Agenda item

The Committee will receive a report which provides the opportunity to discuss and comment upon the refreshed 2020 Kirklees Communities Partnership Plan which outlines the key strategic priorities for the next 12 months.

Contact:

·         Jo Richmond, Head of Service, Communities

·         Lee Hamilton, Safer Kirklees Manager

·         Chris Walsh, Performance Manager, Communities

The Committee received a report which offered Members the opportunity

to discuss and comment on the October 2020 refresh of the Kirklees

Communities Partnership Plan, which outlined the key strategic

priorities for the next 12 months.

Jill Greenfield - Service Director, Customer and Communities; Jo Richmond - Head of Service, Communities; Lee Hamilton - Safer Kirklees Manager; Chris Walsh -  Performance Lead, Communities; Chief Inspector Alan Travis, West Yorkshire Police; and Councillor Carole Pattison – Chair of the Communities Board and Cabinet Member for Learning, Aspiration and Communities were in attendance for this item.

The report reminded the Committee of the statutory duty on Community Safety Partnerships to develop a strategic plan to address multi-agency issues affecting quality of life for residents.

In Kirklees this was known as the Communities Partnership Plan and included work being done in respect of cohesion, migration and re-settlement. The Plan covered the period 2018-2021 and was refreshed on an annual basis. The refresh now before the Committee was informed by the insights, data and analysis gathered from the Partnership Strategic Intelligence Assessment (PSIA), up to the end of September 2020. It recognised the significant challenges presented by the pandemic whilst continuing to address the established,overarching priorities;

·       Preventing and Reducing Crime

·       Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour

·       Protecting People from Serious Harm

·       Improving the Place

The report set out the key findings from the PSIA in relation to each of the priorities with a particular focus on the impact of the pandemic and the

disproportionate impact on communities in the more deprived areas.

It was explained that:

·       The overall priorities/themes remained current and largely unchanged but had been refreshed to reflect the findings of the PSIA.

·       There was a cross-cutting focus on: prevention and early intervention; targeting key hot-spot areas; support for victims and reduction in re-offending.

·       The governance structures were currently being reviewed.

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members and the following key issues were covered during discussion:

·       Challenges had been experienced in respect of restorative justice work during lockdown. The three Victim Hubs had been, and were currently, closed but a 24-hour telephone line had been set up in conjunction with Victim Support. The potential for the use of technology to facilitate remote meetings would continue to be explored. During lockdown contact with offenders had been telephone-based but some face to face engagement was now taking place.

·       The Police worked closely with the Safer Kirklees Team on both the development and delivery of the Plan. Joint working took place with neighbouring districts and at both regional and national level, particularly in relation to high risk crime and best practice was regularly shared between the Community Safety Partnerships across West Yorkshire. It was accepted that the level of co-operative working could be more clearly reflected in the Plan and this would be taken on board.

·       Serious violent knife-enabled crime had decreased significantly during lockdown against a background of significant improvement in the figures over the preceding 12 to 18 months. Both preventative and enforcement work had been undertaken during this period. Nationally, surge funding had been provided by the Government to increase the Police footprint from an enforcement perspective and it was considered that the work undertaken with ‘Operation Jemlock’ had made a real impact in terms of the ability to carry knives on the street and to commit offences. The key areas of focus were guided by the reports, intelligence and a serious violence needs assessment. A lot of work had been undertaken in South Kirklees but this was a district wide issue and each of the Neighbourhood Policing Teams in the North had violent crime plans in place.

·       It was appreciated that a time delay in addressing or feeding back on reported anti-social behaviour could be frustrating for residents and that it was important that they were assured that their efforts in reporting were worthwhile. Although delays could be attributed to the availability of resources it was acknowledged that there could also be some improvement in communication on this issue and this would be looked at. Engagement was also important in this regard and work had been undertaken with local schools in terms of developing the responsible citizenship agenda.

·       The recognition of the importance of the physical appearance of an area within the Plan was welcomed.

·       The Partnership Plan was a very broad, high-level document and a number of action plans sat beneath it which set out specific targets, delivery mechanisms, timescales and outcomes. A suggestion that it would be helpful to refer to those underlying documents within the Plan was taken on board.

·       A Drugs and Alcohol Strategy had been drafted prior to the pandemic but its progress had been delayed due to the pressures on Public Health. It had been submitted to the Communities Board for comment and it was anticipated that the relevant working group would be meeting in the near future to progress this piece of work.

·       Mental health was an important consideration in reducing re-offending and relevant representatives were key partners in the strategy and operational groups dealing with this priority.

·       Further work was planned in respect of raising the visibility of the work of the Community Safety Partnership, the Communities Board and the underlying sub-groups and Action Plans, and engagement with partners around support, challenge and accountability. This would include consideration of how partnership resources could be utilised to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Resolved –

(1) That the officers from Communities, representative of West Yorkshire police and the Chair of the Communities Board be thanked for attending the meeting and presenting the report on the 2020 refresh of the Communities Partnership Plan.

(2) That officers be requested to take account of the comments made by the Panel in relation to the 2020 refresh of the Kirklees Communities Partnership Plan