Agenda and minutes

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

Apologies for absence had been received from Jamie Keddy, MOPAC.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 28 April 2017 be approved as a correct record, subject to the amendment in minute item 1 to show Jamie Keddy as representing MOPAC and not the National Probation Service.

·           2017-2010 Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy

·           Post-Implementation – Next Steps

Kiran Vagarwal, Strategic Lead Safer Communities, Barnet Council

Kiran Vargwarl (Strategic Lead for Community Safety) presented the draft Domestic Violence and Violence against Women and Girls Strategy 2017 – 2020.  She outlined the governance structure that would support delivery of the Strategy and highlighted that referrals could be made between Boards, Forums and Groups where appropriate. 

Partners were requested to nominate appropriate representatives to sit on the Boards, Forums and Groups detailed in the Strategy document.

The Board agreed the Strategy and endorsed the objectives set out in the Barnet’s Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy 2017-2020.

·           Overview of Victims Support Services

·           ASB and Restorative Justice Project

·           2015/16 Performance

Sharon Dearman and Karolina Bober, Victim Support

Karolina Bober, Senior Service Delivery Manager, Victim Support presented the Barnet Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Project End of Year Report 2016/17.  She reported that there had been a decrease in the number of referrals from the MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference) with an associated increase in referrals directly from the police, Barnet Homes and the Community Safety Team.  She reported that 118 referrals had been received against a target of 60. 

The Board questioned whether Victim Support provided help for elderly victims of distraction burglary.  Ms Bober reported that staff had been trained, but that there wasn’t currently a specific project relating to this.  It was noted that there were links to GP’s in relation to these types of cases.

Board Members noted that referrals were made from Victim Support to services provided by partner agencies including drug and alcohol services, fire safety and CommUNITY Barnet. 

The Board noted the update and agreed the following:

1.     Ensuring that the Community Safety Team are focussed on hate crime;

2.     Victim Support being requested to provide team briefings to partner organisations on services provided; and

3.     Victim Support maintaining a focus on referrals to partner organisations where appropriate.

·           Current LFB performance Barnet

·           Emerging trends / patterns in Barnet, volume of different kinds of fires etc.

·           What the challenges are

·           Key areas for partnership to focus on re these challenges

Steve Leader, London Fire Brigade Borough Commander for Barnet

Steve Leader, the London Fire Brigade Barnet Borough Commander, provided an update on Barnet Borough fire performance and key issues. 

In relation to performance, it was reported that community safety measures were performing well, but some indicators were below target relating to: primary fires – injuries; outdoor rubbish fires; fires in buildings that are not dwellings; and shut in lift releases.

Emerging trends were:

·           Primary fires had been increasing, particularly in shop units with residential accommodation above.  In these cases, residents of dwellings had suffered from smoke inhalation and were therefore included as casualties even though the injuries were minor; and

·           There had been a focus on high rise buildings following the Grenfell Fire.

Mr Leader reported that key challenges were:

·           A continuing focus on fire safety in high rise buildings and diversion of resources to support that work;

·           Linking between agencies to identify vulnerable people who represented a high fire risk, such as drug and alcohol dependents, people with serve disabilities or hoarders.

The Board noted the update and requested that up to four fire safety key performance indicators be added to the dashboard including one relating to referrals to the Fire Brigade from partner agencies. 

·           Update on progress and delivery

Matt Leng, Community Safety Manager

Matt Leng, Community Safety Manager, LB Barnet provided an update on the Prevent Strategy.  He reported that:

·           Partners had been holding monthly meetings with Middlesex University;

·           148 GP’s had been prevent trained at a recent conference;

·           456 staff in partner agencies had been prevent trained;

·           The Community Safety Team had implemented a secure IT system for liaison with partners; and

·           A public building audit had taken place assess for target hardening.  

The Board were reminded of the five Prevent Strategy objectives which were:

·           Partnerships;

·           Risk Assessments;

·           Prevent Action Plan;

·           Staff training; and

·           Use of local authority resources

The Board were informed that Home Office funding 2016/17 had been secured for 2017/18 to support the following posts in Barnet:

Prevent Co-ordinator

Prevent Education Officer

Community Co-ordinator

He reported that next steps were:

·           Development of an Executive Summary; and

·           Creation of a Prevent Strategy KPI dashboard.

The Board noted the Prevent Strategy update.

·         Governance

·         Troubled Families

·         Safeguarding,

·         Serious Youth Violence

·         Youth Offending and Gangs (young people)

Tina McElligott, Assistant Director of Family Services

Tina McElligott, Assistant Director of Family Services, LB Barnet provided an update on Family Services.

Ms McElligott delivered a presentation which detailed child data as at June 2017 and an overview of the Barnet:

·         Under 18 CSC/Gang profile;

·         Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) profile;

·         Missing Children profile;

·         Troubled Families Programme;

·         Youth Offending;

·         REACH (multi-agency team to wrap-around children at high risk of CSE, Gangs and Missing); and

·         Strategic Oversight.

Responding to a question from the Board, Ms McElligott agreed that a disproportionate number of children missing in care were from black and ethnic minority backgrounds. 

The Board noted the update and requested that consideration be given to which Family Services key performance indicators could be added to the partnership performance dashboard. 

·           Presentation on the  ‘Restore: London’ project

·           Restorative Justice service available to Barnet

Anika Cosgrove, Restorative Justice Co-ordinator, Restore London

Anika Cosgrove and Carol Beckford were in attendance to deliver a presentation on Restore London, a pan-London victim focussed restorative justice service. 

The presentation outlined the definition of restorative justice, the benefits to victims and the benefits to offenders.  The drivers for a new approach were outlined along with the ‘hub and spoke’ model that would be delivered in London. 

The Board suggested that Restore London could liaise with Victim Support Barnet to ensure that there was a joined-up approach. 

The Board noted the presentation.

·           Update on MOPAC LCPF developments

Kiran Vagarwal Strategic Lead Safer Communities, Barnet Council

The Board received an update on the London Crime Prevention Fund development of a co-commissioning model.  It was noted that the co-commissioning fund would be released in two tranches and MOPAC would soon be seeking expressions of interest for Tranche 1 which would be focused on four priority areas:

1.    Child sexual exploitation

2.    Sexual violence

3.    Female offending

4.    Youth offending

The Board noted that Barnet were considering a multi-borough bid, but were likely to miss the deadline for the first tranche.  Officers would circulate details to Board Members for Tranche 2.

·           Performance dashboard update

Simon Rose, Chief Superintended Barnet Police and Sepia Golding, Partnership Analyst

Chief Superintendent Simon Rose presented the Performance Dashboard as at May 2017.  He reported that there had been a significant increase in robbery which would be kept under review.  In relation to Anti-Social Behaviour it was reported that there had been a small increase, but noted that the classification of incidents meant that this was open to interpretation. 

In relation to repeat burglary victims, Chief Superintendent Rose informed the Board that police had been visiting those most affected and were undertaking target hardening.  Of the 500 victims approached by the police around 400 had accepted support and there had only been one repeat victim from those supported. 

Robbery had seen an increase in prevalence and this would continue to be monitored.  It was noted that the recent trend in moped robberies could be contributing to this increase. 

The Board noted the update and requested that a presentation be delivered to the next meeting on burglary and prevention with a focus on victims. 

Proposed items for next SCPB: 27 October 2017:

1.    Progress Report on Funding (Prevent, VAWG, MOPAC)

2.    Presentation of VAWG Delivery Plan and Performance Management

3.    Analytical Work to Support the Partnership – programme and progress of work

4.    Update from MOPAC on Pan London Commissioning and partnership with the SCPB

5.    CLC – Update on Local Model and Performance – key local partnership areas for developing

6.    Responding to ‘Wicked Problems’ and Joint Tasking (police and CST)

7.    New Policies/Strategies Impacting on Community Safety

8.    Future Landscape – including new policing plan and other emerging strategies across the partnership

9.    Drug Abuse (public health)

The Board considered the future work programme as set out in the agenda and agreed the following items to be considered in 2017/18:

1.     Report on Child Sexual Exploitation, Gangs and Domestic Violence.

2.     Report on Community Rehabilitation Company (including Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) and Adult Offender Management.

3.     Future Landscape – including:

Ø  Community Safety Update

Ø  Drugs

Ø  Policing and Crime

Ø  MOPAC (Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime)

4.     Revised Multi-Agency Performance Dashboard.

5.     MOPAC Update on Pan-London Commissioning.

The Board agreed the work programme as set out above.

The Chairman noted that that Barnet had been offered the opportunity to participate in a Deferred Prosecution Study, a diversion programme for those at risk of violent re-offending.  Detailed proposals would be reported back to the Board in due course.