Item 9e - SAFE DIG Update
West Dunbartonshire Council · 18 May 2023
Back to Community Planning West Dunbartonshire Management Board — 18 May 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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OFFICIAL OFFICIAL 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 6th Aril 2023 Name and email of lead contact Supt Lorna Gibson, (lorna.gibson2@scotland.police.uk) 1 Highlights of activity and progress since last meeting • The current Strategy expires in 2023. The plan was to present the refreshed strategy to the CPWD in May 2023 however, following a Short Life Working Group being established and agreement from the group, the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Team are going to carry out an assessment of the current strategy and provide feedback and recommendations to ensure the proposals are fit for purpose. Although this will delay the revised Safe DIG Strategy being brought to CPWD and implemented until later in 2023, it was felt by the wider group that it is important this work is done to ensure the strategy fulfils the aims of the group. • The Housing Team continue to work across all WDC communities with representation at a number of operational groups including Op Ballaton and The Wilful Fire Raising Group. April 2023 will see the team focussing on enforcement of Dog Fouling/Litter and Fly- tipping • Specific tasking will be deployed 2023/24 based on the most common issues reported to the helpline where areas will be targeted to tackle some of these issues, ASB tasking group and all operational groups will continue to be resourced (partnership working). • As part of the work being undertaken as part of the Cost of Living Working Group, there are planned skip amnesty days in key areas, Waste Services are leading on this with support from Housing Operations and Communities Teams. Social Media, Text messaging and Community Councils will be used to advertise the locations and dates. Skips will be removed at the end of each day to reduce the potential risk of wilful fire raising. • Diversion from prosecution referrals continue to increase. 60 % of referrals were for the Misuse of Drugs Act. Justice Social Work will feed this back to the ADP and will also link in with 3rd sector colleagues. • A number of initiatives have been identified to support the most deprived members of the community in relation to the cost of living crisis. • Police Scotland continue to chair regular meetings for Op Ballaton and the Dalmuir Action Plan. Prevention and addressing ASB is the main focus of the work being carried out by the Community Policing Teams. ITEM 9e
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OFFICIAL OFFICIAL • The second Emergency Services day has taken place in West Dunbartonshire with all High School pupils receiving a multi-agency input relating to Water Safety, youth Disorder and Anti-Social Behaviour. • Partnership working continues with the ASB Fire Raising Group. There has been a reduction in the large scale fires recently however wilful fire raising to wheelie bins and rubbish continue. Despite an increase in the number of fires since the start of the calendar year, Wilful Fire Raisings are down 13.7% on last year. 2 Outline of any issues/risks and how these are being managed • Justice Social Work provided an update that there are plans for the Caledonian Programme to be introduced in West Dunbartonshire – discussion have taken place with Scottish Government but no timescales have been confirmed. • Concerns were raised around the number of recent outings of RSOs in West Dunbartonshire. The MAPPA co-ordinator is looking at education and briefings to Elected Members around the risk this poses to public, police etc. Police Scotland have full sight of this situation and there is a patrol matrix and action plan in place to address the issue. 3 Outline of the main outputs expected before next meeting Members of the Safe DIG group who attended the last meeting of the group agreed with the proposal to have the Shaping Places for Wellbeing lead carry out an assessment of the current Safe DIG strategy prior to developing the revised strategy. An email was sent to those who were unable to attend the meeting to ask that they provide feedback on any issues they may have with the proposal. They were informed that the absence of any feedback would be taken as supportive of the proposal. No further feedback has been received. 4 What are your requirements of partners in the Community Planning Management Board? The Safe DIG seek approval from CPWD to delay the implementation of the revised Safe DIG strategy until later in 2023 in order to allow an assessment of the current DIG strategy to be carried out by the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Team. 5 Please outline any good news story you wish to share • The outcome of the Council Budget has been positive for the ASB team with the entire team being retained. • The Neighbourhood Team won Team of the year award 28/3. • The application submitted by Housing Operations to purchase 5 re-deployable cameras for use in identified HRA areas has been successful; an excellent outcome for West Dunbartonshire. • Police Scotland have increased the Youth Engagement Officers within WD offering a greater level of support and engagement. • The Dementia Safeguard Tag scheme was rolled out within West Dunbartonshire on 22nd March supported by Alzheimer Scotland. The response from the local community has been very positive.