Bath & North East Somerset Council
DECISION MAKER:	Cllr Vic Pritchard, Executive Member for Housing and Community Safety	PAPER NUMBER	5
DECISION DATE:	On or after 27nd March 2004
TITLE:	Allocation of Community Safety Budget 2004-5	EXECUTIVE FORWARD PLAN REF:	E305
WARD:	All
AN OPEN PUBLIC ITEM
List of attachments to this report: None

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report makes recommendations for the services to be commissioned from the Council's Community Safety Budget for 2004-5 in order to support the implementation of the Community Safety Strategy.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The Executive member is asked to agree to commission the following projects and services:

Victim Support Avonvale £5,584

Arrest Referral £5,150

Community Warden Scheme £152,234

Support Against Racist Incidents £13,390

Bobby Van £8,664

Community Safety Research Officer £22,660

Parenting Project £29,503

Twerton Youth facilities £2,575

Taxi Marshall scheme £11,000

Chew Valley PCSO scheme £7,000

Community Safety staff team and running costs £56,046

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Bath and North East Somerset Council at its meeting on 24^th February 2004 agreed a budget for the Community Safety and Drugs Action Team of £758,057. The proposals made within this report can be contained within this budget.

3.2 The budget includes a contribution to the Drug Action Team pooled budget of £437,658. This formal pooled budget agreement is managed by the Council on behalf of the Drug Action Team and includes contributions from the Primary Care Trust and the National Treatment Agency. It is used to commission drug and alcohol treatment and support services for adults and young people.

3.3 Members also allocated £100,000 for new projects to contribute to reducing fear of crime in line with the Council's Corporate Plan. Proposals for the allocation of this funding will be brought forward early in the new financial year.

4 THE REPORT

4.1 The Council has a duty under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to work in partnership with other agencies to reduce crime and disorder. The Council is a leading member of the Community Safety Partnership, and a partner in delivering the three year Community Safety Strategy 2002-5. As a contribution to this the Council has its own community safety budget which is used to contribute towards the overall strategic objectives.

4.2 In addition to the Council's own budget, the Community Safety Partnership receives an allocation of Home Office funding, which totals £187,337. This fund is managed by the Council on behalf of the partnership. It is being used to support four projects including support for communities to tackle drug related crime, work to tackle anti social behaviour in young people, and support for local community safety action groups. There will also be a small capital budget for crime reduction schemes in local areas.

4.3 The community safety budget is used to commission a range of services from external organisations. The emphasis of many of these projects is to ensure that support is in place for victims of crime. Other schemes focus on preventative work. All the projects commissioned through this budget have agreed targets and produce regular monitoring reports to demonstrate progress in meeting these. It is recommended that all the services currently commissioned from this budget are continued for a further year. In addition it is recommended that the Council makes a contribution to the cost of the Taxi Marshall scheme which has been operating on a pilot basis since June 2003.

4.4 Taxi Marshall scheme. This scheme was developed through the Bath Doorsafe Partnership to address the problem of the high level of violence and nuisance in the city centre at night. Mapping undertaken by the Police indicated that the main hotspot was around Orange Grove and was associated with the taxi rank. Various options were considered and a scheme developed to employ security staff to manage the taxi queue. The scheme has been very successful with taxi drivers, residents and businesses commenting on the lower levels of violence, noise and nuisance. There has also been positive feedback from taxi users. Initially there has been an increase in the recorded incidents of violence but this is because incidents which formerly went unreported are now reported by the security staff.

4.5 Community Warden Service. The Community Warden service was established in Bath City Centre at the beginning of 2003 and in Keynsham Town Centre and surrounding areas in July 2003. Five Wardens are now employed. The wardens liaise closely with the Police and with Police Community Support Officers. A detailed monitoring system is in place which demonstrates that the Wardens are now dealing with around 2000 incidents per month. 96.9% of all customer enquiries / requests for action have been resolved, of these 92% were resolved at first point of contact with the customer, 4.9% were resolved by reference to other Council departments / external agencies and 3.1% remained unresolved at the time of monitoring.

4.6 Victim Support Avonvale (Bath and North East Somerset branches). Victim Support is a national organisation which provides support to victims of crime. Their core funding is from the Home Office. Additional funding from Bath and North East Somerset Council contributes to the running costs of the organisation and training of volunteers on whom their work depends. Victim Support aim to provide support to at least 1000 vulnerable victims each year, using a team of up to 48 volunteers.

4.7 Parent Support Service. This project commenced in the summer of 2002.. It is managed jointly by Barnardos Family Centre in Norton Radstock, and the 117 Project. The aim of the project is to increase the number of support services available to parents whose children may be at risk of involvement in crime and anti social behaviour. The work of the project includes organising short courses in parenting skills, running short programmes of intensive family work, and undertaking home visits to assess needs, provide information and make referrals to support services.

4.8 Support Against Racist Incidents (SARI). This nationally recognised organisation provides a service to all victims of racist incidents, whatever their background. Referrals to SARI are made by the Police, Council and Somer Community Housing Trust as well as self referrals. SARI also run weekly surgeries in Keynsham and Midsomer Norton and undertake outreach work with different sections of the community.

4.9 Bobby Van. This project has been operating since the autumn of 2001. It provides basic home security works and crime prevention advice to vulnerable victims of crime. In the autumn of 2003 the service was expanded to cover Bath and North East Somerset full time. Additional funding comes from the Avon and Somerset Police Community Trust.

4.10 Arrest Referral scheme. This scheme operates at Bath Police Station, and aims to ensure that people whose offending is drug related are referred into drug treatment programmes. Funding from this budget contributes to the cost of providing treatment through the Drug Action Team's pooled budget.

4.11 Community Safety Research Officer. This post provides support to the Community Safety Partnership and its member agencies by gathering and analysing information from a wide range of sources to provide a picture of levels of crime and disorder around the district. The post also evaluates the impact of crime reduction initiatives. During 2004 the Council has a duty to work with its partners to produce an Audit of Crime, Disorder and problems associated with the misuse of drugs. This post will be essential to fulfilling this duty.

4.12 Chew Valley Police Community Support Officers. The Chew Valley Parish Warden scheme was established by Avon and Somerset Constabulary in 2001 with funding from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. Two wardens were employed to cover part of the Chew Valley area. The wardens have been directed by a local steering group comprising representatives of Parish Councils, Police and Bath and North East Somerset Council. Bath and North East Somerset Council agreed a contribution of £7,000 towards the cost of the scheme. National funding comes to an end in March 2004. The Police are proposing to replace the Parish Wardens with a Police Community Support Officer scheme. Unlike the other PCSOs operating in Bath and North East Somerset this scheme would have a dedicated geographical area and there would continue to be involvement from other agencies in directing the priorities and work of the scheme. In addition the Chew Valley will benefit, along with other rural parts of the area from a new Mobile Community Contact Vehicle with an additional two PCSOs to staff it.

5 RATIONALE

5.1 All of the projects recommended to be commissioned from this budget will contribute towards achieving the aims of the current Community Safety Strategy. They are complementary to the projects which have been submitted for Home Office funding.

6 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

6.1 It would be possible to commission other services instead of those listed above. However at present all of the commissioned services are fulfilling their aims and objectives and meeting their targets.

7 CONSULTATION

7.1 The six priorities agreed in the Community Safety Strategy were based on a wide range of consultation including public meetings and research. The commissioning proposals contained in this report have been the subject of consultation with the Community Safety Partnership, and with the statutory Responsible Authorities.

Contact person	Inge Shepherd, Team Manager Community Safety and Drug Action Team. 01225 477415 Inge_Shepherd@ bathnes.gov.uk
Background papers	Community Safety Strategy 2002-5. www.bathnes.gov.uk/communitysafety