To consider a progress report of the Assistant Director of Information, Customers and Communities (Interim) on Rochdale’s Safer Community Partnership, including domestic abuse and community safety in general

Report to follow

The Committee received a report of the Director of Neighbourhoods which sought to update on the Rochdale’s Safer Communities Partnership, its statutory responsibilities, key duties as well as to inform of the associated work streams, including any identified challenges and risks.

The Assistant Director Information, Customers and Communities and the Chief Superintendent Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Co-Chair of the Partnership accompanied by the Portfolio Holder for Equity, Safety and Reform were in attendance to present the information and to address the questions and comments of the Committee.

The Chair of the Committee welcomed the presenters and noted that a progress report on the position of the Rochdale’s Safer Communities Partnership and its strategy and work had been requested by the Committee several times during Municipal Year 2022/23.

The presenters informed that it was a statutory requirement for local areas to have a safer communities partnership and highlighted its key statutory functions, the meeting schedule, membership, accountability and assurance mechanisms through this scrutiny committee and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority Police Fire and Crime Panel.

The presenters continued outlining the five main priority work areas of the partnership (i.e.: Domestic Abuse Partnership, Reducing Reoffending Group, Reducing Crime and Anti-social Behaviour Group, Substance Misuse Priority Group),  and informed that, the Community Safety plan had expired last year and a partnership strategic assessment needed to be undertaken to inform the development of the new plan. However, this process had been delayed due to limited data analyst capacity within the partnership resources. This issue was being addressed through deployment of additional resources.

The presenters informed that to address the lack of a new Community Safety Plan, a workshop had been held on 24^th July 2023 where partners discussed the development of a 12 month interim plan based on current data.

The presenters provided an update on the data sharing protocol and on each of the work streams of the Partnership.

They informed that, albeit there was effective partnership work taking place to meet the aims and priorities of the Partnership, unlike other local statutory boards, Rochdale’s Safer Communities Partnership did not have any dedicated staff members to coordinate policy and strategy development. Capacity was an issue through the budget challenge process.

The Co-Chair of the Partnership and representative of GMP informed that an effective delivery model was in place but the board was not as functional as it might be, it was under resourced and it needed optimising. It was necessary to bring data together across the partnership organisations and to develop an effective understanding of data across the system and a good model for prevention through assessment and analysis and this required resources to run the board effectively. The GMP representative continued informing that, from a policing perspective, GMP committed through the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and deployed policing resources and brought the example of the Prevention Enforcement team which was a partnership team located within the Policy and included strategic housing, trading standards, fraud prevention; this was a very effective model but needed a manager who could coordinate those resources. Other authorities in Greater Manchester such as Wigan, Salford, Tameside and Manchester had an investment in that structure.

Members sought and received clarification / commented on a number of matters such as:

-       Current and previous resource allocations for the Rochdale’s Safer Communities Partnership and comparison with other local authorities in Greater Manchester;

-       Assurance that others strategies within the remit of the Partnership would be reviewed before they expire;

-       Road safety and whole system approach;

-        Key workers representation on Domestic Abuse Steering Group;

-       Funding for Perpetrator Programme;

-       Data gathering, key performance indicators and measuring progress against the partnership strategic plan.

On behalf of the Committee, the Chair thanked the Partnership’s representatives who had attended this evening’s meeting and expressed concerns in learning that the Partnership was under resourced and that its key performance indicators were not fit for purpose. The Chair recommended that the partner organisations addressed the issues highlighted during this evening’s presentation and returned to this Committee at the beginning of the new year with a progress report on the actions taken to address the matter. The Chair reiterated that the Committee would be available to support the Partnership through the actions to progress these requests.

The Interim Monitoring Officer assured the Committee that the concerns expressed would be addressed. 

The Portfolio Holder for Equity, Safety and Reform commented that officers were doing best they could in very difficult circumstances as resources were limited. The Portfolio Holder acknowledged and welcomed the request of the Committee to ensure that the Safer Communities Partnership was fit for purpose and noted that Rochdale Council worked effectively with its partners.

Resolved:

1.    That Rochdale Safer Communities Partnership statutory responsibilities and key duties be noted;

2.    That the range of associated work streams and progress made to date be noted;

3.    That the Partnership’s planned actions to mitigate the identified challenges and risks be noted;

4.    That the Assistant Director Information, Customers and Communities share with this Committee information, exempt from publication, on tackling domestic abuse that went to Cabinet in May 2023;

5.    It be noted that the current Community Safety plan had expired in 2022. A one year interim plan had been produced, but the partnership strategic assessment needed to be undertaken to inform a new three year plan. The Committee recommended that the assessment and the new plan be developed as soon as possible;

6.    That a progress report be brought to this Committee at its meeting of 30^th January 2024 with the recommendation to focus on re-aligning Rochdale’s Safer Communities Partnership’s resources and key performance indicators to those in operation in the other Greater Manchester’s authorities.