Minutes of the Dorset Community Safety Partnership - 2 October 2024

Apologies

• Cllr Laura Beddow, Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Authority 
• Paul Dempsey, Children's Services 
• Steve Yeoman, Dorset Council 
• Andrew Billany, Dorset Council 

Item

No 1. Minutes of meeting held on 3 July 2024 and matters arising

1.1 4.4 Immediate Justice Scheme - discussions were taking place outside of the meeting following the release of further advice from the Home Office.

No 2. Performance report

2.1 Ian Denness presented the latest performance management data and decisions were taken in relation to the following performance measures:

• 1.4. - The effectiveness of domestic abuse perpetrator programmes. Explore the availability of arrest data for past participants of perpetrator courses (within two years of completion) and assess the possibility of gauging the seriousness of subsequent offences.
• 2.2 – Positive outcome rate for sexual offences. Agreed to abandon this measure as the Community Safety Partnership has no direct ability to impact on performance.
• 3.1a – Quantifying antisocial behaviour incidents – Agreed to use a combination of Anti Social Behaviour data from the Police and the Community Safety Operations Team in Dorset Council.
• 3.1b, 4.1b, and 6.1b – Identifying ‘hotspots’. It was agreed that lower layer super output areas (LSOAs) should form the basis for hotspot delineation.
• 3.4 – Effectiveness of Safer Street Intervention Hubs. Further work to be undertaken to establish whether reoffending rates can be calculated for Hub attendees.

2.2 It was decided that Ian Denness would liaise directly with colleagues from partner agencies on a one-to-one basis to establish metrics and secure data as required. 

2.3 In future both quarterly and annual data figures would be provided.

No 3. Progress against Local Priorities

3.1 John Newcome updated the group on partners’ work to tackle local priorities, which included a summary of the co-ordination, oversight and progress of specific local priorities identified at the area Partnership Co-ordinating Group (PCG) meetings.

3.2 Key headlines included:

• 100 days of summer was a success, with a marked decrease in Anti-Social Behaviour. 
• CCTV at the Rodwell Trail was now live.  
• The Community Safety Team were working alongside the Dorset Council Housing Team to support Housing Associations with tackling Anti-Social Behaviour and complex neighbourhood disputes. This included sharing best practice and training.
• work was ongoing to strengthen the links between operational and strategic work to tackle rural crime. 

3.3 The group discussed the challenge of addressing individuals who have a disproportionately high impact in terms of anti-social behaviour. Although there were operational mechanisms in place, it was agreed to explore what more could be done to help manage such individuals. 

Action - John Newcombe, Andy Frost

No 4. Progress against Strategic Priorities
 

4.1 Community Safety Partnership members considered a report that provided detail on activity that addressed the Community Safety Partnership’s four cross cutting themes. Activity had been drawn from partners’ Community Safety Plan, Domestic Abuse Strategy and Serious Violence Strategy.

4.2 It was noted that:

• activity that linked to mental health included addressing the impact of repeat Anti Social Behaviour cases, protecting the most vulnerable from fraud and learning from reviews.
• activity linked to addressing the impact of substance misuse included initiatives relating to the night time economy and Anti Social Behaviour, ensuring support services were in place and tackling specific issues such as cuckooing. 
• complexity and multiple needs were key features in partners’ work. Initiatives in their plans and strategies look to understand and learn from complex cases, support high risk victims and provide training.
• crimes of violence against women and girls (VAWG) include domestic abuse, stalking and sexual offences. Those issues were priorities in partners’ plans and strategies and, as could be seen from the report, a wide range of activity was taking place to address them.

4.3 Molly Rennie mentioned the work of the Violence Against Women and Girls Scrutiny Panel which helped demonstrate the impact partners are having on this issue. 

4.4 Members of the group felt assured that substantial activity was being undertaken to address partners’ cross-cutting issues. 

No 5. Domestic Abuse Strategy

5.1 Ian Grant gave an overview of partners’ progress with implementing the current Dorset Domestic Abuse Strategy 2021-2024, and plans for refreshing the strategy. 

5.2 Members of the group considered progress to date which included bolstering provision for victims of domestic abuse and their children in safe accommodation, the provision of specialist housing advice, strengthened pathways for housing, increased awareness raising, developing target hardening guidance, additional research to better understand issues and work to recommission the current Integrated Domestic Abuse Service.

5.3 It was noted the current strategy was subject to an internal audit, to test whether effective monitoring and oversight mechanisms were in place. Findings from the audit would be used to help inform the future strategy.

Dorset Domestic Abuse Strategy 2025-2028 – Project Plan

5.4 Ian ran through a proposed project plan for writing the new Dorset Domestic Abuse Strategy that will run for three years, from 2025 to 2028. 

5.5 It was agreed the new strategy should cover not only safe accommodation, but also partners’ wider response to domestic abuse. 

5.6 Work to undertake the needs assessment and write the strategy would be overseen by a small partnership working group. Community Safety Partnership members agreed to nominate representatives to the working group.

Action - Community Safety Partnership Members

5.7 Key dates included consideration of the needs assessment by the Community Safety Partnership in December, and signing off the strategy by the Community Safety Partnership in March.

5.8 Molly Rennie highlighted the challenges facing providers in the voluntary and community sector with securing long term sustainable funding and the need to engage with the sector in the development of the new strategy. It was agreed Molly would sit on the working group to help provide that input.

Action - Ian Grant

5.9 It was noted that whilst much of the work to implement the recommendations from the current strategy had been completed, some things remained ongoing and would continue in the new strategy as core business.

Resolved

• progress against the Dorset Domestic Abuse Strategy 2021-2024 was noted.

• the approach for creating the Dorset Domestic Abuse Strategy 2025-2028 was agreed.  

No 6. Serious Violence Duty progress report

6.1 Di Evans gave an update on partners’ response to the Serious Violence Duty. Implementation of the Duty had been in two stages:

• 2023/2024: Undertaking a Strategic Needs Assessment; establishing a Serious Violence Duty Strategy; and Creating and early initiation of a Delivery Plan of interventions.
• 2024/2025: Ongoing delivery of interventions.  

6.2 Initiatives developed so far included:

• The Boys Project 
• Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme
• Young People Vulnerable to Exploitation
• Nighttime Economy
• Consent and Respect
• Pineapple Project 
• High Harm Perpetrator Panel

6.3 Di explained that some interventions had been further developed and adjusted over time, in response to initial implementation challenges and changes in circumstances. 

6.4 Funding to support interventions had come from central government via Police and Crime Commissioners. Di explained that should the multi-agency task and finish group for serious violence be unable to approve any of the revised proposals, any money allocated to that work would be reassigned either to support existing interventions or towards new interventions that could be successfully implemented within the required time frame.

6.5 The Task and Finish group was also finalising the refresh of the 2024 Strategic Needs Assessment. 

No 7. Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) update

7.1 Di Evans gave an update the on the status of Domestic Homicide Reviews including those that were marked complete, those currently with the Home Office Quality Assurance Panel, those that were ongoing, and those that did not meet the Domestic Homicide Review criteria or had been passed to other Community Safety Partnerships to deliver. 

7.2  Members of the group discussed the draft revised Statutory Guidance for Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews (DARDR), the new term for Domestic Homicide Reviews. It was the view of the group that the draft statutory guidance was not fit for purpose, was confusing and unclear and would be very difficult for the Community Safety Partnership to implement in its current form.

7.3 It was noted that a DARDR network had been established jointly by the LGA (Local Government Association), the DAC Office (Domestic Abuse Commissioner) and APCC (Association of Police and Crime Commissioners) specifically to bring together local authorities and those with responsibility for delivering DARDRs with a view to finding solutions to issues and concerns, and to enable escalation of challenges requiring a national response.

7.4 Several concerns had been raised through this group relating to both current processes and the new draft statutory guidance. An issues log had been opened to register and monitor concerns, along with any proposals to address them. 

7.5 It was not clear when the new statutory guidance would be finalised and given the concerns, members of the Community Safety Partnership agreed to open a risk register and include this as a key item.

Action - Di Evans, Andy Frost

7.6 The Community Safety Partnership’s Domestic Homicide Review Action Plan Review Group had recently met to review outstanding actions from across all ongoing Domestic Homicide Reviews. The group were also looking to assess the impact of Domestic Homicide Reviews. A paper on this would be brought to the next Community Safety Partnership meeting.

Action - Di Evans

Resolved

•    the recommendations in the report were agreed

No 8. Forward plan

8.1 The forward plan was agreed. 

No 9. Any other business 

9.1 Lewis Gool provided an update on the recommissioning of SARC (Sexual Assault Referral Centre) which was moving to a new provider, Partnering Health Limited, from December. It was noted there should be no change in the service being delivered, other than changes to branding and email addresses. 

Future meeting dates

• 19 December 2024 at 2pm
• 13 March 2025 at 2pm

All meetings will take place via Microsoft Teams