Agenda and minutes

            The Chair announced that Peter Astley has been appointed as the new Chief of Staff for the Office of the Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner.

            The Minutes of the meeting held on 13^th June 2017, were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

            Arising from the minutes it was noted that following the recent incident at Grenfell in London, Cheshire Fire and Rescue had met with various agencies to discuss high rise buildings across Cheshire. It was requested that the Decks buildings in Runcorn should be included in any future discussions that take place.  

            It was reported that no public questions had been received.

            The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director Enterprise, Community and Resources, which provided an update on the activities being supported across the borough in response to domestic abuse and sexual violence. The report detailed the number of domestic incidents across Cheshire from Sept 2015 to February 2017 and the number of domestic violence prevention orders during January to February 2017.

            Members noted a summary of the key achievements across Cheshire during the last quarter which included information on:

·         Operation Enhance

·         Domestic Abuse Matters – First Responder (Cheshire Police Officer) training,

·         a successful Domestic Abuse Funding Bid to DCLG,

·         development of a Pan-Cheshire Communication Strategy; and

·         the publication of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (Cheshire and Merseyside) RASASC Annual Report.

The Board enquired about the following:

·         could a referral form be made available for Councillors to complete to refer members of the public onto domestic violence support;

·         raising awareness of support services for victims of domestic violence over the Christmas period; and

·         clarification on the statistics provided on page 16 of the agenda with regard to Improved Health and Wellbeing.

RESOLVED: The report be noted.

            The Board received an update report and a presentation on the work carried out across the partnership in the Borough to tackle alcohol and substance misuse. The report included information on the:

·         Trading Standards North West Young Persons’ Alcohol Survey which was carried out every two years and had taken place in January to April 2017;

·         Action plan developed to address Halton’s opiate successful completion rate, which was performing below the Change Grow Live (CGL) (Drug and alcohol service) and Public Health England national averages;

·         The number of those clients who had received the flu vaccination;

·         Mental Health: Following publication in November 2016 of Nice Guidance ‘Coexisting severe mental illness and substance misuse: community health and social care services’, there had been an agreement to increase interagency work between mental health and substance misuse services in Halton with an emphasis being placed on all teams being flexible and problem solving together;

·         The success of The Work Company: During this year the Work Company had supported 73 individuals affected by substance misuse to address their education, training and employment needs. Since April 2016, The Work Company had supported individuals in gaining 114 qualifications. During the same period, 3 individuals commence voluntary work, with 29 individuals gaining employment within various sectors;

·         Progress against related targets to reduce the harm from alcohol and substance misuse; and

·         School and college based alcohol education programmes.

            In addition, the Board noted work involving the establishment of the Cheshire and Merseyside Five Year Forward View Alcohol Board and the Drink Less Enjoy More Campaign across Cheshire and Merseyside.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

            This item was deferred.

            The Board received a report which provided information on the work of the Trading Standard’s consumer advice service, explained how it works with the national Citizen’s Advice Consumer Helpline and outlined case studies from the last financial year.

            The report also provided details on the performance of Halton Trading Standards Consumer Advice service which had been assessed by issuing a satisfaction survey of service users. It showed that 98% of users were either very satisfied or satisfied with the service they had received. In addition, it was noted that in the last financial year the consumer advice service obtained at least £39,476 redress for Halton consumers. Only a relatively small percentage of consumers let us know the outcome of their complaint, so it was expected that the figure was likely to be higher.

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.