APPENDIX 2
Safer Maidstone Partnership
2 October 2014 INFORMATION ITEM
Kent Community Trigger Document –Adopted by each Kent district/borough CSP
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Community Trigger Threshold
· At least three incidents of anti-social behaviour reported to the relevant bodies within the previous six months.
· The anti-social behaviour must be a repeat of the same or similar incident which was reported within one month of the alleged incident taking place. |
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Countywide Procedures – information for professionals
The Community Trigger application form, wording used to describe the community trigger process on websites and any publicity material for the trigger will be the same countywide.
Applications for the trigger should be submitted directly to the local borough or district council, either online, via telephone or in writing. If an application is received by any other agency, they should refer it to the local Community Safety Unit based at the local borough or district council.
The borough or district council will record the application, alongside its own standard recording and reporting mechanisms, clearly identifying it as a Community Trigger application.
The application for the trigger will be considered by at least two of the four relevant bodies to decide whether or not the trigger threshold has indeed been met at which point the Community Trigger application will be validated and a review will be initiated.
Once a review has been initiated, partners and agencies that form part of the case review will be expected to share relevant information in a timely fashion. If information is not provided this will be recorded as part of the review findings.
The process from beginning to end will last no longer than 25 working days and the applicant will be contacted and notified as appropriate during this time, for example;
o Their trigger application has been received o Activation of the Community Trigger process or; o Trigger not met; o Results of review panel and recommendations o Issues resolved by the Community Trigger and case now closed.
There will a further review after 6 months, by which point any actions set as part of a plan created by the recommendations/findings will need to be completed. This will be communicated to the resident and the case closed if no further action is required.
If the applicant requests a secondary review of the way their application for a Community Trigger was dealt with or are not satisfied with the way their Community Trigger review was carried out then the borough/district council will initiate an independent panel.
o Option one: a peer review by a neighbouring Community Safety Partnership (CSP)/Community Safety Unit (CSU). o Option two: a review panel made up of a CSP exec group; Chief Executive/Director, Chief Inspector, a Councillor with responsibility for Housing and or a local ward member, residents forum member/chair. o Option three: Kent Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) option of an independent review panel created, perhaps involving Victim Support, Residents Forum chairs or other.
The borough or district council will report the following Community Trigger data to the local CSP as required and annually to the Kent PCC and Kent CSP and within the Strategic Assessments.
o the number of applications for Community Trigger received o the number of times the threshold for review was not met o the number of reviews carried out, and o the number of reviews that resulted in recommendations being made
It is proposed that this process is reviewed in April 2015 and any learning used to refine and improve the process.
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The Community Trigger in Maidstone (text for websites etc.)
What is it?
The Community Trigger is a process which allows members of the public to ask their local Community Safety Partnership to review responses to incidents of anti-social behaviour.
The Trigger has been introduced to help ensure that agencies are working together to resolve incidents of anti-social behaviour that are affecting residents quality of life. We will do this by appropriately sharing information between agencies, reviewing the actions that have been taken and use available resources to try and reach a solution and make recommendations that will hopefully prevent the situation from reoccurring.
The Trigger does not replace the existing complaints procedures of individual organisations, or your opportunity to complain, when appropriate, to the Local Government Ombudsman or Independent Police Complaints Commission.
When can I use the Community Trigger?
The Community Trigger can be used if you have reported at least three incidents of anti-social behaviour to a relevant organisation within the previous six months. These are incidents where the same behaviour, nuisance or problem has reoccurred and was reported within one month of it happening.
For the purpose of the Community Trigger, an incident of anti-social behaviour is defined as behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress to a member, or members, of the public. This could include behaviour such as vandalism, public drunkenness, noisy or abusive neighbours.
The Community Trigger is not designed to replace existing anti-social behaviour reporting lines or for the reporting of general acts of crime, including hate crimes although these can be included in the number of incidents you have reported if you feel they were part of the anti-social behaviour.
To report an incident of anti-social behaviour please call 101 or the Maidstone Community Safety Unit on 01622 602000 or via www.maidstone.gov.uk/communitysafety
If you or someone you know is being bullied, harassed or abused because of your race, religion, disability, sexuality or gender identity then you can report it via the independent Hate Crime Reporting line on 0800 138 1624.
How do I use the Community Trigger?
To use the Community Trigger you can either complete an online form (blue text indicates a hyper-link), telephone 01622 602658 or in writing to:
Nic Rathbone, Community Safety Partnerships Officer
Maidstone
Community Safety Unit
Maidstone Borough Council
Maidstone House
King Street
Maidstone
Kent ME15 6GY
You will need to provide details of the date of each incident that you have reported, to who (name, organisation and/or Incident Reference Number – if available) and information about the anti-social behaviour incident you were reporting. You will also be asked to agree to allow your details and information about you to be shared with other agencies.
The Trigger can also be used by any person on behalf of a victim, for example a family member, friend, carer, councillor, Member of Parliament or other professional person. However the victims consent will be needed before a person can use the Community Trigger on their behalf.
What can I expect?
Once a Community Trigger application has been received and accepted, the Community Safety Unit will contact the other agencies involved to confirm the details of the reported incidents to verify the threshold has been met. You will be contacted to confirm that the Trigger threshold has been met or if it has not been met what action will be taken to deal with the issues raised.
Following validation of the threshold the Community Safety Unit will request that agencies provide complete details of the case and any actions that have been taken to resolve the issues reported to them.
Arrangements will be made for a for a review panel to be formed who will then carry out a case review. The panel will involve senior staff from the appropriate Community Safety Partnership agencies, the Registered Social Landlords and/or other partners that may have been involved. The panel will discuss the anti-social behaviour and the actions taken.
We will write to you soon after the panel meeting to inform you of the findings and recommendations, we aim to do this as quickly as possible within a maximum 25 working days. Should the review take longer than this we will contact you to explain the delay.
The relevant bodies who undertake a case review may make recommendations to other agencies. The legislation places a duty on a person who carries out public functions to have regard for those recommendations. This does not mean that they are not obliged to carry out the recommendations, but that they should acknowledge them and may be challenged if they choose not to carry them out without good reason.
We will report on the number of Community Trigger applications and provide a summary of the key findings to the Maidstone Community Safety Partnership and the Office of the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner.
What if I am unhappy with the way the review was handled?
If you are unhappy with the way your Community Trigger application has been handled or the response received from the review panel then you can request that a secondary review be carried out by an independent panel.
The secondary review is
the last step that can be taken in this process, if you are still unhappy you
will be directed to the Ombudsmen, the Independent Police Complaints Commission
or other most relevant body.
Community Trigger (CT) Process Map
