The Leicestershire and Rutland Safer Communities Strategy Board met to discuss updates from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the HMIP Inspection of Probation Services, Community Safety Partnership Domestic Homicide Review contributions, and Safer Communities performance. The board was also scheduled to receive a verbal update on the new anti-social behaviour recording system, ECINS¹.

Community Safety Partnership Domestic Homicide Review Contributions

Gurjit Samra-Rai, Strategic Lead – Safer Communities, Leicestershire County Council, was scheduled to present a report regarding an increase in contributions to the Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) management process provided by the Leicestershire County Council Safeguarding Partnership Board Office (SPBO).

DHRs were established under Section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004². The report stated that the number and complexity of DHRs is increasing, and that even before a decision is made that a case meets the threshold for a DHR, much work is undertaken by the SPBO.

Recommendations and actions require implementation, monitoring and sign-off and in some cases suitable remedial action and support to ensure completion. Given the purpose of a DHR, it is crucial that the post DHR process is both timely and robust; this is not currently the case.

The report noted that the Home Office had challenged a Leicestershire CSP through a judicial review, and that the pooled partnership DHR funding was used to support the borough in defending themselves.

The report proposed that each District partner and Rutland should be invoiced £5,000 to cover the costs of DHRs going forward.

Attached to the report was Appendix A, Leicestershire & Rutland Domestic Homicide Reviews: Local Procedures, which outlines the procedures to be followed when considering and carrying out Domestic Homicide Reviews.

Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner Update

Sajan Devshi, Partnerships and Commissioning Officer, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, was scheduled to present an update on the work of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).

The update included:

• The Out of Court Resolutions (OOCR) commissioning tender which went live on 20 October 2025. The new combined contract will go live on 1 April 2026, with total funding of £199,000 per annum for three years.
• Preparatory work for 2026/27 commissioning, which will focus on supporting victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
• That FreeVa³, the current commissioned domestic abuse delivery provider, received 2,144 referrals in Q2, with the majority of victims being female and from the White community.

The report also included a summary of projects being funded for 2025/26, including:

• NTE St John Ambulance, providing medical nighttime economy first aid provision in Leicester City.
• Replacing CCTV Camera 269 in Leicester City with digital technology.
• Early Intervention Team, delivering targeted workshops in Leicester City secondary schools.
• Premier League Kicks Roadshow LCITC, using ball courts and city centre spaces in Leicester City to engage young people through free football and sports sessions.
• AAA foundation Netherhall Afterschool Club, providing activities in Netherhall, Leicester City.
• Netherhall Fun Day Support Funds, to support engagement with young people and reduction in ASB and youth related crime in Netherhall, Leicester City.
• Netherhall Detached Youth Work, delivering detached youth work in the Netherhall Neighbourhood, Leicester City.
• RAP Youth JAG Leicester, expanding the reach and impact of the Youth Joint Action Groups (YJAGs) through community-based Pop-Up engagement sessions in Leicester City.
• TV Engagement Events, providing key priority messages at engagement events in Leicester City.
• HUQ Footfall System, providing valuable support to the night time economy multi agencies in Leicester City.
• Community Support Officer – Falcon Support Services, working with those identified as having a substance misuse issue and/or offending in Charnwood.
• Town Centre Detached and Multisports – GoGetta, delivering a weekly detached youth work and Multisports session for young people in Loughborough, targeting young people causing ASB within the Town Centre.
• Warwick Way Detached – GoGetta, delivering detached youth work on the Warwick Way estate, Loughborough.
• Charnwood KICKS LCITC, continuing the delivery of the Leicester City in the Community project.
• Domestic Abuse Outreach Worker – Living Without Abuse, providing extra Community-based adult services for male and female adult survivors of domestic abuse in Charnwood.
• Subsidised Meals Community Drop-in – Falcon Support Services, delivering healthy nutritious meals at a £1 a meal for those who are homeless in Charnwood.
• NWL Amber Project, delivering sexual violence recovery work and education in North West Leicestershire.
• Celebrate Safely Christmas Priority 1, to reduce violent crime and disorder relating to the festive period and night time economy in Coalville and Ashby de la Zouch.
• Personal safety for Thringstone and Whitwick - Priority 1, providing Personal Attack Alarms with torch for the community of Thringstone and Whitwick.
• PSPO Castle Donington - Priority 3 Road Safety, improved signage to raise awareness of the PSPO⁴ in place for the whole of Castle Donington.
• Hi Visibility Packs - Priority 3, for use at engagement events.
• Albert Village Competition - Priority 3, a competition at Albert Village school regarding HGV's and speeding vehicles through Albert Village.
• Rural Crime Priority Fund, including Air Tags for farm machinery tracking.
• KiSP Project, delivering outreach work in North West Leicestershire to offer support and material to young people and discuss sexual health, anti-spiking, healthy relationships/Peer Pressure, sexting, and avenues of support.
• Young People Diversionary Activities – Young Leicestershire, a weekly street outreach session in Blaby District targeted at ASB hotspot areas.
• Police Crime Reduction Stock, purchase of crime reduction and road safety items to be distributed among the community in Blaby.
• Hate Has No Home Here, a programme of work in primary and secondary schools across Blaby District on anti-discrimination.
• Campaigns and Projects, delivery of various projects and campaigns in Blaby, for example White Ribbon Accreditation for BDC⁵.
• NTE Marshalls, marshalls in the NTE⁶ for Blaby Town Centre.
• Publicity Campaigns and Resources for Community Events in Blaby.
• Video Doorbells, Target Hardening, providing video doorbells for high risk ASB cases or victims of domestic abuse in Blaby.
• Knife Crime Theatre Production, Solomon Theatre Group will deliver their knife crime awareness production - Skin deep across the 3 colleges in Blaby district.
• Response Fund, a responsive pot so that the CSP can respond to emerging threats in Hinckley and Bosworth.
• DISC Retail Business Crime, continued support for the DISC and retail radio scheme in Hinckley and Bosworth.
• Bike Register, The police will be supporting Hinckley BID with a security bike event which will involve offering bike security and tagging.
• Thermal Imaging Camera, to be used in evidence gathering to support the request for warrants to be issued in the pursuit of cannabis factories in Hinckley and Bosworth.
• Premier League KICKS LCITC, sessions will take place on Monday evenings at Green Towers Youth Club in Hinckley.
• Geofencing Campaigning supporting Safer Summers, Three Geofence campaigns targeted at Hinckley Town Centre.
• X2 Electric Bikes For Police Patrols, for use by neighbourhood policing officers in Hinckley and the surrounding areas.
• Young Peoples Diversionary Activities – Young Leicestershire, Youth outreach via Young Leicestershire in Hinckley and Bosworth.
• Christmas Campaign Initiatives 2025-26 Hinckley and Bosworth Council, Night-time economy marshals on key nights.
• The Warning Zone Roadcrew, Specialist E-safety presentation team called Roadcrew who go out into Secondary, Independent and SEN schools in the Harborough district.
• Safer Communities Partnership Officer, helped to improve delivery of the CSP objectives in Melton Mowbray.
• Response Fund x 3, to help tackle and address arising issues, fund projects, events/items for the partnership in Melton Mowbray.
• Retail DISC App, A data compliant app to help facilitate the Secure Melton Against Retail Theft (SMART) scheme.
• Mobile ANPR Camera, to allow the Police greater operational freedom to utilise this asset to target OCG's and county lines within the borough of Melton Mowbray.
• Weekly Targeted Support Group for Young Girls, who have various unmet needs and require concentrated inputs that are bespoke to them in Rutland.
• Response Fund, a much-needed support and response funding budget in Rutland.

The report also noted that grants of up to £10,000 would be available through themed funding rounds that run throughout the year as part of the Commissioners Action Fund ('CAF'). The six priority areas are: Rural Crime, Road Safety, Violence and Vulnerability, Business Crime, Neighbourhood Crime, and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).

HMIP Inspection of Probation Service

Kaye Knowles, Interim Head of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Probation Delivery Unit, was scheduled to present an update on the His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) inspection and subsequent action plan for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) Probation Delivery Unit (PDU).

HMIP visited in March 2025 and examined 71 cases. The report noted that while the overall outcome for LLR was Inadequate, this was a similar picture in many other PDUs across the country.

Areas for improvement included levels of experience, Senior Probation Officer capacity and impact upon quality of oversight, practitioner confidence in delivery of interventions and information from key safeguarding partners not always gathered as required and delivery of sentences.

There were six overall recommendations made:

• Improve the quality of the work to assess and review risk of harm ensuring all available information is accessed and utilised.
• Conduct a learning analysis to understand the skills and knowledge of the practitioner group and implement a system to ensure gaps in learning are met.
• Develop practitioners' confidence and skills in the use of professional curiosity and challenging conversations to identify, analyse, assess, plan and respond to indicators of risk effectively.
• Devise and implement a strategy for returning to a sustainable level of service in which Senior Probation Officers are focussed on leading their teams and monitoring the quality of work produced by practitioners.
• Ensure effective management oversight is provided to enhance and sustain the quality of the work with people on probation and keeping people safe.
• Reinforce, publicise the process for the gathering of social care and Police information via the in-house safeguarding hub and ensure that all staff are aware of the process and rationale for utilising this resource.

The report stated that there is a regional approach to some of the above recommendations given other PDUs in the East Midlands had similar themes to address, and that there is currently a safeguarding audit planned for September in LLR to specifically focus on the information linked to child safeguarding and domestic abuse information.

Safer Communities Performance 2025-26 Quarter 2

Anita Chavda, Projects and Planning Officer, Community Safety Team, Leicestershire County Council, was scheduled to present an update regarding Safer Communities performance for 2025/26 Quarter 2.

The Safer Communities Performance 2025-26 Q2 Report included a dashboard which has been updated and simplified by the Business Intelligence Team. The dashboard includes a rolling 12-month trajectory for each indicator, and a district breakdown where available.

Key points of the dashboard included:

• Ongoing reductions in crime, with total crime and violence with injury having improved over the last two years.
• Burglary Residential, Burglary Business & Community, vehicle offences have stabilised over the last year.
• The Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) repeat referral rate is 32.8%, which is lower than the previous year and within the Safe Lives recommended range.
• Domestic crimes and incidents have remained stable.
• The rate of domestic violence with injury is lower than the previous year.
• The rate of sexual offences has remained stable.
• The rate of ASB Nuisance is stable, while ASB Environmental is deteriorating.
• The number of hate crimes reported to the police remains very low.
• 89.09% of respondents to the Leicestershire Insight Survey agreed that people from different backgrounds get on well together, which is slightly lower than the previous year.