Agenda and minutes

The Chairman extended a welcome to observers from Her Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate who were carrying out a full inspection of the Scottish Fire and  Rescue Service within the Scottish Borders during the months of July and August.  He also welcomed Divisional Commander (DC) Chief Superintendent Ivor Marshall, Police Scotland and LSO David Farries, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to their first meeting of the Board. 

Consider Minute of Meeting held on 12 February 2016 (Copy attached.)

There had been circulated copies of the Minute of the meeting held on 12 February 2016.   

DECISION

APPROVED the Minute.

(a)     With reference to paragraph 4.3 (b) (i)  of the Minute,  Chief Inspector McLean advised that Councillor Renton had met with Community Police Officers who had explained the issues they encountered in respect of timescales and local people abusing the parking system in the Market Square,  Duns.  As a result of this Councillor Renton was much more aware of the issues Police Officers had to deal with. 

         DECISION

         NOTED.

(b)     With reference to paragraph 4.3 (b) (ii) in relation to issuing an appropriate Press Release relating to detection rates Members were advised that this had proved complex because it was not just detection rates which should be highlighted but the other aspects of Police work and links with the Police Scotland media unit needed to be established.  A communications strategy for the Board to deal with this also covering  Fire and Rescue and work in Safer Communities was being developed.

         DECISION

         NOTED.

(c)     With reference to paragraph 4.3(b) (iii) of the Minute, Members were advised that Police Scotland was not yet in a position to present a private paper on work going on behind the scenes on Serious Organised Crime but this would be undertaken at future meetings.

         DECISION

         NOTED.

Consider progress reports and updates from:-

(Copy attached.)

MEMBER

         Councillor Aitchison joined the meeting during discussion of the following item.

4.1    Police

         Divisional Commander (DC) Chief Supt. Ivor Marshall thanked Members for their welcome and explained he had been in his new post for 3 weeks and he was trying to get up to speed with Lothian and Scottish Borders Division.   He was committed to local policing and delighted to have been appointed.  He referred to the importance of partnership working where positive constructive collaborate arrangements were in place and he paid tribute to Chief Supt Imery in regard to this.   He considered the Boards priorities were correct and he assured Members that efforts in relation to serious organised crime were not diminished but he could not refer to those because of the confidentiality surrounding this matter   There had been good progress in relation to reducing rural housebreakings.  The new Chief Constable had undertaken to refresh and change performance framework. Previously targets were chased which missed the point of what policing was all about and important broader conversations would take place about prevention and intervention to reduce crimes.   He referred to budget challenges and advised that various meetings would be taking place to ensure Police Scotland kept on track towards a budget settlement.  

4.2    Discussions took place relating to race hate crime figures which had increased and it was noted that Police Scotland had worked with George Higgs to make it easier for people to report race hate crimes.  Reporting of hate crimes had increased because people now felt confident to report issues to the police.  Detection rates for hate crime in the Borders continue to be high.

4.3    Chief Inspector A. McLean presented the Police Progress report covering the period April 2015 to March 2016 which had been circulated. The report detailed the figures for the six Priority areas to date and compared them to the figures for the same period in 2014/15, 113 more referrals had been made, which was positive.    In relation to

Priority 1 – Protecting People performance was slightly worse compared to last year but 1.8% better than target. 

Priority 2 – showed a 7.7% increase in Common Assaults reported in 2015/16 compared to the same period last year.   This equated to 55 more victims compared with same period last year.   In respect of reducing the number of anti-social behaviour incidents there had been a 7.9% reduction (402 fewer incidents) in the year to date compared to the same time period last year.  

 With regards to increasing the reporting of hate crime, there had been a significant increase in the number of recorded victims of hate crime in the year to date and it was noted that this was largely due to the spike in offences occurring in Quarter 2.   

Priority 3 - Tackling substance misuse.  During the period 01/06/2015 to 31/03/2016, officers in the Scottish Borders conducted a total of 322  stop and searches, of which 77 proved positive (23.9%).   

Priority 4 - Making our Roads Safer, there had been an 11.5%  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

(Copy attached.)

         LSO David Farries introduced himself and thanked the Board for providing him with the response which was made to the consultation on the new Fire & Rescue framework for Scotland.     The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service had now produced their draft Strategic Plan for 2016-2019 which developed the expectations set out in the Scottish Government Framework.   A 10 week online consultation period began on 31 May 2016.   The Strategic plan acted as a bridge between the framework and their Scottish Borders Local Plan. He valued the view of the Board on its concerns about the need to balance national priorities with the needs of local communities which was a key focus of the Board’s feedback and was important to the Fire and Rescue Service team within the Scottish Borders.    The 2016-2019 Strategic plan gave the Fire and Rescue Service the space to be ambitious whilst looking differently at their service delivery.  The Board would be aware of service transformation agenda and the Fire and Rescue Service was already seeing the benefits of the ways that their resources could be used to benefit local communities in innovative ways.    The Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest trial was ongoing with an enhanced response in Hawick, Lauder and Coldstream.  The Service was currently in the final preparation stages of the Living Safely in the Home initiative which would initially run in the Cheviot area, this project harnessed their vast experience in prevention and allowed them to assist in reducing unintended harm to vulnerable people.   It would of course be wrong for the Service to lose focus on what was considered their ‘traditional’ core responsibilities and with that in mind the Service continued to explore ways of improving their operational response.    Training remained the key component in ensuring firefighters were kept competent and safe.   The Service had recently completed the training of their second swift water rescue team in the Borders at Hawick; this team would be able to work alongside colleagues from Gala at water rescue incidents and in response to the type of large scale flooding incidents seen in recent years throughout the region.   LSO Farries had recently secured funding to renovate the old smoke house facility also at Hawick Fire Station into a simulated domestic dwelling which would be used for breathing apparatus and search and rescue training. This venue would benefit crews from across the borders.    A further commitment to improving their operational response came in the form of a major investment in brand new state of the art Hydraulic Rescue Equipment for the area. The Service had managed to bring half of the 10 sets of equipment available in the East of Scotland to the Scottish Borders and stations across the area had been selected to provide a good coverage.    LSO Farries hoped that Board members would be able to attend the events which they had been invited to in Duns, Selkirk, Gala, Kelso and Peebles over the remainder of the year. The Service had put together a programme which afforded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

(Copy attached.)

         MEMBERS

         Councillors Aitchison and Stewart left the meeting during discussion of the following item.

          Inspector Hodges advised that when taking up this post last year he highlighted his thoughts on the current reporting process for Safer Communities and Members agreed that the existing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were often not up to date and not an accurate reflection of Community Safety issues in the Scottish Borders nor of the work undertaken on the Board’s half by his team.  Inspector Hodges advised it was his intention that this would be the last time he would bring to the Board this old style of report and at the end of his submission he would introduce the new Safer Communities KPIs and proposed reporting format.

4.7     The Safer Communities Team continued to embrace the partnership model with Police, Fire and Rescue and NHS Colleagues working alongside Council Officers in the co-located unit at Council Headquarters.   Whilst they were a small team with very limited resource their ability to reduce the level and impact of issues in a number of areas was testament to this effective partnership working.   Gender Based Violence:- the Pathway Project was now entering a transition year with partnership funding agreed through to next financial year.   A  Multi – Agency Project Board under the Chair of Depute Chief Executive J.  McDiarmid was being established to secure the long-term sustainability of their Domestic Abuse Services and they were already working closely with the Scottish Government and the Big Lottery to secure continued external funding to ease the financial burden on local partners.   Reports of Domestic Abuse remained fairly constant on the last financial year and whilst some might  expect these figures to have fallen given the robust approach by Police Scotland and work of support services, Inspector Hodge’s view was that a more approachable and victim centred structure was in place which was encouraging previously unreported abuse.   Overall the response and subsequent provision for victims and children affected by Domestic Abuse in the Scottish Borders remained very good and the number of children on the Child Protection Register as a result of Domestic Abuse reduced by 11% and the number of homeless presentations as a result of Domestic Abuse was also starting to show a positive reduction.   The only figure  which Members might  question was  that relating to surveyed clients reporting a perceived reduced risk as a result of engaging with the service however this was  a “normal” reflection of areas of risk which  any service would be unable to influence e.g. perpetrator behaviour continuing to be abusive during child contact  The Scottish Borders Equally Safe Strategy  was out for consultation and this would direct the work of partners to address gender-based violence in its widest sense.

4.8     Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour:- As the Local Area Commander had already reported a welcomed reduction in calls to the Police regarding Anti-Social Behaviour in the last financial year, the Safer Communities figure which took into account all reports made to Police, Anti-Social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Colin Baxter, A & E Team Leader gave a presentation on the work of the Scottish Ambulance Service.  He gave background information in relation to the history of the service and changes in uniform since 1948.  The South East Division covered 2,457 square miles.  In 2013/14 the Service responded to 686,530 accident and emergency incidents, carried out 1,140,048 non-emergency patient journeys, and flew 3,427 air ambulance missions.  The average response time to life-threatening calls throughout Scotland was 6.5 minutes.   The Service employed 4,232 staff, of whom 550 were in support services and administration and 14 were Board members.   The Patient Transport Service carried almost 1.6 million patients every year.   This service was provided to patients who were physically or medically unfit to travel to hospital out-patient appointments by any other means ensuring they could still make their appointments.  The Service also handled non-emergency admissions, discharges, transport of palliative care patients and a variety of other specialised roles.  In June 2012 the result of a tender process for a new seven-year air ambulance contract was announced.   Commencing in April 2013, the winning tenderer Gama Aviation continued to provide two rotary and two fixed-wing aircraft on a 24 hours basis throughout Scotland.  The aircraft based in Glasgow were regularly used by the UK’s only Emergency Medical Retrieval Service.  In late 2012 a charity was founded to provide a further air ambulance to work alongside the state-funded aircraft.   The Charity Air Ambulance commenced operations in 2013 and operated a Eurocopter EC-135 helicopter based at Perth Airport, crewed by Scottish Ambulance Service paramedics.  Special Operations Response Teams had been set up in the north, east and west of Scotland to respond to major incidents including nuclear, chemical and radiological ones.   These teams had specially equipped vehicles with decontamination equipment on board.     The Scottish Ambulance Service operated three Ambulance Control Centres which provided command and control and 999 call taking facilities for the Service; these were located in Cardonald, South Queensferry and Inverness.    The Service had its own dedicated training academy within the campus of Glasgow Caledonian University.  Ongoing projects consisted of (a) public access to defibrillators in all towns and villages in the Scottish Borders; (b) stroke management/fast tracking for rapid thrombolysis etc; and (c) a falls prevention strategy.   

          DECISION

          NOTED and thanked Mr Baxter for his interesting and informative presentation.

Future meetings of the Board were scheduled to take place at 9.30am in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Newtown St Boswells on:-     

Friday 16 September 2016

Friday 11 November 2016

Friday 10 February 2017

Friday 9 June 2017

DECISION

NOTED.