Agenda and minutes

As the Chairman had to attend a meeting of the Growth, Economic Development and Communities Cabinet Committee the Vice-Chairman took the chair for the meeting.

The notes of the meeting held on 18 March 2014 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

Jim Parris (KCC – Community Safety) introduced a report which provided a brief update on the progress of discussions in reaching agreement to set the criteria and review process for the Community Trigger, a new element of legislation under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Police & Crime Act 2014.

It was suggested that there should be a training session for the Parish Councils on the Community Trigger. 

Andy Rabey (Kent Police) stated that there was a need to look again at the actual wording for the “Proposed Community Trigger Criteria” to ensure that there was clarity around the phases “separate incident” and “no action” to ensure that these was easily understood and able to be consistently applied.

It was agreed that the progress being made toward agreeing the Kent Community Trigger criteria be noted and that a further report detailing the agreed community trigger criteria be considered at the next meeting of the Partnership.

Action – Jim Parris

Jim Parris in introduced a report which set out the outcomes and achievements of the Kent Community Safety Agreement for 2011-14 and outlined the development of the new Agreement for 2014-17 and the associated action plan.

Sean Bone-Knell (Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue) stated that the Kent Community Safety Team had undertaken a lot of work with the action plan and it was now for the Partners to look at it in relation to their areas of work.

The Partnership noted the achievements of the 2014-14 Community Safety Agreement and the progress made with regard to the draft action plan.

It was agreed that the Kent Community Safety Agreement for 2014-17 be approved. 

Alison Gilmour (KCC - Kent and Medway Domestic Violence Co-ordinator) updated the Partners on the work of the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs).  She stated that there had been an increase in cases of high risk domestic abuse being supported via MARAC’s and work was being carried out around the need to build capacity in order manage this process on behalf of the Partnership.  It was currently struggling with the demand/workload volume and there was a need to build capacity.  A consultant had been employed to analyse the work of the MARAC’s with statutory partners in order to see how it could be made more efficient by e.g. avoiding duplication.  There would be a need to seek more funding from partners to build capacity and therefore it was necessary to show the partners how the MARAC added value to their work. 

Alison stated that there may be a further paper to the next meeting of the Partnership out the outcomes from the work carried out by the consultant. 

Action DCI Andy Prichard

(1)       Andy Rabey (Kent Police) updated the Partnership on the meeting of this new Board which had been attended by ACC Rob Price and Cynthia Allan (Kent Probation) from the Partnership.  At the KMRRB meeting a breakdown was given of the offenders being managed per District.  With the increase in privatisation of the Probation Service there would be an increase in offender management, like the MARAC this would be about partnership working to reduce offending. 

(2)       Andy informed the Partnership about Operation Dish which was a system of voluntary tagging which was being piloted in Kent and was proving very successful.  There had been very few offences committed by those that had volunteered to be tagged, the tag had a GPS tracker which provided useful information on where the individual had been.  Offenders were able to use it a as an excuse to stop going around with associates who might lead them into re-offending and it gave comfort to their families by showing how committed they were to not re-offending.

(3)       Andy also referred to the Kenworth Trust facility in Maidstone for the resettlement of offenders and their aim of providing a similar facility in the East and West of the County.  This facility enabled the Trust to support offenders in a new environment making it more likely that they would change their re-offending pattern.

(4)       There had been a very good presentation at the KMRRB by Jess Mookherjee (KCC – Public Health) regarding community centred health needs.

(5)       Cynthia Allen (Kent Probation) stated that Community Safety Partnership colleagues would be very welcome to come along to the operational group which sat below the KMRRB.  Tracey Kadir (National Probation Service) informed the Partnership that she had two National Probation officers to handle case for the whole county of Kent.

(6)       The Partners noted the verbal update on the KMRRB.

(1)       Chief Superintendent Sean Beautridge, Chairman of the Steering Group, gave a power point presentation (copy attached to the minutes) on the Community Safety Stocktake, audit and review and answered questions for partner colleagues.

(2)       Sean thanked the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office for their assistance with analysis of the data.

(3)       Sean Nolan (Chief Finance Officer – PCC) welcomed this countywide statement of intent by countywide partners to have a policy of sharing of best practice across Community Safety Partnerships.  The importance in starting small with this proposal and to create a means for District Councils to link into countywide partners who were responsible for service provision was emphasised.

(4)       David Coleman (KALA) stated that it was important to achieve cost efficiencies and this was supported by Zena Cooke (Maidstone CSP). It was important to district council colleagues to see a reduction in costs as a result of a reduction in duplication of delivery of services. Alastair Stewart (representing District Chief Executives) stated that from the point of view of the District Councils there was a need to start combining resources at a County level and focus on delivery in order to achieve savings. 

(5)       Sean Beautridge confirmed the next stage would be to look at identifying duplicated structures.   He gave the example of the number of partners who go into schools to speak to pupils and whether there was the potential to combine their efforts.

(6)       The Partnership approved the first phase of the Community Safety Stocktake, audit and review.

As the Chairman was not able to join the meeting for this item it was withdrawn.

Noted

The Partnership considered the following items in private session.

Alison Gilmour (Kent and Medway DV Co-ordinator) introduced the report which was tabled at the meeting and provided an update on each of the individual cases and included information on the process for monitoring the implementation of DHR recommendations. She outlined the issue that there was with agencies providing timely updates on DHR’s and the proposed  process to address this. She explained the role taken by the Kent and Medway DHR Steering Group in reviewing the action plan from an East Sussex DHR which consisted of representatives from agencies from East Sussex and Kent. She also provided an update on DHR funding, DHR/Serious Case Review interface and feedback from the Lessons Learned Seminars.

The Partnership agreed to :

(a)  note the progress of the current DHR cases

(b)  the Chairman of the Partnership writing to East Susses CSP to confirm that the Kent actions have been discharged in regard to their DHR

(c)  the escalation process outlined in the report to ensure agencies provide timely updates on DHR recommendations.

(d)  to note the work undertaken to ensure an effective interface is now in place between DHR and Serious Case Review process and agree to the dissolution of the Task and Finish Group.

Andy Rabey and Andrea Bishop (Kent Police) gave a verbal update on emerging intelligence issues relating to communities in Kent.