Agenda item

Jane Hill, Strategic Community Safety Manager will provide a presentation regarding community triggers and how they can support victims of anti-social behavior.

 

A further discussion with the officers from ASB help will follow surrounding how the community trigger has helped in other areas.

 

Jane Hill, Strategic Community Safety Manager for Middlesbrough Council followed with a presentation in relation to community triggers. She started by reassuring the panel that Middlesbrough Council have an excellent team and victims of crime and asb are their upmost concern and we out them at the forefront of what the council do.

 

In terms of community triggers, as way of introduction:

 

•       The Community Trigger was introduced under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

•       Purpose - To give victims and communities the right to request a review of their case and bring agencies together to take a joined up, problem solving approach to find a solution.

•       Vulnerable or repeat victims of ASB being missed due to agencies working in isolation (Fiona Pilkington case)

•       Information regarding problems in an area not being shared between agencies

•       Poor coordination of problems and lack of problem solving or joint working between agencies

The following agencies are involved in the community trigger:

 

•          Middlesbrough Council

•          Cleveland Police

•          Tees Valley Commissioning Group (CCG) if required

•          Co-opted Housing Associations (Thirteen lead contact)

The community can ask for the community trigger to be activated when it hits the following thresholds:

 

•          An individual, business or community group has made three or more reports regarding the same problem in the past six months to Middlesbrough Council, Cleveland Police, or their Housing Association Landlord, or

•          More than one individual, business or community group has made five or more reports about the same problem in the past six months to Middlesbrough Council, Cleveland Police, or their Housing Association Landlord.

The request for the community trigger to be activated when:

Qualifying requests:

 

•          Requests cannot be made more than 6 months after the problems to review have occurred.

•          Requests cannot be made where the problems were not reported to official agencies within 1 month of their occurrence.

•          Generally requests cannot be made about problems that occurred outside of Middlesbrough.

•          The Community Trigger process is a request for a review. It is not a complaint process.

The trigger process in Middlesbrough:

 

•          All requests must be made by telephone, email or letter to the Council’s Neighbourhood Safety Team.

•          Acknowledgement letter sent.

•          Information request made to all ‘responsible’ agencies

•          Legal Services decide if threshold met

•          Case Review Panel meeting arranged

•          Applicant informed of outcome

The community trigger process would be circulated to the members after the meeting. The Manager also acknowledge ASB Helps comment regarding victims and their attendance at the case review meetings. In the past Middlesbrough has not invited victims, however following on from the meeting the procedures would be updated and all victims would be invited in the future.

 

The Manager made reference to the comment made by a panel member with respect to not being aware of the community trigger, and the Manager felt that more work was required to promoting the community trigger, this has been done in the past, however clearly needs reviewing.

 

The Manager outlined that the information on the Middlesbrough Council website did not provide full details of the Trigger and this has therefore been reviewed and new information will be uploaded as soon as possible by ICT.  Middlesbrough Council also share good practice and the Manager made reference to Redcar and Cleveland who would be reviewing their process and proforma.

 

If the thresholds are met, the review panel will consider the following:

 

1.     Have the reports been acknowledged?

2.     Was the victims vulnerability assessed? The Manager outlined that she carried out some work with the Home Office to produce a matrix for Victims of anti-social behaviour which was rolled out nationally.

3.     Did any response  consider  the vulnerability of the victim?

4.     Was there appropriate information sharing / problem solving / joint working?

5.     Were procedures followed?

6.     Was the victims vulnerability reduced to a satisfactory level?

7.     Was the problem reduced to a level where  the behaviour reported is no longer a cause for concern?

8.     Case review panel may make recommendations and/or produce an action plan

In terms of numbers of Community Triggers:

 

Community Triggers by Quarter – Financial Year 2021/22
Quarter	Total	Date Received	Ward		Met Threshold	Appeals
Q1 (Apr-Jun)	2	Jun-21	North Ormesby		Y	N
		Jun-21	Coulby Newham		N	N
Q2 (Jul-Sep)	4	Jul-21	North Ormesby		N	Y
		Jul-21	Park End & Beckfield		N	N
		Aug-21	Brambles & Thorntree		Y	N
		Sep-21	Hemlington		N	N
Q3 (Oct-Dec)	4	Oct-21	Brambles & Thorntree		Y	N
		Dec-21	Berwick Hills & Pallister		Y	N
		Dec-21	Berwick Hills & Pallister		Y	N
		Dec-21	Berwick Hills & Pallister		Y	N
Q4 (Jan-Mar)

 

There had been 10 to date, however the Manager outlined that in previous years there were few community triggers, however after the all member briefing, requests were made and therefore it shows that of you promote the trigger, they are requested.

 

The Manager outlined that Middlesbrough work very hard with partners, however one aspect that they fail is reporting back to the community e.g. need to report back on days of action.

Lastly the Manager provided some information on the early inventions in Middlesbrough:

 

•          Active Intelligence mapping (AIM) – multi agency problem solving approach (Chaired by Geoff Field)

•          Operational task & finish groups

•          Set up location individual perpetrator records

•          Preventative measures/liaison with other agencies i.e. Police, Fire, Schools, Early Help, YOS, Social Care

•          Evidence gathering – Diary sheets, CCTV, warden reports. We do struggle to gather evidence as many young people still wear masks so it is difficult to identify the perpetrators.

•          Supporting victims (residents & businesses) throughout process

•          Warning letters/home visits

•          Acceptable behaviour contracts

•          Joint patrols

•          Final warnings

•          Legal action (injunctions, house closures, Criminal Behaviour Orders, PSPO etc)

 

The Head of Stronger communities further stated that whilst the community trigger is a tool, there are also other tools (as outlined above) to support the victims. The overwhelming amount of anti-scoail behavior issues which are reported to the Council, we hope can we dealt with through the multi- agency approach.

 

The community trigger is a safety net and anyone can raise a community trigger or on behalf of the victim (subject to consent) and ASB Help outlined that the process of Middlesbrough council looked very thorough and in terms of promoting the pledge they would be happy to work with Middlesbrough.

 

The officers were thanked for their presentation.

 

AGREED- That the information be noted.