More council and police staff are being trained to spot the signs of modern slavery in Dorset.

The Dorset Community Safety Partnership says that 160 officers from across Dorset Council have received training – with two known cases where that knowledge was put to use.

Other action to tackle what are considered priority issues include action on dealing with children not attending school and the police being able to provide mobile phones to the victims of domestic abuse.

A report to Dorset Council’s Place Scrutiny committee this week says that a cross-partnership approach is being taken to address County Lines drug dealing – including using intelligence to map places where there might be increased risk and to identify groups which might be in danger of contact from the dealers.

Other work by the partnership includes creating a common policy to deal with long-running neighbour disputes and better policies to manage people who have alcohol, drug and/or mental health issues.

Councillors will also to be told of work to help tackle rural crime and of a training programme to help identify signs of domestic abuse – including how to respond appropriately. Part of this involves each GP practice having a domestic abuse lead.

Priorities in the plan for 2019-20 are listed as – domestic abuse and sexual violence; serious violence and criminal exploitation; acquisitive crime (burglary, robbery etc) ; public order and anti-social behaviour and non-domestic violence.

The report says that the partners have also agreed to monitor and address hate crime, tackle rural crime, address priority locations including Melcombe Regis in Weymouth and support work to address modern slavery and prevent violent extremism.

Work on a new Community Safety Plan for 2020-23 is about to get underway in the coming weeks.