The Leicestershire and Rutland Safer Communities Strategy Board met on Thursday 25 June 2026 to discuss a range of topics aimed at improving community safety across the region. Key areas scheduled for discussion included updates on the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner's activities, the Probation and Independent Sentencing Review, and the development and implementation of the Anti-social Behaviour (ASB) Action Plan. The board also reviewed the Youth Justice Service's annual update, considered issues surrounding gambling-related harms, and examined the ongoing implementation of the ECINS ASB case management system.

Terms of Reference Review

Euan Walters, Senior Democratic Services Officer for Leicestershire County Council, was scheduled to present a report on the review of the Board's Terms of Reference. This review was prompted by a departmental restructure within Leicestershire County Council, which saw Community Safety move to the Department of Public Health, Communities, Law and Governance. Changes to Cabinet portfolios also meant that Communities, including Safer Communities, became a separate portfolio, distinct from Domestic Abuse. Proposed amendments included aligning the Chair of the Board with the Leicestershire County Council Cabinet Lead Member for Communities including Safer Communities. Additionally, the report suggested removing the Assistant Director - Education and Early Help from the membership list and replacing them with the Assistant Chief Executive - Public Health, Law and Governance. Amendments to reflect the National Probation Service's name change to The Probation Service were also proposed.

Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner Update

Sajan Devshi, Performance and Assurance Officer for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC), was scheduled to provide an update. The report detailed the OPCC's allocations and expenditure for Community Safety Partnership (CSP) areas for 2025-26. It also highlighted the Commissioner's commitment to public engagement, with a breakdown of Community Day and other engagements undertaken between January and March 2026, and cumulatively since May 2024. The report also outlined the Community Action Fund, designed to support community and constituted groups through themed grant rounds focusing on prevention initiatives, with details on past and upcoming rounds, including one for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). Further developments included investment in projects to prevent and protect residents against burglary and the planned introduction of a Street Warden scheme.

Probation and Independent Sentencing Review Update

Bob Bearne, LLR Probation Delivery Unit Head, was expected to give a verbal update on the Probation and Independent Sentencing Review. The review's recommendations have been incorporated into new legislation, The Sentencing Act 2026, which came into effect on 22 January 2026. This Act will lead to changes in how the Probation Service operates. The report outlined a roadmap of changes from February to May 2026, including the rollout of Justice Transcribe, decommissioning of PSR Gatekeeping, and changes to Unpaid Work requirements. Further significant changes were scheduled from September 2026, including a Progression Model for Standard Determinate Sentences, new Probation Requirements and Restrictive Measures, and sentence packages based on a new 7-tier model. The report emphasised that these changes aim to rebalance workload to focus more resources on higher-risk offenders, thereby improving public protection and reoffending rates, while maintaining professional judgement and safeguards for vulnerable cases.

ASB Action Plan

Gurjit Samra-Rai, Strategic Lead – Safer Communities at Leicestershire County Council, was scheduled to present an update on the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) ASB Action Plan. The plan, developed collaboratively with multiple agencies, was formally published on 1 April 2026. The report detailed the plan's implementation phase, highlighting ongoing partnership delivery through established groups. Key considerations for the coming year included ensuring consistent promotion and communication of the plan, maintaining momentum, and embedding it within existing organisational structures. The report also provided an analysis of ASB data, including incident types, temporal patterns, and victim and perpetrator profiles, alongside community insights gathered through surveys and engagement activities. The plan's five objectives focus on strengthening evidence-based approaches, ensuring staff knowledge and skills, prioritising victims and communities, maintaining robust partnership procedures, and improving data quality and performance monitoring.

Youth Justice Service Annual Update

Carl Turner, Youth and Justice Service Manager, was scheduled to provide an annual update on Youth Justice matters. The report highlighted strong performance in Leicestershire, with low rates of First Time Entrants (FTEs) into the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and low use of custody for children, performing better than regional and national averages. Violence against the person remained the most common offence type, with the peak age of involvement shifting to 16-17. The report detailed the Youth Justice Plan 2026-2027, focusing on preventing children from entering the CJS and improving outcomes for those already involved. Key areas of focus for the coming year included improving education, training, and employment outcomes, strengthening health and wellbeing support, enhancing victim support services, developing out-of-court diversion processes, and ensuring a coordinated response to children at high risk of harm and exploitation. The report also noted that 49% of children on the Youth Justice caseload had been assessed as having a neurodevelopmental need.

Gambling Related Harms

Jo Hewitt, Strategic Lead for Public Health, was scheduled to present an overview of Gambling Related Harms, the Gambling Levy, and local efforts to address these issues. The report explained the harms associated with gambling, defining it as a public health concern with significant impacts on individuals, families, and communities. The Gambling Act 2005 was discussed, alongside ongoing government reviews and the introduction of a statutory levy on the gambling industry to fund prevention, research, and treatment. For 2026/2027, Leicestershire County Council was set to receive £121,110 and Rutland County Council £6,157 from the levy. The report detailed the Leicestershire Harmful Gambling Health Needs Assessment (HNA), highlighting at-risk populations and the wide-ranging impact of gambling harms. Recommendations for the Board included noting the report, supporting participation in training delivered by Chapter One, and implementing screening for gambling harms in line with NICE guidance.

Anti-social Behaviour System - ECINS

Gurjit Samra-Rai was also scheduled to present an update on the implementation of ECINS, the new partnership ASB case management system. The report detailed the challenges and progress made over the past year since the system went live. Despite initial issues with data migration and system glitches, the partnership had maintained a strong relationship with the system providers. Improvements had been made to the system, including custom developments for address search filters and enhanced user training. The report noted the departure of the ECINS Co-ordinator in March 2026 and the recruitment of a new officer. Developmental work was underway on system improvements, including a custom data-export specification and a Power BI dashboard for data visualisation and hotspot mapping. The Information Sharing Agreement (ISA) was also under review.

Offender to Recovery

David Walker, Strategic Lead Safer Communities at Melton Borough Council, was scheduled to give a verbal update on the Offender to Recovery initiative. The report indicated a focus on persistent ASB and problem-solving initiatives within Melton town centre, with a dedicated officer working to address these issues. It highlighted that a core group of individuals were responsible for a significant number of offences and ASB incidents, often linked to substance misuse. The initiative aims to pursue a more health-care-based approach rather than continuously enforcing on the same recurrent problems. The report noted that the Offender to Recovery scheme, which has been running in the West Midlands, has been researched thoroughly, and while existing support in the Borough was identified, a gap in persistent engagement was noted as crucial for this demographic to support their recovery.

Prevent Benchmarking Update

Anita Chavda, Community Safety Team, Leicestershire County Council, was scheduled to present an update on the Prevent Benchmarking for 2025/26. The report outlined the Counter Terrorism & Security Act 2015 and the Prevent Duty, which requires specified authorities to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. The government's Counter Terrorism (CT) Strategy and Prevent Duty were refreshed on 31 December 2023. The report summarised key strengths identified in Prevent delivery for the financial year 2025/26, including a strong multi-agency partnership and dynamic risk assessment processes. Key actions and recommendations for improving Prevent delivery included ensuring district and borough partners keep their quarterly risk logs up to date and adopting a dip-sampling exercise of the referral process as regular practice. The report also highlighted the effectiveness of the Venue Hire Policy, while noting the need for corporate resources to work with Community Safety to safeguard properties from radicalising influences. An assessment against eight local authority benchmarks showed that most areas were Exceeded or Met .

Safer Communities Performance - Quarter 4

Anita Chavda was also scheduled to present the Safer Communities Performance report for Quarter 4 of 2025/26. The report provided an update on key performance indicators across the region. For the Protect and support the most vulnerable in communities outcome, the MARAC repeat referral rate had decreased to 30.4%, which is within the recommended range. Domestic crime and incidents, and sexual offences, showed a slight increase compared to the previous year. Under the Continue to reduce Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) outcome, total ASB figures had increased, with a rise in 'personal' ASB. The Ongoing Reductions in crime outcome indicated improvements in total crime, violence with injury, residential burglary, and vehicle offences. Under Preventing Terrorism and Radicalisation, the number of hate crimes reported remained low, with a slight increase, and racially or religiously aggravated crime had also risen. The report recommended that the Board note the 2025/26 Quarter 4 performance dashboard.