Agenda and minutes

1.1       The Committee agreed the minutes of the previous meeting.

2.1       Cllr Sheppard sent his apologies (Cllr Stogdon substitute).

Disclosures by all members present of personal interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the member regards the interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.

3.1       Councillor Webb declared a personal interest in item 5 as he had previously been involved in a fundraising event for East Sussex Recovery Alliance.

Notification of items which the Chair considers to be urgent and proposes to take at the appropriate part of the agenda. Any members who wish to raise urgent items are asked, wherever possible, to notify the Chair before the start of the meeting. In so doing, they must state the special circumstances which they consider justify the matter being considered urgent.

4.1       There were none.

5.1          The Committee considered a report by the Director of Adult Social Care and Health updating it on the progress of the new Support and Treatment for Adults in Recovery (STAR) service. STAR is commissioned by the Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) and provided by Crime Reduction Initiatives (CRI).

5.2       The Joint Commissioning Manager, Substance Misuse, and representatives of East Sussex Recovery Alliance (ESRA) and Active in Recovery (AiR) provided the following additional information to supplement the written report:

·              CRI sub-contracted some of the services it provided as part of STAR to Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPFT). Consequently, the DAAT had no input into SPFT’s decision to serve notice on its involvement in STAR as the Trust was not commissioned directly by DAAT.

·              There have been notable improvements in the performance of STAR since SPFT withdrew from the contract. This could be due to better communication between the individual services provided within STAR now that they are all provided by the same organisation (CRI).

·              The purpose of STAR was to address the previously high number of re-presentations of the same clients within 6-18 months of completing treatment. The latest figures against the baseline show that this is being achieved.

·              The STAR service uses a recovery based model of treatment rather than a medical model. The recovery model focuses on psycho-social and empathetic treatment for drugs and alcohol and involves the referral of people for rehabilitation at mutual aid groups. This model is increasingly favoured as the most effective model for recovery.

·              Mutual aid groups include:

o  12 step fellowship groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous; and

o  local recovery groups run by people with lived experience of addiction who act as role models for patients, encouraging and inspiring them to complete their recovery process. AiR and ESRA are two local recovery groups to which STAR refers patients.

·              Active in Recovery (AiR) is a project run by Action for Change that provides peer-led activities in Eastbourne. AiR is using funding from Public Health England (PHE) to set up a community café in Eastbourne. The café will offer a dry bar and a social space for people in recovery to use; it will also offer training in food hygiene and first aid – with other courses to follow.

·              East Sussex Recovery Alliance (ESRA) is a peer-led local recovery group with hubs in Eastbourne and Hastings. It is run by Community Recovery Champions (who themselves are in recovery) who develop and facilitate peer-led support groups. ESRA is reliant on funding but is aiming to be self-funding.

·              ESRA support groups are gender specific as men and women tend to have different support needs. The groups are designed to increase self-esteem and offer a safe space – which are best nurtured in a gender specific environment.

5.3       The following additional points were made in response to questions from the Committee:

·              There is no time limit to when a client is considered out of recovery. If a client relapses at any  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1    The Committee considered a report by the Director of Adult Social Care and Health providing an overview of the East Sussex Safer Communities Partnerships’ Business Plan 2015 to 2016, with particular focus on domestic abuse and the new anti-terror duties coming into force on 1 July 2015.

6.2    Officers provided the following additional information about domestic abuse and hate crime in response to questions from members of the Committee: 

·              Reported crime increased by 15.7% in 2013/14, but this is mainly due to:

o  a number of historic victims of the traditionally underreported crimes of domestic abuse and serious sexual offences coming forward due to high profile national cases; and

o  a nationwide tightening of the guidelines on reporting crime so that more crimes are now classed as ‘violent crime’.

·              Some people have expressed concern that as the White Ribbon campaign focuses on the impact of abuse on women and girls, it could be a barrier to men and boys coming forward about domestic abuse. However, it is part of an umbrella of awareness raising campaigns that the Council supports. Furthermore, campaigns targeted at specific issues with specific audiences, such as breast or prostate cancer, are more effective than general campaigns. The White Ribbon Campaign calls men to speak out to prevent male violence against women and girls.

·              The adult Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) – based in the Saturn Centre, Crawley – and paediatric SARC – based, temporarily, in the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton – provide specialist services for either children or adults who are the victim of rape, sexual violence and abuse throughout the whole of Sussex. On the rare occasion where there is insufficient capacity at either centre, patients may be transferred to SARCs in Hampshire and London. Whilst this is a less desirable situation, there is a forensic window of time during which a patient needs to be admitted to a SARC.

·              The Paediatric SARC is for young people under the age of 14. Young people aged 15-16 years are referred to either the paediatric SARC or adult SARC depending on the advice of clinicians about which would provide better support.

·              Of the 264 recorded hate incidents in East Sussex in 2013/14, 203 were racist, 30 homophobic, 13 disablist, 12 religious and 6 gender based. Incidents were higher in Hastings than Eastbourne. Incidents of hate are also recorded at schools but are not included in these figures.

·              Hate incidents are not about the intent, but the effect on the individual: how the victim perceives the incident, even if the perpetrator did not think it was a hate crime, is key to whether a hate crime has taken place. A third person, such as a police officer, may also perceive an incident to have been a hate crime and report it as such.

6.3      Officers provided the following information, based on a PowerPoint presentation, about the Council’s new anti-terror duties: 

·              Under the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 specified authorities (schools, nursery providers, further and higher  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1.      The Committee considered its work programme for its next two meetings on 17 September and 12 November 2015.

7.2.      RESOLVED:

 to request that the committee papers, agendas and minutes of the East Sussex Better Together (ESBT) Scrutiny Board are circulated to Adult Social Care and Community Safety Scrutiny Committee members as a matter of course.

The latest edition of the Forward Plan.The Committee is asked to make comments or request further information.

8.1.      RESOLVED: to note the forward plan.