Agenda item

15 minutes

The Board to receive an update on the plan to meet the new serious violence duty in B&NES.

Joshua Khan (Public Health Registrar) and Paul Scott (Associate Director and Consultant in Public Health)

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Joshua Khan (Public Health Registrar) introduced the report and drew attention to the four priorities:

1.  Prevention and early intervention

2.  Response and support

3.  Community engagement and ongoing assessment of need

4.  Alignment and collaboration within and across organisations

He confirmed that while there had been a national increase in serious violent incidents, these were relatively low in Bath and North East Somerset when compared with other areas, but there was a perception that there was a high level of incidents especially in relation to knife crime and anti-social behaviour.

Board Members raised the following comments:

1.  The community events were welcomed to help address residents’ concerns around serious violence incidents.

2.  As well as the work by B&NES Council, Parish and Town Councils were also picking up work around community safety.

3.  As one of the risk factors for serious violence was exclusion from school, it would be useful to link this work with the Schools Standards Board.

4.  It was noted that there was collaborative work between different local authorities and police authorities in relation to perpetrators coming in to B&NES from outside the area.

The Board RESOLVED to

(1)  Note the key priorities set out in the Plan to Prevent and Reduce Serious Violence in B&NES 2024-2025.

(2)  Note the governance structure of ongoing local serious violence work.

(3)  Support the development of an implementation plan that will set out how to operationalise the determined priorities.

KEY MESSAGES FROM THE MEETING

1.  There was broad support for the Parent Carer Forum EBSA report recommendations and commitment for these to be shared with the CYP team, Community Wellbeing Hub and public health, and health visitors to be taken forward.

2.  All Board members to raise awareness of/influence the EBSA report through existing networks and teams.

3.  The Better Care Fund is on track to deliver its targets this year. Particular progress has been made in B&NES with hospital discharges with far fewer patients being unable to leave our hospital compared with last year. Joint working has achieved a steady position of below 20 in the RUH for B&NES, (a reduction from average of 60 last Winter). The system position remains under pressure across BSW ICB overall.

4.  The Government’s recent announcement about changes to the dentistry regime in the UK is still being worked through, and while some B&NES statistics are better than Swindon and Wiltshire, there are clearly significant problems in B&NES in terms of workforce, capacity, access and residents getting check-ups – we expect to hear more on this later in the year.

5.  The first half-yearly update on the implementation plan was very well received, and consideration will be given on how it can be shared even more widely.

6.  Serious violence and knife crime is lower in B&NES than neighbouring areas, but the perception of violence is relatively high, in turn fuelling violent behaviour; the HWB strategy and implementation plan will address many of the causes of crime. The VRP report will be shared more widely, and an implementation plan developed in partnership with the BCSSP.