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‘Keeping Safe’ delivery Group Minutes

Date : 24th October 2014 - 10:30am—1:00pm

Venue : Maidstone Community Support Centre, Marsham Street, Maidstone, ME14 1HH

Who was there?

Linda Bailey - Tonbridge and Malling District Partnership Group Sue Bates - Kent Valuing People Partnership Mark Cook - Dartford District Partnership Group / MCCH Mick Cronin - Kent Police Joanne Cunningham - KCC, Kent LD Partnership Coordinator Louise Flatman - North Kent Independent Advocacy Scheme Daniel Hewitt - Maidstone District Partnership Group Sam Holman - Joint Chair Sarah Hohler - KCC, Deputy Cabinet Member for Community Services

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Welcome and Apologies Sam and Mick welcomed everyone to the meeting and the apologies were read out.

Who was there? (Continued)

Michelle Hosken - Thanet/Dover/Shepway District Partnership Groups Alex Knight - Thanet District Partnership Group Alan Kerridge - Tunbridge Wells District Partnership Group Shirley Maker - Ashford District Partnership Group Jenny Meehan - Topaz Community Laurence Oliver - Topaz Community Tanya Orchin - North Kent Independent Advocacy Scheme Jim Parris - KCC, Community Safety Unit Nadine Permaul - KCC, Community Safety Unit Tanya Post - Thanet District Partnership Group Jade Ransley - KCC, Community Safety Unit James Spink - Tonbridge and Malling District Partnership Group Charlotte Spirgel-Sinclair - South West Kent District Partnership Group Sue Sullivan - Maidstone Mediation Liz Taylor - KCC, Service Development Librarian Matthew Upton - KCC, Admin Officer Philip Willmott - KCC, Safeguarding Adults Coordinator Ged Woodhams - Maidstone Mediation

Apologies

Lyn Logronio - Mencap, Raising Your Game project Tim Pomfret - Stagecoach South East Alex Scott - Shepway District Partnership Group Claire Wratten - Arriva Plc

The Ground Rules & Housekeeping The group agreed who would be fire warden and first aider.

The fire warden was Joanne The first aider was Mick

Actions from last meeting Southeastern Rail

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The doors should open. We are working with Souteastern rail and so we will check this out.

You can not open the windows on the new trains. How do you get out in an emergency?

Actions from last meeting (continued) Safe Haven Scheme Simon (from Southeastern Rail), Louise and Liz still to meet to talk about linking the rail safe haven scheme with the shop safe scheme. Keeping Safe Book Joanne to send the electronic copy of the Keeping Safe Book to the group Volunteering At the last meeting it was asked if the What I Do Group could put together a storyboard. This is to help people understand why they may need to have fingerprints taken as part of the criminal record check when volunteering. Jenny asked if she could have a copy of this information once it has been done.

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Keeping Safe - Group Achievements Mick explained the purpose of the Keeping Safe Delivery Group which looks at community safety for people with a learning disability. There is also a sub-group which looks at issues around transport. Mick talked about some of the work that this group has done including the transport journey cards. The Keeping Safe Delivery Group brings together many groups including KCC, police, community wardens, transport providers and people with a learning disability. These groups all work together to make sure people have a voice. Also, this group gives access to other organisations to share information.

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Please tell me

when we are at

my stop.

It cost £300. This was for the cost of 500 key fobs, post-ers, window stickers and application forms.

How much did this cost?

Shop Safe Scheme Shop Safe Scheme Sam Holman gave a presentation on the Shop Safe Scheme. Louise showed a DVD showing people who had used the scheme.

Shop Safe Scheme (continued)

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Gravesham Borough Council.

Who paid for this?

You go into a shop that has a ‘Shop Safe’ sticker in the window. You show your key fob, which has an ID number and a tele-phone number. The shop assistant makes the phone call The person on the other end of the phone will use the ID number to look-up any important information, such as if you have dementia, diabetes etc. as well as emergency contact numbers.

What happens when you need help?

What is stopping this scheme being rolled out?

Shop Safe Scheme (continued)

It was suggested that we look at whether KCC could hold this infor-mation at their call centre. Jim Parris to see if this information could be held at KCC. Jim will also speak to the Police and Crime Commissioner for funding for this scheme as well as asking the Community Engagement Officer to request funds from KCC Cabinet Members.

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We don’t know. People love the idea but think it’s more complicated than it is or that it takes time or costs money. A lot of the issue is around who holds the information and peo-ple think this is complicated but it is only a rolodex.

We are putting together a safe haven scheme in Maidstone and have been looking at how to provide safe havens at night. This will be piloted soon.

Thinking about Maidstone and what it is like, what about the evening when people are more vulnerable?

The shops do not want the responsibility.

Couldn’t we just have safe havens?

Shop Safe Scheme (continued) It was said that a safe haven scheme run by KCC would also be helpful to the police, ambulance and hospitals if a person is involved in an accident and so should be a responsibility of KCC.

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Sarah Hohler—Deputy Cabinet Member for Community Services

Sarah Hohler talked about her role as Deputy Cabinet Member for Community Services. Sarah explained that an important part of her job was joining things up and making sure departments talk to each other about what is going on. Sarah is deputy to Mike Hill (Cabinet Member for Community Services). Mike works closely with the Police and Sarah said that she would be sharing the information on the shop safe scheme with him on Monday. Other work that Sarah does includes:

Trustee of Kent Music

Trustee of Turner Contemporary, Margate

Trustee of Kent Community Foundation

Member of Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority

Sarah Hohler—Deputy Cabinet Member for Community Services (continued)

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Mike Hill was very involved. There were a lot of Officers there helping. They were from Highways and Emergency Services. I think that they did a terrific job.

Why didn’t Yalding village get any help from KCC during the floods last Christ-mas?

We do try to help everyone. We need to know all the issues so that we can help in the best way.

If people from Social Services are servants to the people of Kent, should they help anyone, not just poor people that squander money?

We have £206 million of savings to find. We are therefore consulting on ways to save money by cutting the of fice side of Community Wardens and asking them to take on larger areas. There are Police Community Support Officers (PSCOs) in the community as well as Community Wardens.

What about Warden cut backs?

Consultation on Community Wardens Jim told the group about the consultation that is happening on Community Wardens. There is a need to save £2.8 million in this part of KCC and so we need to strip out anything that is not needed. There will be changes and you may not have a warden in your area every day of the week but you will have access to a warden. There is a public consultation happening over 6 weeks. There is also an e-petition and a parish petition. We will also be looking at volunteers to help the Community Warden Services (a bit like how Special Constables help the police). At the moment we have 79 wardens and we are looking to change this to 46 wardens. Jim brought along copies of the easy read consultation for people to take away and fill out if they wanted to.

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There is a freepost address on the back of the form or you could give it to your local warden. The results will be looked at by an in-dependent organisation.

How do we get this form back to you?

Theme for next meeting Mick has invited Ann Barnes (Kent Police and Crime Com-missioner) to the next meeting.

Suggestions for future meetings included: Internet safety Jade told the group about an e-safety school tour that had happened that had good information. Jade to get the information to Joanne. Phone Scams Mick told the group about a scam where someone phones and says that money has gone missing from your account and ask you to call the bank. However, they do not put the phone down at their end and so are still on the line and pretend to be the bank. They then ask you questions to get your banking infor-mation. Nuisance calls Some of the group have had nuisance calls. The group was told that you can block calls and you can report them to the police. Mark said that he had a lot of help from BT who sent Mark a new phone and helped to install it.

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We will check this. (Mick to ask)

Will we be allowed to take photos?

Rumours Jade told the group about an e-mail that is being sent around which says that payment has been taken for your order and details are in the attachment. This is a fake order and once you open the attachment your computer will get a virus. Do remember not to open any e-mail if you do not know where it has come from. Sam saw a scam programme which showed an e-mail that was supposed to be from Amazon that had a virus in the attachment.

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Feedback from the District Partnership Groups (DPGs)

Tonbridge and Malling DPG Linda told the group that she went with some others to the House of Lords. The shared a lift with MP Kennith Clark, went to the democracy conference and went in 10 Downing Street. This was as part of the Getting On Board course.

Any computer can get a virus.

Is it only Microsoft computers that can get a virus? Can Apple computers get them?

Feedback from the District Partnership Groups (DPGs) (continued)

Tunbridge Wells DPG Has held an Access through art event. This was to think about access issues in the local community. Dartford and Gravesham DPG

Has held a health event Looked at ‘Books beyond words’ Sam has given an update on the hospital

passport The JIP group has looked at scams

The next meeting is on the 12th December 2014 at Northfleet Police Station. We will be talking about Keeping Safe. Dover, Shepway and Thanet DPGs Have been looking at:

Health Carers meetings Linking with Community Wardens Scams

Alex told the group that where he lived had a new security camera installed and he now feels much safer.

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Feedback from the District Partnership Groups (DPGs) (continued)

Maidstone DPG Has been looking at Direct Payments and Kent Cards. In January we will be attending the Keeping safe online event. Ashford DPG Has linked with the Ashford Borough Tenants Fo-rum, which is run by Ashford Borough Council. One person with a learning disability now sits on this fo-rum. The speaking up group still meets every 2nd Friday of the month The next DPG meeting will be looking at leisure fa-cilities and out of hours. All information on the District Partnership Groups

can be found on the new website:

www.kentldpb.org.uk

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Any Other Business Trading Standard Alerts The group was told that they could have alerts sent to their email which would let them know of any scams, rogue traders and doorstep sellers known to KCC Trading Standards. Forms were given to those interested so that they could give their email details. Joanne to check that the link is put on the Kent LD Partnership website.

Maidstone Mediation Scheme Sue and Ged from Maidstone Mediation brought information on media-tion for disability hate crime for people to take if they were interested. Sue and Ged asked if they could come to a meeting in the future to talk more about the scheme. Joanne to add this to the list of future agenda items.

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Jade will check with Sandra Cook from Trading Standards.

Can these alerts be sent out by post?

Next Meetings

Friday, 23rd January 2015

St Mary Bredin Church, 59 Nunnery Fields, Old Dover Road, Canterbury, CT1 3JN

11.00 am to 1.30 pm

Any Other Business (continued) Urban Blue Bus in Maidstone The bus is parked in Maidstone town centre on Satur-day nights (and some Fridays) and will help if anyone has any issues in town of an evening. This could be problems with alcohol, drugs, assault or other reasons. Although called the urban blue bus, the new bus is white and can usually be found parked outside Maidstone Town Hall How to spot fake goods Jade brought along some information from KCC Trad-ing Standards on how to spot fake goods when shop-ping.

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