Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Kerrigan, Stephen Bean, Tony Clark, Chief Superintendent Nicola Holland, Paul Holt, Andy Laidlaw, Barrie Morgan, Rob Pritchard, Gillian Raikes, Paula Simm and Alison Taylor.

Minutes of the meeting held on 14 June 2012

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 June 2012 be confirmed as a correct record.

(A)Integrated Offender Management

(B) Youth Offending Service

Update from the Service Manager – Targeted Support and Intervention

(I)       Integrated Offender Management

Peter Needham, Merseyside Probation Service indicated that Integrated Offender Management (IOM) was the overarching offender management strategy; that the key pillars to the strategy were known as compass, namely, the DV Compass and PPO Compass; and that an important element of the strategy had been the resource enrichment led by the local authority, but given the budget reductions within the Council this had stalled.  However, with the Troubled Family Strategy, together with the Breaking the Cycle Addiction substance misuse worker focussing on alcohol within the family, there had been added value to IOM; and concluded that Sefton CVS was a key partner in IOM, particularly in relation to the adult offender monitoring scheme.

(II)      Youth Offending Service

Mrs. Leigh Dunkerton, Performance and Operational Support Manager, Youth Offending Team, provided an overview of the trends relating to youth offending national performance measures, identified the strategies for future improvement; and highlighted practice priorities in response to the current trend analysis.  Mrs. Dunkerton indicated that in 2011/12, the percentage of young people receiving custodial sentences in Sefton was 12%, up from 7.5% in 2010/11 and 4.3% in 2009/10; and that the cost of remands/custody had increased and that it was anticipated that by 2014/15, the full costs of custody would transfer over to the local authority.  It was therefore important to establish practice priorities to reduce the use of custody and the number of first time entrants.

Mark McCausland, Service Manager, Youth Offending Team, detailed the budget for 2012/13 and indicated that the Partnership was accountable for the performance of the Youth Offending Service and to ensure that it had sufficient resources.  Mr. McCausland highlighted the following headline issues:

·                 Other than the Police, statutory partners had maintained funding levels for 2012/13 based on the previous years’ funding.  The Police had reduced the cash contribution to £10,997 for this period.

·                 The Health Service had contributed an additional nurse post who was due to commence in September.

·                 Regarding the Youth Justice Board (YJB), a reduction in grant of £31,000 had been made this year to support the implementation of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

·                 With regard to risks for 2012/13, there was a potential reduction in the local authority contribution as a consequence of the Council budget deficit; a further reduction in YJB funding as the Home Office element of the grant was ring-fenced for the Police and Crime Commissioner; and that £80,000 of funding was at risk from a budget of £534,000 and would impact on jobs within the YOS.

Neil Frackleton indicated that the financial burden on the Council could potentially be eased by Sefton CVS securing external funding.

RESOLVED: That

(1)      Mrs. Dunkerton, Mr. McCausland and Mr. Needham be thanked for their presentations; and

(2)      a report be submitted to the next meeting of the Partnership updating on funding issues associated with the Youth Offending Team.

Update

Steve McCallum, Merseyside Police Authority Policy and Performance Officer updated the Partnership on the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) transition.

Mr. McCallum detailed the PCC’s responsibilities, one of which was the responsibility for allocating funding for Community Safety; set out the timeline for the transition to PCC in 2012 and the budget setting process and publication of the Police and Crime Plan in 2013; detailed the transition project aims to ensure that all necessary actions were undertaken within the agreed timeframe; and detailed some key activity issues and progress made to date.

Mr. McCallum also updated on the current Police Authority funding arrangements and that once elected, the PCC would automatically assume responsibility of all budget responsibilities for the remainder of 2012/13 and that this would continue until the start of the 2013/14 financial year when commissioning and the PCC’s power to award Crime and Disorder Grants would commence; that from April 2013, the PCC’s responsibility would extend to include the management of the Community Safety Fund (CSF); and that from 2013/14, the CSF would be un-ringfenced and paid directly to PCC’s and from 2014/15, the CSF would no longer be a specific separate grant but would be absorbed into the main Police Grant thereby increasing flexibility and freedom over how the PCC used their resources.

Mr. McCallum concluded by detailing the issues that were currently unknown, such as who the PCC would be, on what manifesto they had been elected, what would be their views and priorities regarding community safety and what would be their approach to the commissioning bid process.

In response to a question, Mr. McCallum confirmed that the current 2012/13 CSF figure for Sefton was £131,000 but that in future, funding bids would have to be made direct to the PCC.

RESOLVED;

That Mr. McCallum be thanked for his informative presentation.

To consider passing the following resolution:

That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 7of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.  The Public Interest Test has been applied and favours exclusion of the information from the Press and Public.

RESOLVED:

That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 7 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.  The Public Interest Test has been applied and favours exclusion of the information from the Press and Public.

Update by the Independent Chair of the Domestic Homicide Review Panel

The Partnership received an update by David Hunter, the Independent Chair of the Domestic Homicide Review Panel.

RESOLVED: That

(1)      Mr. Hunter be thanked for his informative presentation and for his efforts in the Domestic Homicide Review report and action plan; and

(2)      the Sefton Safer Communities Partnership approves that the Domestic Homicide Review Executive Summary, Overview Report and Action Plan; to be quality assured by the Home Office as the next step

Standing Agenda Item

Partners had nothing to report with regard to Prevent at this meeting.

Report of the Head of Commissioning and Neighbourhood Co-ordination

The Partnership considered the report of the Head of Commissioning and Neighbourhood Co-ordination that sought consideration of the content of the Sefton Matrix and a request that any proposed changes or additions to the matrix be submitted to Chris Jones, Service Manager - Commissioning and Neighbourhood Co-ordination.

The report indicated that all Merseyside Safer Communities Partnerships had been meeting regularly to prepare for the introduction of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in November; that part of this process was to develop an overarching Merseyside plan for PCC candidates to highlight the priorities and work being done in each of the Local Authority to address key issues; that the matrix attached to the report outlined the work currently undertaken in Sefton against the shared Merseyside priorities and would form the Sefton input into the overall document; and that once finalised the matrix would be incorporated within an overall Merseyside document to be made available to all PCC candidates and would be used to emphasise some of the areas of priority and showcase good practice.

RESOLVED:

That Partners be requested to submit any proposed charges or additions to the Merseyside Safer Communities Partnership Information - Sefton Matrix to Chris Jones, Service Manager - Commissioning and Neighbourhood Co-ordination by no later than Friday 27 July 2012.

Report of the Head of Commissioning and Neighbourhood Co-ordination

Further to Minute No. 14 of 14 June 2012, the Partnership considered the report of the Head of Commissioning and Neighbourhood Co-ordination that sought approval of the new Terms of Reference (ToR) and membership of the Partnership for implementation from its next meeting.

The report indicated that the ToR and proposed membership, as detailed in the annex to the report, had been revised in line with comments raised by Partners; and detailed that the six statutory partners who must serve on the Partnership were:

·                 Sefton Council

·                 Merseyside Police

·                 Merseyside Police Authority (wef November 2012)

·                 Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (from November 2012)

·                 NHS Sefton Public Health representatives

·                 Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service

·                 Merseyside Probation Service;

and that representatives of the following other relevant bodies would be co-opted onto the Partnership:

·                 Voluntary Community Faith Sector (via Sefton CVS)

·                 Registered Social Landlords

·                 Courts Service

·                 Prison Service

·                 Local Safeguarding Children Executive Board

·                 Safeguarding Adults Board

·                 Strategic lead on Domestic Violence

·                 Strategic lead for Hate Crime

·                 Others where appropriate

RESOLVED:

That the Terms of Reference and revised membership of the Partnership, as detailed in the annex to the report, be approved.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday 27 September 2012, at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Bridle Road, Bootle L30 4YD commencing at 9:30 am.

RESOLVED:

That the next meeting be held on Thursday, 27 September, 2012 at Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Bridle Road, Bootle commencing at 9.30 a.m.