Agenda item

With reference to paragraph 4.1(c) of the Minute of 21 November 2017, the Chairman welcomed Mr Graham Jones, Safer Communities and Community Justice Manager.  Mr Jones was in attendance to present to Members an overview of the Council’s Safer Communities service.  An organisational diagram was circulated at the meeting, which showed the Safer Communities Team and co located partners.  Mr Jones began by advising that the total Safer Communities budget was circa £800k which was divided between the Team’s core budget and generated income that funded the majority of the Domestic Abuse Service.  He explained that the Service had to comply with legislation under the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004, Data Protection Act 1998, the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 and contributed to a range of plans and strategies creating latitude in its delivery profile. In his presentation, Mr Jones explained that a number of performance measures existed that would provide the committee with detailed information on performance already presented at the Police, Fire & Rescue and Safer Communities Board. He then outlined the Safer Communities Strategic priorities for 2016 to 2019 which were to reduce the level and impact of: crime and antisocial behaviour, gender based violence, poor driver behaviour, substance misuse, and, accidents in the home.  The Safer Communities activities aligned with these priorities. It was suggested that the committee might have an interest in indicators which reflected and demonstrated the actual work of the team, increased the number of ASB early interventions by partners, reduced the number of persons being monitored for ASB and increased the number of mediation referrals. Mr Jones then discussed in more detail, the Safer Communities indicators proposed for each of these five priorities. For the gender based violence priority he explained this would mean the number of referrals to gender based support services, the number of repeat users of Domestic Abuse Advocacy Support, and those referred on to other support services.  With regard to the Poor Driver Behaviour priority, the service proposed increasing the number of people from vulnerable groups who attended the Drivewise training programme.   Mr Jones concluded his presentation by highlighting the breadth of partnership working within and beyond the scope of the team.   

9.2      Councillor McAteer as Chairman of the Police, Fire and Rescue Board, highlighted the importance of partnership working and the Board’s expectation to consider each of the priorities thematically to influence issues, particularly with regard to antisocial behaviour.  In response to a question regarding how the impact of these proposals would be measured.  Mr Jones gave, as an example, the Domestic Abuse service. There was still a high demand for the service, but the number of repeat victims who accessed the service, had reduced over time.  In response to a question regarding antisocial behaviour repeat offenders, Mr Jones explained that there was a formalised process which included sharing information with partners to consider appropriate interventions.  There was also the option of an application to secure an Antisocial Behaviour Order should other remedies fail to temper behaviour. The Chairman commended the work of the Safer Communities Team and thanked Mr Jones for the informative presentation which had explained the services’ multi-faceted role.   

DECISION

NOTED the presentation.