Venue: Committee Room 1/2 - Port Talbot Civic Centre. View directions
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To resolve to act as the Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Committee in line with Section 19 of the Police and Justice Act 2006 Minutes: Members resolved to act as
the Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Committee. |
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Minutes: The Committee noted the
Minutes. |
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To receive the Scrutiny Forward Work Programme 2017/18. PDF 127 KB Minutes: Members were
informed of a workshop that had been arranged on the 10th May for the
Committee to discuss items for inclusion on the scrutiny forward work programme
for the civic year 2018/19. Members were
also informed of a training session for the Committee on the 15th May with Ian Botterill. The Committee noted the
Forward Work Programme. |
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Minutes: The Committee noted the Cabinet
Board Forward Work Programme. |
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To scrutinise information and monitoring issues being reported by: |
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To receive a presentation on Substance Misuse Minutes: The Committee received a presentation in relation to Substance Misuse. Officers informed Members that the current
Substance Misuse Strategy was set by the Welsh Government (WG) and covered the
years 2008 to 2018. Officers reported that it was not clear when a new strategy
would be published. Officers explained that the current strategy focused on
four action areas which included preventing harm, support for substance misuse
to improve their health aid and maintain recovery, supporting and protecting
families, and tackling availability and protecting individuals and communities
via enforcement activities. Officers reported that the Community Safety
Partnership had the statutory responsibility for the local substance misuse
strategy, but the Western Bay Area Planning Board (APB) had been created to
fulfil these responsibilities at a regional level. Officers stated that as such
the APB was created in 2010 by the WG, and was responsible for delivering the
“Working Together to Reduce Harm” strategy, and worked at a regional level
across Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea local authority areas. Officers
informed Members that partners of the APB included Abertawe
Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU), the
three local authorities, Public Health Wales, South Wales Police and the
Probation Trust. Officers explained that
the APB did not have any decision making powers and could only make
recommendations. Officers stated that the APB was Local Authority and Health
Board led, and governance arrangements were due to be reviewed. Officers informed Members that the APB
received £3.6 million Substance Misuse Action Funding (SMAF) from WG, and a
£721,000 joint contribution from the three local authorities and ABMU,
resulting in an annual revenue budget of £4.3 million. Officers reported that the SMAF had been
protected but had not been increased. Officers commented on the statistics
surrounding substance misuse, and stated that the age bracket which experienced
the highest number of referrals were those aged between 31 and 50 years old.
Officers explained that further work would be required to attempt to understand
the reason behind the statistics for this age category. Officers reported that the highest referral
source was now self-referrals, and that there had been a large decline in GP
referrals. Officers commented that the majority of service users in the Neath
Port Talbot area were male, but in recent years the number of female service
users had increased. Officers mentioned that alcohol was the primary dependency
in Neath Port Talbot followed by heroin and then cannabis. Officers reported
that there were 296 drug recorded crimes in Neath and
Port Talbot in 2016-17, and 251 in 2017-18. Officers informed Members that work
was currently being undertaken by the Community Safety Team to identify hot
spots for instances of substance misuse in the county borough. Officers informed Members that there were a number of services in Neath Port Talbot that provided support to individuals such as the Welsh Centre for Action on Dependency & Addiction (WGCADA), Community Drug and Alcohol Team in Tonna Hospital, Detox Ward Calon Lan in Neath Port Talbot Hospital, and NPT Forum. Officers ... view the full minutes text for item 5a |
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To scrutinise information and monitoring issues being reported by: |
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Quarter 3 Performance Monitoring (2017/18) PDF 634 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee
received information in relation to the Quarter 3 Performance Monitoring of
2017/18 as contained within the circulated report. Officers reported that
the figure for indicator PPN/008ii (Local) regarding the number of new
businesses requiring a risk assessment or returned a self-assessment
questionnaire was slightly lower than in 2016/17, due to instruction from the
Food Standards Agency requiring the authority to prioritise low risk category businesses.
Officers informed
Members that a systems review was currently taking place in the Environmental
Health and Trading Standards teams and that the findings would be reported back
to the Committee. Officers also stated that a Japanese knotweed treatment
service was being launched for residential properties within the county borough
as part of our income generation aspirations. It would be appreciated if
Members could spread the word within their constituencies about this new
service Officers informed
Members that anti-social behaviour in the borough was generally under reported
and did not match the public’s perception. Officers offered to circulate
monthly statistics to Members regarding anti-social behaviour instances broken
down to ward level. Officers reported that
the Community Safety Team had noticed an increase in the number of referrals to
the Independent Domestic Violence
Advisors (IDVAs) and were now only able to deal with high risk cases due to the
increase in demand. Officers stated that lower risk cases were no referred to
other services. Officer added that case loads for the IDVAs were expected to
reduce as a result and become more manageable in future. Members queried whether the Community Safety Fund was still in existence.
Officers reported that the Community Safety Fund was still available, but
informed Members that securing grant funding each year was becoming more
difficult. Officers explained that the funding was means tested and prioritised
for citizens who were considered vulnerable, and had experienced incidents such
as domestic abuse or burglary. Officers continued by informing Members that the
fund could pay for items such as locks and chains for doors and security
lights. Officers added that the renewal area teams were also offering a similar
service. Following scrutiny, it
was agreed that the report be noted. |
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Any urgent items (whether public or exempt) at the discretion of the Chairman pursuant to Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972 |