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My name is Craig Riddell, and I took up the Detective Superintendent post covering both Ayrshire and Dumfries in January 2025. I have been a Police officer for 21 years, covering both local and national roles such as murder investigation, organised crime, counter-terrorism, and professional standards in Policing. I have worked across most Policing divisions in West Central Scotland, serving local communities when dealing with serious crime and sexual offences.
What I do...
I’m the operational lead for all serious sexual offences and significant violence across the Southwest of Scotland. My teams will investigate the most serious and complex criminal investigations. I am the Police lead for adult and child protection matters and enjoy working with local colleagues and partners to help keep people safe within our communities.
What I like best about my job...
I enjoy working with colleagues and the public to impact and overcome local issues and problems. Policing can provide a diverse range of opportunities and investigations which are challenging and test your ability. I particularly enjoy working with partners to understand different challenges and perspectives within our communities.
When I'm not working...
I enjoy general fitness, running, and playing football. Although my usefulness on a pitch may be coming to an end, I also coach my daughter's football team and generally enjoy being outdoors.
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Adult Protection Practice Group
The Adult Protection Practice Group, which had an initial meeting in December 2024, was re-constituted. This is a partnership-wide group whose remit is to review practice, develop a consistent and high standard of response to Adult Protection referrals, maintain an overview of any Learning Review Improvement Plans and report back to the East Ayrshire Adult Protection Improvement Subgroup of the progress.
The group will maintain an overview of key performance indicators (KPIs). It will work towards improving KPIs, reporting the progress to the East Ayrshire Adult Protection Improvement Subgroup. The group will consider national best practices to inform this work.
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Home Fire Safety Visit Partner Referral Portal
Committee were apprised of the progress in respect of the Home Fire Safety Visit (HFSV) Partner Referral Portal.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Services (SFRS) noted that they had been experiencing temporary staffing challenges locally which translated into limited availability to manage the volume of calls being received from partners on the 0800 referral number and website submissions.
SFRS recognise good relationships are being built between practitioners and community safety advocates in SFRS. Unless the request is urgent, SFRS request partners make referrals for HFSVs via the secure inbox: w.ensa.communityactionteam@firescotland.gov.uk
SFRS work hard locally to mitigate the challenges being faced by delays in the Partner Portal going 'live' and will continue to provide updates as and when they receive them.
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East Ayrshire Rapid Access to Drug and Alcohol Recovery Service
The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) are sending reporting in relation to non-fatal overdoses to each locality NHS Drug and Alcohol Service in Ayrshire. A pathway has since been agreed and implemented between the Community Drug & Alcohol Services and the Mental Health Alcohol and Drug Liaison Team within the acute hospital settings (Ayr and Crosshouse) for individuals who have experienced a non-fatal overdose and have been admitted to hospital.
This allows the individuals in hospital to receive harm reduction interventions, including safe talk, naloxone, blood-borne virus advice, and referral to a Community Health Addiction Nurse if required.
In addition, a Mental Health and drug and/or alcohol assessment can be undertaken as part of the Ayrshire Risk Assessment Framework. A referral will also be made to East Ayrshire RADAR, who will review and appoint as per agreed local processes, or if they are already known to East Ayrshire RADAR, then consideration will be given to any changes to dispensing arrangements and the overall care plan.
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New Adult Support and Protection Co-ordinator
Following the retirement of their long-serving colleague Lesley Callaghan, Police Scotland is pleased to announce the arrival of Katie Smith as their new Adult Support and Protection Co-ordinator.
Katie comes to Police Scotland from Ayrshire and Arran NHS with a strong background in children's and adult support. Police Scotland is delighted to add her knowledge and experience to the Public Protection Unit.
Emily and Trena will support Katie as the Public Protection Unit focuses on ensuring a collaborative and inclusive working relationship with partners, ensuring the best possible outcomes for adults needing support in East Ayrshire.
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Demand for East Ayrshire Advocacy is a challenge; referrals are categorised daily.
The Service receives a high volume of inappropriate referrals, affecting its capacity to promptly provide independent advocacy support to those who most need it in our community. Recent examples of inappropriate referrals include:
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- The referrer does not know who else to refer to
- A service is too busy to deal with the issue themselves
- 'just in case' someone required support in the future
- So a service user could be closed by the referring service (including referrals to multiple services so they could be closed)
- To 'check in' on someone weekly so the referring service could withdraw support.
The Service Criteria for accessing East Ayrshire Advocacy is as follows:
- Adult: aged 16 - 65 with a learning disability, mental health issue or acquired brain injury
- Older people aged 65+
- Mental Health Act: Age 14+ and subject to the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
- Addictions: Adults with drug and/or alcohol addiction/recovery
- HMP Kilmarnock: Mental Health issue
- Parents: learning disability, mental health issue, acquired brain injury or addiction & child/children subject to Child Protection proceedings
- Children's Hearing: aged 5 - 18 & involved in Children's Hearing System.
East Ayrshire Advocacy would welcome the opportunity to attend any team meetings, development sessions, etc., to discuss referral pathways, advocacy services and anything else advocacy-related. Please contact: neill@eaas.org.uk
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National Public Protection Leadership Group
This newly formed national group has held six meetings to date. The group's purpose is to provide national multi-agency leadership of public protection across Scotland.
The multi-agency forum drives continuous improvement of public protection arrangements across Scotland by creating a supportive environment for sharing best practices and developing national initiatives with due regard to capacity, providing a space for local and national public protection leaders to help bring more coherence and simplification to public protection policy and ensure its interconnectivity with related activity on prevention and early intervention as part of Scotland's whole systems approach to improving outcomes. Development relies on public protection leaders in Scotland who are all committed to securing improvements across Scotland.
The group has produced three newsletters to date - available below:
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