Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March were an accurate record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

1.    Martin Adams, Assistant Director of Community Engagement for Kent Fire and Rescue, provided an update on the recent activity of the working group.  Key points included the organisation of the Annual Community Safety Conference at Ashford International which would be focusing on substance misuse this year.  This was to involve key speakers from the Margate Taskforce (a multi-agency team supporting community safety activity in Thanet) and Jan King from the Angelis Foundation which supports young people tackling addiction.  Jessica Mookherjee, Public Health specialist, commented that the joint Drug and Alcohol Strategy would be out for consultation soon and it was hoped that the issues discussed at the Conference would contribute to improving the strategy.

2.    Mr Adams highlighted the importance of the joint Community Safety Team, which had significantly contributed to progressing the objectives of the working group, supporting the planning for the conference and had continued to evidence the benefits of joint working between agencies.

3.    Shafick Peerbux, Head of Community Safety, KCC, provided an update on the Community Safety Agreement, explaining that Violent and Acquisitive crime priorities had been amalgamated into the single focus on Serious Crime.  A new priority had been added related to Safeguarding, while Hate Crime and Preventing Violent Extremism had remained key issues.  In terms of general performance, Mr Peerbux explained that reports of domestic abuse had increased, in part because Home Office counting rules had changed but also because the provision of One Stop Shops and similar support services had encouraged more victims to come forward.

4.    Mr Adams provided an update on Road Safety, stating that there had been an increase to the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on the roads.  While additional work was going to review and analyse the figures to identify key issues and confirm details, all partners were already committed to working together to reduce the KSI number and protect road users.  Mr Adams advised the committee that the data indicated that the majority of casualties were car users, rather than pedestrians or cyclists although unfortunately the number of KSI children had increased.  All the increase did match with national trends and it was believed that the increase in vehicle numbers on the roads was a major contributing factor.  Neil Wickens, from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, noted that recording changes by the Police had potentially contributed to the increase in figures due to more incidents now be included in the KSI numbers but he advised that this was still being reviewed.  Sheila Davison, Head of Health, Parking and Community Safety at Ashford Borough Council, commented that Ashford has a high number of KSIs and that they have been reviewing cluster sites to develop a response.  Mr Peerbux explained that funding from the PCC’s office was being used to support the License to Kill scheme which educated people on the dangers of poor driving.

5.    Mr Peerbux explained that work was ongoing to improve scam awareness campaigns and that the CST  ...  view the full minutes text for item 127.

1.    Supt Simon Thompson provided an update on Operation Scorpion which was being led by the Kent & Essex Serious Crime Directorate in relation to the 4Ps (Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare).  While Kent Police has an excellent record in regard to Pursue, the operation was developed to strengthen the other three.  This would be achieved by embedding the new corporate approach to managing Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) with local lead responsible officers (LROs) across Police Divisions.  To support local services to respond effectively the Op Scorpion team had been working on developing a toolkit.

2.    Supt Thompson delivered a presentation on the Serious Crime toolkit developed through Op Scorpion.  The presentation showcased the information that had been available, which contained district level breakdown of key issues, useful contact information and links to relevant guidance.  The topics covered included Neighbourhood Profiles, Child Sexual Exploitation, vulnerability mapping, gangs, OCGs, organised immigration crime, modern slavery, rape and serious sexual offences, domestic abuse, countering terrorism and extremism and cybercrime.  Supt Thompson explained that a key priority was to enable key partners and agencies to work together on identifying and disrupting organised crime and that it was hoped that toolkit would be welcomed a significant step forward for information sharing and joint working in Kent.

3.    Members were positive about the development of the information hub and were keen to ensure that all relevant partner agencies could access the information to work on local issues.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

1.    Ms Mookherjee provided an update on the joint KCC and Kent Police Drug and Alcohol Strategy which was being co-ordinated by Public Health, with consultation due to take place in late 2016 and adoption by KCC and partners in 2017.  She explained that there was already a KCC Alcohol Strategy in place and that Kent Police has both drug and alcohol strategies.  The proposed joint strategy was to the first time taking a full partnership approach.

2.    Ms Mookherjee explained that the draft strategy focused on five key themes; Resilience, Identification, Early Help and Harm Reduction, Recovery and Supply.  She said that implementation of the final strategy, post consultation would be supported by the Kent Drug and Alcohol Partnership, local District action plans and the Health and Wellbeing Boards.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

1.    Alison Gilmour, Kent and Medway Domestic Violence Co-ordinator for KCC, explained that funding for the Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) process had been inconsistent over the years.  Previous arrangements organised by the Home Office had been labelled as cost neutral by government but that had not been the case and consequently, KCC had been forced to use funding reserves to maintain the high quality approach taken in managing DHRs.  After 5 years of review, the LGA had estimated that each DHR should cost approximately £20k, although this varied depending on the complexity of the cases and the number of authority tiers involved. 

2.    Ms Gilmour explained that as Kent has an average of four DHRs are year, there was a significant cost implication and the current budget was insufficient.  Given the large number of DHR notifications received for 2015/16 and 2016/17, the total cost of the process was expected to increase.  Consequently, the DHR Steering Group had reviewed the working practices, developed and considered six options for addressing the budget gap.  One option was to make no changes to working or funding practices other than seeking additional contributions from local council.  Five other options were being considered and these ranged from ceasing to provide lessons learned seminars and the administrative and co-ordination support to the termination of the Kent and Medway DHR Protocol which would remove all central support for DHR processes and place the responsibility on local areas.

3.    Ms Gilmour explained that after careful consideration, the steering group had recommended that the benefits of continuing to manage the DHR process in its current form justified seeking additional funding to cover the gap, rather than reducing the level of service.  A key aspect of this approach required that some current funding agencies increase their contributions and that District Councils be asked to contribute £2500 each for the first time. 

4.    A Member commented that they were supportive of continued joint working, although some were prohibited from contributing financially due to national directives.

RESOLVED that the Committee agree to support option 1 (continue in DHRs in current form and seek additional funding)

1.    Adrian Harper, Chief of Staff for the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner, provided an update on the work of the Commissioner relating to mental health.  Mr Harper explained that focusing on mental health was part of the Commissioner's six point plan and manifesto and that he considered it a 'golden thread' through a significant part of the work of the police and wider criminal justice system.  Providing context, Mr Harper explained that 33% of police activity was related to mental health issues and that while the Police were committed to managing these issues properly, it was important that effective partnership work took place to ensure the right agencies with the right skills and capacity to provide appropriate support were in place.  Mr Harper advised the Committee that the Commissioner was working on this matter as a national issues, linking in with key partners and other Commissioners around the country.

2.    Neil Wickens, Head of Policy and Research at the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, provided further information on the impact of mental health on policing.  He explained that the Commissioner wanted to review key issues and ideas for making better use of the existing Mental Health Concordat.  Mr Wickens outlined the police detention process for those experiencing severe mental health issues, confirming that it was a difficult decision to detain on mental health grounds but reassured the committee that previous reviews had evidenced that the majority of decisions were correct and appropriate under the relevant policies.  He highlighted some challenges such as the fact that once a person has been detained under s.136 of the Mental Health Act, they cannot be un-detained, as one might be de-arrested, until the full assessment process has taken place.  As general demand increased, it placed pressure on the Police for initial management of issues or incidents and also let to mental health crisis teams not have capacity to respond appropriately.

3.    Mr Wickens advised the committee that there had been nine s.136 detentions over the recent weekend which involve over three hundred and fifty Police Officer hours, including the detention in police custody of one individual for fifty-five hours.  Mr Wickens highlighted this as an example of where mental health services needed more capacity and resources to take necessary responsibility for providing suitable detention facilities and appropriate care for individuals in crisis as it was agreed that Police custody was not an appropriate setting.

4.    To support additional resourcing regarding Mental Health, the Commissioner had bid for £9m in funding with MCCH and MIND.  These included a Safe Haven bus for Maidstone.

5.    Mr Wickens explained that Kent & Medway Partnership Trust was intending to centralise its facility for adults and that the Commissioner was supporting this plan.  He also advised the Committee that all this work required strong partnership support and co-ordination, highlighting the Commissioner's request for all partners to come together on this issue.

6.    In terms of enhancing the Police's capacity regarding mental health, Mr Wickens explained the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 131.

1.    Insp Sonia Lassnig provided an update on Kent Police's change programme, reviewing the Force's operating model.  She explained that the Change Team had been focusing on risk, harm and vulnerability.  The approach had examined the benefit of Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs (MASH).  Consultation and engagement had taken place across the Force with relevant teams and staff on how to better manage risk and vulnerability and she highlighted that this work had involved consideration of more focused use of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs).  Insp Lassnig explained that a planning event had been held in July 2016 to consider whether the concept was viable, with progress being noted as positive.  Consideration of the new model included a change to the command structure and divisional layout of the force, with the main three Divisions (North, East and West) remaining but with changes to the District model to reduce them to nine through merging the Policing across districts in different parts of Kent where it made operational sense (e.g. Gravesham and Dartford merging as they had one police station already).  This would result in a reduction of senior officer posts in area command roles.

2.    Insp Lassnig outlined how the new approach would work in practice, with the re-introduction of more specialised teams (which were removed under the New Kent Police Model under Chief Constable Learmonth).  The Community Safety Units would be updated to include several specialist PCSO roles such as Youth Engagement Officer, Domestic Abuse Single Point of Contact (Currently PC role), Child Missing Persons Officer and Vulnerable Adult Officer.  It was noted that PCSOs would be up-skilled in preventing violent extremism and counter terrorism to support their contribution to the wider Prevent agenda.

3.    An update to Chief Officers on progress was due in November 2016.

4.    Members of the Committee discussed the update, noting the positive benefits of more specialist teams and officers available to work on key issues which would help protect vulnerable people.  It was noted by Members that the proposed change would need support from partners and that further engagement could help improve the plans and how the Police can integrate their work with other agencies such as KCC via the Community Wardens.

RESOLVED that Insp Lassnig and Kent Police be thanked for the update on the change programme and that the update be noted.

RESOLVED that the date of the next meeting, 15 March 2017, be noted.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the update on DHRs.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the Prevent update.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the briefing.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the briefing.