Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Director of Legal and Democratic Services which provided an update on the Serious Violence Duty. The presentation attached as Appendix 2 provided an overview of the partnership approach to tackling serious violence within the county (for copy see file of minutes).

Assistant Chief Constable R Allen gave a detailed presentation on the serious violence duty to demonstrate the confidence in the work which was being carried out across the Serious Violence Prevention Partnership.  Under the requirements of the partnership there was a legal response in the objectives to improve multiagency partnership working, prevention, tackle serious violence and share data to generate evidence-based analysis of problems and their potential solutions.  The partnership was accountable to the Community Safety Partnership and the Home Office.There were four key priorities

·      Priority 1: Support for those aged between 18-35 engaged in serious violence;

·      Priority 2: Reduce Domestic Abuse related violence with a knife or sharp instrument;

·      Priority 3: Alcohol Related Violence Within the nighttime economy; and

·      Priority 4: 18 and Under at Risk of/Engaged in Serious Violence

He noted that data was received through a Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA) to drive the priorities for 2023-2025 and advised that the SNA would be refreshed in January 2025 to ensure there were no missing emerging trends.  He highlighted what had been achieved, where funding from the Home Office had been allocated against each priority, what the next steps were and the importance of the work with partners such as Northumbria University on youth interventions.   He expressed concern that funding would run out in March 2025 so it was unsure what the service would look like going forward.  Work was ongoing with the Home Office to ensure the views of the partnership were reflected with the work with partners on a national level.

Councillor J Miller asked if the ‘Ask for Angela’ safety scheme which allowed people to discreetly signal if they needed help was used in County Durham and how frequently. He queried why funding from the Serious Violence Prevention Fund had been allocated to TEWV (Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust) to provide a forensic psychology (trauma) pathway for young people under the supervision of both Youth Justice Services for Durham and Darlington when following an inspection it had been deemed as ‘needed improving’.  He questioned how they were being monitored to ensure that they were doing what they should be doing.

Assistant Chief Constable R Allen agreed to find out and feed back to the committee.

I Harrison, Business Compliance Manager responded that the ‘Ask for Angela’ safety scheme was a voluntary scheme within the licensing trade.  It was not enforceable unless it was added as a condition to a premises licence where staff would be required to be trained on the scheme and it would be an offence if they were not.  The scheme could be added to new licences but could not be added to licences which had already been granted unless there was cause to hold a licence review for a premises where it could be added as a condition by the Statutory Licensing Committee.

J Waller, Head of Community Protection added that pubs were part of the ‘Pub Watch’ scheme which had active forums and links to information to raise awareness to the scheme but Pub Watch was also voluntary.

D Summers, Youth Justice Service Manager replied that his team worked with the Forensic Psychology Service, which was one very small part of TEWV.  The inspection had looked at the whole range of services being delivered.  In respect of the partnership the Forensic Psychology Service were committed to a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) when applying for the funding.  The KPIs were monitored monthly.  These were being met and in some cases were being exceeded. He was pleased with the service received from the Forensic Psychology Service.

Councillor P Atkinson thanked the Assistant Chief Constable for the presentation and asked how the service was measured and monitored, whether figures were taken from the start of the year compared to figures at the end of the year and if there was evidence of any increase or decreases.

Assistant Chief Constable R Allen responded that data came from different sources in relation to funding.  Performance data was in part to recognise what serious violent crime looked like.  He advised that figures had to be used with caution as national crime recording standards crime data integrity had changed but in terms of the most serious violence offending this rarely changed.   The recording standard changes were often for lower harm offences such as public order, or lower level harassment.

Councillor D Nicholls acknowledged that more work was needed around violence against woman and girls.  He was concerned that funding was to come to an end as a quarter of women suffered from domestic violence and every three days a woman was killed by a man.  He queried how Clare’s law was being used and if there were any statistics available.  He was concerned about the trend in violence in young people’s relationships and questioned what was being done to support and show them what healthy relationships looked like.

Assistant Chief Constable R Allen responded that he was in attendance to discuss the serious violence duty and had not prepared any information on Clare’s law or unhealthy relationships but agreed to provide an update for the committee.  He advised that there had been an increase in staff in that area within the police for a quicker turn around for reporting domestic violence. He added that work was being carried out in schools about unhealthy relationships with the Alice Ruggles Trust which had been established in honour of Alice who was sadly murdered by her stalker.

Councillor J Charlton thanked the Assistance Chief Constable for his presentation and queried who fed data into the data base and whether it all came from the police.

Assistant Chief Constable R Allen explained that data in existence came from different facets and suggested that a presentation was given to a future meeting on where the information came from and what technology was used to support it.

Councillor J Charlton asked if funding was available after March 2025 if he was confident that the same work would be carried out.

Assistant Chief Constable R Allen was confident about the strong relationships which had been formed and the areas the money had been spent on.  It showed how working together across agencies with optimism could ensure learning came from the funding.  

Councillor J Charlton asked if a recommendation could be submitted to Licensing from the Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee that ‘Ask Angela’ could be demonstrated in all premises across County Durham. 

The Business Compliance Manager responded that ‘Ask Angela could not go any further than a recommendation.  It was already part of the new licensing policy which had been submitted to full council for adoption.  The request could be applied to all new premises licences within their conditions but could not be adhered to licences which had already been granted as these lasted forever and could not be changed unless they were put forward for a review to committee.  Work was ongoing to promote this scheme. 

Councillor J Charlton stated that there were lots of rural pubs in County Durham where potentially people did not feel safe. She added that every tool should be used to make everyone feel safe everywhere.

Councillor D McKenna asked what education was given around knife crime.

Assistant Chief Constable R Allen replied that this was flagged in the data around local early intervention cohorts which focussed on education.  On a broader sense new legislation was to be brought out to enhance knife crime prevention orders to divert those carrying knives or who were at greatest risk of being drawn into serious violence away from being involved in knife crime.  There was also more focus from the police with knife amnesties and the banning of the zombie knife. 

Councillor D McKenna asked if education or training was delivered in schools and if bleed kits were to be made available like defibrillators had.

Assistant Chief Constable R Allen that bleed kits were being looked into to be rolled out imminently.   Education in schools was a struggle as you had to be wary on how to deal with children and young people as not to invoke fear or ideas to carry knifes as training in schools was not necessarily the best way of learning for them.  However there was school engagement and interaction which had been very positive that had led to children being less likely to carry knives.

The Youth Justice Service Manager added that the Youth Endowment Fund had invested millions of pounds into research with young people in respect of serious violence. Part of the research had looked at reasons why they carried knives which was often because they felt scared and carried them for protection.  The problem is that, if you carried a knife, you were more likely to use it. 

Councillor R Crute commented that ‘Ask for Angela’ was an initiative which could not be recommended from scrutiny to licensing as conditions were added to licences on a case by case basis.  It was a good initiative and would need to be referred to the Monitoring Officer for consideration at the Constitutional Working Group if the policy was to be changed.

S Gwillym, Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer mentioned that the annual Statutory Licensing Policy had been drafted and was to be presented to full council for approval.

The Business Compliance Manager added that the policy would be adopted once approved at full council.

The Business Compliance Manager advised that the licensing trade had different legal regulations but awareness could be increased to highlight this initiative as best practise.  There would be a need for primary legislation from Government to change the Licensing Act to make adding this initiative as a mandatory condition to all licences.  He confirmed that ‘Ask for Angela’ was referred to in the licensing policy for any new licences being applied for.

Resolved:

That the report and presentation be noted.