Name

Minute

Reason

Interest

Mr Steve Meakin

15 – Emergency

Welfare Scheme

Update

18 - Work

Programme

Works for the CAB who

contribute financially to the

scheme

Is a landlord of student

accommodation

Personal

Personal

Outcome

Action – K29

PI

People are treated with dignity and respect

Become a welcoming city that is diverse, inclusive and that combats hate crime and discrimination

Percentage of residents who believe Plymouth is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together

(a)

a great deal of work had been undertaken (and was ongoing) with partners across the city to improve on the 69.9% figure recorded in 2008 which was well below the national average of 75.8%;

(b)

by 2014 the city’s rating had improved to 76% - above the national average;

(c)

in liaison with the police, any information received was recorded, analysed and, where appropriate, acted upon.  This included provision of extra police patrols in any areas identified as having a ‘spike’ in incidents;

(d)

examples of partnership working and activities aimed at improving communities perceptions of ‘getting on well’ included –

·         development of ‘safe reporting’ centres;

·         development of bespoke interventions in response to incidents or crimes related to racism, homophobia, transphobia, disability or belief;

·         co-ordination of a range of initiatives during Hate Crime Week (12/10/15);

·         provision of small grants to diverse communities in order to promote and celebrate our welcoming and inclusive city;

·         Devonport Multiagency Inclusion Day;

(e)

the information provided in the report had come from the last corporate survey on wellbeing.  The results were statistically validated to determine whether or not the returns received were enough to be representative of the city;

(f)

intervention was tailored to address the particular issues within a community – extra Policing along Ebrington Street being one example in response to a spike in incidents.  In addition, supporting community events and challenging discriminatory attitudes were other positive measures used in targeting neighbourhoods where there were problems or community cohesion was low;

(g)

information was available by neighbourhood, however, as the number of BME people likely to be included in the sample would be low, and not everyone would state their ethnicity as part of the survey, analysis by ethnicity would not be robust;

(h)

the question ‘do you believe Plymouth is a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together’ was one of a package of questions contained within the wellbeing survey which was undertaken in 2014;

(i)

the small grants scheme comprises grants of up to £1,000 of which approximately 10 had been issued to date;

(j)

incidents of race crime accounted for 60% of all hate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

(a)

whilst funding had initially been for two years, the implementation of an efficient administration process and robust governance meant that the Council had managed to extend availability of the fund for a third year up to 31 March 2016;

(b)

with regard to the spend profile, further work was being done over the next few weeks to dip sample some of the applications coming through in order to try and establish why demand in some areas was greater than in others.  It was, however, thought to be related to the level of vulnerability of the people living in those areas rather than their proximity to the city centre and accessibility to the service;

(c)

there was a limit on the number of claims applicants were allowed to submit, with a maximum two being allowed in one year.  Further work was done with those applicants to establish whether they were getting all of the benefits they were entitled to and to identify if other areas of support could be offered in order to prevent them coming back again, including money management;

(d)

there had been a significant reduction in community care grant payments and this was possibly due to being stricter in terms of the criteria, however, the dip sampling exercise being undertaken would hopefully find the underlying reason;

(e)

demand was increasing considerably.  The total number of applications for 2014/15 had been 2,822 whereas in the first six months of 2015/16 staff had processed 1,899 applications;

(f)

it was estimated, based on current projected spend levels, that there would be approximately £275,000 remaining in the fund at the end of the financial year.  However, a particularly harsh winter could increase demand further so it was very difficult to say whether there would be anything left in the pot to either carry forward or hand over to the voluntary and community sector should they even wish to come forward and take the fund on;

(g)

18% of successful crisis payment applications had been for assistance to pay for gas/electric.  Money was deposited onto a payment card rather than issued in cash form and officers liaised with landlords to ensure that properties were energy efficient.  Where appropriate, referrals were made to Plymouth Energy Community (PEC) who, in partnership with British Gas, were offering free cavity wall and loft insulation.

(a)

the Partnership had recently embarked on a period of review and development based on the principles of systems leadership (as recommended by the Fairness Commission).  As a result, Safer Plymouth members had agreed to move to a more dynamic and innovative way of working, working effectively together toward agree outcomes that benefitted Plymouth, irrespective of whether or not they were top priorities for individual organisations;

(b)

since 2006/07 there had been a long-term trend of reducing crime in the City; almost 9,500 less crimes altogether, and between April 2015 and August 2015 there had been 7,658 recorded crimes; representing a 3% reduction on the same period the previous year.

(c)

the new partnership approach would be more reactive, focusing on issues through ‘deep dive’ exercises as necessary, as opposed to the committee-style approach which was more meeting based and focused.  An example of a recent multi-agency event was a review of the Quality Inn following the latest arson incident.  Safer Plymouth had organized a well-attended public meeting represented by the Police, Planning, Fire, Public Health and Public Protection to hear and respond to the community’s views and respond to questions.  Following that meeting Safer Plymouth had continued to co-ordinate multi-agency action, including successful prosecution of the owner and was continuing to press the owner to fully resolve the situation;

(d)

spikes in crime could appear for many reasons and sometimes for no reason at all other than random, one-off incidents.  For example, in Greenbank last Saturday evening eight windows were taken out in one street.  Sector meetings would look at every crime which had taken place to determine whether they were repeats or part of a theme.  Whitleigh was one area which had been looked at where there was no apparent reason for the spike, this could be as a result of domestic abuse or other incidents taking place behind closed doors, including youth on youth or youth on adult incidents;

(e)

operationEncompas was still running, however, more publicity was required to promote the fact that it was still in existence as people seemed to think that it was not.  Concerns remained with data recording and dissemination as there were still issues in getting information to school by the next morning;

(f)

there was concern that the number of reported crimes was going down because of people’s lack of confidence in reporting crimes.  This had been the subject of discussion at last week’s meeting of the Police and Crime Panel, particularly the failings in the 101 service which had recently been reviewed by the Police and Crime  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

(1)

co-operative review ‘the effects of the expansion of Plymouth University and its students on the surrounding residential areas’ is removed from the 2015/16 work programme;

(2)

Cabinet Members with portfolio responsibilities within the panel’s terms of reference are invited to attend the panel’s meeting on 14 March 2016.