Meeting documents

To be provided with a presentation from the Police and Crime Commissioner on the Victims First Scheme.

Shona Morrison, Head of Policy and Commissioning at the Office of the Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner attended the meeting to provide a presentation on the first year of operation of the Victims First Scheme.

The Panel was informed that Victims First was the overarching brand name for all of the PCC’s activity aimed at improving the post-offence experience of victims of crime. The 4 main strands of activity were:-

·       Support: Ensuring appropriate services for victims exist across the policing area;

·       Accessibility: Raising public awareness of services and improving ease of access;

·       Awareness: Campaigns to improve knowledge about specific types of victimisation and encourage people who need support to seek it;

·       Rights: Improving the overall standard of services for victims across the Criminal Justice System and beyond.

Support

Victims Needs Assessments have been carried out in 2014 and in 2017. Specialist reviews also have mapped services or identified needs in relation to Domestic Violence (2015 and 2016), Counselling Support (2016 and 2017), Young Victims (2015 and 2017) and Rape Support (2019). 

Since 2015, the Thames Valley OPCC has delivered around 22 market engagement events involving around 250 providers; 3 bid writing workshops;  6 ‘developing consortia’ workshops and made consultants available to emerging consortia/agencies to support them to ‘think outside the box’.

Some of the standout statistics around support were:-

·       Around 20% of victims want support (Crime Survey England and Wales, Apr 2019);

·       Around 60% of those who want support require a short-term, supportive intervention which can be provided by many non-specialists;

·       Around 40% (or 8% of all those needing support) access ‘specialist support’ (i.e. services involving highly skilled and experienced staff).

Around 60% of those needing ‘specialist support’ have their needs reasonably well met (mainly by Domestic and Sexual Violence Services). Many victims have crime types or complex/multiple needs which do not fit the present arrangements and are not being well met. These include stalking/harassment, cybercrime (e.g. sextortion, fraud), ASB, Exploitation/Modern Slavery, DV/SA victims who do not fit ‘traditional services’ (e.g. inter-familial, male victims, historical, medium risk victims, LGBT+), Hate Crime victims, very young victims, witnesses (e.g. murder victims), family members (e.g. parents of victims of sexual abuse/CSE), traumatised couples or families.

Reference was made to sometimes the issues being compounded by mental health problems or other vulnerabilities.

Since 2016, the OPCC has implemented a Victims Service’s Re-design Project:-

·       To bring to an end several existing contracts and posts.

·       To commission a multi-disciplinary Victims First ‘Adult Specialist Service’ to provide ‘specialist support’ to all who need it regardless of crime type by 1st April 2020.

In Thames Valley in 2015, PCC funding for ‘specialist’ support versus ‘non-specialist’ support was around 50:50. From April 2020, funding from the OPCC for ‘specialist’ support compared to ‘non-specialist’ will be approximately 80:20.

Accessibility

The Panel was informed that sometimes it was difficult to make contact with victims. There had been the creation of an internet-based victim’s portal www.victim-first.org.uk. There was an on-line Referral Form for public and professionals.

The Victims First Hub was established in March 2018, with Freephone number 0300 1234 148. A new referral mechanism had been established for TVP officers and staff directly from the police CMS.

In 2018-19, Victims First Hub received around 22,000 referrals and details of these were reported.

Members were informed that around 4 in 10 victims cannot be contacted or no longer want support. Support Services funded by the PCC received around 8,000 ‘valid’ referrals (where contact has been made and support still required). The majority referred from the Victims First Hub are to the Victims First Emotional Support Service (low level support), followed by the Sexual Violence Service, followed by the Young Victims Service.

Reference was made to the use of social media to increase awareness https://www.facebook.com/victimsfirstTV and campaigns such as ‘Lets Hate Hate’, #KnowThisIsntLove (coercive control)

Members were provided with details of Victims First Connect which will consist of localised, community based Victims First information points. This would allow support to be accessed at a community level which will make it easier for those who have not reported the crime to the police. Victim First Connect points will provide:

·       Information on Victims First and what services are available;

·       Provide crime prevention/ safety advice

·       Information on hate crime

·       The ability to make a third party report of hate crime

·       Someone to make a referral to Victims First on the victim’s behalf

Rights

Infographics to explain the Victims Code of Practice, the Criminal Justice process and Restorative Justice. Use of social media, a Victims Information Pack has been produced which would be used by TVP.

A recent development would be the PCC holding to account other agencies via Local Criminal Justice Board and other forums. This was to ensure that victims were receiving rights in accordance with the Victim’s code of practice. This would happen through the chairmanship of the Deputy PCC who was Chairman of the Local Criminal Justice Board.

In response to a question relating to monitoring the analytics (number of "hits", the time spent on items) of the Victims First website, the Panel was informed that the Communications Team of the PCC monitored this. However, the time users "hovered" on items on the website, would be looked at to see if any changes or amendments needed to be made.

A Member asked a question relating to restorative justice and how successful would this be. Members were informed that it was recognised that it was a difficult offer to fulfil; some victims and offenders did want to take part in the scheme. Under the new scheme this would be promoted.               

RESOLVED – That the Head of Policy and Commissioning be thanked for the presentation and Members of the Panel were asked to forward the Victims First Scheme information onto their constituent authorities.