Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report

1. Executive Summary

1.1. The purpose of this report is to inform the approval of allocations from the Community Strategy Budget (Community Safety element) as follows:

· £ 2,000 for the publication and dissemination of a Domestic Abuse Workplace toolkit.

· £10,000 for the Forest Watch Project

2. Contextual information

2.1. For 2009/10, the Executive Member Policy and Resources agreed that £50,000 from the Community Strategy budget be earmarked to create a budget for County Council contributions towards community safety related activity and that this be allocated by the Deputy Leader in his capacity as Chairman of The Hampshire County Strategy Group for Crime and Disorder.

2.2. To date no allocations of funding have been made in respect to the Community Safety element of the Community Strategy Budget. Allocation of this funding would result in £ 38,000 remaining in the Community Safety element of the Community Strategy Budget.

3. Domestic abuse workplace toolkit

This allocation to is to publish and disseminate the domestic abuse workplace toolkit. This has been developed for organisations as a mechanism to help support and keep safe staff experiencing domestic abuse. In turn, it also aims to aid organisations and businesses to address issues of absenteeism, productivity and performance.

Increasing numbers of employers are now recognising that `real life' problems affect job performance, and performance affects productivity. In their own interests, businesses should respond to DA with their staff and by working to reduce the negative effects of DA, a business will create a workplace that is safer and will send a powerful message to staff that responding to DA is not only good for their welfare but is also good for business. Employers have obligations to provide a safe and effective work environment that responds to employees' needs, which will inevitably include DA, and this will in turn reduces risks and maximise benefits for employees and the organisation alike. Domestic Abuse is a key priority in Hampshire's Community Safety Agreement and reflected in the Local Area Agreements (LAA).

The Hampshire Domestic Abuse Forum has developed a toolkit to help organisations and businesses in setting up their policy. The toolkit is called "Domestic Abuse: it is our business" and it provides step by step guidance on how to go about implementing a policy, including, a template, guidelines and resources. There is also training available for relevant staff who will be responsible for responding to staff in line with the policy and support for those responsible for initially implementing the policy. In addition, guidance and a number of resources have been developed for your ongoing response to and delivery of this policy.

The allocation for £2000 will be matched by the Hampshire Police Authority.

4. Forest Watch Project

The project will deliver a multi-agency approach to addressing environmental issues and wildlife crime within the New Forest District. The project will support objectives in the New Forest Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership's statutory strategic assessment. The County Council is a statutory partner in the work of this partnership. It is anticipated that Forest Watch will focus on addressing problems such as:

Fly Tipping

· Anti-social use of vehicles including scrambler motorcycles, quad bikes, 4x4's and cars. They present a danger and an annoyance to other forest users and also cause damage to the protected forest habitat.

· Wildlife Crime including damage to ancient woodland/SSSI, bat persecution due to building developments/planning issues, poaching (involving forearms, running dogs and illegal fishing), damage to crops/fences/gates, and bird of prey persecution.

· Arson: including unauthorised fires which are regularly lit on the Forest causing danger to other forest users and damaging protected habitat.

The project will ensure co-ordinated action by appropriate agencies to deal with such issues swiftly. The implementation of Forest Watch would assist the New Forest National park Authority to lead the project and actively engage with key community safety partners. The work will involve:

1. identifying key partner agencies able to contribute towards the project, either through enforcements or education initiatives.

2. improving the exchange of information between all relevant partner agencies, thus improving the gathering of intelligence allowing for more effective deployment and targeting of available resources.

3. ensuring that all partner agencies meet their statutory obligations and responsibilities under various pieces of legislation.

4. assisting the Environment Agency in driving the Situational Crime Prevention Initiative in fly tipping.

5. improving reporting in wildlife and environmental issues by providing effective channels to do so.

6. providing analytical support through the New Forest Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership Analyst, ensuring all data is captured, mapped and tasked appropriately.

7. formulating a partnership approach aimed at reducing offending in wildlife and environmental crime.

8. reducing the duplication of work by providing clear responsibilities for each organisation.

9. providing leadership, direction and co-ordination within rural areas to allow for the development of effective strategies to deal with rural crime and other rural issues, particularly those of concern to local residents.

10. reducing the fear of crime, improving the quality of rural life and providing reassurance to members of rural communities who often feel isolated and vulnerable.

The project will provide for further co-ordinated activity between Hampshire Constabulary Country Watch, New Forest National Park Authority, Natural England, Environment Agency, Hampshire Fire & Rescue, Local Authorities and Landowning interests including the Forestry Commission.

This is a pilot project for two years which will be delivered through a 2 day per week secondment from Hampshire Constabulary. The cost will be £40,000 over two years of which it is proposed that a contribution of £10,000 be made from the Community Strategy Budget (Community Safety element) for 2009/10. This may be repeated in 2010/11 subject tor review and budget confirmation.

Many schemes of a similar nature in other Force areas have shown that, following the implementation of such a scheme, incident reporting increases significantly initially as people are more willing to report incidents through the channels provided. Experience has also shown that it takes between twelve and eighteen months before any benefits are observed. The two year time scale will provide for this.

Similar schemes (Operation Moorwatch) were launched in the National Parks in North Yorkshire and the Peak District at Easter 2009. Whilst the logistics of these schemes will differ considerably from Forest Watch, there may be an opportunity to compare the schemes in terms of overall achievement.

5. Recommendation(s)

5.1. To approve the allocation from the Community Strategy Budget (community safety element) in respect of

· £ 2,000 to the Hampshire Domestic Abuse forum for the Domestic Abuse Workplace toolkit.

· £10,000 for the Forest Watch project

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

Links to the Corporate Strategy

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS:

1. Equalities Impact Assessment:

1.1. There are significant impacts for different communities and groups of domestic abuse policy and programmes and a full impact assessment on this area of work will be undertaken.

2. Impact on Crime and Disorder:

2.1. Domestic Abuse is a key priority in the Hampshire Community Safety Agreement and the Local Area Agreement (LAA).

3. Climate Change:

a) How does what is being proposed impact on our carbon footprint / energy consumption? N/A

b) How does what is being proposed consider the need to adapt to climate change, and be resilient to its longer term impacts? N/A