North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership

March 2024

 

 


1.0         Purpose of this Report

1.1         To update on the partnership working around the priority areas agreed by North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 places a statutory duty on local authorities to create multi-agency partnerships to tackle crime, disorder, anti-social behaviour, and other behaviours adversely affecting the local environment and to reduce re-offending. The world of community safety continually changes and despite significant organisational change, the need for partners to work together is essential.

 

1.2         North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership has agreed the following priority areas for delivery.

·         Partnership development (links across safeguarding)

·         Community safety hubs

·         Domestic abuse

·         Early intervention and prevention- Serious violence duty

·         Hate crime and community cohesion.

Further detail regarding the objectives of the priorities can be found in Appendix A, Section 1.

1.3         Following feedback from the last update to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee this report aims to provide detail regarding

·         Progress against the objectives of the Community Safety Partnership’s strategy

·         Lessons learnt from completed Domestic Homicide Reviews, and

·         Any national issues resulting in changes to objectives and strategies.

 

2.0         Partnership Development (links across safeguarding)

 

2.1         To ensure effective multi-agency systems and relationships exist, regular meetings take place between the senior officers and chairs of the statutory multi-agency partnerships (Community Safety Partnership, Safeguarding Children Partnership, and the Safeguarding Adults Board.) Representatives from the different arrangements sit on one another’s partnerships, ensuring effective join up, clarity on roles and responsibilities and leads for priority areas.

 

2.2         There are co-ordinated responses in place to ensure all of our partners, including front line practitioners are clear on local issues, referral pathways and support services. This is clearly evidenced through the work of the Local Safeguarding Partnerships that exist in four areas, Selby, Ryedale/Scarborough, Richmondshire/ Hambleton, and Harrogate/ Craven. Focusing on local awareness raising and action linked to community safety, safeguarding children and adults. The annual Safeguarding Week also showcases a range of initiatives and local approaches across the three partnerships and takes place in June.

 

2.3         The introduction of the new Serious Violence Duty, section 6 of this report, has required effective join up across partnerships and partners. The Community Safety Partnership has strategic governance of arrangements. In September 2023 Joint Targeted Area Inspections (JTAI) were introduced to focus on serious youth violence. JTAIs are carried out by inspectors from:

·         Ofsted

·         The Care Quality Commission (CQC)

·         His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS)

·         His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP).

Joint targeted area inspections to focus on serious youth violence - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

2.4      Working groups have been established to gather evidence against the inspection framework, so we are prepared if North Yorkshire is identified as an area for inspection. This requires effective join up across partners involved in community safety and safeguarding children.

 

3.0         Community Safety Hubs

 

3.1         Local community safety hubs work together to

·         Protect their local communities from crime and disorder, and help people feel safer

·         Deal with local issues such as anti-social behaviour, drug, or alcohol misuse, reoffending and crime prevention; and

·         Assess local crime and disorder priorities and consult partners and local communities about how to deal with them.

 

3.2          There are currently 7 community safety hubs across North Yorkshire, on the previous borough and district council boundaries. Differing arrangements exist locally regarding resourcing and co-location of agencies. The structure of the Community Safety and CCTV service is currently under review, formal consultation with staff on the proposed structure is due to end on the 5th March 2024. With the implementation of the new service due to start 1st May 2024.

 

3.3          The proposed structure includes 3 key areas, operational delivery via the Community Safety hubs, CCTV public space provision and partnership arrangements, there are clear inter-dependencies between these. The service is responsible for a number of statutory duties linked to community safety, domestic abuse, serious violence, and counter terrorism. Community safety legislation continually develops, and the service needs to be able to respond to significant changes robustly. An aligned service across the geography will enable any duties (current or future) to be implemented in an effective manner, whilst meeting local need and demand.

 

3.4          To enable effective case management, the same system is used by all the Hubs, Orcuma. This can be accessed by both local authorities and policing colleagues. In reviewing and ensuring a more consistent approach and management, the consistent use of Orcuma and effective analysis and action around the outputs will be key and will be considered in the review of arrangements.

 

4.0          North Yorkshire and York Domestic Abuse Strategy 2024- 2028

 

4.1          Since the last Committee, a new Domestic Abuse Strategy has been developed by the North Yorkshire Local Domestic Abuse Partnership Board, in collaboration with City of York. It has an agreed multi-agency strategic vision-

 

“We will not tolerate domestic abuse within North Yorkshire and York, and we will strive to ensure everyone can live free from abuse and harm. We will create an environment where healthy relationships are the norm and where victims, survivors and their children have access to the right support at the right time.

Domestic abuse is everybody’s business. We will work collaboratively to create lasting change across all our communities within the voice of the victims at the heart of our response, and where perpetrators of abuse are held accountable for their behaviour.”

 

4.2         We recognise that domestic abuse is widespread and persistently under-reported. Although data and statistics are helpful in giving an indication of how far-reaching domestic abuse is, reported incidents will be lower than actual abuse levels. The table below details reported domestic abuse crimes for North Yorkshire (excluding York).

 

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

Q1

1420

1523

1573

 1429

Q2

1615

1660

1778

 1411

Q3

1424

1625

1501

 1360

Q4

1307

1538

1435

 

 

5766

6346

6387

 

 

4.3         Appendix 1, section 1, includes the detail of the multi-agency ‘commitments’ from the Domestic Abuse Strategy 2024- 2028. The next steps for the Partnership, include developing a detailed multi-agency delivery plan and performance framework.

 

4.4         Our previous joint Domestic Abuse Strategy 2018-2024 propelled our partnership response in many ways

·         Collaboration on commissioning arrangements to provide sustainable, long term domestic abuse services across York and North Yorkshire. These services ensure equity of support throughout the entire county, eliminating the post code lottery seen in many other areas nationally ‘A Patchwork of Provision’ - Domestic Abuse Commissioner.

·         Develop services for children affected by domestic abuse and young people, reflecting a whole family and partnership approach.

·         Create services that are inclusive of all victims. These services support those fleeing domestic abuse and those wishing to remain in their own homes, providing the necessary assets and support for them to do so.

·         Raising awareness of commissioned services, delivering training packages to professionals across various agencies.

·         Deliver behaviour change programmes for adult perpetrators of abuse and interventions for children and adolescents demonstrating violence towards their parents.

 

4.5         The local specialised domestic abuse services in North Yorkshire are jointly commissioned by North Yorkshire Council, City of York Council and the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (OPFCC). All domestic abuse services have recently been successfully re-commissioned.

 

4.6         IDAS Managed through a central hub referral, IDAS currently offers local victim support services, including community-based support services, a refuge and safe accommodation service, target hardening provision, and a service for children and young people affected by domestic abuse. Additionally, IDAS provides a Respect Accredited Programme to assist families where young people exhibit abusive behaviours towards their parents or within intimate relationships with other young people. IDAS

 

4.7         Foundation As part of the joint commissioning arrangements, there is also the provision of an Adult Perpetrator Service, a voluntary behaviour change intervention for standard risk perpetrators of domestic abuse, is delivered by Foundation. Foundation is also commissioned by North Yorkshire Council to provide a therapeutic support service for children and young people impacted by domestic abuse. This cohort of children and young people are already known to Children and Family Services. +Choices – Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programme - Foundation (foundationuk.org)

 

4.8         Appendix 1, section 2 provides detail of recent performance for the commissioned services, including

 

·         IDAS- Victim community-based support

·         IDAS- Victim accommodation-based services

·         IDAS- Target hardening

·         Foundation-+Choices Support Services for Adult Perpetrators of Domestic Abuse

 

4.9         The commitments of the strategy highlight the focus on achieving Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) accreditation DAHA - Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (dahalliance.org.uk). A DAHA Coordinator role has been created within North Yorkshire Council, to bring together housing provision and domestic abuse services. With the aim of ensuring housing provision across North Yorkshire is safe, secure and our teams are empowered to recognise harm in all its forms, supporting victims, survivors, and their families to remain safe in their own homes. The next steps being considered include placing domestic abuse advisors directly into housing teams.

4.10    There are established collaborative arrangements to tackle domestic abuse across North Yorkshire. Including Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC), where high risk victims are discussed and appropriate multi-agency action is taken and Multi-Agency Tasking and Coordination (MATAC), where high risk perpetrators are discussed. During 2023,1998 cases were discussed within MARAC across North Yorkshire and York. This is a 4% increase on 2022 figures. Scarborough and Ryedale MARAC heard 27% of the total cases, Harrogate and Craven MARAC 24% and York MARAC 23%. A specific MARAC/ MATAC steering group has been established, to ensure that multi-agency arrangements are effective and robust. Escalation of concerns regarding irregular agency attendance and engagement have been raised to the Community Safety Partnership. The chair, Assistant Chief Constable Catherine Clarke is arranging a strategic workshop for agency leads to raise awareness, identify action, and provide an improved service for our most high-risk victims and their families.

5.0          North Yorkshire- Domestic Homicide Reviews

 

5.1         North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership has the statutory responsibility for commissioning Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs). A review of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have resulted from violence, abuse, or neglect by

·         A person whom he/ she was related or has been in an intimate relationship, or

·         A member of the same household.

Held with a view to identifying the lessons to be learnt from the death. In addition, where a victim took their own life (suicide) and the circumstances give rise to concern, for example, it emerges that there was coercive, controlling behaviour in the relationship, a review should be undertaken, even if a suspect is not charged with an offence or they are tried and acquitted.

5.2         Since 2018, 5 deaths have led to the commissioning of statutory reviews, 3 reviews are completed and published Domestic Homicide Reviews | North Yorkshire Partnerships (nypartnerships.org.uk). 1 review is completed, has recently been signed off by the Home Office and is due to be published. Following a suicide, a fifth review has just been commissioned and an independent chair and author has initiated the process.

 

5.3         Although each circumstance is different, there are ‘common’ themes within the identified recommendations and have been delivered via multi-agency action plans

 

·         Multi-agency training and communications plans and strategies

·         MARAC arrangements, including partners’ accountability and engagement

·         Identified areas for training include

Ø  Effective use of risk assessments

Ø  Enhanced understanding of domestic abuse, including within same sex relationships and for older people

Ø  Importance of professional curiosity.

 

5.4         During the cycle of reporting to the Committee further details regarding recently published reviews and identified lessons and recommendations can be presented.

 

6.0          Early Intervention and Prevention- Serious Violence Duty

 

6.1          A recent national statutory duty has had a significant impact on partnership activity. The Serious Violence Duty, introduced in January 2023 requires the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner to convene partners including North Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Probation services, North Yorkshire Council, City of York Council and the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence, that occurs in the area, develop a Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA) and implement a response strategy to address it.

 

6.2          A multi-agency working group has been established, it reports directly to North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership. The SNA and response strategy have recently been completed and published (19th February 2024).

 

6.3         The introduction to the response strategy from the chairs of the Community Safety Partnerships (North Yorkshire and York) highlights

 

“Serious violence has a devastating impact on victims, families and communities across the country and whilst we know that overall North Yorkshire is one of the safest places to live, we can’t be naïve in thinking serious violence doesn’t happen here- we know it does- and people across our county need to feel safe and be kept safe... The Strategic Needs Assessment has effectively identified the areas in North Yorkshire and York where serious violence is the most prominent and where we must need to focus efforts to tackle it. This has informed our Response Strategy which will be implemented together over the next two years to tackle serious violence.”

 

6.4         The Serious Violence Duty does not give a set definition of ‘serious violence’ and each local area is encouraged to set their own definition. For North Yorkshire and York, the following crimes are included within our definition of serious violence and were used when undertaking the SNA.

·         Homicide

·         Violence with injury, including attempted murder, endangering life, and wounding with intent

·         Domestic abuse

·         Rape and sexual offences

·         Weapon related violence, including weapon possession

·         Arson endangering life

·         Stalking and harassment.

 

6.5         In addition, the following areas of thematic interest were considered within the wider profile

·         Violence against women and girls (VAWG)

·         Young people

·         Alcohol and substance misuse

·         Mental health

·         Deprivation and employment

·         Education.

 

6.6         The SNA found the rate of serious violence offences across North Yorkshire and York remains much lower than the national and regional average. Violence with injury had an offence rate of 8.5 per 1,000 of the population in York and North Yorkshire, this is lower than the national average rate of 9.6. Of the violence with injury offences, 3% of the offences included the use of a knife.

 

6.7         Not all offences are equal in terms of harm, and so crime numbers can not always give a true reflection of the scale of harm caused. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has developed the Crime Severity Score (CSS) which uses police recorded data and custody, community order or fine rate to calculate a severity weighting. For April 2022 to March 2023 the CSS for North Yorkshire was 3.2, the average CSS for England and Wales was 5.1. The SNA supported, from the data available, that North Yorkshire and York should focus on a prevention and early intervention approach.

 

6.8         The findings of the SNA were used to identify 5 key priorities, below highlights the priorities with reasons for adoption.

 

Priority 1- Awareness Raising and Public Perception

The Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has undertaken surveys linked to Serious Violence and VAWG and it was found that respondents were unaware of the topics surrounding serious violence. In response to this, our aim is to raise awareness of the overall low levels of violence across the county to improve public confidence, and to promote the prevention and early intervention activity.

 

Priority 2- Children and Young People

Using prevention and early intervention, we aim to break the cycle of violence, supporting those children who have lived experience of the risk factors associated to becoming involved in serious violence.

 

 

Priority 3- Possession and Use of Weapons

Weapon carrying has become the norm among some groups. Through interventions and continued partnership working, and by the continued analysis of police data we aim to reduce the number of those carrying a weapon long term.

 

Priority 4- Alcohol, Violence and Night-time Economy

During the completion of the SNA, a recurring theme around serious violence was the influence of alcohol as a precursor to violence. There is a clear link between serious violence, alcohol and the weekend and evening periods.

 

Priority 5- Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)

Violence against women and girls remains a high priority topic within North Yorkshire and York, as well as nationally. Offences linked to VAWG are becoming more widely understood and more widely reported. This will obviously have close alignment with the new Domestic Abuse strategy. Through early intervention we aim to identify those who are at risk of becoming a victim of domestic abuse or in an abusive relationship and provide support to break the cycle.  Appendix 1, section 1 provides further detail regarding the response strategy’s priorities.

 

6.9         As part of the response strategy a Prevention and Early Identification Fund Programme was established, which gave partners and organisations the opportunity to bid for funding. A variety of projects have been established, all support a pro-active, sustainable, outcomes focused approach to reduce serious violence through prevention, early intervention, and diversion. The projects deliver interventions which tackle each of the priority areas, including educational programmes, awareness raising campaigns and weapon amnesties. Appendix 1, section 3 provides detail of the projects and their links with the identified priorities.

 

7.0         Hate Crime and Community Cohesion

 

7.1         An Inclusive Communities Joint Coordination Group reviews hate crime and incidents across North Yorkshire and York, this group reports directly to North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership and Safer York Partnership.

 

7.2         For Q3 2023/ 24 there have been 283 hate crimes reported across North Yorkshire and York, compared to 256 for the equivalent period 2022/ 23, which is a 10% increase. 14 hate crimes were committed against Police Officers, whilst they were executing their duties. Hate crimes data indicates that offences occur during the week. The key times for hate crime happening remains 00:00- 04:00 hrs.

 

7.3         Race remains the dominant strand, accounting for 55% of all hate crime reports (this is in line with national figures). Some religious hate crimes reported may have links to the Israel/ Gaza conflict.

 

7.4         The partnership is supporting the delivery of a hate crime ‘champions’ initiative as an accredited training package to raise awareness of hate crime across partners and communities.  Appendix 1, section 1, includes detail of the objectives of the Inclusive Communities Joint Coordination Group, that reports to the Community Safety Partnership.

 

8.0          Recommendations

 

8.1         For members to consider the content of the report and to identify any areas for clarity and potential future action.

 

8.2         For members to identify partnership priorities and duties, that can be a focus for future updates and reports to the committee.