Agenda and minutes

Venue: Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BQ. View directions

Contact: Andrew Charlwood, 020 8359 2014 Email: andrew.charlwood@barnet.gov.uk 

Note: The deadline for requesting to make a public comment or submit questions for this meeting is 10am on Tuesday 24 January 

Items
No. Item

1.

Introductions, Apologies for Absence Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 85 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 28 October 2016 be approved as a correct record.

 

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

 

Apologies for absence had been received from:

 

·           Jon Dickinson, LB Barnet

·           Steve Leader, London Fire Brigade

·           Jamie Keddy, National Probation Service (who was substituted for by David Williams)

·           Roger Kemp, Barnet Safer Neighbourhood Board

·           Dr Simon Harding, Middlesex University

·           Caroline Birkett, Victim Support (who was substituted for by Kenny Tang)

 

The Board noted that Douglas Charlton from the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) no longer worked for CRC.  A replacement CRC representative on the Board would be confirmed as soon as possible.

 

2.

Domestic Violence and Abuse and Violence Against Women and Girls pdf icon PDF 169 KB

1.    Update from the DVA VAWG Sub Group

2.    Update on the development of the new DVA and VAWG Strategy

3.    Strategic Direction

Minutes:

Kiran Vagarwal, the Safer Communities Strategic Lead, LB Barnet, presented a report which set out the timetable for updating the Preventing and Responding to Violence against Women and Girls & Domestic Violence (VAWG & DVA) Strategy 2017 – 2020. 

 

Ms Vagarwal reported consultation with statutory partners, voluntary community organisations, victims, survivors and perpetrators would take place during February and March.  A final draft Strategy would be considered by the Community Leadership Committee in March with the final Strategy being presented to the Board at the next meeting on 28 April 2017.

 

Julie Pal requested that the Community Safety Team circulate consultation dates via CommUNITY Barnet newsletters to encourage participation of the voluntary sector.  

 

Councillor Longstaff asked when the Board would be able to see the data which would underpin various aspects of the Strategy.  Ms Vagarwal reported that MOPAC had been asked to provide local data and that this would be included in the final Strategy when it was considered by the Board.

 

Responding to a question, Ms Vagarwal reported that there were 25 domestic violence refuge bed spaces in Barnet: 18 were provided by the local authority; 6 were provided by Barnet Homes; and the remainder provided by charities.  It was reported that a bid had been submitted to the Department for Communities and Local Government for additional bed spaces.  The outcome of the bid would be reported to the Board in due course.

 

3.

Update from the Community Rehabilitation Company

Progress update on the CRC’s organisational restructure

 

Minutes:

Perter Clifton, Community Safety Manager, LB Barnet, provided an update on the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) in the absence of a CRC representative.  He reported that the CRC had reviewed their Pan-London cohort model and identified difficulties with it including it not being conducive to joined up local partnership working.   From January 2017 the London CRC had switched to operating a Borough based model. 

 

It was noted that in Barnet this meant that one Senior Probation Officer (SPO) would be responsible for the operational functions of the Barnet Probation Office and the Offender Manager grade staff based there.  There were currently 12 Probation Officers (POs) and Probation Service Officers (PSOs) in the CRC team at Barnet, with one PO and two PSOs managing the IOM (Integrated Offender Management) Service Users.

 

The restructure to the Borough based model meant that the SPO for Barnet now had greater flexibility and control over how the Barnet based Offender Management and Probation staff managed their case loads which comprised of Barnet based offenders.  The new model would seek to retain some elements specific and expert provision to remain for female Service Users.  In addition, specialisms were also encouraged with young male (group offending).  IOM cases would also be allocated to a small number of specific officers in order to allow focus and use the specific skills and knowledge often required for working with these groups.

 

It was also noted that alongside the shift to the geographical based structure, the London CRC as a whole were running a national recruitment campaign for permanent staff as well as offering permanent contracts to suitable temporary employees.  The purpose of this exercise was to help stabilise offender management and achieve the aim of reducing caseloads.

 

In relation to the IOM model it was reported that 98 offenders were being managed jointly between the Police, Probation, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Barnet Homes and re-offending rates were being monitored. 

 

The Board requested that a written update on the final CRC structure be circulated to the Board for information.

 

4.

2017/18 MOPAC funding

1.    Update on the post March 2017 MOPAC London Crime Prevention Fund

2.    Priority areas for funding

3.    Timeline for delivery

Minutes:

Kiran Vagarwal, Safer Communities Strategic Lead, LB Barnet provided an update on 2017/18 MOPAC funding including the Local Crime Prevention Fund, priority areas for funding and the timeline for delivery. 

 

The Board were informed that the MOPAC funding for Year 1 (2017/18) was £457,406 and for Year 2 (2018/19) was £327,237.  The funding regime had changed and was no longer project based.  Local authorities were required to submit details of how the funding would be used to deliver five local outcomes.  For Barnet the priorities were proposed to be:

 

1.     Reporting centres for victims of hate crime, anti-social behaviour, domestic violence, violence against women and girls to enable access to justice, support and advice;

2.     Enhanced support for repeat and vulnerable victims of anti-social behaviour;

3.     Reducing reoffending through integrated working across the partnership and clear referral pathways;

4.     Respond to the needs to victims, offenders and their families most affected by crime and anti-social behaviour; and

5.     Preventing young people at risk of being involved in gangs through the delivery of resilience based activities within the family, school and community settings.

 

These were linked to the local Community Safety Strategy and Policing Plan.

 

Ms Vagarwal advised the Board that these priorities would assist in delivering the MOPAC priorities of:

 

·           Hate crime and extremism

·           Wider criminal justice system

·           Neighbourhood policing

·           Children and young people

·           Substance misuse young people

·           Substance misuse adults

 

The Board were advised that the detailed MOPAC bid would circulated to partners outside of the meeting.

 

5.

Public Health Substance Misuse pdf icon PDF 66 KB

1.    Substance misuse interventions update

2.    Public Health insight and analysis – overview of trends and patterns

Minutes:

Bridget O’Dwyer, Public Health Commissioner for Substance Misuse Services for Barnet & Harrow Public Health Service, updated the Board on substance misuse interventions and provided an oversight of public health insight and analysis of local trends and patterns. 

 

Ms O’Dwyer reported that there were 1,069 adults and 52 young people in treatment in Barnet.  The Board were advised that a recent Public Health England evidence review had shown that nationally 10 million people were drinking at a risky level which equated to approximately 70,000 people in Barnet.  It was reported that the Identification and Brief Advice (IBA) alcohol service was being expanded across Barnet, particularly in criminal justice and health care settings and training was being provided to frontline staff. 

 

The Board reviewed ‘Heat Maps’ which detailed the prevalence of substance misuse in different postcode areas of the borough. 

 

In relation to the increased prevalence of ‘legal highs’, Ms O’Dwyer advised the Board that New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) were causing issues for clinicians as the substance abuser often didn’t know what they had taken making treatment problematic.  It was noted that there had recently been an increase in drug related deaths (an increase to 13).

 

Simon Rose highlighted that steroid abusers tended to be perpetrators of domestic abuse and/or offenders in the night-time economy and questioned what the public health approach was to this category.  Ms O’Dwyer reported that there was a needle exchange programme in place where some steroid abusers presented.

 

David Williams questioned whether there had been a year-on-year decrease in heroin abuse.  Ms O’Dwyer reported that there had been, but there had been an increase in heroin related deaths which could be attributable to either contamination or increased purity. 

 

Responding to a question about whether there could be a gap in demand vs. referrals, Ms O’Dwyer advised the Board that the new Community Safety Hub had been important in meeting demand, adding that outreach work was also being undertaken. 

 

Laura Featley highlighted that Department for Work and Pensions staff had received alcohol abuse training. 

 

The Board highlighted the important of ensuring that partners worked closely with the Community Rehabilitation Company in relation to the monitoring of newly released prisoners to ensure that they didn’t regress into a cycle of substance misuse. 

 

The Board noted the update on substance misuse.

 

6.

Update from Youth Matters

Minutes:

Tina McElligott, Assistant Director of Family Services, LB Barnet, provided an update on Youth Matters.  Ms McElligott reported that there has been an increase in youth violence and the severity of crime, adding that the Youth Offending Team cohort was now smaller but more complex.  Recently there had been an increase in young offenders in the 13-14 year old age category. 

 

The Board were advised that there a new Reach Team had been created which would go live on 1 February 2017.  The team would be social work led and would focus on working with 45 young people who were high risk, high vulnerability, or at risk of child sexual exploitation.  It was reported that the voluntary sector had submitted a bid to Heath Education England for a co-worker to work with the Reach Team.  Ms McElligott advised that part of the Reach Team’s work would be community outreach.  In addition, there would be links to the Duty and Assessment Team.

 

Matt Leng questioned how this approach linked to the Troubled Families programme.  Ms McElligott reported that there were close links to the programme and there was a matrix approach to identifying high demand young people and providing wraparound support through a whole systems approach. 

 

7.

Performance Dashboard

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Peter Clifton, Community Safety Manager, LB Barnet, provided an update on the Performance Dashboard.  He reported that there had been a reduction in residential and non-residential burglary and that there had been sustained reductions in robbery over the last 4-5 years.  Violent crime reporting was levelling off and Barnet had the 3rd lowest rate.  There was a mixed picture in relation to youth violence – there had been sustained reductions over recent years, but there had been a 1% increase in the last year. 

 

Julie Pal questioned why domestic violence had reduced and queried whether this was due to underreporting.  Kiran Vargwarl reported that recently there had been an increase in reporting following awareness raising and increasing the confidence of victims to report.  It was requested that the domestic violence ‘offer’ be articulated on the council’s website.

 

Jamie Blake questioned why burglary rates in North London were higher than the rest of London and queried whether this could be linked to re-offenders and substance misuse.  Simon Rose advised the Board that the North London rate was only slightly higher than London.  Peter Clifton added that outer London tended to have higher burglary rates, but undertook to look into the factors and reasons behind this.

 

8.

Future Work Programme

Proposed items for next SCPB on 28 April 2017:

 

1.    Understanding and Responding to the Trends and Performance of Community Confidence

2.    Community Safety Alternative Delivery Model

3.    Communication Strategy Update

4.    CCTV and ANPR Update

5.    Anti-Social Behaviour Enforcement Strategies

 

Minutes:

The Chairman added the following items to the work programme for the 28 April 2017 meeting:

 

1.     Preventing and Responding to Violence against Women and Girls & Domestic Violence and Abuse in Barnet Strategy 2017–2020 – approval of final Strategy including funding, services, past performance and success measures

2.     Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) London Crime Prevention Fund 2017/18 and 2018/19 Allocations – details of projects and proposed outcomes

3.     Policing Plan and Community Safety Strategy – including performance management framework, targets

4.     Understanding and Responding to the Trends and Performance of Community Confidence

5.     Community Safety Alternative Delivery Model

6.     CCTV and ANPR Update

7.     Anti-Social Behaviour Enforcement Strategies

 

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