Agenda item

To consider a report of the Deputy Chief Executive.

The report provides an update on the key achievements of partnership working across partner organisations against OSSP Themes and Priorities during 2024/25 and to date.

The Scrutiny Committee is recommended to:

(1)   Consider the OSSP 2024/25 Annual Update presentation.

(2)   Note the priorities within each of the three themes in OSSP’s Plan 2025-28.

(3)   Provide any comments or reflections on the issues covered in the presentation.

Officer contact: Karishma Chandaria on karishma.chandaria@stockport.gov.uk

Mark Glynn (Director of Place Management); Chief Superintendent Lewis Hughes (Greater Manchester Police); and Aba Graham (Executive Director of Stockport Race Equality Partnership) attended the meeting and submitted a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (copies of which had been circulated) providing an update on the key achievements of partnership working across partner organisations against OSSP Themes and Priorities during 2024/25 and to date.

The Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture & Sport (Councillor Helen Foster-Grime) attended the meeting to respond to councillors’ questions.

The following comments were made/ issues raised:-

Policing matters – Chief Superintendent Lewis Hughes (Stockport District Commander)

·         In the light of last summer’s riots and events across the world, investment had been made in cohesion, which included the Community Networks Key Members event on 12 November 2024 and the creation of the Stockport Communities Together Forum, the first meeting of which was due to take place in April 2025.

·         A multi-faith Peace Lunch took place on 28 November 2024.

·         The Hate Crime Awareness week event at Stockport County’s ground was well received.

·         Chief Superintendent Hughes was a member of the Greater Manchester Race Equality Panel and the Greater Manchester Ethnic Communities Network; mapping had been carried out over the ten districts in terms of equality and race and Stockport ranked highly in terms of the service provided by its communities.

·         The new District Operating Model was in place with a huge investment in neighbourhood policing.

·         All beats would be staffed with a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) and efforts would be made to recruit the right people to engage and build relationships within the community.

·         Visible policing made a huge difference within local communities both in terms of local people and businesses. Seeing visible leadership and communication from the police and a move towards the neighbourhood policing model was likely to yield greater levels of safety, confidence and trust.

·         Members commented that there was still some way to go to improve communication between the police and community, although it was moving in the right direction.

·         A Neighbourhood Performance Framework would be introduced to look at results, outcomes, arrests and solved crimes.

·         There was a commitment for a neighbourhood policing officer to attend all Area Committees in the coming 12 months.

·         The statistics around confidence and residents feeling safe within the borough reflected the performance of GMP in Stockport. Chief Superintendent Hughes undertook to check the data for information about different genders feeling safe.

·         Members commented on evidence which suggested women and girls, in particular, felt safer in public spaces which were well cared for and stressed the importance of public space design taking account of guidance on making public spaces safe and welcoming.

·         Chief Superintendent Hughes undertook to check the email routes for members of the public to report crimes to the Stockport policing teams.

·         Stockport was meeting national targets for attendance at incidents and emergencies. 92.5 per cent of Grade One emergencies were attended within 15 minutes and 82 per cent of Grade Two emergencies were attended within one hour, with the national target being 65 per cent.

·         Stockport exceeded the targets set locally within GMP.

·         Four years ago GMP was the 43^rd worst force in the country and it now ranked at 14^th.

·         Stockport was the top performing district within Greater Manchester for domestic abuse, child protection, robbery, theft and vehicle crime.

·         Cumulatively Stockport was the top performing district across GMP.

·         The Police had a role in education and had supported schools recently on knife crime.

·         In terms of education within schools on hate and radicalisation, the police had invested in the Listening Alliance and was working to strengthen its relationships with young people, schools and colleges in addition to its current work on prevent and celebrating ethnic diversity. 

·         In terms of working with young people and changing hearts and minds on hate and radicalisation, the police gave a supporting rather than a leading role.

·         The purpose of Operation Avro was to maximise results, ensure the police were seen in local communities, engaging and building public trust and confidence

·         The most recent Operation Avro in Stockport had resulted in 65 arrests, with 15 ‘mopped up’ later. Ten search warrants were executed, two of which related to large drugs factories. 145 vehicles were stopped, of which three were seized. 55 traffic offences reports were made with tickets and summons issued for low traffic offences. 15 stop and searches were carried out. It was deemed the most effective Operation Avro across GMP in the past twelve months and received 145,000 positive interactions on social media.

·         The statistics comparing Stockport’s performance with that of police forces across Greater Manchester were based on averages. Stockport’s performance was on a par with that of Trafford and Stockport was one of the safest, if not the safest, borough in Greater Manchester. This success had led to a longer-term plan to make further performance improvements across the borough.

·         The Victims Charter would be coming into effect later this year and would include statutory obligations to understand the needs of victims and maintain contact, particularly at key junctures during an investigation.

·         In terms of domestic abuse, the focus was on victims to ensure that they were supported on their journey through the criminal justice system, and referrals to partner agencies were streamlined.

·         There was a challenge in Stockport with electric and off-road bikes being stolen and used to commit crimes. It was a complex issue and the police were responding to community intelligence. Further initiatives included ‘We Don’t Buy Crime’, DNA sprays and powers to seize bikes used in criminality. Events had been held with bike-owners about marking their property with smart tags. In the longer term, work was underway on test kits to check modifications on bikes which might lead to additional powers of seizure.

·         There had been a particular spike in bike crime in November 2024 on the A6 which had targeted students and resulted in ten thefts over a two day period. Significant police resources had been mobilised and the perpetrators caught within 48 hours and later charged with ten robberies.

·         A product performance had been commissioned on bikes and more statistics on bikes including the numbers seized and arrests made, would be available at Chief Superintendent Hughes’ next meeting with the Scrutiny Committee.

Community and Race Relations Matters – Aba Graham (Executive Director, Stockport Race Equality Partnership)

·         In relation to events in 2024, it was reported that Stockport Council had been proactive in recognising the contribution of the Race Equality Partnership and that council officers had reached out to the Partnership on a number of occasions.

·         The events, including rioting, had left many people within the community feeling unsafe and hesitant to go out. The support provided by the council had been crucial.

·         There was still a lot of unreported hate crime happening within the community.

·         Strategic events had taken place involving local networks, community groups and the police to discuss the issues which affected the community, the inequalities which create barriers and what could be done to change that.

·         Communication was the key to establishing respect between communities and ensuring communities valued one another’s differences.

·         It was noted that over two thirds of hate crime was race related; it was acknowledged that there was still a long way to go in terms of inequalities.

·         There were many reasons for the under reporting of hate crime. Much of it was due to individuals having bad experiences in reporting crime, and those experiences were shared with the wider community creating a perception about reporting hate crime.

·         The Partnership was working to assure the community about having trust in reporting hate crime.

·         The lack of resources available to the networks was an issue and staff capacity meant that the Partnership was unable to support clients as it would wish so to do.

·         Sector 3 held quarterly meetings bringing all the networks together.

·         Members thanked the Partnership for its legal work supporting immigration matters. The cost implications of that legal work was significant and the Partnership relied on volunteers; it was felt that more value ought to be placed on the contribution made by those volunteers.

·         It was important to recognise that many of the volunteers working for the Partnership has PhDs or had qualifications in engineering or accountancy. Those volunteers had qualified outside of the UK and their skills were under-utilised; they had the potential contribute a lot to Stockport’s economy.

·         More could also be done to harness the skills of the ethnically diverse elderly community; many within that community were willing volunteer but needed encouragement and confidence to join community groups.

·         It was crucial to work with young people and to recognise that within some Stockport schools, pupils from one class might have as many as ten different languages and teachers require support to enable them to nurture all of their students.

·         Members thanked Chief Superintendent Hughes and Aba Graham for their attendance at the meeting and for their contributions to the discussion.

RESOLVED – (1) That the OSSP 2024/25 Annual Update presentation be noted.

(2) That the priorities within each of the three themes in OSSP’s Plan 2025-28 be noted.