Agenda item

Superintendent Steve Chapman (Operating Superintendent – South Yorkshire Police) with Sam Barstow, Head of Community Safety, Resilience and Emergency Planning, introduced the Annual Report on behalf of the Safer Rotherham Partnership (SRP).

The Annual Report provides a high level overview of SRP activity over the year; listing its priorities over the previous twelve months.

Details were provided of the in-depth reviews undertaken to provide assurance that the Partnership was working effectively. This has included a thorough review of domestic abuse cases, which examined how individual cases had been handled and areas of improvement. The SRP has also undergone a peer review by Blackburn with Darwin Council. This review provided a high level of assurance as to how the Partnership works. Areas of improvement included joint commissioning and engaging with communities.

Continued work across partners to address anti-social behaviour has led to a further reduction by 6% during 2016-17, which is in contrast to most other geographical areas. The Partnership has identified a number of areas of improvement including joint working processes and shared risk management. Although there is an overall reduction, there are types of ASB were there has been an increase, including environmental ASB and arson incidents.

South Yorkshire Police, along with other members of the Partnership, are strengthening and enhancing community policing within Rotherham. Neighbourhood Policing in Rotherham provides communities with teams of dedicated local Police Officers together with Police Community Support Officers, who listen to and work with the public, community groups, partner agencies and businesses to reduce crime, protect the vulnerable and enhance community safety through problem-solving approaches. The Council are also looking to drive this development through the way its services are delivered with the hope of implementing a neighbourhood working model in line with partners.

The area of domestic abuse has also been subject to intensive scrutiny by Councillors, Commissioners and partners alike. This work has identified gaps in terms of the strategic direction of this priority, the Partnership focus and the need to work better together both operationally and in respect of commissioning.

The following areas of improvement have been identified:

·           A joint strategy being pulled together across the Partnership

·           A single process for people suffering domestic abuse being developed (RMBC)

·           A proposal developed for a perpetrator programme across the county

·           A significant improvement plan undertaken by Police following an inspection report

A bid for £1.3m of Government funds was made during the last financial year in order to help the Partnership address community tensions. This bid was successful and plans are in motion to put resources in pace to begin delivery. The data at the end of this report shows a significant increase in hate crime reporting (37%). This is something that can also be seen nationally, to varying levels. During the financial year 2016/17, there were 138 hate crime awareness raising meetings and events delivered by the South Yorkshire Police (SYP) Hate Crime Co-ordinator and other partners. These sessions were delivered to partner agencies, voluntary and community sector organisations and communities. These aimed to build public confidence to report hate crimes and incidents to the Police.

Outcomes for victims of CSE increased by 15% for 2016 – 17. A number of police and partner operations have been taking place to identify those at risk, alongside locations. Partners have also been continuing to strengthen referral processes and partnership working practices. Services continue to develop positive relationships with those they work with as can be seen by the feedback provided. Additional work also includes;

·           New multi-agency plan based on reviews/learning events

·           8 convictions for 16 CSE offences in November 2016

·           Prosecution for online contacts and CSE offences

It was outlined that Rotherham has seen 15% increase in crime (compared with a 19% increase across South Yorkshire). The increase was attributed to the standardised way in which data was being collated. For example, incidents which were recorded previously as ASB are now recorded as crime.

The quality of investigations and satisfaction levels were identified as key areas of improvement. The level of confidence in SYP’s visibility and engagements has decreased but it was felt that changes to neighbourhood policing would improve this. A clear focus was improving victim care, including the standard and timeliness of feedback to victims of crime.

Discussion ensued on the report with the following issues raised/clarified:-

Concerns were expressed at the layout of the report, accessibility of its language for the general public and level of detail. A suggestion was made that contact details, linked to priorities, should be included in future reports to assist the public to report incidents. A request was made to report crime/ASB statistics over a longer period to identify trends (for example a five year period) with information broken down at a Ward level

Questions were asked about the non-attendance of SRP members and if there were barriers which hindered their participation and engagement. A commitment was given to exploring this further.

Whilst there had been an average increase of 15%, concerns were raised that there were areas were the increases were significantly higher; particularly in the area of sexual offences. This was viewed as a positive development as it indicated increased reporting of incidents. However, repeat incidents continued to be a concern. New developments such as cyber-crime, were showing an increase. In respect of hate crime relating to ethnicity, over 80% of reported incidents were experienced by people from the BME communities in Rotherham.

Concerns were raised about the timeliness of responses to 101 calls and the ability of the police to respond to reports of anti-social off-road biking. Assurances were given of improvements to the 101 services and details outlined of how agencies tackle nuisance off-road biking.

Resolved:-

1.    That the report be noted.

2.    That consideration be given to including contact details for support services and ensuring that the language and layout are accessible in future SRP annual reports.

3.    That a further report be provided detailing key areas of SRP improvement and performance; with a breakdown of data at a Ward level and crime/ASB trends over a five year period.