Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed all to the meeting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 22 July 2022 be agreed as a correct record.

Apologies were received from Alice Bird, MOPAC Policy Officer and Tamara Djuretic, Director of Public Health

There were none.

Maggie Higton Brown, Head of Community Safety, elaborated on the report. It was noted that the Community Safety Strategy 2022 – 2027 was agreed at Safer Communities Partnership Board in July 2022 and had since then, been subject to formal design and rebranding.

The Chair, on behalf of the administration, thanked officers for their work and contributions on the Community Safety Strategy Update and Action Plan.

The Safer Communities Partnership Board noted the re-branding and design of the Community Safety Strategy 2022 – 2027.

The Safer Communities Partnership Board agreed the Action Plan 2022 – 2023 and noted progress being made against the five priorities set out in the Community Safety Strategy 2022 – 2027.

The Safer Communities Partnership Board noted and commented on the 2021 – 2022 annual Strategic Crime Needs Assessment (SCNA).

Matt Leng, Community Safety Manager presented the performance dashboard and took the Board through the performance data covering the period of May 2022 up to and including August 2022.

Burglaries remained a big concern across the whole borough and with the appointment of the new Commissioner new initiatives about how to approach burglaries and how they are investigated have been introduced. One of the new innovative techniques is the targeting of repeat victims in certain wards across the brough as part of Operation Goldsmith.

It is anticipated that the pilot scheme will produce good results and an update will be provided at the next meeting with any indicative results from this. It was agreed that CI Lynch would seek to collate information on the demographics of repeat victims and pass to the Adult Safeguarding Team to identify whether there were any vulnerable adults being repeatedly targeted.

The following information was noted:

·         There had been an increase in the number of robberies of personal property and it was anticipated that there would be a further spike, report at the next meeting, due to the upcoming release of a high value phone.

·         There had been 82 knife crimes in the last 12 months up to august 2022; a decrease of 3.5% when compared to the previous 12-month data and similarly, there had been an overall decrease in Domestic abuse reported in the past 3 months. Compared to the data of the previous 12 months, there had been a decrease of 14.8%.

·         Between June and August 2022 there had been 2,591 calls regarding anti-social behaviour in Barnet, with 9,54 calls in the last 12 months. With Barnet currently tracking the median line. A deeper dive into the repeat callers would be carried out to gather additional data so that we information can be gathered and to identify any trends against specific groups. 

·         Gun Crime- there was1 case of Gun crime lethal barrelled discharged in Barnet in the past 12 months, with none reported between June and August 2022.

·         The public perception of knife crime and other violent crimes has not diminished. There have been a number of additional patrols which are targeting specific hotspots in the borough and it was expected that the additional resource for that that would be in place up until Christmas 2022 as violence with injury runs parallel to robbery which may increase in the weeks leading up to the festive period. 

The Chair reported that requests had been made for more police following the ward boundary changes, which created new wards.

The Police confirmed that date of the Knife Crime Awareness week, which would run from the 14^th November 2022.

The Board noted the Performance Dashboard up to and including August 2022 as set out in the report.

Inspector Zitver gave a verbal update and the board noted that there was continued work in tackling robberies and there had been an increase in the number of neighbourhood patrols carried out.

The Board were notified that the ‘School Teams’ would be visiting various schools in the area to offer assurance and education. With increased late-night shopping, it is anticipated that there may be increases in robberies as suspects look for opportunities. Knife- crime prevention remained a priority with potential test purchases be undertaken in locations across the borough.

Seasonal changes may also impact on future crime data with the festive period, various faith-based events, bonfire night, the World Cup (which may increase Anti- Social Behaviour) leading to increased number of officers patrolling on the street.

Chief Inspection Lynch updated the Board and noted the Offensive Weapon and Homicide Review work that is currently underway as well as the Combatting Drugs Partnership.

Tina McElligott, Director Early Help & Children’s Social Care elaborated on her report and explained to the Board that the report provided an overview to the Safer Communities Partnership Board on key areas of Family Services delivery that cross-over into the Community Safety Strategy.

The following information was noted:

Barnet’s Domestic Abuse (DA) and Violence Against Women & Girls (VAWG) Strategy 2022-25 sets out how the Barnet Safer Communities Partnership (BSCP) works to prevent and tackle all forms of violence against women and girls.

Barnet’s rate of DA incidents is 12.5 per 1000 population, the third lowest rate of reported domestic abuse in London.

There were 737 Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury offences recorded by the police in Barnet in 12 months up to the end of August 2022 (an increase of 2.1% compared to the previous year).

A total of 69 multi-agency practitioners and managers attended DA & VAWG

The number of children who had been identified as being at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation has seen a steady decline over the past 3 years as awareness of the issues has increased.

Child Criminal exploitation remained a concern as in 2021/22 there were 31 young people who were receiving statutory social work interventions identified as at risk of criminal exploitation.

In response to questions asked, the police commented that County line destinations were not particularly linked by public transport to Barnet, and they continued to work in conjunction with the British Transport Police eon the matter. Reference was made to a charitable organisation, the ‘Railway Children’ that works in safeguarding children and young adults in conjunction with the rail industry.

Richard Norfolk, Reducing Offending Partnership Manager explained that Integrated Offender Management (IOM) was a new framework for managing persistent and violent offenders, introduced in the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime plan. There were at present, 102 persistent offenders in Barnet and it was noted that in the 12 months prior to the individuals being adopted on to the IOM cohort in Barnet, they collectively committed 2814 offences, reducing to 1491 following focused IOM intervention.

The Public Health funded IRIS programme is a partnership between health and the domestic abuse sector that provides specialist domestic abuse training. It was reported that there are currently 25 fully trained, 8 partially trained and 8 engaged GP surgeries out of a total of 51 GP surgeries in Barnet. 9 GP surgeries have not engaged with the IRIS program and it was noted that this would be flagged up at the next Health and Wellbeing Board as the GP surgeries not engaging was a cause of concern.

The Safer Communities Partnership Board considered the progress being made to reduce offending, violence, and exploitation, including Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women & Girls.

The Chair thanked all partners for their involvement in a successful wee of Hate Crime Awareness. Barnet Mencap reported that they had recently held the Awareness week from the 8^th October 2022, hosting a number of information stands focusing on making Barnet a safe community for all. Thanks was given to the various agencies and organisations. Thanks was given also to Councillor Conway and her fellow Councillors for their support and engagement during the awareness week.

The following information was noted:

Updated Hate Crime figures published by the home officer were that up to March 2022, there had been over 155,000 incidents reported to the police nationally, which was an increase in the previous year of 26%.

Between June to September 2022, Barnet there had been 539 instances of hate crime reported:

            103 were antisemitic

            15 were Islamophobic

            12 were disability- related

61 were homophobic

8 were transgender

Barnet Safe Places scheme was looking to expand, which provides a safe place especially for those with learning disabilities, autism or other healthcare needs. Forty locations across Barnet had registered as a safe place, including libraries and shops.

The representative from the Fire Service suggested that Fire Stations be contacted for inclusion as they were open and manned around the clock.

The Safer Communities Partnership Board noted the updates provided in relation to Hate Crime.

Fiona Bateman, Independent Chair of Barnet and Islington Safeguarding Adults Board updated the Board on the outcomes of the recently held Financial Abuse workshop findings.

During the pandemic it had been identified that there had been an increase in the level and complexities of financial abuse resulting in people with care and support needs being left without financial security and unable to meet their basic needs, including people specifically targeted for financial/ material abuse because of their disabilities or social isolation. It was further noted that there had been a recent change in law that included economic abuse within the Domestic Abuse Act 2021

Instances of familial financial abuse had increased, and it was anticipated that there would be further increases due to increased poverty and the cost-of-living crisis.

Practitioners attending the workshop reported that they often felt powerless to intervene if the adult experiencing abuse did not want to escalate concerns to a safeguarding or police enquiry. It was reported that the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) specialist safeguarding practitioners could conduct an emergency home visit if necessary, that was not dependent on the adult’s consent and put a protection plan in place.

Declan Khan- Assistant Director, Counter Fraud, Community Safety & Protection commented that fraud investigators at local authorities could also play an active part in dealing with identifying any issues with direct payment fraud and would work with Fiona and her team and input the development of practitioners guide or toolkit. It was also suggested information relating to the proposed toolkit be publicised on Cost-of-Living assistance websites to offer information to potential victims and as a deterrent to perpetrators.

The Safer Communities Partnership Board noted the report and thanked Fiona Bateman for presentation.

Luke Kwamya –Head of Public Health Commissioning, gave a verbal update to the Board and reported that a ‘Combatting Drugs Partnership’ workshop had been held on the 3 November 2022 and had been well attended and thanked officers who were in attendance. He reported that as of August 2022, it was a requirement for the Council to have a named Senior Responsible Officer – the Director of Public Health. It was noted that the Terms of Reference for the partnership had been approved and that the at the meeting, the scene had been set for the priorities and desired outcomes of partnership:

·         Decreasing the number of people using drugs

·         Target and decrease the number of drug related crimes

·         Reduce the number of deaths and harm caused by drug use.

·         Disrupt drug dealing and county lines activities

The Safer Communities Partnership Board noted the update

The Board discussed the Forward Plan programme and were urged to notify the relevant officer of any items they wished be included on the Forward Plan.

The Head of Public Health Commissioning commented that performance data on drug and alcohol misuse be presented at the next meeting of the Community Safety Partnership Board.

None.

The date of the next meeting: 20^th January 2023.