1.         PURPOSE OF REPORT AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1      The purpose of the report is to update the Committee on the work of the Safer Maidstone Partnership (SMP) since last year and ask for the aforementioned Community Safety Plan to be recommended to Council for adoption and implementation.

2.         INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

2.1      The Maidstone Community Safety Partnership Plan 2013-18 is a five year rolling   document, which highlights how the SMP plans to tackle local community safety issues that matter to the local community. The plan is revised annually through reviewing information set out in the Strategic Assessment which ensures that current issues can be taken into account and used to direct the SMP’s strategy.

2.2      The Strategic Assessment was presented to this Committee on the 14 February 2017. As covered in the previous report, our priorities for this year have been extracted from a wide variety of information shared with our partners and represent the most important issues to focus on this (2017/18) year. Based on the information in the Strategic Assessment, the priorities for 2017/18 are:

·      Organised Crime Groups (including Modern Slavery)

·      Gangs & Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

·      Substance Misuse

·      Domestic Abuse & violent crime

·      Mental Health

2.3  Mental Health, although not a crime, is an issue at the heart of many cases discussed in the weekly Community Safety & Vulnerabilities Group meeting. Poor mental health is often a causational factor in a person’s anti-social behaviour and a victim of crime whose mental health is affected by their experiences are often placed at increased risk, as with the case of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter.

2.4    Changes in legislation from April 1^st mean that police custody suites will no longer being used as ‘safe places’ to take someone when they are detained under the Mental Health Act. This will mean intervention to prevent a person from reaching crisis point and thus be detained under the Mental Health Act will be needed this also reinforces our decision to have Mental Health as a priority in its own right.  A full scoping exercise looking at the impact of these issues, the services that currently exist, how they interlink and whether there are gaps, will be one of the actions for the new subgroup.  

3.         AVAILABLE OPTIONS

3.1      Do nothing (not recommended). The Strategic Assessment shows that community safety trends have changed, emerging issues need to be addressed by the partnership and if not picked up will potentially result in more victims of crime and anti-social behaviour, especially amongst the most at risk and vulnerable of society.

3.2      Approve the Partnership Plan refresh and the identified priorities for 2017/18 (recommended). This will allow for it to be implemented by the SMP and enable the action plans to be delivered by its subgroups. The priorities have been clearly evidenced within the Strategic Assessment and have been highlighted as priorities by the Kent Police & Crime Commissioner and other Community Safety Partnerships both in Kent and nationally.

4.         PREFERRED OPTION AND REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1      Approve the Partnership Plan refresh for 2017/18. Move forward with implementation of the refreshed plan and its action plans. These will be delivered under the umbrella of the Safer Maidstone Partnership via the subgroups set up for each priority. A new subgroup will be formed for the Mental Health priority and the current Community Resilience subgroup will be reformed into separate groups for Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) and Gangs & Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE).

4.2      The Strategic Assessment and refresh of the Partnership Plan demonstrate that issues do change and new priorities can emerge between the assessments.  Often this is as a result of partnership working targeting specific issues or crime types. It also shows that keeping up to date with current issues allows partners to be at the forefront of events, helping to prevent people from becoming victims and supporting those who are at risk and vulnerable. 

5.        PREVIOUS COMMITTEE FEEDBACK

5.1     The Strategic Assessment for 2017/18 was approved by the Communities, Housing & Environment committee on 14 February 2017. The priorities drawn out of the assessment were then used to assist partners develop action plans during an SMP away day that took place on 16 February 2017. These action plans have been included within the Partnership Plan refresh (Appendix 1). 

5.2     The away day enabled a broad section of SMP partners to come together and discussed the proposed priorities, ensuring that there was representation from agencies directly involved in the future delivery the action plans.  This was particularly important in the light of emerging new priorities such as Mental Health.

6.         NEXT STEPS: COMMUNICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

6.1      Following approval, the Partnership Plan will be disseminated to all partners for their information and implementation through the subgroups.  This year’s Police & Crime Commissioner’s community grant has been advertised externally. Part of the criteria for bids is their alignment with the SMP & PCC’s priorities and applications will need to submitted, sifted and a report sent to the PCC’s office for invoicing by May 30^th.        

7.     CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

8.       REPORT APPENDICES

The following documents are to be published with this report and form part of the report:

·               Appendix 1: SMP Community Safety Partnership Plan 2013-18