Agenda item

8.1

The Committee received a presentation which gave an annual update on the work of the Sheffield Safer and Sustainable Communities Partnership. The presentation described the priorities and key issues which had been faced by the Partnership over the last year and looked ahead to 2017/18.  Copies of the presentation had been circulated prior to the meeting, together with the Safer and Sustainable Communities Partnership Plan 2014-17.

8.2

In attendance for this item was Maxine Stavrianakos (Head of Neighbourhood Intervention and Tenant Support).

8.3

In giving the presentation, Maxine Stavrianakos stated that there was a statutory requirement to have a local strategy tackling community safety issues and that members of the Partnership were from South Yorkshire Police, the Local Authority, the Fire and Rescue Service, the Probation Service, the Health Commissioning Group and the Voluntary Sector.  She outlined the priorities and key issues which had been faced by the Partnership during the past 12 months and looked ahead to 2017/18.  She went on to refer to the current budget and decreasing budget for 2017/18 and the need for effective partnership working to tackle issues with little or no additional resource.  Reference was also made to performance, the changing performance landscape, the new multi-agency team, communities and restorative justice.

8.4

Members made various comments and asked a number of questions, to which responses were provided as follows:-

·                     Improvements within communities could be seen in the Abbeydale Road area following incidents of anti-social behaviour on 5^th November, 2015, and this was an excellent example of how local communities, working with the Police and other agencies, had achieved this.  Community engagement and community cohesion was also seen to be working in other areas such as Exeter Drive.

·                     Recent news reports had shown that Sheffield was still the safest large city in the country.

·                     With regard to the Prevent Strategy, the City received a total of £150,000 funding from the Home Office.  Part of this funding was to be used in the recruitment of a Prevent Co-ordinator.

·                     A Working Group, looking at ways to deliver the Prevent Strategy in Sheffield had been set up.

·                     Portfolios across the Council were working together, along with South Yorkshire Trading Standards and the Licensing Service, to tackle safeguarding issues.  Work and training was also being undertaken with local groups to come up with innovative ways of working.

8.5

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       thanks Maxine Stavrianakos for her contribution to the meeting;

(b)       notes the contents of the presentation and the responses provided; and

(c)        requests that an information session be arranged, to which all Councillors were to be invited, to provide an update on the operation and work of the Sheffield Safer and Sustainable Communities Partnership.