Agenda item

Report of the Elections and Members’ Services Officer.

Dave Wakelin, Director of Health and Community Wellbeing explained the makeup and remit of the Safer Nottinghamshire (Community Safety) Board.  The Board coordinates community safety issues in the boroughs of Rushcliffe, Broxtowe and Gedling working together to reduce crime and improve the quality of life. The Safer Nottinghamshire Board meets four monthly and is attended by a range of officers from responsible authorities and leading on the overall strategy for the partnership. 

The strategic themes for the board are

·         Domestic violence

·         Hate crime

·         Modern slavery

·         Vulnerable people in emerging communities, this includes migration and the organised crime that can accompany it

·         Substance misuse.

The Strategic Group is chaired by Ruth Hyde and makes strategic level decisions relating to themes of the partnership and the Delivery Group, chaired by Dave Wakelin, makes decisions relating to tactical and operational needs to determine how  to make the them work locally.

Performance Priorities for the Partnership currently are

·         Violence against the person – with or without injury, domestic violence

·         Serious acquisitive crime – the high volume of shop theft

·         Burglary from dwellings.

The South Nottinghamshire Community Safety Partnership (CSP) is still ranked first when benchmarked against similar sized CSPs and the best performing one in the county.

There are a number of key issues that are currently being addressed, these include:

·         Weak analytical support – the dedicated analysist previously employed has not been replaced and this causes a weakness when making decisions about how to allocate resources

·         Lack of clarity regarding serious organised crime arrangement between the City and the County

·         International organised migration plans and delivery

·         How offenders are managed in society, ensuring support mechanisms are available

·         Lack of Gedling specific data

·         Strengthening the response to antisocial behaviour

·         Lack of mental health services/ resources in the community for both the victim and the offender.

Locality working includes fortnightly operational meetings held between the police, the Community Safety Coordinator, the Antisocial Coordinator and the Senior Neighbourhood Warden to discuss local problems.  These are informal meetings and enables data sharing, local updates and tasking.  Specific task and finish groups can be established to address specific crime types, geographical issues or anti-social behaviour concerns.

Members raised a number of issues and the following points were addressed:

There are very few ‘halfway houses ‘for released prisoners as the Probation service deal with the challenging problem of community rehabilitation.  The majority of prisoners are released in the Gedling area are on license and get support in the community.

‘Legal Highs’ are not legal and are now longer available in shops, they are available through other channels for example the internet.

The police are dealing with the consequences of a reduction in mental health services, which is a real concern. A triage car is available with a mental health nurse to assist in incidents where mental health issues are a factor and police cells are very really used detain people with suspected mental health concerns.   A high percentage of homeless people have mental health issues however services are not available to support them.  Members were concerned about the support available for people with mental health issues and the link that this may have to crime and antisocial behaviour and asked that more information regarding this at the next meeting.

Shoplifting incidents increased in December mainly food, alcohol and clothing.  Work is being done with the retail industry to make them more active in combatting this rise.

Modern day slavery is on the increase; John Robinson is the County strategic lead for this.

RESOLVED TO:

1.    Note the information and thank Councillor Ellis for attending; and

2.    Receive written information about the link between crime and antisocial behaviour and mental health.