Agenda and minutes

32.1    Councillor Ryall declared an interest by virtue of being married to a police offier.

To declare if any issues to be covered in the Agenda are under party whip.

33.1    There were no declarations of party whipping.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 17^th January 2018 and 29^th January 2018.

34.1    The minutes of the meetings that took place on 17^th and 29^th January 2018 were approved and signed by the Chair.

35.1    There were no public questions.

To receive any petitions and deputations provided that no such petition or deputation is in relation to:

·         Matters relating to individual Council Officers, or

·         Matters relating to current or pending legal proceedings

36.1    There were no petitions or deputations.

To receive the latest version of the Committee’s work programme and the Council’s Forward Plan.

37.1    The Committee considered the Work Programme and the Council Forward Plan. The Chair advised that the report of the Local Government Peer Challenge would be considered at the next Committee meeting.

37.2    RESOLVED: That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee note the Work Programme and the Council Forward Plan.

To receive a presentation by Safer Gloucestershire (the county-wide partnership) and an update from the City Council’s Safer and Stronger Gloucester.

38.1    The Chair welcomed the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, the Superintendent of Neighbourhood Policing and the Chief Inspector of Neighbourhood Policing to the meeting.

38.2    The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner outlined the work of Safer Gloucestershire and that it had come out of previous devolution proposals. He stated that the aim was to bring together key actors to achieve joint action on crime in the county and City. He advised that this fitted in with other partnerships and was a good example of combining health and wellbeing work with community safety.

38.3    In the context of budgetary constraint, the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner stated the both prevention and intervention should not (and did not need to be) neglected. He outlined that violent crime could be considered a public health issue and that it was important to talk sensitively about the subject.

38.4    The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner advised that Gloucestershire was particularly effective at prevention work and that, while other police forces were scaling back neighbourhood policing, Gloucestershire had successfully protected this area and that neighbourhood policing had been revitalised despite less funding.

38.5    The Corporate Director (Partnership Working) outlined the work of the team at the City Council and highlighted a number of key areas. She highlighted that a particular focus for the year was the Social Impact Bond (SIB) which provided bespoke support for vulnerable women with very complex needs. She described it as a need to create a social movement on Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence. The Corporate Director further stated that the community safety work undertaken by the Council and partners was a good example of breaking silos.

38.6    Councillor Stephens queried how Members and the public would know that such measures were working. By way of example, he noted that knife crime was on the increase. The Corporate Director advised that she and her team were examining the introduction of outcome based measures and that the Community Wellbeing Manager was in the process of putting the strategy together.

38.7    Councillor Watkins (Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods) stated that it was difficult to decide how much to evaluate and analyse in that one could see what had changed but not necessarily why.

38.8    With regard to prevention work related to Child Sexual Exploitation, Councillor Hawthorne queried whether there was data on how many taxi drivers had raised this as a risk. He further queried whether these individuals were expected to report safeguarding issues themselves. The Corporate Director advised that the licensing team would have this information and that drivers raised concerns themselves. She stated that it would be positive to conduct some refresher training and to examine whether there have been referrals.

38.9    Councillor Patel stated that this work showed this was a caring authority and that it was positive to see a good level of collaborative working. He shared his view that the work being done around drugs was positive and that it was not always easy to quantify success.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

Monday 26^th March 2018 in the Civic Suite, North Warehouse.

39.1    26^th March 2018 at 6.30pm in the Civic Suite, North Warehouse.