Item 9e - Safe DIG
West Dunbartonshire Council · 17 November 2022
Back to Community Planning West Dunbartonshire Management Board — 17 November 2022 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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OFFICIAL Report by Safe Delivery and Improvement Group Chair Management Group : 17 November 2022 __________________________________________________________________ _ Subject: Safe Delivery & Improvement Group – Progress update 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to update the members on the progress of local outcomes within the Local Outcome Improvement Plan 2017-2027 being delivered by the Safe Delivery and Improvement Group (DIG). 2. Recommendations 2.1 Community Planning West Dunbartonshire are asked to note the contents of this report. 3. Key Discussions 3.1 The most recent Safe DIG meeting was held on 30th August 2022 with Superintendent Lorna Gibson taking over as chair of the meeting from Chief Inspector Coleen Wylie who has been successful in a promotion out with the local policing division. 3.2 The August Safe DIG meeting, focussed on updates from partners around their recent activity with a focus on driving activity forward taking cognisance of Covid Recovery and the cost of living crisis which will impact on many aspects of community safety. Other core updates from the meeting were: 3.3 Local Outcome 1 - Anti-social behaviour/Violence A revised policing model has been created in West Dunbartonshire which now has a dedicated Community Policing Team to provide high visibility and better connectivity with partners from an operational perspective. This has already seen positive results around the Dalmuir area where a dedicated action plan is in progress to tackle some key challenges. The Safe DIG recognised the benefit of this team linking in with Housing and the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership. ITEM 9e
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OFFICIAL A multi-agency Wilful Fire-raising group has been formed to ensure a fully connected partnership approach is taken to tackling this issue. Whilst reported incidents have fallen since last year, there have been some more serious fires this year causing community concern. Stronger links with education have been developed with commitment to build 2 “Emergency Service” days per year into the curriculum. The first of these will be in Autumn and will cover fireworks, fire-raising, alcohol and drugs and anti-social behaviour. The second will take place in Spring and will cover water safety, personal safety, alcohol and drugs and anti-social behaviour. The target audience will be those in S1 and S2 with P7 being included where suitable. Police Community Engagement Team have arranged for crime prevention letters to go to all schools via education to help prevent vandalisms and fire raisings. Derelict property owners will be lettered regarding their own responsibilities with regards to securing their properties. This will be extended to include vacant properties as SFRS have highlighted that vacant properties have more flammable substances within them. An action taken at the August Safe DIG is for the current ASB strategy to be circulated for comment with the November Safe DIG Meeting dedicated to revising this in line with current challenges. Key to this is effective community engagement and reporting. Estate walkabouts have been reintroduced with tenants/residents groups with a number of action plans ongoing. This will widen to include further partners to take a collective approach to target hardening communities to ensure better and more cohesive communities. There is also work ongoing to develop an ASB Handbook. The aim is for this to be tenant/resident focussed to provide an overview of services, possible action and contacts. This will be shared via social media and through various tenants and residents groups. 3.4 Local Outcome 1 - Tacking Substance related harms The Mobile Harm Reduction Unit is currently live in West Dunbartonshire with local police officers being provided with familiarisation days at the unit. This is to ensure they have a good working knowledge of this and can better assist in signposting people to the unit who may be disengaged from services. Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are both progressing naloxone carriage by their officers. Whilst this will not assist non-opiate drug overdose, it is seen as a positive step to reducing stigma and enabling wider support to those most in need. It was agreed to hold a wider discussion in relation to the Arrest Referral Scheme that has been operating in Clydebank custody suite due to ensure full use was being made of the funded posts aligned to this. 3.5 Local Outcome 1 - Caledonian Domestic Abuse Programme Figures released in November 2021 indicate West Dunbartonshire as the second highest area for prevalence of Domestic Abuse in Scotland. National figures indicate 119 incidents of domestic abuse recorded by police per
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OFFICIAL 10,000 population in 20-21. WDC sits at 168 per 10,000, an increase on the previous year from 150. Discussions throughout 21/22 have been held between Justice/Children and Families Services and the National Caledonian Team to bring the 1-1 programme to WDC. COVID has delayed this and we are now in a position to confirm WDC as one of the authorities in Scotland to host a court and non-court mandated 1-1 programme later in 2022. Police Scotland also provided that they have strict governance around bail checks in relation to domestic incidents to ensure compliance. 3.6 Local Outcome 2 - Partnership Approach to Water Safety (PAWS) The PAWS group continues to be active with good representation from key partners/stakeholders. This has included days with the British Heart Foundation to include CPR training. The practical benefits of the school engagement programme were recognised during a water related incident in Luss. This saw a male in distress in the water being recognised by a school pupil who recalled the water safety input provided to him at school. The young male pupil managed to seek assistance resulting in the male in the water being rescued and air lifted to hospital, he has made a full recovery. 3.7 Local Outcome 3 – Fraud Prevention Work continues to raise awareness of frauds and the impact this can have on the wellbeing of our communities. With an increase in frauds since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, call blockers provided through funding from WDCVS have been installed at many addresses of vulnerable adults who have been receiving scam calls on their landlines. Members of the Safe DIG were encouraged to make referrals for call blockers to be installed if they were aware of any vulnerable adults that would benefit from this. In addition to this, due to recent bogus caller incidents, the Police Scotland Youth Volunteers have assisted in letter drops to affected areas to ensure crime prevention advice is provided. 4. People Implications 4.1 No, all activity is delivered through the existing teams of the Community Planning partners. 5. Financial Implications 5.1 There are no direct financial or procurement implications from the updates detailed in this report. 6. Risk Analysis 6.1 The responsibilities contained within the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 are fundamental to planning and delivery of better services. The partners’ commitment to the Safe DIG is an acknowledgement that the importance of this work is recognised.
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OFFICIAL 7. Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) 7.1 Whilst an EIA is not required for the focus of the Safe DIG, for each of the new outcomes agreed by the Safe DIG Partnership, these will be checked against the aspects of Equality, Wellbeing, Sustainability and Empowerment. It has also been agreed that EIA will be a standing agenda item for all Safe DIG meetings going forward. 8. Consultation 8.1 This is an update on areas of work relating to the current work of the Safe DIG. Consultation is carried out relevant to each project and initiative, as appropriate by the action lead/partner agency. 9. Strategic Assessment 9.1 This report confirms that the CPWD continues to deliver against the outcomes set in the Local Outcome Improvement Plan. ________________________ Person to Contact: Supt Lorna Gibson (Lorna.Gibson2@scotland.police.uk) Appendices: None Background Papers: None Wards Affected: ALL