Meeting: GWENT PUBLIC SERVICES BOARD
Report: GWENT COMMUNITY SAFTEY REVIEW – PHASE
ONE REPORT
Date: 15th December 2022
1. PURPOSE:
To
provide the Gwent PSB with the phase one (scoping exercise) of the Gwent
Community Safety review and proposed recommendations for discussion/agreement.
2. BACKGROUND
A
working group consisting of representatives from the statutory partners
organisations under the Crime & Disorder act, Welsh Government and Wales
Safer Communities Network (WLGA) have been meeting regularly to progress work in-line with the review, developing frameworks,
timeline and workplans focussing on the three key areas.
·
Governance
·
Data/Evidence/Commissioning
·
Wellbeing, Prevention & Communities
In
addition to this, the review is also seeking the views of regional
board/partnerships chairs and exploring the current position and delivery of
regional boards that also contribute to the community safety portfolio, so a
fourth area has been added to the approach.
·
Key Stakeholder engagement & Board Mapping
3.
KEY ISSUES
3.1
Capacity &
Resource
In
December 2021 the Gwent PSB agreed a comprehensive governance review of
Community Safety, incorporating Area Planning Board delivery and Violence
Against Women, Domestic Abuse & Sexual Violence delivery across Gwent.
Over
the last 12mths, officers have been meeting as part of a Task & Finish
group to explore the scope of the review, establishing the elements that need
to be included and developing a framework for undertaking the review within
specific timelines.
The
breadth of work required to undertake this review effectively, and to enable to
Gwent PSB to have complete clarity on how the statutory duties are being discharged,
is a mammoth undertaking, as the current systems across Gwent are incredibly
complex.
Capacity
to carry out the work involved in the review remains a challenge, as the
officers undertaking this piece of work, are conducting the research in
addition to core duties and role, and Safer Gwent is lacking the regional
coordination function/role, which in previous years has been funded by the
Gwent Police & Crime Commissioner, therefore
the timelines for this review are pressured, and there is a risk of ‘drift’ which
is consequence of workload and demands on officers. However, it is noteworthy to state that the officers
involved in this review remain committed and have a wealth of knowledge and
experience to bring to all aspects of this review, with the aim of improving
delivery under the community safety portfolio.
Officers
in the task & finish group are carrying out the research that is required,
with the assistance of Wales Safer Communities Network and Welsh Governments’ Head
of Partnerships. Analytical capacity,
for the Data & evidence delivery framework, is a gap in resources and does
have the potential to inhibit the review without dedicated capacity to
undertake this element.
There
is potential scope through Home Office funding made available to Gwent, via the
Gwent OPCC, for the implementation of the Serious Violence duty which could be utilised
to assist with the additional resource gaps until March 23. The Serious Violence duty requires statutory
partners and CSPs to undertake an assessment of serious violence, which will
encompass all areas of the community safety portfolio, therefore it may be reasonable
and efficient to utilise this resource to undertake elements of this review in
relation to the data and evidence framework.
3.2
Complexity of Duties
& Partnerships
In
developing the three delivery frameworks, the scope of the review has
highlighted the vast number of duties, requirements and related legislative
practices that needs to be considered if ‘core’ delivery of community safety is
able to operate effectively as a whole system across Gwent.
Both
the Governance framework and the Data framework (included in Appendix A)
specify the work that needs to be undertaken to better understand how this
translates into operational practice, how effective it is at meeting needs, and
where there are potential opportunities to strengthen delivery and streamline
practice.
Across
Gwent there are a significant number of boards and partnerships, established
under programme, project or legislative drivers, that operate mostly
‘thematically’ that are serviced by, what appears to often be, the same officers
or organisations.
Through
discussions so far with boards & chairs, there has been acknowledgement in
both the APB and VAWDASV Boards that alignment of each other’s agendas could be
strengthened as the correlation of, for example, substance misuse and domestic
abuse are often connected, yet at a strategic level, plan development, service
delivery and even commissioning, are considered separately, often because of
historical practice, scale of agenda, or legislative/policy directives.
At
this point in the review, there remains a significant amount of work to be
undertaken before any firm recommendations can be made in relation to the
community safety portfolio, as the scope is far ranging and will require
further consultation, evidence gathering, analysis and interpretation, before
any feasible options can be brought back to the PSB for consideration.
4.
CONSIDERATION OF THE
REVIEW FINDINGS TO DATE
The
progress made to date, as reported in Appendix A, has highlighted further areas
of exploration for which consideration by the PSB is sought. These include:
4.1
The lack of
consistency of CSP function across Gwent
Not
all local authority areas across Gwent have a CSP and this presents a barrier
to the ‘whole system’ approach to community safety, particularly as there is a
need to discharge existing, new, and amending legislation such as, the Domestic
Abuse Act, and Violence Against Women & Girls strategy, the Wales VAWDASV Act,
and most recently, the Serious Violence duty.
As new and emerging legislation & guidance is introduced, there is
an expectation that CSPs will need to decide how to discharge these
requirements in a local context which places a strong emphasis on, and
requirement of CSPs in practice at a locality level.
4.2
The exploration of
current pieces of work with related practice
Through
stakeholder feedback, it has been suggested that the PSB challenge, through the
community safety review, the role of other boards and structures in planning
and service delivery, to establish how they are supporting the community safety
portfolio at a local level. These
include, but are not limited to;
-
Neighbourhood Care
Networks and the Accelerated Cluster Model via Integrated Partnership Boards
(ISPBs)
-
Regional Partnership
Board and its sub-board structures and delivery
-
Education Achievement
Service and new curriculum delivery, in related areas
These
are not exhaustive areas; however, they have emerged from feedback with key
stakeholders. Currently these three
boards are not in scope or explicit in the review frameworks. The task & finish group agrees with this
feedback, as it could be remiss of this review to not include them in the scope,
particularly as the review aims to assist the PSB in establishing a solid
governance structure and whole system approach to community safety across Gwent. Consideration of these elements may present
opportunities to strengthen practice/alignment of delivery that will benefit
our citizens.
5.
NEXT STEPS
Subject to the PSBs view of the information
provided in this report, the progress update (appendix A) and
consideration of the recommendations in point 6 of this paper; progress
against the 4 x key elements will continue to develop, further exploring and
analysing the findings and feedback received.
This information will be used to inform a set of robust options and/or
recommendation for the Gwent PSB.
Reassurance is also offered to PSB
members by officers involved in undertaking this work that they are mindful of
the need for this review to align to the wellbeing plan development and Marmot pilot,
to ensure that the structures and systems that sit as part of the community
safety portfolio can respond to the ambition of the Gwent PSBs wellbeing
priorities.
6.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The
PSB is asked to consider for agreement or steer, the following 4 x recommendations.
6.1
The need for analytical
capacity, either in-kind from partner organisation, through realignment of
resource where analytical capacity exists across partnerships or by utilising
the funding attached to the Serious Violence Duty
6.2
The need for the
Safer Gwent Coordination role, to assist officers to coordinate the work required
as part of the review, to ensure there is no drift in timescales and that the
pace of this review aligns with the Wellbeing Plan development
6.3
To include in the
scope of the review, exploration of the role and function of the following
boards/workstreams, with support from PSB sponsored leadership:
-
Neighbourhood care
Networks and Accelerated Cluster Model via Integrated Services Partnership
Boards (ISPBs)
-
Regional Partnership
Board - Sub-boards/groups
-
Educational
Achievement Service & New Curriculum for Life delivery
6.4
The formation of
Community Safety Partnerships in all 5 x LA areas
7.
GOVERNANCE AND
REPORTING
The
working group, supported by Safer Gwent, will provide update reports in
agreement with the lead PSB sponsors at each PSB meeting.
8.
RESOURCES
Ongoing
officer capacity is required to undertake the review. Officers listed as part of the working group,
Safer Gwent and other key stakeholders will be required to commit their time to
assist with conducting the review. Additional resources have also been sought
through recommendations in this report.
Report Authors:
Names: Sharran Lloyd (MCC)/ Kate Williams
(TCBC & Chair of Safer Gwent)
Emails: Sharranlloyd@monmouthshire.gov.uk / Kate.Williams@torfaen.gov.uk