Agenda item

That the Committee supports the achievements of the Community Safety Partnership over the last twelve months.

The Chief Executive introduced the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) annual report which provided an overview of activities over the past 12 months.  The statutory duties of the CSP were discharged through the Public Services Board led by Flintshire.

Members were introduced to Sian Jones, Community and Business Protection Manager; Richard Powell, Community Safety Team Leader; Rhiannon Edwards, Regional Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Advisor; District Inspector Gareth Cust of North Wales Police; Gerwyn Davies, Anti-Social Behaviour Co-ordinator; and Mike White, Partnership Manager for Wrexham and Flintshire, North Wales Fire & Rescue Service.

A detailed presentation covered the following areas:

·         Context

·         Community Safety Delivery Groups

·         Achievements

·         Performance

·         Interaction with the Safer Communities Board

·         Local priorities for 2018/19

The Community Safety Team Leader reported a reduction in victim-based crime in Flintshire over the past year with the reduction in anti-social behaviour seen across North Wales.  He gave an overview of interaction with the Safer Communities Board on priority areas to address violence against women, vulnerable adults and young people, as well as protecting communities.

Councillor Johnson spoke about the links between poverty, inequality and crime.  In response to comments on hate crime, the appointment of a Community Cohesion Officer for Flintshire (using Welsh Government funding) would help to encourage communities to report incidents.

Inspector Gareth Cust spoke about the various methods of reporting crime and raising awareness in schools of issues such as hate crime and County Lines.  He also advised of a training programme with police officers in Flintshire to identify the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE).

In acknowledging the pressures on Police resources, Councillor Richard Jones referred to a late addendum to the Council Plan Monitoring report later on the agenda, in which some Police performance data was missing.  This included the number of reported incidents of domestic abuse and sexual violence which was a priority area.

Whilst referring to the complexity of the topic, the Chief Executive spoke about the need to understand the integrity of the data provided by North Wales Police and that an accurate figure would need to be shared with the Committee once available.

The Regional Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Advisor agreed that more clarity was needed on this data due to the way that incidents were recorded.  To resolve this, analysts were reviewing the approach to recording incidents to incorporate all elements of domestic violence and provide an accurate picture.

Councillor Richard Jones said that an explanation should have been included to help understanding of the report in order to compare performance year on year.  The Chief Executive agreed and said that at this point the Committee could only accept the figure in the original report with the caveat about ongoing data analysis.

Inspector Cust referred to significant changes in crime recording and compliance with regulation standards.  His offer to provide year to date figures on domestic abuse and sexual violence incidents was noted.

In response to a question from Councillor Bateman, information was given on different forms of Modern Slavery and the development of an e-learning package to help officers to recognise signs of these offences.  The Chief Executive spoke about cases in recent years and the sharing of intelligence across the region.

On a question from Councillor Johnson on the Youth Justice Service, the Chief Executive said that a reduction in national funding had resulted in a move to more regional work and the Council increasing its funding allocation to make up for some of the shortfall to protect the service.

Following comments by Councillor Wisinger on exploring new ways to support young people, the Chief Executive said that the annual report provided a high-level overview of work and that consideration could be given to sharing details of work on key themes, perhaps through Overview & Scrutiny.

Councillor Bithell highlighted examples of important day-to-day work such as Neighbourhood Wardens providing support and practical help to vulnerable households in fear of crime.

In welcoming the positive report, Councillor Thomas referred to the Council’s key role on many crime initiatives and the range of preventative services.

The recommendations, which were changed to reflect the debate, were moved by Councillor Richard Jones and seconded by Councillor Cunningham who applauded the work of the partnership.

The Chairman thanked the contributors for their attendance.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee supports the achievements of the Community Safety Partnership over the last twelve months.