Disability hate crime response

Good Morning,

Your FOI request has now been logged with a member of the Freedom of
Information team. Your query will be responded to within 20 working
days.

Kind regards

Somerset Direct
The Deane House
Belvedere Road
TA1 1HE

Tel: 0845 345 9166
Email: [email address]
SMS Text: 07781 482858
Web: www.somerset.gov.uk

Southwest One - working in partnership with Somerset County Council,
Taunton Deane Borough Council & Avon and Somerset Police.
South West One Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number
6373780 Registered office:PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hants
PO6 3AU

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Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
concerning the Council's response to disability hate crime.

We are currently dealing with your request and will be in touch shortly
concerning disclosure of the information you have requested.

The legislation obliges us to provide you with this information within 20
days, so our response will be sent to you by August 25th 2010.

Thank you

Jon Bazley
Information Governance Team
Information, Research and Customer Planning Group
Resources Directorate
A1E County Hall
Taunton
Somerset
TA1 4DY
Direct dial: 01823 - 357194
No mobile access

Please use Arial size 12 or another similar font for letters and emails -
remove the barriers that disable people. You can change your standard font
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This communication is intended solely for the person (s) or organisation
to whom it is addressed. It may
contain privileged and confidential information and if you are not the
intended recipient (s), you must not
copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. If you have
received this e-mail in error please notify
the sender and copy the message to [email address]

Individuals are advised that by replying to, or sending an e-mail message
to Somerset County Council, you
accept that you have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy.

In line with the Surveillance and Monitoring Policy, any e-mail messages
(and attachments) transmitted over
the Council***s network may be subject to scrutiny.

I am writing about your recent request for information from Somerset
County Council which been has dealt with under the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. I can confirm that the Council holds
some, but not all, of the information which you require.

Firstly, the two documents below show the Council's current Corporate
Equalities plan, and also an update which address your first 2 questions;
these concern the Council's disability equality scheme, and the Council's
plans to 'eliminate harassment against disabled people'.

<<corporate equalities 2008-2011.pdf>> <<Corporate Equalities update
2010.pdf>>
Secondly, I can confirm that the Council does not hold any records of
crimes of hostility against disabled people. However, this information is
available from:

The Head of Corporate Information Management
Avon and Somerset Constabulary HQ
PO Box 37
Valley Road
Portishead
Bristol
BS20 8QJ

I have also been advised by the Police that all details are on the
[1]www.avonandsomerset.police.uk website.

If you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been dealt
with, or the information you have received, you can make a complaint or
ask us to review our decision. Please send your complaint to:

The Corporate Information Management Manager,
County Hall,
Taunton,
TA1 4DY or
email [email address]

Yours sincerely

FOI Officer
Information Governance Team
Information, Research and Customer Planning Group
Resources Directorate
A1E County Hall
Taunton
Somerset
TA1 4DY
Direct dial: 01823 - 357194
No mobile access

Please use Arial size 12 or another similar font for letters and emails -
remove the barriers that disable people. You can change your standard font
by going to the tools menu, then options, mail format and fonts

This communication is intended solely for the person (s) or organisation
to whom it is addressed. It may
contain privileged and confidential information and if you are not the
intended recipient (s), you must not
copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. If you have
received this e-mail in error please notify
the sender and copy the message to [email address]

Individuals are advised that by replying to, or sending an e-mail message
to Somerset County Council, you
accept that you have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy.

In line with the Surveillance and Monitoring Policy, any e-mail messages
(and attachments) transmitted over
the Council***s network may be subject to scrutiny.

References

Visible links
1. file://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk

Dear Mr Novis

Firstly may I apologise if you are not a 'Mr' but as don't have a first
name I don't know if you are male or female.

The link below is to our Avon & Somerset website, Freedom of Information
section. If you click on this link, there is another link to 'make a
request on line'.

[1]http://10.10.1.251/information/foi/how_t...

Avon & Somerset constabulary is divided into various 'Districts'.
Somerset East District for which I am the Diversity Co-ordinator, covers
South Somerset District Council and Mendip District Council areas. One of
my main areas of responsibility is around hate crime. Somerst West
District, whose Hate Crime Officer is PC Jim Hawkesworth, covers Taunton
Deane, West Somerset and Sedgemoor District Council areas.

We both work hard to ensure that disability hate crimes are recognised and
recorded appropriately and that referrals are made to suitable agencies
for support. We hold regular casework review meetings with multi agency
partners including Victim Support and housing associations where we
discuss individual cases providing that the victim has given the
appropriate consent. We do training with newly qualified officers and
others where required.

Here on Somerset East we have a diversity notice board and the current
'theme' is deaf awareness. I have recently arranged for many of our front
line staff to attend an awareness raising session and am currently
negotiating funding to expand this to other staff.

All our members of staff have been issued with a booklet called 'Faces of
Britain - a guide to disability'. If you forward me your address I will
send one in the post for your information.

Both Somerset East and Somerset West have Independent Advisory Groups and
here on Somerset East we have a representative from a disability group who
is a 24/7 wheelchair user. The Hate Crime Officer for Somerset West is
currently on annual leave so I can't find out what representation they
have but I have copied him into this e-mail as I don't know if your
interest is county wide or the area you live. If you would like details
of the IAG representative for disability on Somerset East please let me
know.

There is a hate crime scrutiny panel at Bristol which dip samples hate
crimes which have been through the court process.

We do believe that disability hate crime is underreported and we are
currently looking at ways to improve this through third party reporting
etc.

I hope the above information is useful to you.

Regards
Sandra

Sandra Giddings
Diversity Co-ordinator
Somerset East Police
Tel: 01935 402159 (62159)
Fax: 01935 402182 (62182)
[email address]

References

Visible links
1. http://10.10.1.251/information/foi/how_t...

Further to your follow on questions from July 30th 2010, after the
response from Somerset County Council made on the same date, I am now able
to give you some further information as you requested.

Please see below.

This is in addition to the email you received earlier to day from a
colleague in the Avon and Somerset Police Force, with details about how to
obtain statistics around reports of disability hate crime or abuse of
vulnerable adults.

I hope that this gives you the extra clarification that you required.

Yours sincerely
FOI Officer
Information Governance Team
Somerset County Council

Hate Crime in Somerset

Hate Crime victim service in Somerset - 2010/11
The Hate Crime service for Somerset has recently been strengthened. Until
March 2010, there was a gap around supporting victims of disability hate
crime, especially where the individuals were not known to social care
services, and support services centred mainly on race issues. However, in
April 2010, Somerset went live with the national Victim Support service
for the first time, which supports all victims of hate crime, whether
race, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc. Please see the link
below to the Victim Support website. Victims of hate crime in the county
are now referred to this service. Not only has this strengthened the hate
crime service for Somerset, it has also broadened its scope and includes
prevention as a key element of the new service.

[1]http://www.victimsupport.org.uk/Help%20f...

Strategic Partnership Against Hate Crime (SPAHC)
The SPAHC has representatives in respect of disability.

Public HOPE (Harassment Or Prejudice Event) events were held in 2008 to
identify the needs of victims of HATE crime and to publicise what all the
different agencies' services were in respect of reporting, investigation
and support for HATE crime.

The SPAHC drew up delivery plans to address the issues raised which the
partnership has been implementing since. This Includes third party
reporting; offences against young people; improving data collection on
offences; increasing reporting etc. The SPAHC are currently drawing up
plans for an all encompassing service for the support of all hate crime
victims. It is anticipated that the support for disability hate crime will
improve significantly.

Police hold an independent advisory group with representatives from the
disability network to consult about policies and practices and to assist
in advice regarding the disabled community in respect of investigating
crimes where the victims have any sort of disability.

Somerset Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults policy
This Policy gives a structure to help all agencies to work together well
in partnership with vulnerable adults, their carers and communities to:

* Protect vulnerable adults from being exploited/abused
* Respond sensitively and consistently to reported incidents of self
neglect and abuse
* Make sure that action is taken as quickly as possible
* Put in place plans to protect and assist the vulnerable person in the
best way for them
* Support carers who may themselves be vulnerable
* Make sure regular monitoring is in place when concerns have been
raised

[2]http://www.somerset.gov.uk/irj/public/se...

<<Request information under the FOI Act_1255904.PDF>>
This communication is intended solely for the person (s) or organisation
to whom it is addressed. It may
contain privileged and confidential information and if you are not the
intended recipient (s), you must not
copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. If you have
received this e-mail in error please notify
the sender and copy the message to [email address]

Individuals are advised that by replying to, or sending an e-mail message
to Somerset County Council, you
accept that you have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy.

In line with the Surveillance and Monitoring Policy, any e-mail messages
(and attachments) transmitted over
the Council***s network may be subject to scrutiny.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.victimsupport.org.uk/Help%20f...
2. http://www.somerset.gov.uk/irj/public/se...

Hi Anne
The Disability Equalities scheme and reports etc are readily available
on the Avon & Somerset Website.
The easiest way to find them would be to put 'disability equality
scheme' in the search. This should give you the information you require.
As regards our IAG, the gentlemen referred to with a disability
represents South Somerset Disability Forum, he is also a local
councillor so is well known in the community.

As regards data, this would have to come from our FOI officer with
specific requests ie what period of time, what areas etc.

Regards
Sandra

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Anne
Try the link below, apparently we now have a single equality scheme
which covers disability. This is current March 2010.

http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/inf...
ument4431_199352.pdf

Regards
Sandra

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One more try!

Go to
www.avonandsomerset.police.uk

On left hand side of page click 'Diversity'
Right hand side 'six strands of Diversity' click on 'Disability'

Near the bottom of the page it says 'Disability Equality Scheme'
Click on the link
Document downloads 'Diversity Documents'
You should see a document entitled
'Avon and Somerset Constabulary Equality Scheme March 2010'.

This is it!

Hope you can find it OK.

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