Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Ms A Broom, Ms S Robson, Cllr L Wright, Cllr D Croxton, Mr S Chapman and Ms E Jones.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED that the notes of the meeting held on 23 July 2025were a correct record.

1.    Mr Peerbux (Head of Community Safety, KCC) explained that local authorities were legally required to hold a Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Committee to review the work of community safety partnerships. KCC’s Scrutiny Committee meets annually in its capacity as the Crime and Disorder Committee to scrutinise partnership activity and outcomes from the Community Safety Agreement.

2.    The most recent meeting took place on 2 October 2025, where the Committee reviewed the work of the Kent Community Safety Partnership (KCSP) over the past year.

3.    Mr Peerbux expressed his gratitude to all those who attended the meeting and to those that assisted with the production of the accompanying reports to support this process. Mr Peerbux also extended his sincere gratitude to Superintendent Peter Steenhuis who, after many years supporting the partnership has moved onto another role in Kent Police.  Superintendent Rob Marsh will now take up the role.

4.    Mr Peerbux said that the Committee noted five areas of interest. These were:

·         The visibility of neighbourhood policing.

·         The outreach from services into communities.

·         Access to suicide prevention services.

·         How best to cascade best practice across the county.

·         How Neighbourhood Watch might be included in any future reports.

5.    Two more considerations included how communication had been improved with the public and with services outside of the partnership and how monitoring through the dashboard had progressed. All those comments had been taken on board.

6.    Mr Peerbux explained that an analyst had been recruited (starting 1^st December) into the Kent Community Safety Team (KCST) to ensure that the work of the Team and the KCSP would be more data-led and evidence-based moving forward.

7.    Ms Shirley Brinson (Community Safety Team Leader, KCC) said that the Kent Community Safety Agreement (CSA) included an action plan which supported delivery of the CSA’s priorities. Actions included activities such as the domestic homicide reviews (DHRs)/domestic abuse related death reviews (DARDRs), information sharing, awareness raising and training and other partnerships and boards also help deliver and lead on some of the actions.

8.    Other key activities/achievements included:

·         The completion of the consultation on the draft Kent and Medway Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention Strategy.

·         A successful visit from the nation-wide Baton of Hope Tour on 22nd September 2025, engaging with the general public and raising awareness of mental health and suicide prevention.

·         Ongoing work with the #KnowSeeSpeakOut Domestic Abuse campaign

·         The MARAC Hub review

·         The monitoring of the Crime and Policing Bill as it progressed through Parliamentary stages before becoming law.

9.    Ms Brinson explained that the KCST were in the process of sourcing data from partners for use by the district/borough Community Safety Partnerships in their annual strategic assessment process to help identify key community safety issues, thus also informing the County CSA priorities. The KCST was also planning a data workshop on 10th December for partners involved in producing the local strategic assessments.

10. The next KCSP Working Group meeting in January will be an in-person workshop to review the county Strategic Assessment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

1.  Mr Stephen Perez (Community Intelligence and Partnerships Lead, KFRS) explained that he had been appointed as Chair of the KCSP Working Group at the previous meeting of the Working Group in July 2025.

2.  In terms of funding, Mr Perez said that the funding to the KCSP for 2025/26 by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) Crime Reduction Grant (CRG), remained the same as in previous years (£39,661). A third of the funding was placed in a tactical pot for in-year spending. Similar funding was also provided by the PCC to all Community Safety Partnerships across Kent and Medway to help deliver projects in support of local priorities.

3.  The KCSP Working Group reviewed six projects which received widespread support, with the PCC approving an upfront spending of just over £24K these were:

·         A Hateful Extremism Learning Event (£4,000)

·         Countering the Extreme Right-Wing Training (£4,182)

·         Kent Community Domestic Abuse Champions – Branding & Resources (£3,703)

·         Teacher in Your Pocket (TEPO) – Scams Module (£5,223)

·         Responsible Authority Training on the Licensing Act 2003 (£5,000) and

·         Workshop – Involving men and boys in tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (£2,000).

4.  The remaining upfront budget of £2,332.26 was added to the Tactical Pot leaving the KCSP with £15,553.26 for in year use.

5.  Further project proposals were subsequently submitted by partners and considered by the KCSP Working Group across two meetings. (See Appendix 2 for details of the recommended tactical pot projects)

6.  The PCC agreed to fund two additional projects which were submitted at a later stage:

·         British Sign Language (BSL) Interpretation to TEPO – Doorstep Crime and Scams Modules (£5,500) and

·         Local Vape Action Retailer Packs (£2,000).

7.  Mr Perez said that, if all projects received approval from the PCC, then the majority of the Tactical Pot funding would be allocated.

8.  In terms of the KCST Update, Mr Perez said that in the past year the KCST delivered eleven well-attended lunchtime Community Safety Information Sessions which covered a variety of topics, including Kent Police’s Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) Hub, Dangerous Dogs, the Domestic Abuse Champions project and the 16 Days of Activism.

9.  The KCST had delivered five Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) learning webinars, including sessions on Caring Dynamics and Dementia, and the case of ‘Angela’ which discussed the impact of child separation, suicide, and domestic abuse. All of which were well attended with 100% of respondents to the evaluation survey rated them as good, very good or excellent.

RESOLVED that members of the Kent Community Safety Partnership (KCSP):

a)    Note the progress and actions undertaken by the Working Group and the work of the Kent Community Safety Team (KCST).

b)    Contact the KCST kentcommunitysafetyteam@kent.gov.uk with any:

·    Project proposals for the Crime Reduction Grant funding.

·    Suggestions for future speakers/topics that might be of interest for the Community Safety Information Sessions (CSIS).

·    Key updates that might be appropriate to include in future editions of the KCST e-bulletin.

1.  Ms Claire Harris, Road Safety Manager (Kent Fire & Rescue Service) and Coordinator for the Kent and Medway Safer Roads Partnership (KMSRP), delivered a presentation. She explained that the KMSRP had been recently restructured and has a Strategic Board that provided governance and oversight across the partnership which included senior officers and elected members from these organisations. The Board was chaired by the Kent Police & Crime Commissioner. The Tactical Coordination Group Chaired by Ms Harris was instead tasked with the delivery of the actions.

2.  In terms of the Vision Zero Strategy, significant progress had been made towards its implementation and the establishment of a Safe System based structure across Kent and Medway. The Strategy had been developed in collaboration amongst partners organisations to align partner visions driving the strategy forward to achieve the Vision Zero goals. One activity was the establishment of a motorcycle working group which aimed reducing the number of motorcycle fatalities on Kent’s roads.

3.  Mr Mark Bunting (KCC Highways) expanded on the Vision Zero strategy. He said that everybody had the responsibility to reduce the number of road deaths and injuries.

4.  The support of Safe System would help with this task. The Safe System was made up of a number of layers of protection. These were:

·         Safer Roads and Streets Projects to improve safety, such as School Street Schemes, near-miss recording trials, active travel infrastructure work and highway improvements.

·         Safe Speeds Initiatives, such as the Kent & Medway Safety Camera Partnership collaborative approach and Community Speed Watch.

·         Safe Behaviours Road safety education, training and publicity campaigns.

·         Post Collision Response Weekly partnership meetings to discuss recent incidents and potential solutions, ensuring coordinated responses and learning from serious collisions.

·         Safer Vehicles Fleet engagement and initiatives, such as Driving for Better Business and the new Kent Fleet Forum to promote safer vehicle technology and best practice in fleet safety management.

RESOLVED that the Kent Community Safety Partnership note the contents of the report.

1.  The paper reported that there were an estimated 81,000 people taking illegal drugs in Kent of which around 32,000 took Class A drugs. The rate of unmet need of Opiates and Crack (OCUs) was 63%: this was higher than the national average (54%). There was an estimated rate of 11.5 per 1000 in need of alcohol treatment services for dependent drinking (which was slightly lower than the England average of 13.5). New dangerous substances, such as nitrazines and xylazines, were on the increase.

2.  Dr Lin Guo, Public Health Specialist, KCC, said that the Kent Drug and Alcohol Strategy had 13 priorities. These were:

·         Priority 1 & 2 - Prevention, early intervention and behaviour change

·         Priority 3 - Improving hospital and acute pathways to treatment

·         Priority 4 - Children and young people living with alcohol misusing parents / Preventing inter-generational alcohol misuse

·         Priority 5 - Tackling high rates of suicide and self-harm associated with substance misuse

·         Priority 6 - Continued improvements to Kent treatment and recovery services

·         Priority 7 - Criminal justice routes to substance misuse treatment

·         Priority 8 - Improve treatment and recovery for targeted groups / vulnerable People

·         Priority 9 - Improve pathways to treatment and recovery to rough sleepers

·         Priority 10 - Improving treatment and recovery for people with co-occurring conditions

·         Priority 11 - Working in partnership to share data and intelligence in order to identify those at risk of drug / alcohol related harm & exploitation and to provide safeguarding and intensive support

·         Priority 12 - Disrupting supply of illegal drugs

·         Priority 13 - Tackling local alcohol supply.

3.  The two overarching governance structures that supported the Strategy were the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Kent Community Safety Partnership. There were also strong governance links to the NHS Integrated Care Board for both prevention and mental health.

4.  The Substance Misuse Alliance was tasked with the delivery of the strategy and Chaired by the Lead Member for Social Care and Public Health. The Senior Responsible Officer for the Combating Drugs Partnership was Dr Anjan Ghosh, Director of Public Health in KCC. Key organisations involved in this initiative included public health specialists, commissioners, Kent police, probation services, substance misuse service providers, and non-profit organisations.

RESOLVED that the KCSP note the progress and actions undertaken through the Kent Combating Drug Partnership and Kent Drug and Alcohol Strategy.

·                     Tuesday, 31 March 2026 at 10am

·                     Thursday, 23 July 2026 at 10am

RESOLVED that the KCSP note the dates of future meetings.

1.  Mr Peerbux provided an update on the Kent and Medway Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews (DARDRs) cases and updates from the DARDR Steering Group in relation to policy and procedures, funding and sharing of lessons identified.

2.  The published DARDR cases can be found on the Kent.gov website using the link below:

https://www.kent.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/information-for-social-care-professionals/adult-safeguarding-for-professionals/domestic-abuse-related-death-reviews

RESOLVED that the Kent Community Safety Partnership:

·         Note the updates within this report and progress on all cases.

·         Note the plans for continued online learning events.

·         Review the DARDR Funding arrangements report paper dated 20^th November 2025 (see D2).

1. Mr Peerbux provided an update on the funding situation for DHRs/DARDRs and

    set out the Steering Group recommendations for the funding arrangements for 

    2026/27, as well as outlining the considerations and options for the future.

2.  He said that at the Steering Group meeting in September 2025 it was agreed that, given the increase in caseloads and upcoming changes to the DHR/DARDR criteria, action had to be taken to ensure the Responsible Authorities could continue to meet their statutory duties.

RESOLVED that the Partnership:

·         Consider the detail and various options outlined in this report.

·         Support the Steering Group recommendation to stagger the 40% increase – (i) 10% increase in 2026/27 to partially cover the cost of the heightened caseload and ensure a lesser drawdown is required from the reserves at the end of the financial year (maintaining enough in the reserve to cover one or two additional reviews above the expected norm). (ii) Plan for remaining 30% increase in 2027/28 if no central government funding is forthcoming.

·         Continue to endorse the use of the DHR Reserves to cover the increased costs associated with the heightened caseload in 2025/26 whilst maintaining a minimum buffer of approximately £12k (to cover the cost of one review).

·         Note that, if the above recommendations are adopted and central government funding is not forthcoming, a further revision to contribution levels may be required in 2027/28.

1. Mr Nick Wilkinson (Assistant Director Contest and Serious Organised Crime, KCC) provided a verbal update on the local and national context in relation to the Prevent Duty.

2. The Chair informed the Partnership that this was Nick Wilkinson’s last meeting with the KCSP. The Chair thanked Nick for his participation, professionalism and valued contribution to the KCSP over the years.

RESOLVED that the Kent Community Safety Partnership note the update on the activity in regard to the Prevent Duty.