Community Safety Hub Performance and Development
North Lanarkshire Council · 10 May 2023
Back to Housing Committee — 10 May 2023 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Housing Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref Date 10/05/23 Community Safety Hub performance and development From Stephen Llewellyn, Chief Officer (Housing Management) E-mail llewellyns@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 274162 1. Background 1.1 The Plan for North Lanarkshire aims to make North Lanarkshire a better place to live, work and visit, where homes and public spaces are safe and feel safe for everyone. Improving Community Safety through CCTV, tackling Anti-Social Behaviour and ensuring Public Protection within Housing makes an enormous contribution to achieving this ambition. All three of these elements are delivered within the Community Safety Hub service within Housing Solutions. 1.2 The Community Safety Hub presently delivers: • Provision of 24 hour/365 days per year proactive monitoring of 1310 public space CCTV Cameras in North Lanarkshire. • Provision of evidence disks for Police Scotland, Crown Office, and Procurator Fiscal. • Call handling for the Antisocial Behaviour service 24/7. • Management of Public Protection Service within Housing Solutions. • Out of Hours Antisocial Behaviour Witnessing Service. Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the performance and service development of the Community Safety Hub. Recommendations It is recommended that the Committee note the performance of the service and recognise the ongoing positive impact delivery of this service has on the communities of North Lanarkshire. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority Improve the health and wellbeing of our communities Ambition statement (14) Ensure the highest standards of public protection
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• Out of Hours telephony service for Homelessness • Organisation of Out of Hours Homeless Standby provision • Co−location of Police Scotland Officers. • Emergency Response Centre and relaying of CCTV images to support the Council's Resilience capacity during major incidents, adverse weather, or other emergencies. 2. Report 2.1 Work to upgrade the 162 urban housing CCTV cameras on the network is nearing completion, with 130 cameras upgraded over the past two years. The remainder will be upgraded over the coming financial years. 2.1.1 This has significantly benefited the communities with increased night-time performance from the High-Definition cameras assisting in incidents that may have proven more difficult to detect in the past. 2.2 All Homeless out of hours contacts are now being handled by a dedicated call handling team who operate from the Community Safety facility every evening and all weekend. This service is delivered along with the Anti-social Behaviour service allowing a streamlined team to deliver both services. Homeless call handling activities commenced in May 2022 from the community safety hub. 2.3 Anti-social Behaviour services for non-council tenants were due to be reviewed in line with the end of additional funding approved in 2021 for a period of two years, however this has now been extended and services will continue to be available to all residents of North Lanarkshire, irrespective of tenure of their property. 2.4 Sound Monitoring Equipment (SME) is currently being deployed by our night team, the current number of complainants on the waiting list is 14, this is constantly under review and additional equipment is purchased when necessary. 2.4.1 Options around alternative products or tools, such as the Noise App, that may be used to support the requirement for Sound Monitoring Equipment being deployed are being explored, it is hoped that alternative solutions may become available over the period of the next financial year. 2.5 A further area of development within the Anti-social Behaviour service is the deployment of a new Break the Cycle initiative that is planned to be delivered across all Primary and secondary Schools in the authority area. 2.5.1 An input is planned for Primary 7 pupils due to transmission to secondary school, this will be aimed at showing the impact of anti-social behaviour in the communities. 2.5.2 Secondary pupils from the senior years will also be trained in delivery of an information session around Anti-social Behaviour and CCTV and the impact it has on the wider community. This will be presented to the younger secondary school children with the hope that the work can be accredited and added to the Personal and Social Education (PSE) curriculum for the pupils taking part. 2.6 Within the service, work has been undertaken to develop a new case management system to increase efficiency of record handling within the public protection team, work is ongoing with testing of the system to ensure all functionality required is included.
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This system will assist the team with workflow and information gathering for attendance at multi agency meetings. 3. Measures of success CCTV Performance 3.1 Operating 1310 cameras 24/7, CCTV monitoring officers have again performed to a high standard. The figures below are a summary of incidents recorded by CCTV for the year 2022/23 (01st April 2022 until 31st March 2023). • 5,693 recorded incidents with 1,885 observation review requests (157 requests to review CCTV footage per month). • Within Towers and Low-Rise flats there were 463 incidents captured. • CCTV has assisted in 346 apprehension and cautions in the year to date. • Missing person detected on CCTV has increased slightly, with 140 incidents since April 2022. Table 1 below gives a full breakdown of all types of incidents comparing 21/22 to 22/23: - CCTV Service 2021/22 2022/23 (YTD) Criminal Incidents 2261 2199 Community Safety Incidents 1756 1842 Anti-social Incidents 1067 996 Environmental incidents 831 656 TOTAL INCIDENTS 5,915 5,693 Evidence Disk 495 517 Review Request 2138 1885 Apprehension / Cautions 348 346 Missing Persons 117 140 There is a reduction in environmental incidents recorded, this is in part due to a review of how these incidents are reported, the environmental incidents we capture are passed to the Environmental Team, and where evidence is sufficient, further action is then taken by that team in the form of fixed penalty and / or prosecution where applicable. Anti-social Behaviour call handling and Out of Hours service 3.2 The Anti-social Behaviour call handling and Out of Hours service offers the communities of North Lanarkshire a 365 day a year 24 hours a day helpline to report any anti-social behaviour. The figures within Table 2 below are for the year 2022/23. 3.2.1 The team handled over 14,300 calls that resulted in 8,948 requests for service, the remainder of the calls can relate to request for advice only, updates on previous contacts and sign posting of service users to other North Lanarkshire Council services and departments.
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Table 2 Anti-social Behaviour service analysis: - Anti-Social Behaviour Helpline Total No. Daytime contacts (HSMS Log generated) 3,591 Out of Hour contacts (HSMS Log generated) 5,357 Calls Incoming - Daytime 6,436 Calls Incoming - OOH 7,875 3.2.1 From April 2022 the Anti-social Behaviour service has been looking at growth in the mediation service, a proactive approach is being taken in an effort to increase the number of mediation cases being taken forward. Table 3 shows analysis of the service for the year 2022/23. Table 3 Mediation analysis: Mediation Service Total No. Referrals received 101 Active cases 8 Meeting concluded with agreement 12 Referrals reported improvement without meeting 22 Advice only with no further action required 59 3.2.2 The Anti-social Behaviour Out of Hours Professional Service continues to provide an out of hours service from Thursday through to Sunday every week, officers are available to attend call outs between 1900 – 0300, Thursday and Sunday and between 1900 – 0500 on a Friday and Saturday. The figures in Table 4 give analysis of the service from 1st April 2022 to 31st of March 2023. Table 4 Out of Hours Witnessing Service: - Witnessing Service Total No. Call outs attended 1,007 Formal actions carried out First Warning 126 Final Warning 15 Further Warning 11 The Service also work jointly with Police Scotland and co-ordinate joint visits throughout North Lanarkshire. 3.2.3 The Out of Hours Anti-social Behaviour team also manage the deployment and assessment of the Sound Monitoring Equipment (SME). These devices are installed in to assess noise levels in properties and once retrieved the data is analysed by the team. Table 5 below shows the breakdown of request and the outcomes of the referrals.
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Table 5 SME Referrals and outcomes SME Total No Referrals 112 Currently on waiting list 18 In progress 2 Outcome of completed referrals Excessive noise heard 4 Public Protection Service 3.3 As with all teams within the community safety hub the PP team has ensured that public protection arrangements have continued to be delivered working in partnership across NLC services and external partnerships. Table 6 below highlights some of the work being carried out by this team over the last 12 months. Table 6 Public Protection Service performance: - Public Protection Service Total No. Case Management 1006 Housing Property Checks (ERA’s) 553 Homeless Service (Out of Hours) 3.4 Table 7 below shows the work undertaken by the team in relation to homeless calls out of hours. The service has taken 7,085 calls, these include all call backs and contacts from homeless standby officers conducting their health and safety check-ins whilst carrying out their duties out of hours. This accounts for the significantly high number of calls received by the service. Call out for the Homeless Standby Officers include book-ins at homeless accommodations, people presenting at Police Offices as homeless and service users, who for a variety of reasons, have been unable to remain in their current accommodation. 3.4.1 The number of homeless contacts, 2,787, provides information on how many service users our teams have engaged with to offer advice and support with their enquiries around homelessness. Table 7 Homeless Service (Out of Hours) performance: - Homeless Service (Out of Hours) Total No. Out of Hours Calls 7,085 Homeless out of hours contacts 2,787 Number of contacts passed to Standby Officer 2,088
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4. Supporting documentation Stephen Llewellyn Chief Officer (Housing Management)
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5. Impacts 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact?
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Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.