Agenda item

To receive an overview of the work of the Wiltshire Community Safety Partnership (WCSP), fulfilling the Committee’s responsibilities under the Police and Criminal Justice Act 2006.

The Chairman noted that as reflected in Part 8 of Wiltshire Council’s Constitution, which had recently been reviewed, Overview and Scrutiny had a statutory duty to scrutinise the performance of the partnerships under the provisions of the Police and Criminal Justice Act 2006. It was outlined that this was an annual requirement.

The Chairman noted that the Committee had been joined by Mark Cooper, Assistant Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police and Chair of the Wiltshire Community Safety Partnership as well as Sarah Valdus, Director for Environment, and Jen Salter, Director for Families and Children.

Mark Cooper, Assistant Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police and Chair of the Wiltshire Community Safety Partnership (CSP) provided the Committee with a presentation, which included, but was not limited to, the following points:

• An overview of the CSP was provided, with it noted that it had been established under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to bring together responsible authorities to develop a strategy to tackle crime and disorder in an area.
• Detail was provided on the statutory responsibilities and requirements of the CSP as included within the report.
• The inter-relation of the CSP and Wiltshire’s Safeguarding People Partnership (SVPP) was discussed.
• Headlines of the work conducted by the CSP was provided, including but not limited to work relating to Domestic Abuse, Exploitation, Safer Communities and Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews.
• It was outlined that transformation work relating to the CSP was set to take place to make improvements, for example being able to meet more statutory requirements, increasing accountability and engagement from partner agencies.
• An overview of the proposed strategic objectives was provided.
• Detail of the CSP planning cycle was provided as well as a project timeline of the CSP transformation.

Leader of the Council, Councillor Richard Clewer commented that joined up work relating to public space protection orders and anti-social behaviour was clearly working and could be built on. Furthermore more, such actions were significantly reducing the time spent by Wiltshire Police and Wiltshire Council on problems.

Members of the Committee made the following comments with a discussion taking place on the relation of the CSP to the FACT programme with it noted that the programme had played a key part in informing group and wider priority areas with a review set to take place following a pilot of how such activities could translate to business as usual. A point was also raised about improving the community engagement of the CSP and how the Area Board system might be a possible mechanism for this. Additionally, the need for the CSP to consider rural areas was also highlighted.

Feedback was also provided that it would be positive to have a clear idea of the performance and outcomes of the CSP and that it would be positive to clearly be able to demonstrate the benefit of the work to residents. This prompted a suggestion that the CSP return to the Committee in the future to demonstrate progress, The need to take the CSP agenda out to the public was further re-emphasised.

The crossover of the CSP priorities and local group priorities was discussed as well as the benefit of mapping out a network to better understand how the local priorities and voices fit and compliment those higher within the CSP governance structure. This prompted a point about the potential value of providing training to local communities, therefore increasing the ability of residents to escalate and report issues.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

a)    To note and welcome the briefing on the Wiltshire Community Safety Partnership, its objectives and its progress against these.

b)    In light of the gaps in delivery identified, to request a further report in 6 months’ time providing an update on progress to address these.