This item was presented by Julie Rogers, Chair Thurrock Community Safety Partnership / Director of Environment and Highways.  Key points included:

·         Crime statistics for Thurrock are continuing to rise, a trend reflected across Essex and nationally. 

·         There care clear links between crime, fear of crime and health and wellbeing.   This is demonstrated in the Health and Wellbeing Strategy whereby Goal 2 was amended from ‘healthier environments’ to ‘healthier and safer environments’.

·         The priorities for 2019/20 include:

o   Tackling Offending – preventing youth offending, targeting repeat and prolific offenders and reducing victims of burglary

o   Violence and Vulnerability – tackling gang related activity and offensive weapons, ensure a coordinated approach to safeguarding against gangs and child criminal exploitation and supporting all victims of domestic abuse, sexual offences and child exploitation

o   Local Community and Visibility – identifying patterns, trends and hot spots for anti-social behaviour through increased visibility and enforcement, safeguard victims from hate crime and community engagement

o   Counter Extremism and Terrorism – preventing violent extremism locally

·         The Community Safety Partnership is developing a protocol with schools to safeguard children against knife crime and gangs; the offer of support to schools has only been taken up by 21 schools in the last year.   A meeting will be arranged with head teachers to encourage schools to take up this offer as there is a need to raise awareness and use proactive measures.  Home Office funding of an additional £93,000 has been pledged to address violence and vulnerability in schools and links with Thurrock’s preventative agenda. 

·         As part of creating safe and accessible spaces, park engagement officers have been employed to liaise with the public in terms of park designs, encouraging pride of these open spaces and the reporting of anti-social behaviour. 

·         Town centre policing teams have been introduced which cover Grays, Ockendon and Stanford-Le-Hope. 

·         The Community Safety Partnership are continuing to engage with planning colleagues and developers to design crime out of new housing estates by thinking of lighting and areas of possible concealment.  

·         To address violence against women and girls, a coordinator has been recruited to develop Thurrock’s response to the National strategy.  Members learned that this approach has improved governance and partnership working. 

·         Thurrock have provided additional funding to Operation Raptor , enabling them to conduct 14 proactive patrols and enforcement of C17 injunctions, 1 undercover operation with 10 officers and a joint operation with the fraud team which resulted in 30 arrests and  breaches.

During discussions the following points were made:

·         Members noted that the violence against women and girls strategy is across all genders and not only women and girls.

·         Members were advised that gang awareness was delivered to 6 schools within the borough, however it was recognised that more schools need to be involved with this preventative work.  Members were reassured that the Community Safety Partnership now have a representative for schools who is proactively encouraging schools to participate.  The Community Safety Partnership will attend the head teachers briefing in September along with Essex Police and representatives of the youth offending team to discuss gangs and gang related violence.

·         The focus of rural areas was discussed, it was recognised that a communications campaign across Southend, Essex and Thurrock had been aimed at middle class individuals who use recreational drugs. Members acknowledged evidence that suggests that these type of ‘social’ drug users often do not consider the consequences of their drug use and feed into the chain of events such as young drug runners and gangs.

·         Members discussed the merit in taking photographs of graffiti tags as this can help to identify possible gang links, these are then sent to the police.  Members welcomed new approaches to joint working, particularly with private landlords, the police and the council’s Environmental Enforcement Officers.

·         It was noted that a member of the Community Safety Partnership liaises closely with colleagues in the Planning Department providing feedback on how to design crime out of new housing estates.  Environmental leads were encourage to review planning and design briefs, including attending the Planning Committee meetings.

RESOLVED:  The Health and Wellbeing Board:

·         Noted the performance of the Thurrock Community Safety Partnership for the year 2018/19

·         Supported the 4 priorities of the Community Safety Partnership for the year 2019/20

·         Recognised the links that have been made to Thurrock’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy

·         Are required to work collaboratively across Essex in the Police and Fire Crime Commissioners Violence and Vulnerability framework.