Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendations:

1.    That Cabinet endorses the Safer Rotherham Partnership Plan and recommends it to Council for approval.

2.    That Cabinet notes the requirement for scrutiny of the Safer Rotherham Partnership Annual Report, which is discharged by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

Consideration was given to the report which sought Cabinet endorsement of the Safer Rotherham Partnership Plan. The Safer Rotherham Partnership (SRP) had agreed the plan, setting out priorities and commitments for the period 1st April, 2022, to 31st March, 2025. The Council was a key statutory partner of the SRP.

The previous Safer Rotherham Partnership Plan 2018-21 was extended for an additional year to 31st March, 2022, due to Covid-19 pandemic pressures and impacts on crime and community safety. The plan guided the Partnership in delivering significant work to protect vulnerable children and adults, build safer and more cohesive communities and tackle domestic abuse and serious and organised crime. An evidence-based approach had been used to agree new priorities along with a comprehensive consultation to capture the views of key stakeholders, including people who live, visit or work in Rotherham.

The Safer Rotherham Partnership Plan and priorities for 2022-2025 were agreed by the SRP Board in April 2022 in accordance with the outcomes of the Use of the Management of Risk in Law Enforcement (MoRiLE) thematic tool and the Joint Strategic Intelligence Assessment (JSIA.) The priorities, objective area and commitments agreed were:

1.    Protecting Vulnerable Children (Child Abuse, Child Crime Exploitation and Child Sexual Exploitation)

2.    Protecting Vulnerable Adults (Substance Misuse, Mental Health and Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking)

3.    Safer and Stronger Communities (Tackling Community Safety Priority Locations, Preventing Hate Crime and Online Crime)

4.    Protecting People from Violence and Organised Crime (Domestic Abuse, Sexual Abuse and Male Violence Against Women and Girls, Serious Violence, Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism)  

Quarterly performance reports would be monitored by the SRP Board with annual reports being provided to wider stakeholders. The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, when formally sitting as the Crime and Disorder Committee, would review the annual report of the Partnership in accordance with the legislation.

Following Cabinet endorsement, the Safer Rotherham Partnership Plan 2022-25 (attached as Appendix 1 to the report) would be presented to Council for approval in October 2022.

This report had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board as part of the pre-decision scrutiny process. The Board fully supported the recommendations but requested that wider engagement takes place to inform future and refreshed plans, including rural communities, disabled people, minority ethnic communities and those with other protected characteristics.

Resolved:-

1.    That Cabinet endorse the Safer Rotherham Partnership Plan and recommend it to Council for approval.

2.    That Cabinet notes the requirement for scrutiny of the Safer Rotherham Partnership Annual Report, which was discharged by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

3.    That wider engagement takes place to inform future and refreshed plans, including rural communities, disabled people, minority ethnic communities and those with other protected characteristics.