Published: Tuesday, 7th June 2022
Staffordshire’s Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner, Ben Adams, has made his first visit to a Community Safety Hub meeting in the county.
Accompanied by his deputy, Helen Fisher, he was invited to the Civic Centre at Cannock Chase Council to take part in the weekly meeting of the Chase Community Partnership Community Safety Hub. This brings together partner organisations to discuss ongoing community safety issues in the District.
Chaired by Cannock Chase Council, the Community Safety Hub involves representatives from adult social care, children’s services, the Police, housing, environmental health, charities, and housing associations. Together they discuss cases that have been referred for multi-agency action and support, covering a wide range of potential issues including alcohol and drug misuse, anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse, children at risk, vulnerable people and places, modern slavery, and child sexual exploitation, among many.
In view of the sensitive issues, representatives from the various agencies are all signatories to the One Staffordshire Information Sharing Protocol which seeks to protect the sensitive and confidential details they consider.
Hubs are replicated county wide, but this was the first one to be visited by the Commissioner.
During the visit, Ben Adams and Helen Fisher saw the Council’s CCTV centre in operation and met with the Council’s Housing Options service to hear about the work they do to try and avoid rough sleeping on the streets. Working with Lichfield District Council, the rough sleeping initiative is currently identifying properties to house those at risk of rough sleeping in both council areas. Eight properties are expected to be made available in Cannock Chase.
Commenting on the visit, Ben Adams said: “It was good to see the work underway in Cannock Chase District to address local issues – each area has its own community safety priorities, so it’s vital to have local knowledge of not only where the problems are, but also where the solutions are.
“Tackling the issues that matter to local people is a key element in my Police & Crime Plan, but no individual agency can fix community safety on their own – it has to be done in partnership. Community Safety Hubs play an important role in bringing together a wide range of organisations to address local concerns, working together to keep Staffordshire safe.”
Councillor Bryan Jones, Deputy Leader and Community Safety and Partnerships Portfolio Holder at Cannock Chase Council had invited Ben and Helen to the Council. He said: “This was a good opportunity to show what the district council does at a local level to make our communities safe, to discuss the challenges we are facing, and how we try and tackle problems at their source.
“Locally, we have around 70 referrals a quarter covering that wide range of issues. We triage these as they reach us and decide the best course of action for each, with some coming to the Hub for consideration.
"A current challenge we are facing is groups of young people making use of the rail network to visit our town centres and commit anti-social behaviour (ASB). Preventing this happening and giving the offenders positive options to spend their time more constructively is something we actively explore with our partners, the Police and the Commissioner’s Office.”
The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner recently gave £10,000 to the Council for ASB prevention work. Other initiatives and campaigns have received further money. All initiatives are evaluated to determine their success and sometimes their potential to be rolled out county-wide.
Photograph:
Pictured at the Civic Centre in Cannock during the visit are (l to r): Oliver Greatbach, Community Safety and Partnerships Manager at Cannock Chase Council, Councillor Bryan Jones, Ben Adams, Helen Fisher, and Nirmal Samrai, Head of Housing and Partnerships at Cannock Chase Council