Agenda item

Update on Prevention of Serious Violence Programme

Minutes:

Alison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner, presented the update on the Prevention of Serious Violence Programme. Key points highlighted to Members included the following:

 

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a director had been appointed for the programme on serious violence who would be starting in January 2021;

 

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Crest Advisory had been procured to assist with the data collection exercise;

 

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statistical reports would be available in the next couple of months to assist with who and where attention would be focused;

 

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a number of projects had been commissioned including Turning Corners, a gang related project for Teignbridge and South Hams;

 

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a project had been commissioned for the young people in and near the Falmouth area, as a test bed, for 6 months to look at how better young people could be supported through a community response;

 

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a meeting took place with the Minister for Vulnerability, Victoria Atkins (she worked with the Police on Operation Encompass). We were presenting the successes, we won the world class policing award for this work. We have a unique opportunity to work alongside partners in our communities to drive this work forward;

 

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when the Domestic Abuse Bill comes in work would be undertaken to identify and recognise individuals as victims in their own right. That would be a major shift in how services are delivered and would mean challenges.

 

The Panel discussed:

 

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their concerns with the increase in figures;

 

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that abuse would likely affect victims from conviction through to later in life when the defendant was released from prison. These victims had massive scarring and required a lot of support. (Councillor Haydon requested that the Commissioner looked into this from a Police perspective and would provide examples to the Commissioner outside of this meeting);

 

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that the report highlighted the partnership practice and Public Health approach, and questioned if the budget that the Government gave Local Authorities for Public Health were a constraint on the partnership being effective?

 

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how partnership funding was divided and requested that data was provided to the panel as well as the partnerships’ effectiveness;

 

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why was any tracking of violent crime and other crime trends removed from the Police and Crime Plan first bought forward in June 2017?

 

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why in the report in May 2018 was there no mention of violent crime?

 

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the number of PCSO’s and how they have been re-absorbed in the police force.

 

The Police and Crime Commissioner clarified that the Panel needed to consider their role, as it was not for them to hold the Commissioner to account; the panel’s role was to scrutinise and support the Commissioners actions and decisions. The ballot box held the Commissioner to account. It was highlighted that the first few years of office had been about prioritising recruitment of Police Officers, as there was flexibility from the Government to uplift council tax, initially supported by the public, this waned with increases in council tax bills.  The priority had been increasing force officer numbers. There was a fund in place this year to assist with serious violence with a programme of doing things differently than we normally do. The commissioning budget report would show a lot of budget will be around focus and preventing violence.

 

The Panel noted the update.

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