Issue - meetings

To be considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board in its role as the Council’s Statutory Crime and Disorder Committee, as defined by the Crime and Disorder (Overview and Scrutiny) Regulations 2009.

For this item the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board sat in its role as the Council’s Statutory Crime and Disorder Committee, as defined by the Crime and Disorder (Overview and Scrutiny) Regulations 2009.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Community Safety and Finance and the Head of Community Safety attended the meeting to present the Safer Rotherham Partnership (SRP) Annual Report 2020/21. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Community Safety advised that the report and the attached annual report of the SRP provided an opportunity for the Council to scrutinise the activity of the SRP during the period March 2020 and April 2021.

In introducing the report, the Cabinet Member advised that the picture of crime and disorder in the timeframe covered by the report had been significantly impacted by the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was noted that during this period some crime issues had decreased significantly as a result of lockdowns and the forced closures of local businesses, in particular in the retail, hospitality and night-time economy sectors, but that conversely new and emerging risks and issues had become apparent during the pandemic.

The Cabinet Member advised that throughout 2020/21 the partnership had continued to address previously agreed key areas for joint working that impacted on Rotherham’s communities, retaining its focus on protecting vulnerable children and adults and addressing community safety concerns in local neighbourhoods, including anti-social behaviour and hate crime, domestic abuse and sexual offences and serious organised crime. It was noted that the SRP’s response to the challenges created by the pandemic had been focussed on those areas of criminality adversely affected by it, and that this had then been reflected in the subsequent allocation of resources and services across the SRP.

The Cabinet Member advised that for 2020/21 the SRP had utilised £118,000 of funding that had been allocated to it by the Office of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner. This funding had then been used to deliver eight key projects that supported the SRP’s agreed priorities for action of Protecting Vulnerable Children, Protecting Vulnerable Adults, Building Confident and Cohesive Communities, Domestic Abuse and Serious and Organised Crime.

The Head of Community Safety noted that during 2020/21 that there had been here a particular emphasis by the partnership on activity focused on domestic abuse, tackling hate crime, safeguarding from extremism, modern slavery and mental health. The full Safer Rotherham Partnership Annual Report was attached as an appendix to the officer’s report.

Members noted the reduction in the number of recorded incidents of knife crime and asked whether this reduction would be sustainable now that society had reopened after the end of pandemic related restrictions. The Head of Community Safety advised that that after a small recent rise in the number of knife crime incidents the number of incidents recorded had now stabilised. The Head of Community Safety advised that the new Violence Reduction Programme would seek to address the challenges around knife crime and would work to ensure that the continued reduction  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53