Town Hall, St. Helens, Merseyside, WA10 1HP Telephone: (01744) 676106 (Mrs KM Howard) Agenda SAFER COMMUNITIES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY PANEL PUBLIC MEETINGS ARE WEBCAST (LIVE STREAMED) Date: Tuesday, 26 March 2019 Time: 10.00 am Venue: Room 10 - Town Hall Membership Lab 7 Councillors CD Banks, Fulham (Chairman), J Jackson, P Jackson, McDonnell, C Preston and L Preston Con 1 Councillor Mussell Co-Opted (Non-Voting) Phil Byrne, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Chief Superintendent Louise Harrison, Merseyside Police Item Title Page 1. Apologies for Absence 2. Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 December 2018 3 3. Declarations of Interest 4. Safeguarding Review of Merseyside Police Verbal Report Local Policing Superintendent, Louise Harrison has been invited to attend the meeting. 5. Update on Skate Park Verbal Report Roy Benyon, Head of Place and Delivery has been invited to attend the meeting. 6. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Update Verbal Report P.T.O Item Title Page 7. Merseyside Police Update Verbal Report 8. Scrutiny Report - Review of Hate Crime 9 2 SAFER COMMUNITIES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY PANEL At a meeting of this Panel held on Tuesday, 11 December 2018 (Present) Councillor Fulham (Chairman) Councillors CD Banks, J Jackson, P Jackson and L Preston (Also Ian Mullen, Station Manager, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Present) Chief Superintendant Louise Harrison, Merseyside Police (Not Present) Councillors McDonnell and Mussell ------- 18 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from Councillors McDonnell and Mussell. 19 MINUTES * Resolved that the minutes of the meeting held on 3 October 2018, be approved and signed subject to the following amendment: Minute 15 - ‘Her Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate (HMFSI)’ to read ‘Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)’. 20 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST No Declarations of Interests from Members were made. 21 KNIFE CRIME UPDATE The Commissioning and Development Manager and the Communications and Project Support Officer were present at the Panel to present an update on the progress made with the Young Advisors Knife Crime Workstream. The St Helens Young Advisors ‘Cut it out #nomoreknives’ Campaign Evaluation Report had been attached to the report at Appendix 1 and was presented to the Panel. The Service Manager Housing and Safer Communities was also present to present an update on the partnership and collaborative work that was taking place locally and with other Merseyside Community Safety Partnerships (CSP’s) across the City Region to collectively address the issue of knife crime. The Panel raised questions, which were answered at the meeting, in relation to the following; early intervention at primary school age, consideration regarding the presentation of knife wounds and/or scarring as a preventative element within presentations to young people, if ‘County Lines’ was a factor affecting the perceived need to carry a knife amongst some vulnerable young people and if progress had been made on establishing a confidential method or place for young people to report knife possession. 3 2 SAFER COMMUNITIES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY PANEL * Resolved that: (1) the Commissioning and Development Manager, the Communications and Project Support Officer and Service Manager Housing and Safer Communities be thanked for their attendance; and (2) the report be noted. 22 PREVENT STRATEGY The Assistant Director, Community & School Support Services was present at the meeting to present the PREVENT Strategy. At the meeting of Cabinet held on 3 October 2018, the PREVENT– St Helens Operational Guidance and Action was plan 2018-2021 was approved and adopted. The PREVENT strategy, originally published by the Government in 2011 and updated in 2018, was part of the overall counter terrorism strategy CONTEST. The aim of CONTEST was to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism preventing people from becoming influenced through extreme and radical ideology. The updated strategy provided a much greater focus on a systemic and coordinated response across Public Sector organisations. The revised document was underpinned by four priorities – Prevent - To stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism; Pursue - To stop terrorist attacks; Protect - To strengthen our protection against a terrorist attack; and Prepare – Mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack. The revised document provided a more integrated approach between intelligence, local authorities, health authorities and other key agencies. PREVENT Operational Guidance and PREVENT action plan 2018-2021 was attached to the report at Appendix 1. The Panel requested more detail regarding 1.7 of the PREVENT action plan ‘Ensure that the Council’s IT infrastructure has the necessary filters to provide solutions to PREVENT access to extremist material’. This was provided by the Assistant Director, Community & School Support Services at the meeting. * Resolved that: (1) the Assistant Director, Community & School Support Services be thanked for his attendance; (2) the report be noted; and (3) the Panel continue to receive updates regarding the PREVENT agenda. Councillor J Jackson left the meeting during discussion on the following item. 4 2 SAFER COMMUNITIES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY PANEL 23 VULNERABLE PERSONS RESETTLEMENT PROGRAMME The Resettlement Officer was present at the meeting to present an update on the implementation of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme (SVPR) in St Helens. Work commenced on the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme in January 2017 to resettle approximately 60 Syrian refugees within the Borough. To date, 96 refugees had been resettled, which included; 10 refugees as part of the Vulnerable Children Resettlement Scheme and 22 individuals as part of the Family Reunion Scheme. The majority of refugees originated from Syria although a small number of families were from Iraq. The report updated the Panel on the following: Phasing of Refugees in St Helens Borough; Home Office Minimum requirements; Funding from the Home Office; Responsibilities of the Local Authority Support Provided to Families and Process Delivery including; housing, schools, health, access to English for Speakers of Others Languages (ESOL), Access to employment and training opportunities and community sponsorship; Community Integration; Key Outcomes; and Increase of Pledge until March 2020 for 60 individuals. The Panel raised questions which were answered at the meeting in relation to the following; exit visa processes and if there was enough financial support to continue the extended ESOL support. * Resolved that the report be noted. 24 MERSEYSIDE FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE UPDATE A verbal report was given by Ian Mullen, Station Manager which updated Members on the current work of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. It was reported over the bonfire period there had been a significant reduction in incidents; with a 35% reduction compared to the same period last year in St Helens and a 6.6% reduction in incidents over the Merseyside District. During the Bonfire period 51 tonnes of bonfire material had been removed from the streets Merseyside, of which 9.5 tonnes was from the streets of St Helens. Pan Merseyside there had been nine attacks on Fire Crews during this period and seven fire work incidents, none of which had occurred in St Helens. This significant reduction of reportable incidents over this period had been in part, due to the multi-agency work that had taken place over this period in main through Operations Goodguy and Banger. The Panel was informed of other work undertaken since the last update to Members which included: a Panel visit to the Joint Command Centre at Bootle, Homelessness support through Teardrops, joint working with Police around a Person of Interest, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) Inspection and of work being undertaken 5 2 SAFER COMMUNITIES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY PANEL as part of the Christmas Campaign. Members were also informed of the future plans for a new Fire station in St Helens which was expected to be complete in 2020. Members raised questions which were answered at the meeting in relation to; Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) Inspection timeframes and if improvements in technology e.g. LED lights had had a noticeable positive impact on reduction incident of house fires. * Resolved that: (1) the verbal report be noted; and (2) the outcome of the recent HMIC Inspection be reported at a future meeting of the Panel. 25 MERSEYSIDE POLICE UPDATE A verbal report was given by Chief Superintendant Louise Harrison which updated Members on the current work of Merseyside Police. The Panel was given an overview of the last few months performance over a number of crime types including Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), Criminal Damage, Vehicle Crime (including Interference) Robbery (Personal and Business) Burglary Dwelling and Hate Crime. It was reported with regards to vehicle crime and burglary dwelling although there was a general picture of overall reduction there had been the odd peak of activity. Directed work had been undertaken to address this by way of targeting areas and individuals which had led to a reduction in incidents. The Panel was informed of the targeted work being undertaken during the Christmas period in relation to drink/drug driving through Operation Nemesis and through social media encouraging extra vigilance over the Christmas period with regards to home security. Additional patrols were also being deployed in the main shopping areas/retail parks