Agenda item

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 education institutions, prisons, probation services, local authorities, the health sector and police) have new duties related to counter terrorism. Three key duties relate to identifying people vulnerable to being drawn to terrorism (Prevent); supporting people who are vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism (the Channel programme); and training staff to recognise radicalisation and extremism and provide appropriate capabilities to deal with it.

·              Prevent is one of four workstreams of the UK’s CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy. It is designed to stop people from beginning to support, or becoming involved in, terrorism. The Council now has a duty to assess and agree risk and coordinate Prevent activity using multi-agency groups. This will be achieved by establishing a Prevent Board which will be accountable to the Safer Communities Board. It will meet for the first time in early July 2015.

·              The Channel programme was set up in summer 2014 and is overseen by a multiagency “Channel Panel” chaired by the Council. There has been one referral to the Channel Panel to date which resulted in a male not being adopted due to several agencies being already involved within the family.  Activity of the Panel is fed into the Prevent Board.

·              From 1 July 2015, specified authorities must train staff to recognise radicalisation and extremism and provide appropriate capabilities to deal with it. So far, 35 people have been given this training. Local councillors will be made aware of what the Council and its partners are doing in regards to its new duties and where they would need to go if they had issues or concerns.

6.4     RESOLVED – 1) to thank the witnesses for their presentations;

2) to agree to continue receiving an annual community safety update.