GWENT COMMUNITY
SAFETY REVIEW – PROGRESS UPDATE
QUESTION: ‘’Is the PSB effectively discharging its statutory duties for
Community Safety & VAWDASV and ensuring Gwent is a safe place to live, work
& visit?’’
1. RATIONAL: At the Gwent PSB development session held in December 2021,
the board were presented with an overview of the statutory duties and amending
legislation in relations to the Crime & Disorder Act 1998, Substance Misuse
(Wales) Regulations 2007 and the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and
Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015.
During the development session the various policy and legislative
drivers were explored, which highlighted the complexity of the crowded
partnership landscape across the region.
It was highlighted that the absence of a cohesive and systemic approach
across the region, was impacting the ability of operational leads to be truly
effective.
The Board was in collective agreement that a comprehensive review
should be undertaken, and that the emphasis on localism and better outcomes for
the citizens across Gwent should be a presiding feature.
2. METHODS FOR UNDERTAKING THE REVIEW
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TIMELINE: Phase 1:
October 22 – June 23 |
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ITEM |
INFORMATION |
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1.
Undertake a Desktop Governance review |
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2.
Data & Evidence Review |
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3.
Wellbeing & Community Review |
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4.
Key Stakeholder Engagement |
Chairs of: •
Gwent Area Planning Board (APB) •
Gwent Violence Against Women Domestic Abuse
& Sexual Violence Commissioning Board (VAWDASV) •
Gwent Criminal Justice Board (G-CJB) •
Youth Offending Services, Local Management
Boards (LMBs) •
Gwent Antisocial Behaviour Board (ASB) •
CONTEST Board •
Gwent Safeguarding Board (GSGB) •
Local Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) Template
to be circulated to identify tiers of intervention and where early help and
prevention is happening routinely |
3.
PHASE 1: COMMUNITY SAFETY REVIEW PROGRESS
SUMMARY:
3.1
Desktop Review Summary:
A framework has been developed to
undertake the desktop review which will establish the legislative, policy and
programme drivers across the community safety portfolio. The complexity of this issue spans multiple
pieces of legislation. Some existing, some new and some that have been amended
over time, all of which is currently serviced by staff and resources from
across PSB organisations. To ensure
resources and efforts are being utilised effectively, there is a need to understand.
·
What the duties are in relation to PSB
responsibility or core organisational function
·
How we are currently resourcing this from PSB
organisations
·
How do we monitor and report the effectiveness
of delivery – is it doing what it needs to do and is it doing it well?
·
Is there scope and desire to rationalise the
partnership landscape across Gwent?
Once the evidence has been mapped,
collated, and interpreted, the Wales Safer Communities Network Team will assist
with clarifying the legal duties, statutory requirements and responsibilities
that need to sit with the Gwent PSB statutory partners, under the crime and
disorder act. This will also then enable
the PSB to better understand how these duties are currently being discharged,
the impact and outcomes of delivery, and to explore the options and
opportunities of utilising resources more effectively. This may also allow the PSB to consider if
there is an opportunity or indeed desire, to rationalise the current
partnership landscape across Gwent to maximise resources and improve outcomes
where systems will allow.
3.2
Data & Commissioning Summary
A framework has been developed to
undertake the data & commissioning review to establish where data and
evidence is a legal requirement in the form of strategic needs assessments, and
how data and evidence is used to inform practice and service delivery at both
regional and local levels.
In addition to this the review is
seeking to establish the funding arrangements across Gwent (core & grant)
and to explore if current resources and capacity are being utilised effectively
and are sufficient to meet need and service demand. This review will aim to also clarify where
there are interdependencies across service delivery, where collaborative
approaches are working effectively, and to what extent do we jointly develop
strategies, plan activity and approaches, and agree commissioning/funding
models.
3.3
Wellbeing & Community Summary:
A framework has been developed to
undertake the review of wellbeing in the community, which aims to establish the
extent to which we have sufficient and effective services and practice across
multiple tiers of intervention to support victims, perpetrators, and wider
community. It is recognised that there
is significant delivery taking place and work underway across the community
safety portfolio notably; the Marmot pilot, Wellbeing plan development, Area
plan development and reviews within current boards, including the Gwent Area
Planning Board & Gwent VAWDASV Commissioning board. The Gwent community safety review needs to have
clear alignment with, and work alongside these wider pieces of work to ensure
that the structures and mechanics of both regional and local working operates
as a ‘whole system’ approach. It also
needs to provide options for the PSB to strengthen the resources, structures,
and delivery across the region to be effective in meeting the PSBs aspiration
within its Wellbeing plan, and in doing so, give the PSB the confidence that
statutory duties are being discharged effectively and that early intervention
and prevention is at the heart of the work across Gwent.
4.
KEY STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT FEEDBACK
4.1
Area Planning Board
The APB is currently undertaking a
prevention & outcome review, which in part is exploring the core purpose
and function of the APB in Gwent. The review is also looking at organisations
and agencies involved in preventative, early identification, intervention and
treatment services for children, young people, and families, with a view to
developing a whole system approach.
The APB is also undertaking a Needs
Assessment to inform the commissioning process for the Children and Young
Person’s Substance Misuse Service. The Children & Young Person’s Needs
Assessment, which is currently being led by Public Health colleagues, will provide
an opportunity to develop an improved holistic understanding across Gwent of
the needs of children, their families, and wider communities in relation to
substance misuse harms. The APB aims to also
use the needs assessment information to inform their recommissioning of services,
and in terms of the Community Safety review, this information can also be used
to inform programmes of work within both strategic and local partnerships that
support children, young people, and their families.
The APB has been holding a series of
workshops which will help to, clarify the role of the Gwent APB, establish
meaningful measures for service delivery and commissioning, and considering if the
APB should provide an ‘advocacy role’ in terms of best practice, evidence-based
delivery and seek to develop approaches to early intervention and prevention,
through a stratified approach focussing on primary, secondary, and tertiary
interventions.
The APB recognises there is a need for
greater alignment & integration where there is
correlation between substance misuse, domestic abuse and/or mental health, all
of which are matters that impact the ability to keep people safe and well.
From
informal discussions at the APB workshops, and on good advice from the chair, it
has also been recommended that the Community Safety review undertake a mapping
exercise across all Gwent boards to better understand how prevention
(definition to be determined in-line with Welsh Government tiers of
intervention) is currently addressed across the varying thematic boards that
exist across the Gwent partnership landscape.
This has now been factored into the Gwent Community Safety review as
part of stakeholder engagement.
Other suggestions
included consideration of the role and function of various boards across Gwent,
who are often serviced by the same staff, and if they could be amalgamated into
the Safer Gwent board function. This
would require further exploration from and with other board structures to
better understand where there are interdependencies and where this would enable
efficiencies and stronger collaboration and accountability. If found to both feasible and desirable, this
may also present an opportunity for a regional commissioning board function that
could potentially sit under Safer Gwent, and report directly into the Gwent
PSB.
4.2
Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse & Sexual
Violence (VAWDASV)
The regional arrangements have changed
since the inception of the original VAWDASV board in 2015/16, following the
review of the board undertaken in 2020/21.
In 2022, a regional Commissioning board has been established in-line
with Welsh Government statutory guidance.
The regional Commissioning board has oversight of the development and
delivery of the regional strategy & plan for Gwent, which delivers
predominately against single member body statutory duties only. In addition, the board also manages the
regional funding grant from Welsh Government, and partner organisations direct
funding for commissioning of the IDVA & MARAC services which are strongly
linked to the community safety & safeguarding function.
It is recognised that Gwent Police, Public
Protection Unit (PPU) is the only link to policing and community safety, via
the Gwent Safeguarding Board and IDVA/MARAC processes, that the Commissioning
board has currently. This is at the most
‘at risk’ end of service delivery and arguably leaves a gap in prevention and
early help for victims/survivors of VAWADSV.
Data and intelligence are collected for
IDVA and MARAC cases, however no other data is held at board level, therefore
there is no routine data or evidence shared with local level structures where
the community safety agenda is more likely to deal with lower-level or early
indications of VAWDASV. There is a
greater need for alignment & integration where there is correlation between
substance misuse, domestic abuse and/or mental health, all of which are matters
that impact the ability to keep people safe and well.
The PSB is responsible for undertaking
and commissioning Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs), which are a requirement of
the local CSP function. In Gwent we have
trialled a Single Unified Safeguarding Review (SUSR) process, which has proven
to be more effective, efficient and realises meaningful practice change from
the learning garnered from the review.
This process had stalled in Wales, due to the non-devolved nature of the
DHR requirement. There is currently
on-going dialogue between Welsh Government & UK Home Office to implement
the SUSR nationally across Wales later in 2023; until this has been agreed, the
original DHR process needs to be followed and enacted where domestic homicides
occur.
The chair of the Commissioning Board
has also highlighted the complexity of delivery in relation to VAWDASV as there
is minimal requirement from PSB in terms of the Welsh Government legislation,
and most of the Wales act falls on individual public sector bodies to implement
and support delivery. However, the
IDVA/MARAC & DHR functions are entrenched in community safety, yet there is
no input into local CSP functions from the Commissioning board, and the only
links at board level are via the PPU in Gwent Police for high-risk cases.
The Commissioning function of the
regional board is also undermined by the lack of funding that the board has to
commission services with as there is only the WG grant, and contributions from the
Gwent OPCC, 5 x LA’s & Health for the IDVA & MARAC provision, which have
been agreed on a temporary basis for 3yrs and until the Gwent Community Safety
review has been undertaken and direction set by the Gwent PSB. All other funding that contributes to
delivery of VAWDASV services is commissioned via grants at LA level or directly
from Welsh Government to specialist sector, so the commissioning function of
the regional board is diminished due to lack of funding or control of funding. Ideally local commissioning should be data
and evidence driven if the regional board was able to fulfil an ‘advocacy role’
similar to the discussions at the APB, however, the lack of capacity and
analytical skills within the regional
VAWDASV team to undertake this routinely would also be a challenge.
It was also discussed that the role of
the Regional Partnership Board (RPB), in terms of the VAWDASV agenda, would
benefit from more transparency; it is unclear how the RBP, outside of some key
services such as mental health, for example, or IDVA funding, tackle the issues
of VAWDASV more broadly in partnership and through joint commissioning. There is also the potential to further scope the
role and function of Neighbourhood Care Networks and the Accelerated Cluster
model, via Integrated Services Partnership Boards, as to how they could also
support the VAWDAVS, and arguably community safety agenda, at a grass-roots
community level, particularly where GPs are likely to be seeing patients who
may be experiencing VAWDASV, or other related issues.
The strength and use of data and
intelligence at a local level, via the CSP function, could be vastly improved and
resources could be maximised in local communities if there was stronger collaboration
and planning across the VAWDASV, mental health, substance misuse and community
safety portfolio; however, this is not yet happening in practice.
4.3
Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs)
Across Gwent there is disparity in how
the CSP function is discharged at a local level, which creates complexity in
understanding how each local authority area is meeting its statutory
responsibilities and collaborating to keep citizens and communities safe.
The lack of consistency of a formal
CSP across all five LA areas can make the regional to local arrangements
challenging, in terms of data, evidence, and intelligence sharing, especially
in-light of newly introduced legislation, such as the Serious Violence duty
& Domestic Abuse act, which heavily reference the role and function of the
CSP in discharging these duties.
Legislative requirements and
operational practice could be further enhanced if there was a CSP in all five
LA areas, this view is strongly supported by Gwent Police leads in each policing
area. By having a functioning CSP in
each LA area, the PSB would have assurance that there is meaningful collaboration
in relation to community safety, all CSPs would have the ability to be
intelligence led, and the statutory duties and requirements would be discharged
effectively across Gwent. The CSPs would also have clear democratic
accountability at a local level through local scrutiny arrangements. This would also lend itself to a clear
governance structure, under the PSB, which can be agreed as part of the
governance review options and strengthening the future role of the Safer Gwent
board.
4.4
CONTEST
There is a well-established governance
structure for the CONTEST function in Gwent.
The CONTEST board works well at a Gwent level with clear accountability
to UK Home Office and CONTEST Cymru.
There is a clear workplan and delivery framework in place.
There is a view that the work of this
board would be further enhanced by a consistent CSP function at a local level
across Gwent to ensure local CSP functions are intelligence led.
4.5
Gwent Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Board
Gwent have an established an
Anti-Social Behaviour support group where local authority and police staff meet
quarterly to support each other regionally. The group was set-up to provide
support and share effective practice across the region ensuring that Gwent
local authorities are effectively dealing with anti-social behaviour. The group
identifies barriers and establishes effective practice in the application of
tools and powers. The group also
identifies training gaps for practitioners, officers and partners and share
existing skills, knowledge and best practice.
The Gwent ASB Support group escalate
concerns via the Chair to the Safer Gwent Board. The group also shares effective
practice and identified training needs to the All-Wales ASB Network.
There is a view that the work of this
board would be further enhanced by a consistent CSP function at a local level
across Gwent to ensure local CSP functions are intelligence led.
4.6
Remaining Boards/ Stakeholder Engagement – to
be completed
|
Board/Partnership |
Meeting Date |
|
Gwent Criminal Justice Board (CJB) |
Scheduled December 22 |
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Gwent Safeguarding Board (SGB) |
TBC |
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Youth Offending service – Local Management Boards (YOS LMBs) |
TBC |
5.
NEXT STEPS
The review has been broken down into 4 x key elements as described
above in the progress update, and work is currently underway to further explore
and analyse the findings and feedback received, which will be used to inform a
set a recommendation and/or options for the Gwent PSB.
The work will also aim to align to the Wellbeing plan development
and Marmot pilot, ensuring that the structures and system that sit as part of
the community safety portfolio are able to respond to the ambition of the Gwent
PSB to create a Gwent that is safe for all citizens to live, work and visit.