Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report invites the Cabinet to agree that Council be recommended to approve Bath and North East Somerset's Community Safety Plan for 2009-12. This statutory document is the successor document to the Community Safety and Drugs Strategy, which is part of the Council's Policy and Budget Framework.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The Council be recommended to approve the Community Safety Plan 2009-12

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 There are no additional financial implications to this report. Actions contained within the action plans will be funded through the work of the partner agencies who come together under the Responsible Authorities Group. In 2009-10, the Council is committing £569,330 to the work of this partnership. In addition, there are contributions of £132,245 from the Police "Basic Command Unit" fund and £169,446 through the Local Area Agreement Area-Based Grant. The Council also provides £540,949 to the Drugs and Alcohol Pooled Treatment Budget in 2009-10. The overall percentage share of partner contributions to the Community Safety budget has remained broadly stable in recent years. The trend is for a reduction in Government "one-off grants" and 2009-10 will also see the last year of LAA "pump-priming" funding. In response to this and to the overall economic situation, which will potentially impact on other partners, plans are being developed to make greater use of shared resources to sustain the partnership's priorities. In addition, the Partnership's budget has been restructured to ensure that core staffing is less reliant on central Government funding streams being made available in future years.

4 CORPORATE PRIORITIES

The Plan has been prepared in the context of the emerging Vision for Bath and North East Somerset, as set out in the first section of the document. It is the key delivery document for the corporate priority of "Building communities where people feel safe and secure". However, the Plan also contributes significantly to the following additional priorities:

5 THE REPORT

5.1 The Police and Justice Act 2006 requires that Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships now produce a 3-year "rolling" Community Safety Plan for their areas, as opposed to a strategy document every three years. The Plan should contain strategic priorities based on a clear understanding of the community safety issues in that area. In addition there should be more detailed Action Plans, updated regularly, to deliver these priorities.

5.2 In Bath and North East Somerset, the "Responsible Authorities Group" has the accountability for preparing this planning framework, working closely with the partners involved. The Plan attached at Appendix One contains the 3-year strategic priorities which the Responsible Authorities Group has identified through its "strategic assessment" process, as well as a series of actions which the Partnership intends to take over the next three years to address these priorities. The aim has been both to respond to clear local needs and to look ahead at the emerging issues which could affect community safety in Bath and North East Somerset, a key example of which is the current economic downturn.

5.3 The Responsible Authorities Group will ensure that the work of the various partners to deliver the priorities and actions is co-ordinated. Named individuals and agencies will be responsible for specific actions, and these will be reviewed every six months. These actions will dovetail with the targets contained in the Local Area Agreement. The strategic assessment will also be reviewed each year to ensure that priorities are kept up-to-date and emerging issues addressed.

6 RISK MANAGEMENT

6.1 A risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations has been undertaken, in compliance with the Council's decision-making risk management guidance.

7 EQUALITIES

7.1 A proportionate equalities impact assessment has been carried out using corporate guidelines

8 RATIONALE

8.1 Schedule 9 of the Police and Justice Act 2006 makes it a statutory requirement to produce an annual rolling three year plan, underpinned by an annual strategic assessment.

9 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

9.1 No other options were considered

10 CONSULTATION

10.1 Executive Councillor; Overview & Scrutiny Panel; Other B&NES Services; Stakeholders/Partners; Other Public Sector Bodies; Section 151 Finance Officer; Monitoring Officer

10.2 There has been no separate public consultation exercise carried out in preparing the plan. Instead, existing community feedback mechanisms such as Voicebox and the outcomes of the PACT meetings have been fed into the work of the strategic assessment which has informed the Plan's priorities. As more detailed operational plans are produced and revised in each year, the appropriate partner agencies and communities will be fully involved.

10.3 The Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel received an earlier draft of the Plan at its meeting of 26^th March 2009. The comments made by the Panel have been incorporated into the report. In particular, the Plan now reflects in more detail

(1) The work which is being undertaken in rural areas in relation to community safety

(2) Work with young people on community safety issues

(3) The role of Neighbourhood Watch in promoting community safety

11 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

11.1 Social Inclusion; Customer Focus; Corporate; Health & Safety;

12 ADVICE SOUGHT

12.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer (Strategic Director - Support Services) have had the opportunity to input to this