Agenda item

   (i)        Report of the Corporate Director Adults & Health Services

  (ii)        Presentation by Andrea Petty, Strategic Manager, Adults & Health Services

The Chair introduced the Strategic Manager - Partnerships, Adults and Health Services who was in attendance to give a presentation on the draft Safe Durham Partnership Plan 2020-25 (for copy see file of minutes).

The Strategic Manager - Partnerships, Adults and Health Services informed the Committee that David Orford who had been the Chair of the Safe Durham Partnership for the last three years and had led on the Plan would be replaced by Temporary Assistant Chief Fire Officer Keith Wanley from January 2020.  She explained that the vision 2035 for the next 15 years had now been signed off. 

The Strategic Manager - Partnerships, Adults and Health Services confirmed that the Safe Durham Partnership Plan 2016-19 had now ended ensuing the new draft plan 2020-25 being produced. She added that the new plan had been based on evidence that had been collected and collated to create the vision to ensure ‘a county where every adult and child will feel and be safe’.

To help enable delivery of the vision, the Strategic Manager - Partnerships, Adults and Health Services noted that six draft strategic priorities had been agreed that also linked into the Police, Crime and Victims Commissioner’s Plan.  The priorities were:

·        Promote being safe and feeling safe in your community

·        Support victims and protect vulnerable people from harm

·        Prevent: Counter Terrorism, Radicalisation and Violent Extremism

·        Reduce reoffending

·        Alcohol and substance misuse reduction

·        Tackle and prevent cyber enabled crime

The Strategic Manager - Partnerships, Adults and Health Services informed the committee that each strategic priority had a group to take it forward and monitor performance.  She highlighted that the draft Safe Durham Plan was online and out for consultation from 17 December 2019 until 14 February 2020 to see whether people agreed with each of the strategic priorities, whether there were any gaps and if people had any comments about the plan.

The Chair thanked the Strategic Manager - Partnerships, Adults and Health Services for her presentation and asked members of the committee for any questions or comments.

Councillor Boyes was concerned that road safety was not included in the strategic priorities within the Safe Durham Partnership Plan for 2020-25.  He wanted to know if this was a deliberate omission.

The Strategic Manager - Partnerships, Adults and Health Services explained that although road safety was not set out in the strategic priorities of the draft plan, it was felt it would require regular updates and a report would be presented to the Partnership on an annual basis.

Councillor Boyes thought it was a major priority that should be included in the plan as work was still ongoing within this area to reduce casualties.  The Chief Fire Officer (CDDFRS) reiterated how important road safety was as a performance report within the Committee’s agenda illustrated that there was a significant increase in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions within County Durham.

In addition, Councillor Avery commented that he agreed that road safety should be included within the strategic priorities that the Safe Durham Partnership plan should focus on.

Councillor Maddison raised concern with reporting procedures and available data of recorded road traffic collisions. Cllr Maddison explained that at a recent Highways meeting it had been highlighted that there were issues caused on minor roads with speeding but when trying to produce statistics Highways did not have access to data on all accidents.

Councillor Liddle explained that a Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny working group had been established to investigate road safety and ways to reduce the number of casualties in County Durham. This involved exploring approaches to collect and collate data from various sources including data from insurance claims.  She added support that road safety be included in the plan as a priority.

Councillor Boyes noted that in view of the comments made by several members, the committee felt that road safety should be included as an objective within the new Safe Durham Partnership Plan. He felt that, whilst water safety was an important issue, the work that partners had done to mitigate the risks in this area had thankfully helped to reduce the number of deaths and near misses and this could be excluded as a priority within the draft plan.  

The Chief Superintendent, Durham Constabulary provided clarification and advised the Committee that as a rule all road collisions whether major or minor should be reported to the police but did not record or investigate incidents that were classed as a damage only incident. 

The Overview and Scrutiny Officer advised Members that a response containing comments on the draft Safe Durham Partnership Plan would be sent to the Strategic Manager, Adults and Health Services for consideration.

Resolved

(i)           That the Safe Durham Partnership Plan be noted.

(ii)          That a formal response be sent to the Strategic Manager, Adults and Health Serviceson behalf of the Committee.