Agenda item

13.1     The Head of Safer Communities introduced the report which outlined the performance of the Safer Communities Partnership for the 2021/22 year against the Partnership’s business plan priorities. The Head of Safer Communities’ introduction covered trends in some criminal activity from local police data, service performance priorities and issues, residents’ community safety priorities highlighted in responses to the latest East Sussex Reputation Tracker Survey, and the Partnership’s successes with securing additional income, all of which were set out in more detail in the report and appendices. 

13.2     The Chair thanked the Head of Safer Communities for the comprehensive report and particularly for Appendix 2, which had been provided in response to a previous request from the Committee. The Committee asked questions and made comments on the following areas:

·                     Anti-Social Behaviour Crime Reports – the Head of Safer Communities was asked to comment on Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) figures included in Appendix 1 of the report and reports of ASB for wards in Hastings. The Head of Safer Communities clarified that while reports of ASB had steadily increased in the data period captured in Appendix 1 (2018/19-2020/21), in the rolling data for August 2021-July 2022, compared to the rolling data for August 2020 to July 2021, reports of ASB nuisance crimes had decreased in Hastings by 47% which was positive and showed progress in the right direction. It was recognised that there remained some significant issues with ASB in Hastings Town Centre and a member of the Safer East Sussex Team attended a multi-agency partnership group focussed on addressing this specifically. A question was also asked on whether there had been any interrogation of whether the decrease in reports of ASB in 2021/22 referenced in the cover report related to a decrease in reports, rather than a decrease in incidents. The Head of Safer Communities responded that unfortunately the Safer East Sussex Team were not able to determine this from the data available, but did ask borough and district council colleagues to notify the Team of any community tensions so that they could understand if there were concerns about increases in ASB that were not being reported.

·                     Insights from domestic abuse figures – the Head of Safer Communities was asked to comment on domestic abuse figures and clarified that while incidents of domestic abuse had slightly decreased (by 4.7%) between 2020/21 and 2021/22, overall reports of domestic abuse had marginally increased and the number of high-risk domestic violence and abuse cases discussed at the East Sussex Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) had increased. The proportion of high-risk cases considered at the MARACs was also higher than seen nationally. The Head of Safer Communities was asked to comment on what could be inferred from these figures and they responded that the increase in reports suggested victims were more likely to come forward to ask for help, but the reduced number of recorded incidents suggested not all reports would be progressed through the criminal justice system or result in a prosecution and conviction. A lot of cases did not reach this stage as nearly 60% of people withdrew a report of domestic abuse once made. Regardless of whether the case was progressed to prosecution, the MARAC process would continue once initiated by a referring agency. The Head of Safer Communities added that the MARAC heard a high number of repeat cases because if the MARAC heard a case once and there was any further incident within the following twelve months, the case would be heard again.

·                     Domestic abuse reports increases – Committee members raised concerns about the increases in reports of domestic abuse and high-risk cases referred to the MARAC. The Head of Safer Communities responded that the Safer East Sussex Team were putting in place a range of measures to try to address increases in reports of domestic abuse but noted that increases in reports did not necessarily mean incidents were increasing, and it could be encouraging that more people felt able to come forward to report an incident.

·                     Fly-tipping – it was noted that there had been an increase in respondents of the reputation tracker selecting fly-tipping as an area of ASB they felt it most important for the Safer Communities Partnership to tackle, and a question was asked on whether this could be related to changes in provision of Household Waste Recycling Centres in East Sussex. The Head of Safer Communities responded that fly-tipping was not an area of responsibility for the Safer East Sussex Team but they would speak to the Communities Team about the responses received on fly-tipping.  

·                     Changing social attitudes to criminal activity – a question was asked on whether the Partnership was undertaking any work looking to change attitudes and make it less socially acceptable to commit criminal activity, such as ASB and fly-tipping. The Head of Safer Communities responded that a lot of work was taking place on awareness raising, and this focussed on raising awareness of crimes such as modern slavery, signs of child exploitation and domestic abuse, and harassment in public places. The Team commissioned providers to undertake comprehensive training programmes to raise awareness on these matters and also frequently bid for funding to deliver additional training programmes. A lot of the White Ribbon accreditation that the Team was working to secure for the Council was also focussed on raising awareness of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). The Team had also contributed to partnership work that focussed on attitudes to crime. For example, the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office had commissioned a public campaign on VAWG targeted at men and encouraging them to call out inappropriate behaviour of their friends; and Children’s Services had undertaken a survey in schools on attitudes to VAWG that the Safer East Sussex Team had contributed questions to.

·                     Training and education on respectful behaviour – further detail was requested on who the audience of the training (mentioned in the response above) was; the focus of the training, including whether it focussed on the need for respect for other people; and whether work was taking place to ensure children were educated on the importance of having respect for others. The Head of Safer Communities responded that the training referred to in the response above was often delivered through commissioned providers but the Safer East Sussex Team also delivered direct training. This included training around 400 people on the PREVENT duty and awareness of the Channel Programme; applying for PREVENT funding to deliver training for practitioners who worked with children, particularly young boys who might have mental health conditions that make them more likely to be drawn towards radical philosophies; and offering domestic abuse training for professionals, including health colleagues. The Director of Children’s Services added that a lot of work had taken place in schools to ensure children understood the importance of respectful relationships. Schools focussed on issues such as peer-on-peer sexual abuse, particularly following a national OFSTED report on the matter, and work had been done using theatre to educate children on the importance of consent. Work had also been done to raise young people’s awareness of the risks of exploitation through County Lines, conducted through a county-wide roadshow. The Lead Member for EISEND also commented on the important role parents play in teaching children the importance of respect for other people.

·                     Headline Activity – Police Data 2021/22 – updated figures for March 2022 to the year to date were requested to assist the Committee with better-understanding the latest trends in activity. Concerns were also raised regarding some of the figures in the report, particularly the increase in notifiable crimes of 8.6% in the year to the end of March 2022 and the 15% increase in serious violent public space crimes. The Head of Safer Communities gave an update on activity figures for the rolling year to the end of July 2022. This covered that there had been significant decreases in reports of weapons possessions and knife crime, but reports of violence against the person in public spaces has increased on the previous year. There were also higher numbers of sexual offences and incidents of stalking and harassment, but burglary has reduced everywhere in the county except Wealden. Drug offences had reduced quite significantly, and ASB in the nuisance category had reduced by around 50% in all of the district and borough areas. It was noted that the percentage changes sometimes related to some very small numbers (e.g. hate crime had gone up by a large percentage increase but it related to relatively small numbers initially). The Head of Safer Communities committed to check with police colleagues if rolling-year police data on activity could be shared with the Committee to provide the latest figures.

·                     County Lines activity – a question was asked on whether there was data available on crime and ASB incidents linked specifically to increased County Lines activity. The Head of Safer Communities agreed to see if it was possible to get an update on data related to County Lines for the Committee and added that the Safer Communities Partnership Board had asked to receive more regular reports on the work taking place to address child exploitation and county lines.

·                     Activity in Devonshire Ward – it was confirmed that the reference in Appendix 1 to Devonshire Ward in Eastbourne consistently having the highest number of both victims and perpetrators of serious violence related to the highest numbers of both for the whole of East Sussex.

·                     Refuge service contract handover – further information was requested on the lessons learned from issues referenced in the report with the handover of the refuge contract to a new provider in 2021. The Head of Safer Communities responded that the main learning from a commissioning perspective was that there needed to be less reliance on provider reports and more direct engagement with people using services. A community development worker had now been employed to work across Sussex to create a lived experience network and board that would feed into, and be represented on, the Sussex Partnership Board for Domestic Abuse to ensure the lived experiences of victims was captured at a strategic level.

·                     Sourcing accommodation for refuges and other support - further information was requested on what might be involved in the compulsory purchase of empty buildings, such as hotels, that could be used to deliver services such as refuges, or accommodation for other groups such as refugees. The Director of Adults Social Care responded that sourcing such accommodation required a really clear understanding of need and where it was geographically. ASC would prefer not to use compulsory purchase to source accommodation for refuges because doing so could be time-consuming and expensive. The Director also clarified that refuges were not typically large blocks of accommodation and the service was instead focussing on provision of small, local accommodation to meet the broad range of needs of people requiring refuges. In terms of support for refugees, the Director highlighted to the Committee that the Lead Member for Adult Social Care and Health had agreed at their last meeting to allocate move-on funding for Ukrainian guests to bring their private housing options in line with other refugee groups, such as Syrian and Afghan refugees. Even with this funding, the priority was to ask hosts to continue to support guests wherever possible as housing supply was hugely challenged in East Sussex, and this area required close work with borough and district partners as the county’s housing authorities.

·                     Work of the Partnership – comments on the positive work of the Safer East Sussex Partnership, including the work with borough and district partners, were noted.

13.3     The Committee RESOLVED to request that an update on data on County Lines activity; and the latest police data on headline activity covered in the report be shared with the Committee, if agreed to by Sussex Police.