Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Delyn Committee Room, County Hall, Mold CH7 6NA

Contact: Sharon Thomas / 01352 702324  Email: sharon.b.thomas@flintshire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

8.

Declarations on Interest (Including Whipping Declarations)

Decision:

No declarations of interest were made.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were made.

9.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 36 KB

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 9 June 2014 (copy enclosed).

Decision:

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 9 June 2014 had been circulated to Members with the agenda.

 

Councillor Brian Lloyd referred to the Committee’s recent site visit to the Clwyd Special Riding Centre at Llanfynydd and asked for a letter of thanks to be sent and extending an apology for the low turnout of Members.  The Member Engagement Manager advised that he already written to the centre on behalf of the Committee to express appreciation.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

10.

Community Safety Partnership Annual Report 2013/14 pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

(a)       That the contents of the report be endorsed; and

 

(b)       That the Committee look forward to receiving the report on future CCTV provision, when it is available, together with an update on the implications of new legislation on Anti-Social Behaviour.

Minutes:

The Chief Executive introduced a report outlining the activities of the Community Safety Partnership (SCP) over the past year.  In acknowledging the challenges in tackling anti-social behaviour issues, he said that the Council’s record had been excellent and that the Partnership’s role transfer to the Local Service Board had helped to sharpen focus.

 

The main points of the presentation were:

 

·         Background to the partnership

·         Performance statistics compared with 2012/13

·         Local Developments

·         Links with the Council’s Improvement Plan

·         Details of the Community Safety Team

·         Regional Developments - making a difference through collaboration

 

The Team Leader - Community Safety highlighted the key priorities within the North Wales Safer Communities Board Plan for 2014-17 which had been adopted by Flintshire’s CSP.  The Plan reflected the recommendations of the regional Strategic Assessment together with the findings of the Substance Misuse Needs Assessment which had identified the misuse of alcohol as one of the main areas of concern.

 

Overall crime and disorder statistics for 2013/14 indicated a steady reduction from the previous year.  The Team Leader - Community Safety pointed out that figures for victim-based crime reflected ongoing operations resulting from reports of historic incidents both in Flintshire and Wrexham.  The increase in burglary dwelling incidents reflected an emerging trend throughout North Wales, however figures for Flintshire had levelled off during the first quarter of 2014/15 as a result of intervention work with Police colleagues to identify key individuals and task group working with involvement from Neighbourhood Wardens.  A reduction in anti-social behaviour statistics from 2012/13 had been further reduced by 21.5% during the first quarter of 2014/15.

 

On local developments, the Chief Executive spoke of positive progress by the CSP on the ‘People are Safe’ priority, focussing particularly on tackling alcohol abuse.  More detail could be shared with Members outside the meeting.

 

The achievement milestones for 2013/14 in the report indicated a ‘green’ status on all areas apart from substance misuse.  Mr Godfrey Hayes of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board advised that employee sickness issues had mainly been resolved and that performance figures for the first quarter of 2014/15 had seen a significant improvement, with 99% of service users receiving treatment within 20 days.  He added that alcohol related crime was on the increase across the whole of North Wales.

 

During an update on team members, the Team Leader - Community Safety said that co-location had made communication easier between officers, Neighbourhood Wardens and Community Police Officers.  This would also be of benefit when the new legislation on Anti-Social Behaviour was due to come into force, on which the Committee would receive an update.

 

The Chairman thanked the Team Leader - Community Safety and her team for their hard work and asked about a breakdown of crime figures relating to drugs and alcohol.  Whilst Acting Superintendent Dave Owens of North Wales Police was able to provide some data on crime and anti-social behaviour, he advised that this may not reflect the true position as it was not possible to capture in every case whether  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Agenda Item 4 - Presentation Slides pdf icon PDF 309 KB

11.

Year End Improvement Plan Monitoring Report pdf icon PDF 27 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

That the progress be noted.

Minutes:

The Member Engagement Manager introduced a report to note and consider elements of the 2013/14 Year End Improvement Plan Monitoring Report relevant to the Committee for the period January to March 2014.  Much of the report had already been covered in the previous item.

 

In response to comments from Councillor Ian Dunbar, the Chief Executive said that a significant reduction in grant funding from the Welsh Government and central Government had impacted on the funding received by the Community Safety Partnership from the Police and Crime Commissioner.

 

There were no comments to feed back to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee on this occasion.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the progress be noted.

12.

LSB and Strategic Partnership Performance - end of year 2013/14 review pdf icon PDF 51 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

(a)       That progress made in the end of year reports be noted and that the commitments for the current year, as reflected in the Single Integrated Plan, be endorsed; and

 

(b)       That the Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee investigate poor attendance at drug and alcohol education sessions.

Minutes:

The Policy & Performance Manager introduced the end of year assessments for:

 

·             the progress of the Local Service Board (LSB) Priorities and its key Strategic Partnerships and;

·             the priorities for each of the Strategic Partnerships for the year ahead.

 

The four priorities which had been adopted by the Flintshire LSB and linked to the Council’s Improvement Plan were:

 

1.       Lead by example as employers and community leaders.

2.       People are safe.

3.       People enjoy good health, wellbeing and independence.

4.       Organisational environmental practices.

 

An end of year assessment indicated good progress on Priorities 1, 2 and 4 whilst satisfactory progress had been reported for Priority 3 due to this being a new Board and developing the working relationship between the Council and the Health Board on locality working.

 

The Policy & Performance Manager highlighted several changes to the key related strategic partnerships to the LSB, including two new areas, and explained that some names had been changed to focus on supporting the delivery of the Single Integrated Plan.

 

Councillor Nigel Steele-Mortimer said that he hoped these changes would be of benefit.  The Chief Executive explained that for example the Health, Social Care & Well-being Partnership Board had covered too large an area and that its replacement, the Health, Well-being and Independence Board was more focussed and operational around specific Priorities.

 

In response to a query from Councillor Ian Dunbar, the Policy & Performance Manager provided clarification on key areas of work on Priority 1 including the development of apprenticeship frameworks in housing and construction.  The Chief Executive spoke of the initiative to create 20 shared engineering apprenticeships linked to the Deeside Enterprise Zone and Coleg Cambria, and work with secondary schools to develop a more consistent approach to promoting and accessing apprenticeships.

 

In relation to earlier discussion on the Community Safety Partnership and concerns on the effects of alcohol abuse, Councillor Dave Mackie asked if it was possible to review the approach to treating individuals with alcohol problems to identify a way forward.  When asked by Councillor Joe Johnson about comparison with other Councils’ activity on this issue, the Chief Executive reiterated previous comments about positive work in Flintshire.  Whilst he shared the concerns, he stated that a priority of Public Health Wales was to tackle alcohol abuse and that the problem had been acknowledged at regional level, although there was no immediate fundamental solution.

 

The Chairman suggested that this topic was perhaps better dealt with under the remit of the Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

 

The Chief Executive suggested that a report could be brought to the Committee on progress with the current review on use of resources.  The Policy & Performance Manager reassured Members that there were a number of specific actions and activities within the Single Integrated Plan (SIP).

 

RESOLVED:

 

(a)       That progress made in the end of year reports be noted and that the commitments for the current year, as reflected in the Single Integrated Plan, be endorsed; and

 

(b)       That the Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee investigate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

13.

Forward Work Programme pdf icon PDF 24 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

That, subject to the above amendments, the Forward Work Programme be agreed.

Minutes:

The Member Engagement Manager introduced the report to enable the Committee to consider the Forward Work Programme.  He advised that the item on budget setting and budgetary control arrangements was to be moved to the October 2014 meeting and following a number of suggestions, it was agreed that the following items would be scheduled for either of the meetings in October or November 2014:

 

·         Implications of the new anti-Social Behaviour legislation;

·         future provision of CCTV (following discussion earlier on the agenda);

·         North Wales Credit Union (following discussion on the Flintshire Credit Union at the previous meeting);

·         Samaritans (suggested by Councillor Paul Cunningham)

·         Coleg Cambria (suggested by the Chief Executive) possibly for the November 2014 meeting.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That, subject to the above amendments, the Forward Work Programme be agreed.

14.

Members of the Press and Public in Attendance

Minutes:

There were no members of the press or public in attendance.