Item 16 - Safe DIG Report
West Dunbartonshire Council · 14 August 2025
Back to Community Planning West Dunbartonshire Management Board — 14 August 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Management Board Meeting Development and Improvement Groups (DIGs): Highlights and Issues Report FOR INFORMATION ONLY x FOR DECISION Name of DIG Safe DIG Date of report 06/08/2025 Name and email of lead contact Supt Trish Robertson Patricia.Robertson@scotland.police.uk 1 Highlights of activity and progress since last meeting On 06/08/2025, the SafeDIG met under the chair of Supt Trish Robertson. This meeting had been rescheduled from July 2025 due to the number of apologies due to the summer holidays. Attendance at the meeting continues to be a challenge with a number of apologies received for the rescheduled date also. The revised action plan remains in draft format at this time until the full review of the DIG structure has been completed. It is noted that the strategic outcomes detailed in the West Dunbartonshire Local Outcome Improvement Plan 2017-27 are all managed through individual groups which already feed in to the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) and Public Protection Chief Officers Group (PP COG) through other means, therefore the revised action plan needs to ensure it can add value and does not duplicate other existing work. The CPWD Outcomes for the Safe DIG are: - Improved community justice outcomes ensure West Dunbartonshire is a safe and inclusive place to live – this is managed through the Community Justice Partnership (CJP), who provide a quarterly report to the CPP - All partners deliver early and effective interventions targeted at reducing the impact of domestic abuse – this is covered by both the CJP and the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) group - Residents live in positive, health promoting local environments where the impact of alcohol and drugs is addressed – this is managed through the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (ADP) which currently reports in to the Integration Joint Board (IJB) and the PP COG and provides reports to the CPP by exception. Members have indicated that they would be content to provide either quarterly or annual reports to the CPP if required. ITEM 16
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- Our residents are supported to improve their emotional and mental health and wellbeing – elements, such as suicide prevention, are covered by the ADP and CJP. This outcome would also be relevant to other DIGs within the structure. Whilst the revised action plan remains in draft format at this time, updates and discussions at the meeting were focused around the proposed new actions. Enhance road safety in West Dunbartonshire, reduce the number of killed and seriously injured on the road network and adhere to the Road Safety Scotland road safety framework. Police Scotland, the Institute of Advanced Motorists and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service recently hosted a motorcycle safety event in Inveraray. Whilst this event took place in Argyll and Bute, it was advertised across the west of Scotland and had attendees from far and wide, including the West Dunbartonshire area. This event linked with the current ongoing motorcycle safety campaign and a recent review of motorcycle fatalities across Scotland over the last 10 years, which showed that 18% of fatalities on Scotland’s roads involved the rider or passenger of a motorcycle, whilst motorcycles are estimated to account for less than 1% of traffic. Work is planned to improve junction safety on the A82, including vehicle activated signage. Road Safety inputs took place within all West Dunbartonshire High Schools throughout June 2025. This included inputs from the Safety Camera Unit, making use of a virtual-reality headset to put the students in the driver’s seat of a vehicle and use of dashcam footage from a fatal accident, narrated by relatives of the deceased. Roads Policing officers also attended to provide demonstrations on checking vehicles for safety, including inspections of the vehicles belonging to any young drivers within the groups. Reduce youth anti-social behaviour, particularly around peak periods such as bonfire night and warmer weather Operation Ballaton continues to ensure a partnership approach to youth disorder during the warmer weather. The CJP are hosting development sessions in November and December 2025 which will focus on diversion options for both youth and adult justice, ensuring mapping of services and consistent offering of suitable diversionary opportunities. This will take account of new guidance on diversion from the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) which is due to be published imminently. Care and Risk Management (CARM) training is being hosted in October 2025 for those who work with high risk young people. Improve online safety and awareness within the community Police Scotland Youth Engagement Officers continue to deliver regular inputs to schools on online safety and exploitation. The Partnerships and Preventions team
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also regularly deliver fraud prevention inputs to elderly and vulnerable groups across West Dunbartonshire and provide further advice on our social media pages. Seek to improve safety around active travel routes and public transport West Dunbartonshire has recently conducted a significant upgrade of the CCTV system, which includes coverage of active travel routes. Police Scotland regularly host bike marking events to provide protective safety measures and prevent theft of pedal cycles. Improve safety around green spaces and water-based spaces Operation Ballaton continues to ensure a partnership approach to safety during the warmer weather. Water Safety Scotland held their World Drowning Prevention Day event at Loch Lomond Shores, Balloch on Friday 25th July 2025. The event features various agencies show-casing their work in water safety and included interactive learning opportunities and rescue demonstrations. As part of the Partnership Approach to Water Safety (PAWS) group, drowning incident reports are being conducted for recent incidents at Loch Lomond and Campbeltown, with learning shared across all areas. West Dunbartonshire leisure have reported a recent significant growth in the uptake of swimming lessons. Ensure everyone has access to suicide prevention materials and services A new suicide prevention group has been established, which is data driven and reviews all recent suicides. The CJP are also conducting reviews of suicide rates for those involved in justice services and also those involved in VAWG (both victims and perpetrators). This review will also include suicide attempts and will link in with an NHS GGC review of the health needs for those involved in justice services. West Dunbartonshire have recently published articles and a video around the language of suicide and reducing stigma. Police Scotland’s Argyle and West Dunbartonshire Division currently has 166 officers trained to make referrals to distress brief intervention. This is across both local authorities. We currently have a system in place that means all probationers coming into the division are trained in making DBI referrals during their induction week at Dumbarton. 41 referrals were made in the division in 2024 and 33 have been made in 2025 so far. Of these, only 1 was made in West Dunbartonshire in 2024 and 2 have been in West Dumbartonshire in 2025. This is down to the age restriction on people who can be referred in West Dumbartonshire. It is currently only available to people between the ages of 16 and 24. In the rest of Scotland its available to anyone 16 and over. The majority of referrals within West Dunbartonshire come from education as would be expected with the age restriction, however Police are the main referrer in most other areas.
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Penumbra training will be delivered from January 2026 (train the trainer beginning in October 2025) for justice staff. This provides a similar service to DBI but specific to justice populations. Reduce the harms caused by addiction in West Dunbartonshire The ADP is currently conducting a review of the drugs death review process, as there is currently a significant delay of approximately 18 months before a review takes place and reviews are conducted in chronological order. The aim is to ensure that information is shared expediently and that reviews are prioritised according to opportunities for learning and prevention. Glasgow have created a dashboard around non-fatal overdoses and this is now being extended to all NHS GGC healthboard areas, which will allow West Dunbartonshire ADP to access and contribute to the data. Stigma training workshops are being developed by NHS GGC and Turning Point Scotland. Addressing misogyny and harmful behaviours at the earliest opportunity West College Scotland are seeking to pilot a package named “the bro code”, which is currently being rolled out across schools in England and seeks to address misogyny an harmful behaviours in boys and young men. Funding opportunities were discussed by the group and will be explored by the college. 2 Outline of any issues/risks and how these are being managed Further discussion required regarding the purpose and value of the Safe DIG, the deconfliction required between the outcomes outlined in the LOIP and the duplication from various other groups. This will be discussed through the ongoing DIG review with options on the future direction of travel for the Safe DIG presented in due course. 3 Outline of the main outputs expected before next meeting Regardless of the outcome of the DIG review, activity on the various proposed actions will continue, including a focus on youth anti-social behaviour and prevention in the run up to bonfire season.
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4 What are your requirements of partners in the Community Planning Management Board? Support re attendance at future meetings. 5 Please outline any good news story you wish to share See activity section.