Agenda item

Tony Morrissey/Robert Ruston/Superintendent Andrea Barrow

To discuss the report.  

Receive feedback from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and Police on what they are doing to support children in care and care leavers. 

Receive statistics on children looked after and care leavers who are cautioned/end up in the criminal justice system in Lancashire.

Superintendent Andrea Barrow, Lancashire Constabulary and Robert Ruston, Victims Commissioning and Partnerships Manager, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) were welcomed to the meeting.

Robert spoke about the role of the OPCC and explained that they were the body that oversees the Police.  Currently they are focussing on restorative justice and developing it in homes and are very keen to look at and support it in residential units across Lancashire.

Maria Lewis, Youth Offending Team, LCC informed the Board that the YOT Team have restorative justice work planned too, so the team will contact Robert and make the links.

Action:  Maria Lewis to contact Robert Ruston about collaborative work around restorative justice.

Superintendent Andrea Barrow then gave a PowerPoint presentation (as attached) as to what Lancashire Constabulary is doing around Early Action and Public Service Lancashire Development.

Early Action – Prevention is the Forces way of delivering Neighbourhood policing in the future.

Looking at deep problem solving and asking the question WHY-

Why the individual has escalated to crisis?

Why have previous cries for help not lead to a sustainable solution?

Why should we as Police be interested in incidents and problems that are not crime related?

This is why Early Action is so important – 48% classed as Early Action when the problem has reached crisis and the police are called.  Case studies show that many of the incidents could have been prevented with Early Action.  Only 19% of incidents are crime related demand on Police.

Lancashire Police Force are leading the way in working in conjunction with other services and acting as leads for individuals and then working with the family and identifying what help is needed, so the individual and family are not seeing lots of different people over the same issues.

Further funding has been applied for to help put interventions in place.

Police do not complete Common Assessment Frameworks (CAF's) as a matter of course, but they do act as Lead Professionals for hundreds of others.  As part of the Integrated Team in Preston they are looking at Police instigating a CAF, looking at a joint case management system and looking at using Liquid Logic.  A CAF would be built into that and used as an assessment tool.

Superintendent Barrow also informed the Board that they are doing preventative work with other agencies around mental health issues.  The Board agreed that they would like to be a part of this initiative going forward.  Superintendent Barrow welcomed input on identifying vulnerable people on this from CPB and foster carers would also be a good source too.

Action:  The Board were asked to let Sam Gorton know if anybody would like to be involved and that Sam would pass details on to Superintendent Barrow.

It was noted that joined up working from Service 6, LCC would be very useful especially in helping people who have been released from prison.

Action:  Sam to pass contact details of Service 6 toSuperintendent Andrea Barrow.

Robert Ruston then informed the Board that the OPCC are incredibly supportive around early intervention work and this is detailed in Lancashire's Police and Crime Plan Report and that the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) sees early action as a main priority.

In 2013 a Triage Programme was funded by the OPCC which was committed to reducing the number of young people entering into the Criminal Justice System (CJS).

A key piece of work is Positive Together which is community based activities which target the most vulnerable and is set up to prevent young people from entering the CJS.  They work with the Community for six months with a view to them taking it forward after that.

With regards to restorative justice work is being carried out with Schools and the Youth Offending Team to look at developing this further.

The Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Campaign has been funded by the OPCC and is keen to keep this high profile and continue to raise awareness around it.  A conference will be held in CSE week and also another event is planned for parents/carers with children with learning difficulties around grooming.

Another key piece of work is around all support services for victims of crime.  A recent development is that there is now a service specifically for young people and this is called NEST Lancashire and is focusing on CSE and Bullying during the autumn.

The PCC is somebody who is elected by the public and has a key role and sets the budget for the Police from the funding given from Central Government and Council Tax from the County.  The PCC is the only person who can appoint and dismiss the Chief Constable and holds the Police to account after setting out key things for them to do and ensures they are carrying them out.

CC Prynn thanked Superintendent Barrow and Robert Ruston on behalf of the Board for their attendance and informative presentations.