Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no Declarations of Interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the Culture and commuities scrutiny meeting held on 26 January 2023 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

On 18 October 2022, the Executive endorsed the Culture and communities scrutiny panel’s recommendations on Tough enough? Enforcement in Middlesbrough and its impact on crime and anti-social behaviour.

Marion Walker, Head of Stronger Communities will be attendance to provide an update on the recommendations since they were endorsed.

The Head of Stronger Communities was in attendance provide an update review on Tough Enough? Enforcement in Middlesbrough and its impact on crime and anti-social behaviour.

The Head of Service advised that there was a lot of work being undertaken in the background, including the community trigger process in Middlesbrough and this is a well established process that supported and attended by external partners as appropriate to the complaint. An action plan was in place to cover the recommendations from the report and progress of these would be updated to the committee in due course.

AGREED

That the update be noted.

Marion Walker, Head of Stronger Communities will provide a verbal update on Middlesbrough Community Safety Partnership.

The Head of Stronger Communities was in attendance to provide an update on the Community Safety Partnership.

The update was as follows:

Town Centre Team

External grant funding had been sourced to fund a number of things in the Town Centre, all of which are aimed at providing reassurance and support to existing businesses, attracting and supporting new businesses and making the Town Centre an inviting place to visit and invest.

The funding comes from two sources , the TVCA IGF grant and the Towns Fund and it will fund a number of thigs including the following:

·        Dedicated Town Centre Enforcement Team to respond to crime and anti-social behaviour (to fund a town centre enforcement manager and 12 enforcement officers)

·        Extension of the PSPO in the TS1 area (This was complete)  

·        Re-establish Middlesbrough Retail Crime Partnership/Shopwatch arrangements

·        Promotional campaign focused on not to give money to beggars

·        Increase CCTV in town centre (£15,000)

·        Increase youth provision in town centre to divert people away from ASB and Crime

·        Deep clean the town centre

·        And increased area care staff

This was currently being introduced and it would cover a 2 year period. Further updates would be provided to scrutiny of required.

Community Safety Partnership

The CSP continues to meet every 2 months and partners discuss key strategic issues relating to community safety.

The CSP Plan was extended for 12 months to give senior leaders time to review the priorities and decide what the priorities should be for the next 2 years. This will be completed with new priorities by 31^st March 2024. This process will be informed by a strategic intelligence assessment that will review data from a range of sources looking at patterns and trends of crime and ASB and will include details relating to geographic locations and hotspots.

The CSP has a number of statutory areas that it needs to focus on and these include

·        Crime and ASB

·        Reducing Reoffending

·        Prevent

·        Serious Violence

The current plan priorities were:

Priority 1—Perceptions and Feeling Safe

Objectives

•        Reducing crime and anti-social behaviour (Inc. environmental crime)

•        Improving community cohesion and resilience

•        Delivering the prevent agenda

Priority 2 - Tackling the Root Causes

Adverse Experiences

Objectives

•        Improve mental health

•        Reduce child exploitation (including CSE)

•        Reduce substance misuse

•        Reduce domestic violence

•        Reducing serious violence

Priority 3 - Locality Working, Inc. Town Centre

Reconfigure relationships between statutory organisations and the community. Encouraging and supporting a collaborative approach and building capacity within the community.

Objectives

·        Working with communities (doing ‘with’ not ‘to’)

·        Improving environmental cleanliness

·        Addressing underlying community issues

·        Reducing Violence, business crime and acquisitive crime

·        Reducing re-offending

·        Reduce Begging

The Head of Service was thanked for her update.

AGREED- That the update be noted.

The Chair will provide a verbal update on the business discussed at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting on 2 February 2023 and 22 February 2023.

The Chair provided a verbal update in relation to the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 22 February 2023.

The following agenda items were discussed:

·        Executive forward work programme.

·        Quarter 3- Corporate performance update

·        Quarter 3- revenue and capital budget

·        Children’s finance improvement plan

·        Statutory finance report

·        Mayor’s budget proposals

The Chair also advised that the two final reports from the children and learning scrutiny panel and our own panel (Culture and communities) on off road bikes were presented and agreed.

AGREED

That the update be noted.

Appreciation

As this was the last meeting of the municipal year, the Chair showed his appreciation to the panel for their support and work over the last year.