DRAFT

Safer Maidstone Partnership

Community Safety Partnership Plan 2012–2017

‘Delivering Safer Communities’

1.    Introduction

1.1   The Maidstone Community Safety Partnership (CSP) was formed as a result of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, which required local councils, police and other agencies to set up Crime and Disorder Reductions Partnerships (CDRPs) and to work together to tackle local crime problems.  The Maidstone CSP is made up of Responsible Authorities (those bodies for whom membership of the CSP is a statutory obligation) and voluntary members.

         *Until November 2012

2.    Background

2.1   The Maidstone Community Safety Plan 2012-17 is a rolling five year document, which highlights how the CSP plans to tackle community safety issues that matter to the local community. This plan is revised on an annual basis, through reviewing information provided from a wide range of organisations in a strategic assessment, to ensure that current issues can be taken into account into the activities undertaken by the CSP. The Plan will seek to promote a more holistic approach, with a greater emphasis on prevention and harm reduction.  For example, the harm done by alcohol has far reaching consequences that go beyond potential disorder and violence in the night-time economy; the implications for health and wellbeing have also to be taken into account; with their longer term implications. 

3.    Priorities

3.1   The strategic assessment document that has been produced for 2011/12 provides a crime overview of Maidstone Borough highlighting the issues that are of most importance to our communities and enables the CSP to identify emerging trends and plan actions to tackle these issues. From the available data and analysis, five key priorities have been agreed and are reflected in the SMP Partnership Plan.    The priorities are: 

·      Antisocial behavior

    To work to reduce incidents of rowdy nuisance behaviour; fly-tipping; and noise; and to reduce the perception of the local community that believe ASB is a large problem in their local area, with emphasis on noisy neighbours.

·      Domestic abuse

    Work to reduce repeat victimisation of domestic abuse victims and to ensure effective services are in place to support and meet the needs of victims.

·      Reducing reoffending

    Work to embed the responsibility of reducing re-offending across all agencies for all age groups, including awareness raising of existing services and activities. Work will be targeted around known reasons for people to offend, included education, training and employment as well as addressing housing needs.

·      Road safety

    To continue multi-agency work promoting road safety awareness to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads.

·      Substance misuse

    To continue multi-agency work to reduce the impact of drug and alcohol misuse on individuals and the local community, including drunken behaviour, binge and underage drinking.

3.2  How we are going to tackle these issues

       The CSP has created an action plan detailing how each priority will be addressed, which is shown in the action plan (see item 6). These activities range from revising current processes to ensuring that services are delivered as effectively as possible, creating value for money and also commissioning new services and projects in areas of need. The CSP is committed to achieving these priorities and has set targets against what we are planning to achieve, shown in item 7.

3.3  Priority leads

       Lead officers for each of the priorities have been identified as set out below and have the responsibility for developing and delivering, with partners, the action plans to deliver the Maidstone borough priorities.   The leads will also act as a champion for the designated priority and provide regular progress updates for the Safer Maidstone Partnership, the Maidstone Locality Board and the borough council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee as required. They will be supported by secondary lead officers who will be responsible for individual actions within each plan.

4.    Organisational changes – a local overview

4.1  Safer Maidstone Partnership (SMP)

        In 2010, the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government (IDeA) undertook a peer review of the SMP, the crime and disorder reduction partnership for the Maidstone borough. As a result of the review and its recommendations and to ensure compliance with Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which directs that we must have community safety embedded into our planning, our policy and our operational day-to-day activity, the SMP structure was revised to ensure that there is a more robust intelligence-led business process. 

       The SMP brings together people from local government, the NHS, the police, the fire service, probation, local businesses, housing providers and voluntary and community organisations to work as a team to tackle issues such as crime, education, health, housing, unemployment and the environment in Maidstone Borough.

       SMP membership is made up of the public sector agencies (Kent County Council, Maidstone Borough Council, Kent Police, Kent Police Authority, NHS, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, KDAAT, Kent Probation Service and Maidstone Prison) and also incorporates members from other key partners including Maidstone Mediation, The Kenward Trust, Golding Homes and Town Centre Management. The SMP is chaired by Martin Adams, Area Manager for the Kent Fire and Rescue Service.

4.2  Community Safety Unit

        The Maidstone Community Safety Unit (CSU) continues to grow. In recent months, existing Borough Council and Kent Police staff have been joined by partners from Kent Community Wardens, Trading Standards and local Registered Providers, such as Golding Homes.  In the coming months other partners including the Integrated Offender Management Unit will also be based with the CSU. Increasing the range of partners working as part of the CSU is a key priority to ensure community safety related issues are tackled holistically.

4.3  Kent Police

        As part of the force's modernisation programme, changes have been made to the command of the new policing divisions.  Three policing divisions, East, West and North, have replaced the previous six areas.  This has seen a shift of some of the current area commanders to new posts within the organisation's new structure, and marks a slimming-down of management posts across the force. Local policing is at the heart of the new model and there has been a significant increase in neighbourhood constables and sergeants across the county.

5.    The Kent County Perspective

5.1   The Kent Community Safety Agreement is an amalgamation of the strategic assessments undertaken annually by the local Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) across Kent. The common issues and priorities from these assessments have been identified and key stakeholders consulted to identify any potential gaps and cross-cutting themes for inclusion in the agreement.  The following priorities have been identified for 2011/12 as those with the potential to benefit from being supported at a county level, with the cross-cutting themes to be addressed within each priority:

6.    Maidstone Community Safety Partnership Action Plan

The Action Plan sets out a series of actions through which the priorities supporting the CSP Plan will be delivered for the period 2012–2017. The Action Plan makes clear arguments for building stronger and safer communities in Maidstone, with the actions identified against each priority supporting the overarching aim to reduce crime and disorder and its impacts. The plan will be reviewed annually to allow for new projects and priorities to be added.

7.    Maidstone Community Safety Partnership Targets

7. Plan for and Effectively Police Major Events in Maidstone and Prepare for 2012 Olympics

The Maidstone CSP will work in partnership with emergency services, district councils, other police forces, businesses and the community to ensure security planning is consistent across all agencies. Prioritising the Olympic year will also assist the CSP to keep the Prevent initiative high on colleagues’ and the public’s agendas.

8. Metal theft

A rise in the price of copper, lead and other non-ferrous metals has led to a dramatic increase in the number of metal thefts across the UK due to their scrap value. The CSP will monitor levels of metal theft in the locality devising plans, if necessary, to tackle any further increases.  The Partnership is working with scrap metal dealers, recyclers and other agencies to promote the use of SmartWater forensic technology.  New laws are expected to come into force in 2012, banning all cash transactions and unlimited fines for people caught trading the metal.

9. Consultation on Priorities and Partnership Plan

Maidstone has some clearly defined urban as well as rural areas, often with competing demands on resources and emphasis on what local priorities should be. To assist with informing the action plan for the coming year consultation will take place at an annual event with a wide range of stakeholders. The purpose of the event will be to inform stakeholders of progress against the previous Partnership Plan; obtain views and suggestions from partners and the community on the identified priorities to ensure there are no other compelling issues that should be included in the partnership plan.

10. Authorisation

Martin Adams

Area Manager, SMP Chair, Kent Fire and Rescue Service

Jon Bumpus

Chief Inspector, Maidstone Police

Alison Broom

Chief Executive, Maidstone Borough Council