Issue - meetings

Mr Nicolas Rathbone, Community Protection Officer, presented this item to the Committee.

It was highlighted to the Committee that:

·  The Strategic Assessment was completed annually to interrogate crime data in order to identify crime and disorder trends which are then used to set the Safer Maidstone Partnership (SMP) priorities for the next year.

·  The proposed SMP priorities for 2018/19 were:

o  Organised Crime Groups in Modern Slavery

o  Gangs and Child Sexual Exploitation

o  Substance Misuse

o  Domestic Abuse

o  Mental Health

·  The removal of ‘Other Violent Crime’ from alongside the ‘Domestic Abuse’ priority was because a substantial proportion of violent crime incidents were related to domestic abuse. Any non-related serious violent crime was already dealt with robustly by the Police and some cases crossed over into other priority areas.

·  No new trends or risks had emerged throughout the year that weren’t already covered within one of the priority areas.

·  There was an SMP away day scheduled for 20 February 2018 to help set the action plans for the priority areas.

·  Since April 2017 there had been changes in the way that offences are recorded. Offences are now individually recorded rather than being grouped into one offence. For example, an affray including 6 people was previously recorded as one offence, but now it would be recorded as 6 separate offences.

·  Since April 2017, Burglary had been split into Residential and Business/Community and so the data did not give a true comparison compared with the following year.

·  Maidstone Crime Survey 2017 questioned over 6,000 randomly selected households. The Survey displayed that overall the majority of respondents were not worried about someone breaking into their home or being assaulted.

·  Year 6 was a key transition period for children as they could feel vulnerable. Therefore, Kent Police were engaging with children and their parents/caregivers about the transition period in order to support them.

Councillor Mrs Gooch addressed the Committee on this item.

Chief Inspector Mick Gardner and Inspector Mark Hedges gave a presentation to the Committee on the implementation of the New Horizon model.

It was noted that:

·  The New Horizon model considered the range of vulnerable people to make sure that they were protected.

·  The County response to vulnerability was:

o  There was a Mental Health Team which worked with partners to provide a consistent service for mental health service users to improve outcomes and manage demand;

o  There   was a Central Referral Unit which provided a multi-agency central point of access for vulnerable people; and

o  The Wanted Person Bureau coordinated the County’s response to wanted people.

·  There were Specialist PCSOs in roles such as:

o  Vulnerable Adult Intervention Officer;

o  Youth Engagement Officer;

o  In the Missing and Child Exploitation Team; and

o  Domestic Abuse Single Point of Contact.

·  There was a new Detective Superintendent for local policing to improve service delivery to victims of crime and reduce harm in communities.

·  There were an additional 100 staff embedded into local policing in the County to enhance the response to vulnerable  ...  view the full minutes text for item 114