Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Walker and Yates and Co-optee Member, Jackie Rawstron.

Councillor Addison acted as substitute representative for Councillor Walker.

There were no interests or dispensations declared at the meeting.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 3^rd December, 2024 were submitted for approval as a correct record.

Resolved                               -   That the Minutes be received and approved as a correct record.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Communities and Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 3^rd December 2024, were submitted for approval as a correct record.

Resolved                               -   That the Minutes be received and approved as a correct record.

Report as attached.

Councillor Kimberley Whitehead, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Culture, Heritage and Arts submitted a report to the Communities and Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee to inform them of the work on the Community Safety Partnership in the borough.  The report included appendices as follows:

Appendix 1 – CSP Structures

Appendix 2 – Hyndburn District Needs Assessment

Appendix 3 – Serious Violence Profile – Hyndburn

The Committee was requested to review the work of the Community Safety Partnership and to suggest areas of improvement.

Councillor Whitehead reported that the Community Safety Partnership was an important feature of the network of partnerships that helped to tackle crime and reduce reoffending and had been set up under Sections 5-7 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.  This had placed a statutory duty on a number of responsible authorities to work in partnership to reduce crime and disorder and these included:

-        Lancashire Police

-        Hyndburn Borough Council

-        Lancashire County Council

-        Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service

-        Clinical Commissioning Group

-        National Probation Service

She also informed the meeting of the structure of the Partnership including a Lancashire Community Safety Partnership, a Pennine Lancashire Community Safety Partnership and Hyndburn’s Community Safety Partnership.  She briefly set out the structure for each partnership and informed the Committee that the Hyndburn CSP was chaired by the Council’s Head of Policy and Organisational Development and that much of the work was co-ordinated by the Community Safety Manager. 

Councillor Whitehead informed the Committee that the Hyndburn CSP priorities were:

Environmental Crime

Violent Crime

Acquisitive Crime

Youth Related Crime

Organised Crime

Information was provided on how each priority was tackled, the multi-agency operations that Hyndburn had benefited from, serious violence duty, domestic homicide reviews, community cohesion and resilience, crime and disorder, road safety and Lancashire Talking.  The Committee was also referred to the information appended to the report for further details on the district needs assessment and the serious violence profile of Hyndburn.

The Committee submitted a number of questions in advance of the meeting.  These were responded to by the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Resources, the Community Safety Manager and the Head of Policy and Organisational Development, as follows:

1.     With reference to 3.10 of the report and Hyndburn’s local CSP priorities, Members had requested an explanation regarding the priority categories and why youth related crime was a separate category.

Response – youth related crime had its own category due to the Serious Violence duty to tackle youth related violence.  The Committee was informed that crime involving young people varied, as well as most victims of serious crime, also being young people.  Action was taken to prevent this and the escalation of crime.  Anti-social behaviour traversed across all priorities and varied in type.  It was, therefore, captured in all CSP priorities.

2.     Was there any formal tally of estimated unreported crimes?

Response - the CSP gauged the levels of unreported crime and incidents through member contribution and through ‘Lancashire Talking’ surveys of residents and from this information they created  ...  view the full minutes text for item 371.

Presentation given by Sharon Hendrie, Chief Officer, YNOT Aspire.

Sharon Hendrie, Chief Officer of YNOT Aspire, gave a presentation to inform the Community and Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee of the work that YNOT Aspire do.  She outlined what the organisation did, their plans for the future and what they had achieved including:

-        The organisation was a grassroots charity operating in Hyndburn for over 14 years focusing on prevention and early intervention.

-        Had reached over 6500 young people in that time.

-        Had independent evaluation reports estimating a social return on investment in excess of £10 million.

-        Wellbeing Panel worked with local PCN’s and partners to triage referrals and ensure that young people got the right intervention at the earliest possible opportunity.

-        One-to-one mentoring for young people with low level mental health issues.

-        Mental health ambassadors in schools.

-        Volunteer training programme.

She reported that they had helped to reduce anti-social behaviour and youth related crime and gave details of how they had been funded for projects through Lottery Funding.  She explained that their work centred around prevention and intervention and worked to reach as many young people as they could.  They received referrals from parents, schools and GPs and offered a range of services to support young people.  She explained that the waiting list for their services was increasing and reference was made to the role of social media on the mental health of young people.

The Committee thanked the Chief Officer of YNOT Aspire for the work they had been doing, their plans for the future and the impact they had on the community.

Resolved        -           That the report be noted.