Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

 

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea, no interests were declared.

 

 

In accordance with the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011, no declarations of Whipped Votes or Party Whips were declared.

10 Minute Period for Questions to Cabinet Members in attendance or Chair of the Committee in relation to the Scrutiny Work Programme.

There were no public questions.

·       Chief Superintendent Joe Ruddy (South Wales Police)

·       Chris Sivers (Director – People)

Chief Superintendent Martin Jones (South Wales Police) and Chris Sivers, (Director – People) attended to provide a progress report on Safer Swansea Partnership Performance and answer questions.  Chief Superintendent Jones had recently replaced Chief Superintendent Joe Ruddy as Divisional Commander for the Swansea area.

 

A joint presentation was provided which provided information on:

 

·       Partnership Chairing and Frequency of Meetings:

·       Safer Swansea Partnership Priorities and Key Activities 2016-17;

·       Community Safety Commissioning Review;

·       Domestic Abuse Action Plan and Hub;

·       Evening & Night-time Economy;

·       Purple Flag Application;

·       Community Safety Project Work;

·       Various Crime Statistics:

o   Recorded Crime;

o   Violence Against the Person and Public Order;

o   Sexual Offences;

o   Theft Offences;

o   Hate Crime;

o   Antisocial Behaviour;

·       Sectors Recording Biggest Change;

·       Next Stages for Safer Swansea Partnership Development.

 

The two main themes and priority for the Safer Swansea Partnership were noted as:

 

·       Evening & Night Time Economy; and

·       Domestic Abuse.

 

The Director - People referred to the Domestic Abuse Hub, which had recently been approved by Cabinet as part of the Family Support Service Commissioning Review.

 

She explained that Domestic Abuse was also a priority for the Public Services Board.  The project would seek to develop a clear integrated single referral pathway between domestic violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence (VAWDASV), substance misuse and mental health agencies resulting in timely appropriate support and interventions for those experiencing these co-existing issues.  A Domestic Abuse, Mental Health & Substance Misuse Referral Co-ordinator was in the process of being appointed.

 

The Chief Superintendent stated that nationally crime figures were going down.  However, the partnership found itself dealing more and more with issues of vulnerability and quality of life issues.

 

Overall recorded crime dropped by 23.1% across Swansea CSP comparing 2015-2016 to 2008-2009.

 

There was an upward trend in recorded crime since 2014-2015 due to a change in recording processes phased in between April and June 2014, whereby offences such as Anti-Social Behaviour and Public Order were now being recorded as crimes.

 

There had been a 36.8% increase in violence without injury offences and 35.4% increase in public order offences. As malicious communications was now a recorded crime under the Violence without Injury heading, this increase was due to the re-categorisation.

 

13% of Violence Against the Person and 19% of Public Order Offences were committed in the Wind Street area, however he stated that a considerable amount of work was ongoing by the Partnership in order to make the public safer.

 

Vehicle theft and burglary had reduced but the threat, risk and harm had manifested itself in other ways.

 

The outcome rate for Violence Against the Person was 27.6%, a reduction on last year and below the force rate of 31.1%, making South Wales one of the top performing in the Country, not just Wales.

 

Due to high profile cases such as the “Jimmy Saville” case and football related cases, there had been a 14.6% increase Sexual Offences reported.  The conviction rate at court in relation to rape cases had increased this year to 70%, compared to 44% the previous year.

 

In relation to Hate Crime the biggest change was in Racial Crimes which had increased by 22 offences.  The Chief Superintendent stated that the reporting figure could be higher as he believed that repeat offences were not being reported.

 

Anti-Social Behaviour offences had reduced in Morriston but increased in the Cwmbwrla and Castle Wards.

 

The biggest changes in recorded crime were in Moriston, Eastside and Townhill Sectors.

 

The Director - People concluded that looking forward they were seeking to re-invigorate the partnership work of Safer Swansea.  The future challenges would include:

 

·       Domestic Abuse

·       Substance Misuse

·       Evening and Night-time Economy

·       Hate Crime

 

Members asked a variety of questions which centred around the following topics:

 

·       Increase in sexual offences and violence against the person – whether perpetrators felt they would not be caught / punished;

·       Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) – the need for greater awareness and vigilance; whether there was safeguarding training for taxi-drivers, as in other authorities, as a condition of granting licence;

·       Education for children in school in relation to CSE / Social Media / Cyber-bullying as well as involving the whole community in raising awareness of identifying issues in their locality in order to protect children, young people & vulnerable adults; the extent to which the Police work with schools about on-line safety and prevention etc;

• Vulnerable adolescents and the support services available via the various partnership organisations - a danger that the individual child’s needs (often complex) can get lost within the system which can include the Police, Children’s Services, and Health;

·       How to cease the cycle of vulnerability that sees people entering the criminal justice system; adverse childhood experience studies (impact on adult behaviour);

·       Substance misuse – impact from recent legislation banning psychoactive substances; links with mental health; lack of out of hours access to mental health services;

·       Family Support Commissioning Review and proposals for a single gateway for Under 11’s and Over 11’s;

·       Vulnerable adults being targeting in the various “scams”, including those on-line; dealing with the challenge of protecting the ageing population from being conned out of money;

·       Campaigns to remind the public to be vigilant by locking cars / doors at home, even if they feel they live / work in a “safe” area;

·       Findings from the recent scrutiny inquiry into Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) - ensuring that the Youth Justice service and CAMHS are included in the single gateway for family support (as part of the Family Support Commissioning Review proposals).

 

The Chair thanked Chief Superintendent Martin Jones and Chris Sivers for the informative presentation and looked forward to receiving further updates in due course.

(a)  Adult Services

The Chair on behalf of Councillor Uta Clay, Convener and Councillor Peter Black, Acting Convener, referred to the report outlined in the agenda pack in relation to the work that had been undertaken in relation to the Adult Services Performance Panel.

 

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

The Chair presented a draft of the quarterly report from the Scrutiny Programme Committee to Council on the impact of scrutiny, which included a story on the completed Tackling Poverty Scrutiny Inquiry report that would be reported to Cabinet on 16 March 2017 and how the recent Education Inclusion Inquiry Panel and Social Care at Home Inquiry Panel have made a difference.

 

RESOLVED that the content of the draft ‘Scrutiny Dispatches’ be agreed and submitted to Council on 23 March 2017.

Discussion on:

(a)      Committee Work Plan;

(b)      Opportunities for Pre-Decision Scrutiny;

(c)      Progress with Current Scrutiny Panels and Working Groups.

The Chair presented the Scrutiny Work Programme 2016/2017.

 

The report provided the Committee with:

 

·       The current Scrutiny Work Programme;

·       A plan for future committee meetings;

·       A progress report and plan for the various existing Panels and Working Groups.

 

The Chair emphasised the heavy agenda for the meeting scheduled on 13 March 2017 and asked, in particular that Committee members review the cabinet reports that are subject to pre-decision scrutiny and identify any issues and concerns, and any questions they wish to ask in relation to the exempt item on the Oceana Building.

 

RESOLVED that the contents of the report be noted.

There were no updates to report.

	Activity	Meeting Date	Correspondence
a	Adult Services Performance Panel (Social Care at Home Inquiry Follow Up)	14 Dec	Letter to / from Cabinet Member for Adults & Vulnerable People
b	Planning Working Group	1 Feb	Letter to / from Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Development & Regeneration

 

The Chair reported the Scrutiny Letters Log.

 

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Letters Log and update be noted.

There had been no recent Scrutiny Events.

There were no upcoming Scrutiny Events to report.

The Audit Committee Work Plan for 2016/2017 was noted.

 

 

 

 

13 March 2017 (4.00pm)

10 April 2017 (4.30 pm)

 

 

The dates and times of future Committee meetings for the 2016/2017 Municipal Year were noted.

Topic   Approach Date Time Venue Civic Centre (CC) Guildhall (GH) Child & Family Services Pre-decision Scrutiny 14 Mar 12.30 pm Committee Room 3B (GH) Public Services Board Performance Panel 15 Mar 10.00 am Committee Room 5 (GH) Schools Performance Panel 16 Mar 4.00 pm Committee Room 4 (GH)

Children’s Readiness for School Inquiry Panel 20 Mar 4.00 pm Meeting Room 235 (GH) Service Improvement & Finance Performance Panel 22 Mar 10.00 am Committee Room 5 (GH) Child & Family Services Performance Panel 3 Apr 10.00 am Committee Room 5 (GH) Adult Services Performance Panel 5 Apr 4.00 pm Committee Room 3B (GH) Schools Performance Panel 6 Apr 4.00 pm Meeting Room 235 (GH)

 

The date and time of Upcoming Panel / Working Group meetings were provided for information.