Report of the Neighbourhoods Overview and Scrutiny.
TITLE:
Feedback from the meeting held on Monday 20 July 2009.
Recommendations: None.
Actions:
CDRP awareness session:
1. Officers to provide a copy of the National Support Framework Delivering Safer
and Confident Communities - Implementing Sections 19 and 20 of the Police
and Justice Act 2006. Done
Salix Homes:
1. Officers to provide a copy of the action plan for members. Done.
2. Officers to provide a breakdown of legal actions taken by Salix Homes. Done.
City West:
1. Officers to return in November to feedback on the progress of priority key 1 on
their improvement plan and April 2010 on priority key 2.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This report informs Members of the matters considered by Neighbourhoods Overview
and Scrutiny on 20 July 2009. Issues considered were:1. Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership awareness session; to provide members
with the knowledge and understanding of CDRP’s; its membership and remit.
2. Following on from the February 2009 scrutiny meeting; officers from City West
Housing Trust and Salix Homes to provide a progress report on their review of anti
social behaviour policies.
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS:
Reports to Scrutiny can be found on SOLAR
CONTACT OFFICER: Karen Lucas, Senior Scrutiny Support Officer.
Tel: 793 3318 E-mail: karen.lucas@salford.gov.uk
WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATE(S):
All
KEY COUNCIL POLICIES:
1
DETAILS
Members Attendance
Councillor
Cllr Humphreys
Cllr Hill
Cllr Dawson
Cllr King
Cllr Coen
Cllr Owen
Cllr Mashiter
Cllr Heywood
Cllr Jane Murphy
Cllr Macdonald
A – apologies received.
June



A

A


A

July



A

A
A

Aug




Invitees: Pamela Taylor, Don Brown, Matt Jones, Joe Willis, Warren Carlon, Mike
Wright, Karen Lucas, Karen Edwards and Jenna Lancaster.
Issues considered:
1. Declarations of interest.
Councillor Humphreys and Heywood are board members of Salix Homes.
Councillor Dawson is a member of the City West Housing Trust board.
2. Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership Awareness Session.
In light of the Police and Justice Act 2006 and the role of scrutiny, it was agreed at the
last meeting to organise awareness training for members on the Crime and Disorder
Reduction Partnership (CDRP).
The 1998 Crime and Disorder Act established Crime and Disorder Reduction
Partnerships (CDRPs).
A multi-agency approach is necessary to tackle crime reduction. The CDRP panel should
be representative of statutory, voluntary and private organisations with a role in crime
reduction.
The Crime and Disorder Act, 1998 and in particular Section 17 imposes a duty on local
authorities and the police to "without prejudice to any other obligation imposed upon it exercise its function with due regard to the need to do all it reasonably can to prevent
crime and disorder in its area". Section 17 is included on the work programme for this
committee. It was agreed to include a representative from the legal team and Don Brown
as advisors.
In accordance with the Crime and Disorder Act, 1998 there is a Crime and Disorder
Reduction Partnership for each local authority in the UK. The police, local authority,
police authority, probation, primary care trust and fire authority are statutory members of
the CDRP and must be involved.
CDRP's performance is managed through analysis of their delivery. They use the
following process:
 Establishing the type and levels of crime and disorder.
2


Consulting widely with the public to make sure that the partnership's perception of
crime and disorder matches that of local people.
Devising a strategy containing measures to tackle those priority problems, including
an action plan, targets and responsible individual/organisation. The strategy lasts for
three years, but must be kept under review by the partnership.
The work of the CDRPs is parallel to national government strategies and targets and also
considers national policing plans.
There is presently no mainstream budget in Salford to deal with crime and disorder.
Bolton is the forefront of partnership working and they also have a mainstream budget.
Concerns were raised that Children’s Services are not sharing data (Section 115 of the
Crime and Disorder Act) pertaining to young people not attending school. Members
requested that the Strategic Director from Children’s Services be invited to a future
meeting to discuss these concerns – included on the work programme.
‘ContactPoint’ national data base is due to be implemented later this year. The data base
is a quick way for practitioners to find out who else is working with the same child or
young person, making it easier to provide co-coordinated support. However,
implementation of the system has been deferred more than once.
Councillor Humphreys raised concerns about some of the personal questions asked of
drivers when stopped by the police and other agencies (i.e. where are you going?). It was
agreed to ask for clarification when Chief Superintendant Mulligan is in attendance.
3. Anti social behaviour policy – Salix Homes and City West Housing Trust.
At the scrutiny meeting held in February 2009; officers from City West Housing Trust and
Salix Homes were asked to return and provide a progress report on their respective
review of their anti social behaviour policies (ASB).
Don Brown informed members that both Salix Homes and City West Housing Trust are
good contributors to the CDRP.
3.1 Salix Homes.
Warren Carlo and Joe Willis provided members with a progress report.
In its indicative inspection report the Audit Commission highlighted “…there has been
no assessment against the core commitments of the Respect Standard to ensure best
practice and statutory requirements are being met”. This is one of the commission’s
14 top priority recommendations and a ‘deal breaker’ for Salix Homes in preparing for
the full inspection in February 2010.
Salix also carried out a Respect Standard for Housing Management self assessment
in April 2009.
The Safer Neighbourhoods Team are progressing the various recommendations and
findings, for example the role of the contact centre in dealing with complex issues like
ASB and domestic abuse needs to be clarified; with a view to the safer
neighbourhoods team duty officer (during the day) and security service (out of hours)
providing a single point of contact through a single, dedicated telephone number.
Members raised concerns about the number of security staff who do not understand
English. Officers explained that Salix Homes has an SLA with contractors and that
this should not be occurring; officers went on to explain that an individuals has to
3
have a license which involves a written and verbal test. Following the receipt of other
similar complaints Salix are presently pursuing the issue.
Salix Homes have a partnership approach with the police, with a police officer being
based at Diamond House.
Agreed:
Officers to provide a copy of the action plan for members.
Officers to provide a breakdown of legal actions taken by Salix Homes.
3.2 City West Housing trust.
Matt provided members with an overview of developments of ASB services at City
West; a copy of the improvement plan and a breakdown of legal actions.
City West we have established a service excellence group structure as their vehicle to
review services, develop action plans and implement service improvements. The ASB
Excellence Group was formed in November 2008. Two members of the local authority
are members of the excellence group. One of the key tasks of the excellence group
was to do an internal analysis of services; from there they have developed an
improvement plan encompassing ASB related activities across a number of areas.
City West feel that their current ASB service is fair with significant prospects for
improvement. The ASB Service Improvement plan outlines a number of
improvements proposed in various areas of the service. A copy of the plan was
appended to the report provided for the meeting.
City West currently receive specialist ASB case management advice and legal
support for more serious cases from the council’s ASB Team. This service is provided
via a service level agreement (SLA) which is due to expire on 31 st December 2009.
They served notice on the SLA in April to provide some flexibility regarding future
service delivery options pending the outcome of a review.
Since their last attendance at scrutiny; City West has:
 Signed the Respect Standard for Housing Management which publicly
affirms their commitment to prioritising ASB on behalf of communities.
 Contribute to Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership priorities by
attending the Partnership Delivery Group and Local Partnership Delivery
Groups.
 Take a tough stance on perpetrators of ASB which is reflected in the
revised tenancy agreement.
 As City West were unhappy with the previous long term mediation service
so they have now sourced a different provider (Manchester Council) who
are responding to referrals more promptly and successfully.
Agreed:
Officers to return in November to feedback on the progress of priority key 1 on their
improvement plan and April 2010 on priority key 2.
4. Work Programme.
Agreed
To include the issues raised at today’s meeting – Karen Lucas to action.
4
5. Forward plan.
No issues raised.
6. Report from the last meeting of the scrutiny committee.
Agreed.
7. Any other business
No issues raised.
8. The next meeting
Please note that the members briefing on the 21 September 2009 will commence at
12.30pm.
5