Agenda and minutes

The Chairman of the Safer Communities Partnership Board, Councillor David Longstaff welcomed all attendees to the meeting.

RESOLVED-That the minutes of the previous meeting help on the 22 July be approved as a correct record.

The first item on the agenda was a presentation from the Police around the Be Safe project.

Wendy Manuel introduced the project and outlines that the Be Safe project is a crime prevention campaign using insight behavioural and data analysis to tap into Londoners’ concerns and help overcome behavioural barriers in order for them to take control of their own and their families’ security.

She outlined there will be a focus on burglary where there is an element of fear. People prefer not to think about the possibility of burglary. There is also an element of helplessness, the fact that people don’t know what to do and choose to do nothing.

The project aims to motivate Londoners to take steps to protect themselves and create a collaborative environment where Londoners see it as their job to protect themselves. The ‘be a hero’ initiative is a fun and simple way to get people into the habit of protecting themselves.

Ms Manuel also outlined the timeline of the communications campaign and the channels through which they are going to target the audience. The aim is to change people’s mindset and the perception of what they can do to protect themselves.

They are also going to work with partners so that partners can disseminate the message to their communities. There will be newsletters, leaflets, physical material and work with partners to identify the best way deliver this message. They will try to make this as easy as possible for partners to participate in this project. 

Councillor Longstaff asked how this project is related to the locks, clocks and lights project. Superintendent Paula Light replied that the locks, clocks and lights project was focused on burglary. Councillor Longstaff mentioned that there needs to be a focus on burglary because this is a major issue in Barnet.

Ms O-Dwyer said that she is happy to liaise with Ms Manuel if there is any work with drug and alcohol with other boroughs.

Councillor Longstaff asked how they will ensure that the message is distributed effectively. Ms Manuel responded that they plan to test, evaluate the message and tailor it to ensure that it’s effective. Ms O-Dwyer asked whether they are liaising with any local housing services and Ms Manuel responded that any information regarding partners would be useful.

Finally, it was agreed that Ms Manuel would attend a future Board meeting to report results on performance.

KiranVagarwal introduced the report which related to the performance management framework.

Ms Vagarwal stated that crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) rates are low in Barnet. The approach is to be victim and community centred and focus on the perception of crime. ASB has remained low and community confidence remains high.

There is a statutory duty to perform the annual strategic crime needs assessment and produce a report on results on what has been achieved during the last 12 months.

Ms Vagarwal outlined that they will put in place delivery groups, multi-agency action plans, ensure that KPIs have been identified and that there is a partnership dashboard for each objective. There will be a dashboard presented for every quarter that will demonstrate how the high level objectives have been achieved. There will be a annual report which will be presented to the Adults and Safeguarding Board, Children and Safeguarding Board, Community Leadership Committee and Health and Well-Being Board.

Ms Vagarwal outlined what is required from the board:

1.    Relevant victim, offender, location service data for every quarter in order to decide which data should be included in the performance dashboard coming to this Board.

2.    Report on relevant future targets to integrate into the strategy but not duplicating work

3.    The community safety team will analyse and produce the performance reports and produce cross partnership data

4.    Provide input and interpretation of data and provide recommended action

5.    Consider deeper cross agency data analysis that can add value to more targeted work

Ms Vagarwal agreed to send the analysis form which outlines what analysis is required and how can community safety support by producing this analysis. (Action)

Mr Douglas Charlton from the Community Rehabilitation Company added that they are developing a new system to gather data that will go live in March and will help with the accuracy of data.

Councillor Longstaff asked what is relevant to Barnet and that the partnership needs to be clear on the direction of travel. Targets are useful but there needs to be clarity on the work that needs to be done.

Ms Vagarwal mentioned that there needs to be more focus on performance, quality and outcomes. The strategy has resulted from local consultations to make sure that they are relevant to Barnet.

Violence against women and young girls is a London wide policy however, the strategy needs to be focused on elements which are relevant to Barnet.

The next steps is for the different delivery groups to be in place and then tasked them to put together a performance dashboard and nominate high level indicators. Updates regarding this will be reported at the next meeting.

Ms Vagarwal reported that there no update regarding MOPAC funding. On the 10^th of November the Heads of Community Safety will meet to look at the police and crime plan before the consultation goes live. Ms Vagarwal outlined the core values and priorities of set out in the proposed policing plan.

Councillor Longstaff asked how the police  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Douglas Charlton from Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) stated that there has been disjointed working between partners because it has been difficult to identify which partners are responsible for each piece of work. Feedback has also been received from Chief Executive meetings and London Councils.

CRC currently work on a cohort model which is being refined. There is a custody cohort which focuses on people in custody and ensures that there are links back to the community. There is also a male and female cohort.

The male custody cohort excludes Integrated Offender Management and there will be separate work taking place that is going to be tailored for each borough.

The operational structure of this model will include managers for Barnet, Brent and other areas and it will be geographically focused. There is currently no update on the strategic structure. Douglas informed the Board that he will be sending out information to keep partners updated. There are currently no updates on the external strategy.

Ms Vagarwal added that one of the priorities is to reduce re-offending and increased the cohort from 70-200, this will reflected in the KPIs for the strategy.

Douglas added that CRC is looking at how IOM can be incorporated in this model.

Finally, he said that there is going to be a pilot that will start in early January and if that proves to be a success and it’s aligned with the Metropolitan Police strategy, then it will be adopted. This pilot will also need to be aligned with priorities from other partners such as the Metropolitan Police and DWP.

Ms Vagarwal said that there is no update from MOPAC. She added that there is going to be a four year funding, they will issue money for two years so that there is a roll over within these two years. There will be no bidding process, they will assess local priorities and decide on funding allocation.

Ms Vagarwal agreed to share with the group any information as soon as it is available (Action)

Duncan Tessier updated the Board on youth matters.

Over the summer there have been a number of incidents including a serious incident. The figures around offending are lower than the London average however, there is a small cohort that is causing problems. There has been an increase in gun discharges.

There are worrying trends around Barnet, the Council has been looking at this and decided to put some additional resource to work with this cohort.

Duncan said he will bring an update in a future meeting when the plans are more concrete to have a further discussion regarding these issues.

Superintendent Paul Light said that the incident in Finchley is going to Crown Court and as a result the gangs unit will work closely with the council.

Ms O-Dwyer said that drug and alcohol plays an important role and they look at children with adult substance misusers and added that partnership work is valuable.

Superintendent Paula Light said that burglary is affecting particular wards.

One of the measures that can assist to prevent burglary is if the look of the property is altered, burglars are likely to go somewhere else. There is also going to be a focus on properties that have already been burgled.

There is a system which captures footprints after a burglary incident and footprints can be compared with other incidents.

Ms Vagarwal said that there has been 33% reduction in the latest report a year ago and a 22% reduction in the last twelve months.

Barnet is the 8^th lowest in comparing with London boroughs and 9^th in comparison with 15 neighbouring boroughs. There is good overall performance however, one incident does affect perception.

There are serious youth violence incidents. Regarding domestic violence there has been a decrease for the first time in the last 12 month period. There has been a 3% reduction.

Superintendent Paul Light said that the community safety unit that deals with domestic assault is back in Barnet.

Ms Vagarwal suggested that the Board could recommend that the next Domestic Violence Board should consider the performance on sanction detection rates and enforcement.  

The Board unanimously AGREED.

Finally, it was also outlined that there has been a downward trend on Anti-Social Behaviour.

Councillor Longstaff added the following items on the forward work programme:

·         Update on Be Safe

·         Update from Duncan on Youth matters

·         Performance dashboard development

·         New Young people substance misuse service

·         CRC update and focus on Barnet priorities

·         MOPAC funding update

The Board unanimously AGREED the above items to be added to the forward work programme.

Ms Vagarwal introduced the report which related to the hate crime reporting. There has been a review around hate crime reporting centres, there has been recruitment of new centres and there is a model that is looking at a variety of different types of hate crime such as disability and racial hate crime.

Ms Vagarwal confirmed that Barnet Community Safety Team had been working closely with Ray Booth, CEO, Barnet Mencap , in improving the reporting centres in Barnet and that she was keen to enable Barnet Mencap to continue to lead on this.  The support included the submission  of a bid to secure funding and recruit a Hate Crime Co-ordinator for Barnet based within Mencap.

The next step is to look on how Safer Neighbourhood teams can be engaged. During the next 12 months there will be an increase in the number of reporting centres and the work around violence against women and girls will be included. 

If Full Council passes the motion around hate crime then this work will be linked to that.

Ms Vagarwal requested an update from Steve Leader around the bid they submitted.

Steve Leader updated the Board and mentioned that were currently finalising the bid about mobile fire suppression systems for bed bound and chair bound people. In the incident of a fire the fire suppression system sprays water over a defined area. The bid is for six mobile fire suppression systems and there is one currently in the borough.

Ms Vagarwal mentioned that there are cases that are referred from Adults and Communities and that they should be in contact with them to see whether there is anyone particularly in need so that this equipment can be allocated.

Mr Leader added that there should be promotion around this equipment; speak to doctors, present to social services, Barnet Homes in order to spread the message as widely as possible. This type of communication would help the fire brigade service to respond immediately when a vulnerable person is identified as having that particular need.