Agenda item

Report of the Head of Legal and Democratic Services (attached)

Purpose: This report is a progress update of the delivery of the 2012/13 South and Vale Community Safety Partnership annual plan. It shows how the partnership delivered against its priorities for the period 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013. The committee is asked to note the report.

The committee considered the South and Vale Community Safety Partnership (CSP) 2012/13 annual report.

Mr Bill Service, Cabinet member and current chairman of the CSP; Chief Inspector Elaine Axe representing the CSP; Mrs Liz Hayden; Mrs Karen Brown, introduced the report and answered questions from the committee.

The main points were:

1.      The partnership met quarterly and allocated funding and agreed projects.

2.      It was hard to make predictions and plans as long-term funding was not certain. All funding for the community safety team was from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) budget via the Oxfordshire Safer Communities Partnership (OSCP)CSP; South Oxfordshire District Council contributed no other funding. The council funded six police community support officers from a different budget.

3.      The majority of fixed costs were for staff as many projects could be run at low cost provided staff time was available.

4.      Additional or replacement funding from this council would be a matter for the ruling group to propose and Council to agree.

5.      The underspend was from a one-off grant which had been retained due to the uncertainty in funding after the election of the PCC to allow the team to continue working in 2013/14 in the event of no PCC budget allocation. The money had now been allocated to projects. There would be a reducing carry-forward from 2014/15 onwards.

6.      Services such as Didcot TRAIN and the county council youth hubs were valuable. The CSP considered that the hubsse should be funded via the county council to give more continuity and allow the CSP’s limited funds to be used for projects and wider community safety work.

7.      The Oxfordshire district councils were working together to procure services as a group.

8.      Solving anti-social behaviour caused by families or groups involved splitting up groups and relocating families; finding ways to solve the root causes of the problems; and dealing with people over a period of time. The partnership had got better atre dealing with repeated and sustained anti-social behaviour but solutions took time.

9.      The time shown to make contact with victims of domestic violence was the time from the initial  tocontact to the first face to face meeting. Before this there would be support via the helpline and telephone, although the timescales were unsatisfactorily long.

10.Quantifiable targets were not always meaningful in this work, although they were used where relevant or for specific projects. The PCC’s focus on rural crime had been included in the CSP plan. The over-riding target was to deliver the PCC’s plan; then to monitor and respond to developing trends.

11.The designated public places order in Henley on Thames helped officers to reduce violent disorder by moving people on earlier and was an important power to retain.

Councillors commented:

·          the JTAC group’s joint approach had proved very effective in solving a complex situation in her ward;

·          that in respect of Regatta week it may be worth reviewing whether the powers under the designated public places order in Henley on Thames were over-used; if disorder was increasing; and the order’s effectiveness;

·          that the partnership should press for the continued funding of the County Council hubs;

·          the case studies were useful and showed that these good outcomes took time to achieve;

·          the annual report highlighted good projects, good group working, and successes;

·          the partnership was exemplary and the committee hoped necessary funding to continue was forthcoming.

and asked for:

·          an updated budget report including an amended table on page 5 of the report to be circulated;

·          information about the reason for the difference between South and Vale residents’ perceptions on community cohesion (page 14 of the report).

The committee noted the South and Vale Community Partnership Annual Report for 2012/13 and the successes of the partnership.

The committee thanked Chief Inspector Axe, officers, and the Cabinet member for attending and speaking to the committee.