Rachel Silcock (Strategic Commissioning Manager, PCC) introduced the Draft Commissioning Plan 2018/19 and highlighted that approximately £20,000 had not yet been allocated.  The Chair added that business plans had been completed by each of the Theme Leads incorporating intentions and priorities.

Under this item Theme Updates were also discussed:

·         ‘Prevent’ – the multi-agency partnership plan was currently being revised; there was a focus on building relationships with the vulnerable community in the city, the visibility of the prevent agenda as well as training for front line professionals. The priority was to highlight the conversation around the prevent agenda as well as broadening the scope to include safeguarding, CSE and Modern Slavery. Multi agency training was discussed as well as the opportunity of feeding into wellbeing hubs to raise awareness;

·         ‘CSE’ – there was good partnership and multi-agency working regarding this theme however more work was required to support the wider community in recognising and reporting safeguarding issues. The importance of receiving effective data on the child was discussed, and how this would help to target the focus of awareness campaigns and to help prevent young people being exploited. Priorities included working with young people to understand how to effectively communicate with them, gang exploitation and Operation Bullfinch. Members discussed the trusted relationships fund which linked to early prevention.

·         ‘Harm’ – it was expected that there may be a small capital bid for a mobile operating base to be located in the city centre to be used by street pastors, police officers, the ambulance service and other agencies. The Purple Flag Accreditation, a nationally recognised accreditation regarding excellence of provision in the ENTE, was also discussed. Members highlighted resource implications and the benefit this would have for the city, specifically regarding Mayflower 2020;

·         ‘welcoming city’ – a bid was being worked on, ready for submission to the DCLG Connecting Communities Fund for projects to be run around the city, especially linked to left behind communities. It was expected that approximately £300,000 was required to run community events and projects and encourage communities to set up their own action groups.  It was considered that some areas of the city had higher frequencies of hate crime and negative attitudes towards people of difference. The DCLG had temporarily suspended the bid process however it was hoped that it would be open again in the summer. The School Empathy Pilot was also discussed whereby a project had been set up to encourage children to value difference; take up for the project was slow and there was concern that this wouldn’t be rolled out to all schools.

·         ‘Discrimination and Hate Crime’ – funding to encourage third party reporting centres was in place; partnership work was due to start in April 2018. It was considered that the marketing of these reporting centres was required in order to highlight their existence. Members discussed the need to go back to One Plymouth regarding marketing communications and the need to assess the welcoming city strap line.

·         ‘County lines’ – delivery plans had been revised as a result of receiving £20,000 Home Office funding. It was asked, what is meant by county lines and what are the core elements and messages that need to be advertised and managed. It was hoped that key messages would be finalised within the next few months in order to help with training, awareness and profile mapping.

·         ‘Modern slavery’ – the previous 12 months had focused around information sharing and awareness raising from different organisations including trading standards, licensing and immigration; positive results had been observed due to sharing information. Training and the ability to spread messages via social media was discussed.

·         ‘Fraud’ – work had been carried out in relation to awareness raising and partnership working. Scam work, involving the National Scam Team and Trading Standards, had been undertaken. There were over 650 scam victims on the list in Plymouth and a considerable amount were considered to be vulnerable, elderly or socially isolated. Work was ongoing with housing associations, social workers and carers to highlight the risk of scams and how to recognise scams. It was discussed that more work could be done to join up messages from different organisations regarding scammers.

Action Point = For the Chair, Candice Sainsbury, Matt Garrett, Rachel Silcock and Laura Griffiths to meet separately to discuss multi agency training and potential funding.

Action Point = For the Chair, Matt Garrett, Craig Downham, Councillor Mrs Bowyer and Councillor Downie to meet to discuss the Purple Flag Accreditation and if it should be a Safer Plymouth Sub Group or should sit elsewhere.

Action Point = For a briefing paper to be submitted from Safer Plymouth to One Plymouth regarding the Welcoming City Theme group, focusing upon delivery and the marketing strategy/ communications.