Agenda item

Report No: OAS/WS/20/012

The Chair of the Western Suffolk Community Safety Partnership, Councillor Joanna Spicer has been invited to the meeting to present the report to the Committee.

It was the duty of the Committee, as the Council’s Crime and Disorder Committee designated under the Police and Justice Act 2006, to scrutinise the work of the Partnership.

The Committee received Report No: OAS/WS/20/012, presented by the Chair of the Western Suffolk Community Safety Partnership, Councillor Joanna Spicer, and the Council’s Cabinet Member for Families and Communities, Councillor Robert Everitt. 

The report set out the background to the partnership and the statutory bodies involved which Councillor Joanna Spicer expanded on, as well as updating Members on the community safety activity in West Suffolk, including the Western Suffolk Community Safety Partnership (WSCSP) for 2019-2020.

Over the past year the WSCSP had continued to meet and discharge its statutory duties by carrying out an annual assessment of crime and disorder in the area, continuing to deliver the three year plan and action plan to reflect the priorities of the partnership, and carrying out Domestic Homicide Reviews.

Attached at Appendix A to the report, was the WSCSP Plan 2019-2022, which was required to reflect the Suffolk Police and Crime Plan published by the Police and Crime Commissioner.

In June 2019, the WSCSP considered its priorities for 2019-2020.  It was agreed a review of the current action plan and a more in-depth strategic assessment would be conducted over the year, with a draft to be presented to the WSCSP Responsible Authorities Group in March 2020.  However, this meeting was cancelled due to Covid-19 and it was now anticipated the review of the action plan would be completed by the end of September 2020.

Based on the outcomes of partnership discussions and a strategic assessment of crime, the following priorities were identified as the focus of the WSCSP:

-        County Lines;

-        Violence against women and girls (including men and boys);

-        Domestic homicide reviews;

-        Hate crime; and

-        Prevent

Councillor Robert Everitt, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Families and Communities explained that the WSCSP covered a large geographical area, which included a number of important organisations, which were set out on page 21 of the report.  He and Councillor Spicer also wanted to thank Helen Lindfield, who was the previous support officer at St Edmundsbury Borough Council and West Suffolk Council for all the work she had put in over many years at the WSCSP.

The Committee considered the report in detail and asked a number of questions to which comprehensive responses were provided by Councillor Spicer and officers. 

Detailed discussions were held on modern day slavery where Councillor Diane Hind informed the Committee that the former St Edmundsbury Borough Council had adopted in 2017 a modern slavery statement.  She felt at the time this was a tick box exercise rather than an effort to do anything regarding modern day slavery. In view of today’s report, she felt that modern day slavery was currently only covered by safeguarding training, an e-learning module and a national referral form.  She questioned whether the Committee needed to put forward something more robust.  The Modern Day Slavery Act did not specifically require local authorities to comply with Section 54 of the Act, but many councils were voluntarily preparing a slavery and human trafficking statement and she felt West Suffolk Council should be among them and should declare that it deplored all forms of slavery that existed and it would do all it could to help stamp it out.  She suggested that the Committee should put a motion to council stating it will train its corporate procurement team to understand modern slavery through the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply and that it requires its contractors to also fully comply with the Modern Slavery Act. 

In response, officers explained that the WSCSP had identified the cross-over with modern day slavery and county lines.  As part of the work being carried out by the WSCSP, modern day slavery would be adopted at its next meeting and would be looking to incorporate it into is plan.  As a council it was very much active on this issue and modern-day slavery was included in its procurement policy.

Councillor Spicer stated it was a matter for the Committee to decide on what it wanted to take forward as a council for action, which would have the support of the Community Safety Partnership.

The Chair informed the committee that this could be discussed further under item 11 on the agenda (Work Programme 2020-2021).

In response to a question raised regarding county lines the Committee was informed that the number of county line drug supply operations frequently changed, with a number active in West Suffolk, despite activity being severely reduced during the Covid-19 lockdown.  Councillor Spicer explained that at the beginning of lockdown things did go quiet but her understanding after having spoken with the police, was suppliers had found other ways to use other routes trying to infiltrate existing drug supplies in the county.

In response to a question raised a breakdown of county lines by ward in West Suffolk, officers agreed to looking into after the meeting how numbers could be provided confidentially to members.  Noting that this information was subject to frequent change.

In response to a question raised regarding what else was being done to tackle hate crime, members were informed that in October 2020 there would be a Hate Crime Awareness Week which would also include modern day slavery.  With regards to training, the council had concentrated on training staff, so they were aware of how to identify hate crime and modern day slavery as well as identifying the different avenues for reporting.  Hate crime had also been adopted as a priority by the WSCP and was looking at providing more preventative work.

In response to a question raised on what more could be done to support victims of domestic abuse, members were informed that victim support was one of the WSCSP priorities.  Over the last few months, the partnership had been concentrating on support.  During the Covid lockdown specialist services in Suffolk had adapted extremely quickly.  Between March and July 2020 there had been a 27% increase in domestic abuse compared to the same period last year.  Additional measures had been put in place when lockdown began, such as ensuring services had online and telephone avenues to get help.  Call handlers on the Home but Not Alone scheme set up by the council during lockdown were alert to potential domestic abuse and were able to provide contact numbers.  Funding had also been secured for general practitioners to text their vulnerable patients.  The council had also established a page on its intranet so that staff and councillors could seek sources of advice, support and reporting concerns, and the Police and Crime Commissioner had received funding from the government to help support victims of domestic abuse.

Discussions were also held on working with perpetrators of domestic abuse, as well as the postponement of crucial crew and its future delivery. 

There being no decision required, the Committee noted the contents of the report, subject to comments made during the meeting to the Chair of the Western Suffolk Community Safety Partnership and officers.