Name

Subject

Reason

Interest

Councillor Mrs Beer

Minute 35

Serious Acquisitive Crime Figures

Employed by Devon and Cornwall Police

Personal and

Prejudicial

Councillor Delbridge

Minute 35

Serious Acquisitive Crime Figures

Son is employed by the Devon and Cornwall Police

Personal

Councillor

Thompson

Minute 34

Strategic Framework for information and Advice Services Framework

Board Member of Citizens Advice Bureau

Personal

Min. 23(k)

Plymouth Life Centre and Related Leisure Projects

12/09/11

the panel sought clarification on whether the initial problems encountered with Everyone Active’s website had been addressed.

Min. 23(m)

Plymouth Life Centre and Related Leisure Projects

12/09/11

the panel sought the details of the provision of direct bus services to the Plymouth Life Centre from across the city and the frequency of the services, particularly at weekends and evenings.

Min. 23(p)

12/09/11

the panel sought clarification on the following issues –

1. the joining up of the cycle routes to allow people to cycle to the facility;

2. the draft travel plan making no reference to Plymouth Argyle home matches;

3. the unquantifiable car movement targets;

4. the incentives on a reduction in the ticket price rather than a cup of coffee.

(a)

good quality information and advice services were a central element of support for the Council’s customers; this was particularly relevant at the present time due to the scale of changes relating to the reform of welfare benefits and the delivery of adult social care services;

(b)

providing the right information and advice in the right way would make a huge difference to customers’ experiences of the changes and associated services;

(c)

the Council delivered a range of information and advice services relating to financial inclusion and adult social care, many of which were commissioned separately and related to different strategies including the Financial Inclusion Strategy 2009-12, Adult Social Care Market Position Statement 2011 and other agendas, such as worklessness, homelessness and child poverty;

(d)

the provision of these services had been reviewed against current need and in consultation with stakeholders; this review had suggested that there were benefits for the Council’s customers, if a more holistic and joined up approach was taken to future provision;

(e)

in order to guide future provision, build on and update the Financial Inclusion Strategy 2009-12, it was proposed that the Council adopted a Strategic Framework for Information and Advice Services which would guide future commissioning and better align financial information and advice with adult social care advice giving services;

(f)

there was a total of £14m of benefits that had not been claimed.

(g)

the amount of unclaimed benefits related to a one year period within the Plymouth area (this figure had shown a year on year increase);

(h)

there was a wide range of reasons why benefits were not claimed; the take up of benefits was largely dependent on the social group, ie older people, families with children, etc;

(i)

a number of consultations were being undertaken to ascertain what people would like to see from the service;

(j)

it was important that the advice provided was enabling and empowering to allow people to resolve their own issues;

(k)

there had been no benefit ‘take up’ campaigns run this year;

(l)

there were a number of methods of communication that were currently being used such as First Stop, the main Council contact number 668000 as well as the Citizens Advice Bureau;

(m)

currently in discussions with the NHS on service provision;

(n)

a review was currently being undertaken by central government on how people applied for benefits; the introduction of universal credit would radically simplify the system for applying for benefits;

(o)

panel members would be provided with the link to e-perform, in order to access benefit performance data.

(a)

Home Office figures released in January 2011 had shown that Devon and Cornwall was the third safest force area in England and Wales (53 crimes per 1000 population, compared to 75 nationally);

(b)

over  a 12 month period (up to the end of August 2011), Plymouth continued to hold a steady position of being ranked fourth best (of 15) in its family group of similar cities for all crime;

(c)

between 1 April 2011 and week ending 18 September 2011, the level of overall crime in Plymouth had increased by 2.4 percent  (234 crimes) compared to the same period last year; this was largely attributed to the increased levels of serious acquisitive crime, especially burglary dwelling and theft from motor vehicles;

(d)

crime levels were fluid and were sometimes subject to seasonal increases/decreases; a number of crimes can often be attributed to one or two known prolific offenders;

(e)

between 1 April 2011 and week ending 18 September 2011 the levels of serious acquisitive crime had risen by 16 per cent (an increase of 188 offences) compared to the same period last year;

(f)

the number of burglaries in dwellings had risen by 19 per cent (an increase of 85); thefts from vehicles had risen by 19 per cent (an increase of 90); despite this, in both cases, Plymouth had improved from fourth to third best in its most similar group of similar cities and were second best for theft of motor vehicle offences; numbers of each of these crime types are ‘leveling off’ at the time of this report;

(g)

the type of burglaries currently being committed were mainly break-ins into insecure premises which were likely to be committed by opportunist thieves;

(h)

some thefts from motor vehicles had included metal objects (from vans) and also opportunist ‘smash and grab’ offences where sat navs were targeted;

(i)

a wide range of work was being undertaken to address the increases in serious acquisitive crimes, which included –

?

the police undertaking a number of covert operations and activities;

?

running a community focus week in Mutley/Greenbank, which had led to arrests of offenders for vehicle crimes and burglaries;

?

preparing a problem profile on the hot spot areas for domestic burglaries which would help to further identify and target offenders and also determine times for additional patrols and interventions;

(j)

?

the crime profile report had identified burglary and theft from motor vehicle offences appeared to be being committed by a larger number of new/unknown offenders, committing a greater number of offences, rather than being linked to one or two known offenders to whom a large number of crimes were attributed.

(k)

the value of goods  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

(1)

participate in the scrutiny training on 21 November 2011;

(2)

change the time of the meeting from 4pm to 5pm (training would therefore commence at 4pm);

(3)

raise with the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board the issue of the provision of training during normal working hours which made it difficult for those councillors in full time employment to attend.