Agenda item

The Board will receive verbal updates from partners present. Some written updates are also attached

1.     Police – updates attached

2.     Fire – update attached

3.     NHS – update attached

4.     Wiltshire Council – updates attached

5.     Tenants Panel – Invited to provide update at the meeting

6.     Youth – to be circulated at the meeting

7.     Community Area Partnerships

·       TAPCAP – Annual report and accounts 2011/12 (attached)

·       WilCAP – Annual report and update to be provided at the meeting

Additional information:

For news & information about WilCAP, please visit: www.wilcap.wordpress.com

You can also follow WilCAP on Twitter:twitter.com/#!/wilcap_Rachael 

WilCAP photos also on Flickr:www.flickr.com/photos/wilcap/sets

Police - Inspector Andy Noble

There had been a change to the way that crime was reported on the updates, the category ‘victim based crime’ was a total of all crimes reported to the police by the public.

There had been an increase in criminal damage across the whole of Wiltshire, mainly in the built up areas, but also in rural areas. In the South West Wiltshire community areas there had been an increase in reported car damage and outbuilding burglaries, where quad bikes, fuel and farm machinery had been stolen.

An operation was underway to tackle theft from cars at local beauty spots, Inspector Noble stated that it was very important to target this type of lower level crime, which was often carried out by several members of one family. He hoped to be able to report back on the progress of this at the next meeting.

Inspector Noble asked people to be vigilant and to report any crimes by using the 101 telephone number.

The Police were very stretched at present on a regional scale due to the forthcoming Olympics.

Questions and Comments were then received, these included:

·       There had been an increase to the recorded numbers of reported substance misuse in Wilton, was this being looked at by the police?

Answer: Drug misuse is something that if the police don’t go out looking for it then it does not get reported. It is all about positive activity.

The spike in figures for Wilton was due to the Beat Officer for that area carrying out proactive work following the recent death of a young person. It had been suggested that there could have been links to cannabis misuse among other young people in the area, so the officer sought out information and obtained search warrants. Cannabis was found at several addresses which resulted in arrests and consequently a spike in the figures for substance misuse for the area.  

·       Wilton Town Councillor, Phil Matthews noted that they were grateful for the work of PC Rachel Jennings and asked if her post would be covered whilst she was on maternity leave?

Answer: Rachel’s post will not be replaced whilst she is on leave, but instead there will be cover from other teams from Salisbury and Southern Wiltshire. Rachel will be continuing to work in the back office until she goes off on maternity leave, covering more of the paperwork side of the role for the team, so that fellow officers can cover her beat duties.

Wiltshire Police Authority (WPA) – Joy Hillyer

The WPA was currently managing the transition from a Police Authority to having a Police Crime Commissioner. Residents will have the chance to vote for the first Police and Crime Commissioner for the Wiltshire Police area on Thursday 15 November 2012.

This figure will be responsible for overseeing the work of Wiltshire Police on behalf of residents in the Force area. The Police and Crime Commissioner will directly replace Wiltshire Police Authority, the group of 17 councillors and independent members who currently oversee Wiltshire Police. 

Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service (WFRS) – Mike Franklin

The WFRS has strategic aims to try and keep communities safe from fires and accidents on the roads. The report attached to the agenda shows the figures for the amount of home safety checks carried out across the three community areas each month.

Mike added that in an area the size of the South West Wilts, it was surprising that so few safety checks were being carried out. The WFRS could only react to requests.

Mike urged people to take away a card, with the details of how to book a home safety check, and to pass the cards on to other members of the community who may be in need of a visit.

The Chairman asked the other Board members to take some cards away with them and to circulate and promote the service among their parishes.

NHS

Phil Matthews (Wiltshire Involvement Network) noted that Wiltshire Council had recently gone from having 120 care providers to 4. There were still some teething problems with the new service which were being smoothed out. On the 17 April a ‘Wiltshire Self Funders Forum’ meeting was held in Devizes.

The meeting was aimed at providing information and assistance to tackle the issues that could arise for self funders and family carers, over 100 people attended. It was hoped that a similar event would be held later in the year in Salisbury.

Wiltshire Council Updates attached to the agenda:

·       Help to Live at Home Update

·       Paths Improvement Grants Scheme (PIGS)

·       New Standards Framework

Youth – Jaki Farrell, Integrated Youth Services Team Leader

Jaki spoke to the update circulated at the meeting; a copy of this is attached to the back of these minutes.

Questions and comments received included:

·       Councillor Beattie noted that the Wilton Community Area youth coordinator Jenni Bertram would be leaving shortly, which could be a disaster to the success of the newly opened Wilton Community Centre. There were also problems with restrictions of the planning permission which limited the opening hours of the centre.

Councillor Beattie stated that the opening hours needed to be addressed to allow opening during the daytime – Jaki Farrell confirmed that there would be no reduction in the service currently provided with Jenni leaving.

·       Would Fovant Youth Club benefit from the newly appointed assistant youth worker?

Answer: No, this was not possible as Fovant was in a separate area. The Fovant Youth Club recently interviewed applicants for a paid youth worker post; however none of the applicants were suitable. The club would re-advertise after the summer as the club was closed during the summer holidays.

Community Area Partnerships

TAPCAP (Tisbury) – Nigel Knowles

The partnership had provided an annual report and a set of accounts which were attached to the agenda.

WilCAP (Wilton) – Rachel Ashton – Brown

The partnership gave a verbal update on their areas of their work over the past year, this included looking at transport issues and water shortages in the area.

The results of the Joint Strategic Assessment (JSA), had highlighted that Wilton came top out of the 20 community areas for highest number of hospital admittances for asthma. The partnership had been working on this to establish if there were any known reasons why the asthma rate was high in Wilton.

Decision

The South West Wiltshire Area Board noted the partner update reports attached to the agenda.