress made in relation to the strategic priorities of the Community Safety Board.

(ii)           The Committee agreed to receive a further progress update in six months addressing queries raised in the meeting.

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Prevent - Update on Action Plan pdf icon PDF 123 KB

Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment

Minutes:

The Committee received a report with an update on the work/activity that has taken place to address the recommendations outlined within the Final Report of the review of Preventing Violent Extremism that was carried out in 2015/16. The report builds upon the previous progress reports submitted to Committee in 2017/2018.

 

It was noted from the report that members should be reminded that the final report concluded that there were multi-agency arrangements in place to meet the statutory responsibilities set out in the national Prevent Duty Guidance.

 

It was said that there were a total of 13 recommendations identified as part of the review that were aligned to the 3 themes identified in the national Prevent guidance:

 

·         Leadership

·         Working in Partnership

·         Capabilities

 

From the report it was said for reassurance, work has progressed in relation to all of the recommendations and a self-assessment continues to be updated on a regular basis. A summary of work was provided with particular reference to the following:

 

  • Frontline practitioners in key services across the Council continue to receive training in relation to 'Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent'. 
  • We have also developed an informal training session which can now be delivered to specific teams.

·         Attended and presented at the launch of the Newcastle CVS 'Conversation not Confrontation' which contains tools for Voluntary and Community groups to challenge people expressing extreme views and ideas.

·         Community Safety have delivered WRAP training to members of New Vision, a training group of individuals with a Learning Disability. New Vision are now developing an interactive version of the training which can then be delivered to a number of Learning Disability Groups across Gateshead, with particular focus on recognising and reporting any Prevent concerns.

·         To comply with Prevent requirements, the Procurement and Legal Teams will now be amending the bespoke Terms and Conditions for Residential Homes and Home Care Providers to include a clause around adhering to the principles of Prevent. Clauses are already included in all other Terms and Conditions.

  • We have established a multi-agency forum to allow us to identify what other statutory agencies are doing to meet their Prevent obligations.  We have worked proactively with these agencies to develop a Prevent Strategy Group which will be made up of the Prevent Statutory Authorities and a number of other agencies, with a view to capturing where each agency is at in terms of meeting their Prevent requirements as well as focusing on developing a Gateshead Prevent Action Plan.

 

Further progress was detailed within the main report for the Committee’s information.

 

It was noted that community feedback has highlighted that they dislike the use of the name ‘Prevent’ however it was advised that there are no plans to change this. A further update on the work of the team was requested for a future Committee.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(i)            The Committee noted the contents of the report.

(ii)           The Committee agreed to receive a progress update in relation to the progress made against delivering the recommendations at future meetings.

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Safer Gateshead Draft Priorities 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 83 KB

Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment

Minutes:

The Committee received a report providing an overview of the draft strategic priorities that have been identified for the Community Safety Board to deliver for 2018/19.

 

The Committee were advised that public consultation is a statutory requirement in developing the draft strategic priorities. It was noted that following agreement of the draft priorities by the Community Safety Board in January 2018 a series of activities has been undertaken by partners to encourage the public to provide feedback/

 

It was further noted from the report that following feedback from residents who were unable to complete last year’s consultation, paper copies of the consultation have been made available. These have been distributed to community groups and individuals who have expressed an interested in taking part however the majority of engagement has been online.

 

A summary of the results received was presented highlighting that anti-social behaviour and environmental issues ranked at number 1. It was further noted that as at 7 March 2018 245 people had responded to the consultation.

 

From the report it was said that the results have been weighted and ranked.  As can be seen from the table above, anti-social behaviour and environmental issues has the highest score and therefore is the current top priority that members of the public think the Community Safety Board should address in 2018/19. I was also noted that the weighting attributed to this priority as well as Substance Misuse, Disruption of Serious and Organised Crime and Domestic and Sexual Abuse account for 53% of the total scores allocated to the priorities.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(i)            The Committee noted the report and agreed to receive details of the final priorities for 2018 when approved by the Community Safety Board.

 

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Case Study - Impact of Alcohol on Community Safety pdf icon PDF 73 KB

Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment

Minutes:

Peter Wright delivered a presentation to the Committee providing an overview of the impact of alcohol on Community Safety in Gateshead. It was noted from the presentation that Gateshead has the second highest rate in England for alcohol relation hospital admissions according to the LAPE. It was further noted that the local prevalence estimates that the number of individuals in need of alcohol treatment is as high as 3,007 whereas the number in treatment in 2016/602 was only 602. It was stated that Blackpool are currently number one in England for alcohol related hospital admissions.

 

From the presentation the following key points were highlighted regarding alcohol treatment at Gateshead Partnership level 2017/2018:

 

·         Alcohol is currently the second highest substance reported when clients present to drug treatment. 46.4% of all clients in treatment reported alcohol as either the main substance or one of the substances they were presenting to treatment for. (Clients can cite more than one substance when presenting to treatment)

·         There are currently less clients in treatment citing alcohol as a reason for treatment than for the same period in 2016/17

·         As of quarter 3 2017/18 the rate of successful completions as a percentage of all in treatment for alcohol is 42%. This is an increase in the rate of completions compared to the same period last year (Q3 16/17 40.6%). This 17/18 value is significantly better than the North East (30.98%) and considered not significantly different to the England value of 39.9%

·         As of quarter 3 2017/18 (period Jan 17 – Jun 17 representations up to December 17) have seen a reduction the in the rate of clients who successfully leave treatment and then represent to treatment within 6 months from exit. The rate has decreased from 9% for the same period in 16/17 to only 5.8% for 2017/18. This rate is lower than but not significantly lower than the overall England representations value (8.8%)

 

The presentation showed a gap in statistics from June to July 2016, it was asked why this was – Peter Wright agreed to look into this and provide feedback at the next meeting.

 

The issue of the availability of cheap alcohol in supermarkets was noted – it was said that alcohol is now approximately 50% to buy now than it was in the 1970’s. Further to this is was also noted that Scotland are trialling a minimum price per unit for alcohol sales and it is anticipated this will be rolled out across the UK in due course after the impact of this is assessed.

 

A summary of the Substance Misuse Strategy was provided to the Committee noting three key priorities which are to Reduce Demand, Restrict Supply and the Build Recovery. It was further noted from the presentation that several actions have been successful in tackling the impact of alcohol on Community Safety, these included:

 

·         Successful representations made to the Licensing Committee

·         Test Purchasing at several premises responding to intelligence       

·         Make Every Contact Count Programme 

·         The 'First Light' veterans support group

·         Continuation  ...  view the full minutes text for item CSS52

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Work Programme pdf icon PDF 126 KB

Report of the Chief Executive and the Strategic Director Corporate Services and Governance.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report on the provisional annual work programme and agreed that further reports will be brought to future meetings to highlight current issues/identify any changes/additions to the programme.

RESOLVED:

(i)            The Committee noted the Work Programme.

 

 

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