Agenda item

This Safer Arun Partnership scrutiny report is the second to come before the committee and is in line with the recently agreed principles of assessing performance of the partnership.

Appendix A provides access to a copy of the most recent partnership plan.  This was updated following the most recent SAP meeting on 25 July 2022 and reflects the current status of all actions and work streams.

Upon the invitation of the Chair the Communities & Wellbeing Manager presented the report to the Committee. She explained that this was a standing item on the agenda which enabled the Council to fulfil the statutory function of scrutinising the performance of the Safer Arun Partnership (SAP). The report set out the progress of the SAP to date, including progress against the current Partnership Plan, as outlined in Appendix A; actions progressed since the last Committee report in June; the results of the Partnership’s Community Safety Residents Survey, in Appendix B; and how the Partnership would review and refresh its priorities and plan for the next 12-18 months. Members were reminded that when undertaking scrutiny of the Safer Arun Partnership, the Committee had authority to make its own recommendations back to the partnership in relation to any performance and reporting elements it deemed appropriate.

Members  (and a non-Committee Member given permission to speak) then took part in a question and answer session as summarised below:

·       It was noted that there had been 437 responses and it was asked how many people had been asked to participate. The Communities & Wellbeing Manager explained it had been open to all residents of Arun and was well promoted. Members felt this was a good number of responses.

·       It was suggested there could be a link between those that had been a victim of crime, and those that had heard of the SAP, and felt that more should be done to raise awareness of the SAP

·       It was noted that the public had picked up on anti-social driving as being an issue.

·       Could geographic areas be identified? The Communities & Wellbeing Manager confirmed this data had been gathered and could be broken down further for Members. This would be circulated to Members outside of the meeting.

·      Would the survey be repeated, so that Members could see if achievements were being made? The Communities & Wellbeing Manager explained there was a requirement to complete the survey annually. More targeted surveys were also being considered.

·      It was felt positive that attention was being focussed on youth outreach work (shown on Page 70), however it was asked why there was no mention of county lines – the distribution of drugs. The Communities & Wellbeing Manager explained that the plan was to make this much clearer going forward, and she hoped the partners would agree this should have a much clearer focus. As part of the partnership plan, Arun wanted to reduce drug-related harm, working in partnership with Sussex Police to achieve this. A written update had been requested from Sussex Police

·      Some of the information was worrying, including that the Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour Team had specific targets to meet, but there did not appear to be similar targets for Sussex Police; the perception of crime was substantially higher than those experiencing it; residents of Bognor were three times more likely to experience crime than those living in Burgess Hill; it was felt some partners could be doing more to achieve better outcomes. The Chair explained that it was normal for the perception of crime to be greater than the reality.

·      Sussex Police currently had a campaign to try and reassure residents and ensure they felt they were being heard.

·      There would be a SAP workshop on Monday 10 October 2022.

·      It was suggested that in the future the question of how well the resident was able to communicate with the Police and how easy this was, be added to the survey.

The  Communities & Wellbeing Manager would feed in concerns and issues raised by the Committee to the SAP for them to consider.

The Committee noted the update received.