Minutes of the Dorset Community Safety Partnership - 16 March 2022

Attendance 

Core Membership 

Attendees

Support

Apologies 

• Vanessa Read (CCG)
• Andrea Breen (DC)
• Toni Shepherd (DC)
• Liz Plastow (CCG)
• Supt. Richard Bell (DC)

No 1

Welcome and Introductions

1.1 Cllr Carr Jones welcomed everyone to the meeting.

No 2

Minutes of Meeting held on 22 December 2021 and Matters Arising

2.1 5.9 Chairs of the Safeguarding Adults Board – The Chairs of Dorset’s Safeguarding Boards and CSPs had begun discussing cross cutting issues. Further work will take place around priority setting and mapping of activity.

2.2 6.6 Andrew Billany reported that discussions continue to take place with Public Health Dorset regarding the governance of the Drug Strategy.

2.3 9.10. It was agreed the Chair of the CSP will write to Ministers in relation to the proposed Violent Crime Duty and Offensive Weapon Homicide Reviews and future funding once legislation had been passed.

No 3

Refresh of the Community Safety Plan

3.1 Andy Frost introduced the paper on the refresh of the Community Safety Plan.

3.2 Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) are required to produce three-year Community Safety Plans that are revised annually.

3.3 The Dorset CSP’s current plan runs from April 2020 to March 2023 and had been refreshed for the 2022/23 financial year.

3.4 The Community Safety Plan sets out partners’ community safety priorities and how they will be tackled in broad terms. The refreshed Community Safety Plan had been informed by the latest Partnership Strategic Assessment (PSA) and included information on how partners will meet their priorities.

3.5 The PSA and Plan included information on members of the publics’ experience and perceptions of crime and safety obtained through consultation with the Council’s Residents Survey and People Panel.

3.6 It was a requirement when developing its Plan, for the CSP to consider the Police and Crime Commissioner’s priorities. David Sidwick PCC confirmed the CSP Plan aligned well to his Police and Crime Plan.

3.7 Delivery Plans would be developed for each of the priority areas using the proposed new framework. Once the plan had been agreed it would be added to the community safety pages on the Council’s website.

3.8 It was noted it had not been possible for the CSP to hold a public meeting this year due to Covid 19 restrictions but that events to engage the public would be held during 2022/23. Cllr Carr-Jones suggested partners use targeted comms and attend community events.

3.9 Members of the CSP discussed the feedback from public consultation, including whether ‘people feeling safe after dark’ had any correlation with national events and news. It was explained the intention was to undertake more detailed analytical work to explore such questions.

3.10 Lisa Reid mentioned that Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) was recently discussed at the Children’s Safeguarding Partnership and asked whether the CSP should consider it as a priority. Following discussion, it was agreed since VAWG was relevant to several of the other priorities, to add it as a cross cutting theme.

• Action - Andy Frost 

3.11 PCC David Sidwick highlighted funding opportunities relating to VAWG and public safety and encouraged partners to work together on future bids. John Newcombe gave a short update on partners’ successful Safer Streets bid, which included new CCTV and stalking provision.

3.12 Members of the group discussed the important role of the Fire Service in helping tackle community safety issues. Charlie Pack advised the group that he was keen for the Fire Service to be involved and offered an open invitation to all members to contact him on any specific pieces of work.

3.13 Tackling substance misuse was included as a cross cutting theme in the Plan. PCC David Sidwick felt this was an important issue for partners.

3.14 Partners stressed the importance of preventative work, particularly working with schools and communities to tackle issues at an early stage. There was wide and comprehensive support from the group to taking a greater focus on prevention. It was agreed this would be picked up as part of delivery planning work.

Action - Andy Frost / John Newcombe

Resolved - The PSA and revised Community Safety Plan for 2022/23 were agreed. 

No 4

Delivery Planning Framework

4.1 Andy Frost introduced the paper on the delivery planning framework.

4.2 The framework had been developed in response to various discussions at CSP meetings about having a consistent, problem solving based approach to delivery planning across strategic and local work.

4.3 The proposed approach included a standard problem-solving template which sets out an assessment of each issue and the response including, prevention, enforcement and rehabilitation / education. The template works to the Police based SARA model.

4.4 The framework can be used to help members of the CSP assess progress and the impact of work being undertaken. Having a better understanding of the nature of each issue, means partners can put in place more focused, targeted interventions.

4.5 Supt Dean O’Connor explained that the purpose of the new approach is to enable consistency across the operational, tactical, and strategic activity. Dean explained that the framework provides a good audit trail, facilitates tracking progress and allows partners to set out how they can contribute to delivery.

4.6 It was explained the framework would help with measuring performance and identifying how wider partners can contribute to tackling issues.  

Resolved - The Template was agreed and would be used as the basis for deliver planning for 2022/23.

No 5

Progress Against Strategic Priorities 

5.1 Andy introduced the report on progress against strategic priorities.

5.2 Highlights included:  

• The CSP’s Domestic Abuse Strategy 2021-24 had been published following public consultation. The Strategy sets out partners’ position on tackling domestic abuse, priorities and how they will go about addressing them.
• Work had continued to allocate the Dorset Council 2021/22 allocation of new burdens funding. The funding was given by central government to local authorities to help them meet their new responsibilities under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
• The interactive empowerment and bystander intervention workshops took place at Weymouth College during Sexual Violence Awareness Week in February 2022. There had been lots of positive feedback on the project which was funded through a successful bid to the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund.
• Support had also been provided to the Dorset Stalking Clinic through the successful Safer Streets bid.
• The HRDA Quality Assurance Group continued to work through the recommendations from recent evaluations and audits. A new performance tool is in development as a new 'response plan' has been developed for complex cases.

5.3 Andy informed the group that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) had recently announced further funding for local authorities to help meet their statutory duties set out in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. Dorset Council would receive a further £650,000 in 2022/23. Once information had been received on the conditions attached to the funding, work would begin to determine how it can be best used in Dorset.

5.4 Members of the group discussed performance headlines for Q3 compared to the same time last year. Trends included increases in total crime, domestic abuse incidents / crimes, and sexual assaults. Andy explained that without further analysis it was hard to fully understand the nature of the increases or draw any meaningful insights from the data.

5.5 CSP members discussed the issue of peer on peer abuse. Emma Pleece highlighted the increases and queried whether they could be down to more willingness to report and awareness raising. PCC David Sidwick commented that it was well understood that the number of certain crimes can increase as a result of improved confidence to report issues, domestic abuse in particular.

5.6 It was acknowledged that Dorset compared well to other areas and is one of the safest counties in the U.K. Dean explained the work Dorset Police were doing to improve the positive outcome rates for serious sexual offences.

Resolved - CSP members considered and commented on progress against strategic priorities through the work of the Strategic Priority Delivery Group

No 6 

Progress Against Local Priorities 

6.1 John Newcombe provided a summary of the co-ordination, oversight and progress of specific local priorities as identified at the area Partnership Co-ordinating Group (PCG) Meetings.

6.2 John advised the group of changes to the way work to address local priorities was being delivered. They included a new set of new Terms of Reference (ToR) and the use of SARA plans to tackle issues (in line with the new framework).

6.3 John provided updates for each PCG area, including:

• Ongoing challenges with accessing mental health in-patient provision
• Operation Luscombe which continued to work well
• Big Night Out Training
• Safe Space in the night time economy for the summer
• Safer Streets Funding

6.4 Cllr Carr-Jones asked the group what more could be done to help access to mental health in patient treatment.

6.5 Janice West explained that the issues were related to COVID-19 (i.e. staff sickness, infection control etc). Janice reassured the group that the commissioner has informed the provider they needed to have robust plans in place to manage the current situation, including some modifications to the way they work and staffing models. This would improve capacity and the availability of beds.

6.6 It was noted that the shortage of beds was a national issue, which had created issues with transferring patients to other areas, but things were improving.

6.7 Cllr Carr-Jones asked how long on average it takes for partners to deal with a case at PCG. John explained that it varies but that some cases can go on for years, which takes up a huge amount of resources. Andy referenced the work previous done via the CSP to help resolve and manage entrenched cases and asked whether this was still being used. John explained they do and tend to take a harm-based approach to this so they aren’t closing cases which should remain open. 

6.8 Following a request from the Chair, John confirmed it would be possible to provide a consistent set of performance information from the PCGs in the future.

6.9 Members of the group discussed issues of hate crime. John explained that sometime complex cases can move into the territory of hate crime. Supt Dean O’Conner advised the group that hate crime numbers are low but there have been slight increases over the past year. Dean explained the work being done to reach out to communities and that he expected to see further increases as people and communities gain more confidence in coming forward with issues. The Police have a Supt overseeing this work so lots of resources going in and they are confident the response is strong.

6.10 Andy mentioned that the Police used to provide Community Tension Profiles and asked whether these still fed into the PCGs. It was unclear whether they did but all agreed it would be beneficial. It was agreed John would look into this and report back to the CSP.  

• Action - John Newcombe

6.11 There was a discussion regarding community tensions following world events over the past couple of years. Andy reinforced the importance of sharing any information on underlying tensions so partners can understand any issues and take action.

6.12 PCC David Sidwick expressed his interest in working with communities to find solutions and asked if partners were making people aware of Community Trigger. John explained Dorset had relatively high numbers of community triggers and regularly advertised the process.

No 7

Ofsted Feedback on HRDA (High Risk Domestic Abuse)

7.1 Emma Pleece introduced the paper on the feedback from Ofsted on the High-Risk Domestic Abuse (HRDA).

7.2 Children’s Services completed an internal audit towards the end of last year. At the same time, they were being inspected by Ofsted who requested copies of HRDA minutes and made several observations.

7.3 Some of these related specifically to Children’s Services but others were more general and relevant to all agencies. Those observations related to the way minutes were recorded; specifically actions not being recorded as specific to the individuals involved in the case and that risk analysis / decision making including rationale could be stronger.

7.4 Multi-agency discussions regarding risk do take place at HRDA, however they were not being captured as comprehensively as they could in minutes. 

7.5 Based on the recent findings from the HRDA audit and Ofsted’s comments it was recommended that:

• Partners review how HRDA meetings maintain a focus on impact for children and young people, vulnerable adults, victim and perpetrator.
• HRDA QA / facilitators develop a standard minute template with headings, to ensure there is a focus on risk analysis and decision-making, specific to each individual.
• HRDA facilitators follow the meeting guidance template.
• Actions are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely and specific to each individual the HRDA relates to.

7.6 It was agreed these actions would ensure consistency in the recording of minutes and help document a clear risk analysis and rationale for decisions made relating to each person subject to the HRDA. The changes would help ensure actions agreed at HRDA could be tracked and that there was timely completion of actions, with clear escalation process if timescales were not adhered to.

7.7 Ian Grant explained that partners had worked hard over the past two years to implement and refine an effective HRDA model. He felt the recent feedback and proposed response, as set out in this report, was an important opportunity to take forward work that would further enhance HRDA.

Resolved - The approach to responding to the issues highlighted in the Ofsted audit were agreed. 

No 8 

Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) Update Report

8.1 Andy provided an update on DHR work including an overview of ongoing and new activity since the last CSP meeting.

8.2 Since the last meeting, the Coroner had ruled accidental death in one case. The view was that the ruling meant the case no longer met the criteria for a DHR and the Home Office had been informed.

8.3 There had also been a new DHR notification to the CSP though it had been agreed to wait until the Coroner’s ruling before deciding whether to proceed with a review.

8.4 One ongoing case was particularly complex and this had impacted on the timescales for the review. In response, members of the CSP agreed to sign off any reports for the review virtually to help prevent any further delays.

8.5 Members of the group discussed the process for sharing DHR reports with the Coroner.

Resolved - The recommendations set out in the report were agreed. 

No 9

Domestic Abuse Whole Systems Update

9.1 Ian Grant introduced the paper on taking a whole systems approach to domestic abuse.

9.2 Ian explained that the CSP had worked hard to respond to domestic abuse. This included promoting a whole systems approach which is a key theme in the recently published Dorset Domestic Abuse Strategy.

9.3 The CSP had recently agreed the Dorset Domestic Abuse Commissioning Charter which sets out the principles and commitments partners will work to when considering any new commissioning activity relating to domestic abuse in Dorset.

9.4 Since the last CSP update partners had come together to explore opportunities for system design and co-commissioning. Ian explained that whilst initial talks explored pan Dorset arrangements, it has become clear that a localised approach is needed, based on each local authority area. This would allow each area to meet the requirements of their respective domestic abuse strategies, as well as respond to their unique demographics.

9.5 Although the recommendation was for work to be taken forward on an individual local authority basis, partners would continue to work to the principles and commitments set out in the Charter and seek opportunities to work across both CSP areas where there is common ground.

9.6 It was noted it would be important for future work to consider and take account of changes to wider local operational arrangements (for example, Dorset Police Local Policing Area Safeguarding Hubs), and re-commissioning timescales for existing services.

9.7 Cllr Carr-Jones asked what the next steps would be in taking this work forward and the timescales. Ian explained that work was in train with discussions between partners ongoing. Reaching agreement to move forward on a local authority area basis would inform the next stage of the work. Based on contract timescales, the intention was to look at implementation in March 2024.

9.8 Andy highlighted that up until recently no organisation had a statutory duty to deliver domestic abuse services and because of that, local provision has developed in a piecemeal way.

9.9 The purpose of the whole systems approach work was to map provision, identify gaps, improve pathways and work together to put in place a system to meet needs.

Resolved - CSP members agreed the approach to progressing whole systems work as set out in the report. 

No 10

Forward Plan

10.1 Andy explained the CSP will be moving to monthly meetings to allow for spot lights on specific subjects e.g. DHRs.

Future Meeting Dates:

To be confirmed.