Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed all.

The minutes were approved as an accurate record.

Apologies were received from Jamie Blake, Laura Featley, Matt Leng and Jamie Keddy.

There were none.

·         Barnet Borough Watch 2017/18 update

·         Hate Crime awareness project update

·         Funding bid update

Ms Pal updated the Board on activities undertaken by Barnet’s voluntary and community sector around community safety in Barnet. A written report was received.

Barnet Borough Watch update

·         Barnet Borough Watch had introduced OWL, which had increased the number of neighbourhood watches created across the borough – a total of 2146.

·         28 out of the 32 London Boroughs were now members of London Community Watch, of which Barnet Borough Watch had been one of the founding members.

Barnet Mencap – Hate Crime Awareness Project update

A written report was received. Hate crime reporting figures in relation to disability were particularly low, as well as for the LGBT and Gypsy Roma population.

Barnet Mencap had been commissioned by the SCPB to deliver the ‘Zero Tolerance to Hate Crime’ project funded by MOPAC. The project aimed to increase awareness  of how to report hate crime in Barnet, improve people’s confidence to report hate crime and improve support for victims. Since a Hate Crime Awareness Coordinator post had been set up there had been an increase in hate crime reporting.

Ms Vagarwal noted that the team was working to try to encourage voluntary and community sector engagement to make sure the campaign against hate crime was delivering via the community. The organisations involved were well placed to take the lead via their community centres and it was hoped that this would develop further over the next 12 months. It was a challenging job and a good network was needed to support these organisations. Outcomes would be reported back to the SCPB.

A collaborative bid for Tampon Tax funding had been submitted by CommUNITY Barnet, together with 17 Barnet-based organisations, to enable the VAWG Forum to build on its excellent work and address the gaps in services. The outcome of the bid was awaited.

·         The progress of delivery of the Prevent Action Plan

·         The Prevent Training Delivery and required actions by partners.

Mr Sam Rosengard updated the Board. A written report was received.

The next Barnet Prevent Strategy was available online.

WRAP (Workshop to Raise Awareness of Prevent) training was offered monthly across the Barnet Partnership; so far 358 local authority staff had been trained since 1.11.17. Significant progress had been made in delivering training within Family Services and Adults and Communities; during the next quarter there would be a focus on training other staff who engage with the community.

‘Channel’ was a voluntary programme which had been set up to provide support and early intervention to safeguard children and adults identified as being at risk of being drawn into extremism or terrorism.

All relevant local authority Delivery Units had been asked to provide WRAP training plans by 11^th May 2018. This included: Barnet Homes and other social landlords; Re; Corporate Anti-Fraud Team and the Partnership. Barnet Community Safety team could offer support from their staff who had been trained to deliver WRAP.

Ms Vagarwal noted that the multi-agency group to deliver Prevent needed to be confirmed. Some national Prevent Leads had also been appointed.

Ms Ansdell asked whether links had been established with the National Probation Service (NPS). Mr Rosengard stated that he had been in contact with the Extremism Unit at the NPS; training probation service staff should be a possibility.

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Ms Vagarwal noted that Barnet Homes and multiple housing associations, particularly those with the largest housing stock, would be trained.  Mr Coleman added that Barnet Homes was keen for its neighbourhood/frontline officers to get engaged with Prevent. Some links had already been established.

An action was agreed to update the SCPB in the near future on how Prevent was delivering across the Partnership.

Action: Mr Rosengard

·         Update on delivery and outcomes of the 2017/18 Victim Support ASB project

Ms Karolina Bober, Senior Service Delivery Manager, Victim Support, gave a verbal and written update on the Barnet Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Project.

In Q3 and Q4 the focus had been on building the newly-appointed ASB Caseworker’s network with partners including police, probation services and other teams to develop wrap-around support to service users.

The Project had provided emotional and practical support for 26 service users at Community Safety MARAC.

The level of mediation referrals had been very low with a total of 8 referrals in 2017/18. The expectation was for around 20-30 referrals. Housing teams identifying issues usually allowed good time for mediation – Ms Bober would speak to Barnet Homes.

A high number of referrals in 20-17/18 had been from the Met Police and the Barnet ASB Team. Victim Support hoped to increase the number of self-referrals by increased promotional activities.

Mental health support (NHS) response was good in Barnet. Victim Support was keen to refer more to MARAC and to build partnerships with them.

Data on needs of service users indicated that criminal damage hate crime and harassment were still most prevalent and efforts were being made to set up a Community Safety MARAC. There were a number of repeat, high-risk victims amongst service users.

Mr Rose noted that the domestic abuse MARAC was distinct from the Community Safety one and the full terminology should be used.

Mr Peter Clifton added that feedback showed that the Community Safety MARAC made a difference to the residents of Barnet. The focus should be on raising the profile of mediation so that Community Safety MARAC partners were aware and could make early referrals to it.

Ms McElligot reported that there had been a positive visit from Ofsted recently and a report was due from them, on missing children in the borough, on 21 May.

There was good partnership working around trying to keep children safe – information was available on the Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership website including the re-written Vulnerable Adolescent Strategy.

·         Standing agenda item – Performance Dashboard update on performance and crime trends

Mr Peter Clifton updated the Board:

·         Barnet had moved to the having the lowest rates of violent crime with injury per population over the last 12 months.

·         There had been 47 incidents of knife injury over the past 12 months; a slight decrease from the previous year. There had been one gun discharge incident in that time compared to 9 in the previous year.

·         Domestic violence – the number of incidents had decreased from 32% to 23%. This had been the first reduction in 7 years. There had also been a decrease in repeat victimisation.

Action: Governance Officer to circulate the data.

The Chairman enquired about outcomes in relation to SmartWater. Mr Rose noted that there had been a reduction in crime since its introduction; it had been rolled out across London. A small allocation had been made in the highest risk areas of Barnet along with crime prevention advice; SmartWater also had the effect of altering residents behaviour and increasing awareness. The pattern of burglary was fairly high at present and Barnet was the fourth highest in volume of burglary out of all London Boroughs. There had been a huge increase in the burglary incidents across London over the past year.

In relation to knife crime Barnet was performing significantly better than elsewhere. A plan was in place involving training police officers to use ‘stop and search’ with body-worn video, particularly at high risk times.

Ms Clare Ansdell asked about County Lines and safeguarding concerns in Barnet. Mr Rose noted that Barnet was not as affected as some areas but some incidents were being reported. Ms Ansdell noted that the British Transport Police (BTP) had given a helpful presentation to the NPS which had included details of victims travelling through Barnet to get to other counties. Ms Vagarwal would discuss this outside the meeting with Ms Ansdell.

Action: Ms Vagarwal, Ms Ansdell

·         National Probation Service performance update

·         Progress report on the Partnership response to Anti-Social Behaviour

·         Financial resources updates on the delivery of the Community Safety Strategy (including Prevent, MOPAC and VAWG funding)

·         Partnership update on the delivery of VAWG strategy.

·         Update on the Partnership approach to delivering an evidence base for the Community Safety Strategy

·         Youth Justice Board update

The items were agreed.

Ms Vagarwal would write to MOPAC to ask why there had not been a representative for a few meetings.

Action: Ms Vagarwal

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As the local elections were due in a week’s time the Chairman expressed his thanks to Ms Vagarwal, Mr Clifton and their team and all representatives on the committee, for their hard work over the past four years.

Ms Vagarwal thanked the Chairman who had chaired every meeting and given excellent leadership and direction to the committee for four years.

Meeting closed 11.20.

Friday 27 July, 10:00 hrs.