Agenda item

[Hannah Pawley, Community Safety Manager, to present report]

The Chair invited Hannah Pawley, Community Safety Manager, to present the report

The Community Safety Manager presented the draft Community Safety Strategy consultation document for comment. The Community Safety Manager explained that the strategy was informed following a workshop session in March 2023 with members of Safer Wolverhampton Partnership (SWP) Board to agree the priorities.

The Safer Wolverhampton Partnership is a statutory board which was established under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. A key responsibility of the partnership board is to develop a strategic plan around how the City is going to address crime and disorder issues. The current strategy is due to expire in 2023.

The document was now being presented to share with panel members about the proposed direction of travel for the strategy.

The Community Safety Manager advised the panel that the document is a multi-agency strategy

The Community Safety Manager commented that a decision was made to widen the board membership. There are resident representatives and voluntary sector and regional bodies on the SWP Board. There is an understanding that the priorities of the partnership need to be flexible to able to respond to emerging crime trends or legislative changes.

The Community Safety Manager gave a summary of the six SWP strategic priorities and the commented on the expected achievements and how success will be measured.

The Community Safety Manager commented on the key considerations or challenges to achieving the priorities, for example, a challenge was how to measure the effectiveness of a strategy which is centred around prevention, how to align the priorities with other strategic priorities to avoid the risk of duplication.

The Community Safety Manager commented on the responsibilities of Wolverhampton Safeguarding Together, Safer Wolverhampton Partnership Board and the Health and Wellbeing Together Board and their responsibilities for the local delivery proposals outlined in the presentation.

The Community Safety Manager commented on the key partners, stakeholders, and communities to be consulted with about the draft strategy and the proposed timeline for endorsing the document. A report will be presented to Cabinet in October 2023 for approval of the community safety strategy.

The Community Safety Manager commented on the role of local communities to influence the delivery of the strategic priorities. A series of community online consultation meetings planned which will also be promoted amongst key partners.

The Community Safety Manager advised the panel that there has been a review of the Partners and Communities Together (PACT) and commented that the groups were not considered to be effective everywhere. The role of PACT was considered to have a key role in supporting and delivering the priorities in the strategy

The Community Safety Manager added that there was also the issue of inconsistency in terms of members of the public and partner organisation representative at PACT meetings.

The proposed changes are aimed at increasing attendance while accepting that there is a not a one size fits all approach for each of the PACT areas.

The Community Safety Manager advised the panel that starting in July 2023 there are plans to consult with ward councillors to get initial thoughts and the responses would then be used to produce a draft strategy. The aim was to bring the issue to the scrutiny panel first to give members the opportunity to comment on the plans at an early stage.

The Community Manager was open to comments and that the structure could be very different once the strategy has been developed.

The Community Manager advised the panel that there are plans for a period of three to four months of public consultation. The panel were asked to comment on the strategic priorities and any thoughts on further engagement with the public to help inform the development of the strategy.

The Community Safety Manager suggested a further report on the outcome of the consultation be presented to a future meeting.

The panel were asked to comment on the draft Community Safety Strategy.

The Chair thanked the presenter for the report.

A panel expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the plan to use online consultation and suggested that traders’ markets days would be a good opportunity to consult with public about the plans. The issue of low attendance at PACT meetings was also highlighted as a concern and the need to improve communication with the public.

A panel member suggested that Councillors could be involved in distributing leaflets in the wards or using local libraries to help encourage people to contribute to the ideas for replacing PACT meeting during the consultation.

The panel highlighted the important role on Councillors in making a success of replacement for PACT meetings in the future.

The Community Safety Manager welcomed the feedback on PACT and accepted the need to review how it is promoted online as many people who attend meetings may not access services online.

TheCommunity Safety Manager added that the service is trying to engage more with local businesses to display leaflets to promote PACT meetings with the aim of increasing attendance.

A panel members expressed concern about the decision to cancel PACT meetings at short notice to which residents had been invited and stressed the need to try and re-engage them. A panel member suggested dates for the year should be sent in advance to residents and new ideas considered to engage them.

A panel expressed concern about the decision to cancel planned PACT meetings which were then re-started for a start time of 2pm which was difficult for people working to attend.  The low attendance by police at PACT meetings was highlighted as an issue.

A panel member asked for details about preventative work aimed at improving the safety of women and girls outlined in the presentation.

The Community Safety Manager outlined the work being done in schools which is being delivered by specialist providers. A current programme being run in schools is Men at Work which is aimed at boys and young men and focuses on addressing problematic views on masculinity and misogyny. There is also a parallel programme called Expect Respect, aimed at young women and girls, which discusses how to manage a range of situations, for example, consent and the right to say no if they are not feeling comfortable. The plan is to increase the number of programmes so more people can access it both within schools and in non-education settings.

A panel member commented on the challenges facing residents when making a complaint about incidents of ASB who are expected to record incident diaries for three to four months and that it was very unlikely at the end that this would lead to an eviction due to the threshold for Court action. The panel member wanted further action to address the issue of ASB in the strategy and expressed concern about the lack of reference in the strategy to actively involving the fire service, given its powers to enter a property for safety checks and a positive public image.

A panel member commented on the recent announcement at the National Fire Chiefs Council that that every fire station will be a place of sanctuary which can used when someone is worried about their safety at night by ringing the fire station door and help will be provided. There is a phone on the outside of every fire station that will go direct to fire control for help.

The Community Safety Manager agreed with the comments about the important role of the fire service and agreed to take the issues highlighted back to the SWP Board for discussion.

A panel member queried the use of percentages in slides for number of cases involving public place violence and suggested the actual numbers are better indicator of the change over time.

The panel member also queried the lack in the presentation of any reference to KPIs and suggested this should be included to understand and assess the impact of the strategy in making progress to achieving the SWP strategic priorities. The panel member asked for details of performance measures to be shared.

A panel member expressed concern about the lack of information about a recent stabbing incident in the ward and asked that to better support residents such reports should be shared. The member expressed similar concerns that Wolverhampton Homes do not regularly share such information with Councillors in more consistent and concise way.

The Community Safety Manager advised the panel that there are specific KPIs in the strategy as the aim was to add them when the strategy has been further developed.  There will be a specific action plan and performance framework with an accountable owner who will be reporting regularly on progress.

The Community Safety Manager agreed to check this as her understanding was that monthly crime reports were being shared with Councillors and would also query with Wolverhampton Homes about the sharing of their crime and community safety data with Councillors.

A panel member commented on the impact of drugs misuse and the sale of drugs on streets and complaints about the police not responding to calls from the public. The issue of a fear of retribution for reporting drug matters to the police was highlighted and suggested that the public need more support and encouragement to do so. The panel member commented on the importance of good police communication about the work they are doing and assurance that they will act on reports.

The Community Safety Manager agreed with the importance of good communication which is a central theme across all the SWP strategic priorities.

The panel agreed that a revised draft of the consultation document should be shared with the panel to comment before it is presented to the SWP Board.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report.

Resolved:

1.    The panel agreed to endorse the proposed consultation process.

2.    The Community Safety Manager to note the comments changes to PACT meetings to be noted.

3.    The Community Safety Manager to note the comments on the panel on the drat Community Safety Strategy and provide information requested.

4.    The Community Safety Manager to present a final draft of the consultation document before it presented to the SWP Board for approval.