Agenda and minutes

Councillor David Longstaff, Chairman of the Community Leadership Committee welcomed all attendants to the meeting.

RESOLVED-that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 23 November be agreed as the correct record

Apologies were received by Councillor Rutter.

None

None.

None were received.

Councillor McGuirk introduced her Member’s item which related to the Alan Turning Law.  Specifically the item was a request for information on (i) what action Barnet Council would be undertaking to assist this process for local people affected, and (ii) what work has been or will be done to raise awareness of the disregard process with the local LGBT community.

Following discussion of the item the Committee requested that an update report on the above is provided.

RESOLVED – That an updated on this item is reported at future meeting of the Committee.

The Strategic Lead for Safer Communities introduced the report which set out the Committee’s priorities and outcome performance measures across its core areas of responsibility. 

Regarding the indicators set out on page 31 – 32 the Committee requested if in future reports the information can be presented in way the clearly shows (i) how the indicators are measured and (ii) what are they measured against [Action]

Following discussion the Committee agreed all recommendations.

RESOLVED - That the Committee approved the addendum to the Community Leadership Committee Commissioning Plan for 2017/18 (Appendix A).

The Chairman introduced the report which related to the two grant applications to the Corporate Grants Programme.

The Committee agreed the recommendations.

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the council’s Standard Conditions of Grant and the special conditions shown in the respective grant assessments enclosed:

(i)            a one-year start-up grant of £9,832 be awarded to Serad;

(ii)          a one-year start-up grant of £10,000 be awarded to The Hope of Childs Hill.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose, Metropolitan Police (Barnet Borough Commander) provided the Committee with a verbal update on Hate Crime Incidents.

He reported there had been a 13% increase across London in the level of hate crime reported. Additionally there had been an increase in each of the individual strands of hate crime.

He clarified that a hate crimes are offences which are flagged as having a hate element when recorded by the police. With regards to Barnet the figures were as follows;

·                     290 racist hate crime

·                     35 faith hate crimes

·                     147 anti-Semitic hate crime

·                     35 Islamophobic hate crime

There had been a significant increase in anti-Semitic crimes. There were a total of 45 between October 1 2016 and January 2017 compared to 34 crimes in the same period the year before.

The Borough Commander confirmed extra officers have been deployed in those areas that were deemed to be of high risk. He further confirmed that police were continuing to work alongside colleagues in the Community Security Trust (CST). Additionally he reported they would continue to work their partners, to tackle all types of hate crime including the use of anti-Semitic language. He stressed the importance of ensuring that these crimes are reported

The Chairman requested that a further update is brought back to a future meeting of the Committee

RESOLVED -  That the Committee noted the verbal updated presented by Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose, Metropolitan Police (Barnet Borough Commander) and that an update will be reported to a future meeting.

The Committee received a presentation from the Strategic Lead for Safer Communities who provided a summary of what the strategy sought to achieve, namely;

·                     Reassure victims and survivors of domestic violence and abuse that they will be supported.

·                     Encourage the local community to report violence against women and girls.

·                     Inform the community how we would like to work with them to reduce the risk of violence against women and girls in Barnet.

·                     Provide clear direction on joint working for the strategic partners, voluntary and community groups to ensure consistent co-ordinated services.

·                     Set out the VAWG priorities and actions that partners can embed into their own organisational strategic and commissioning plans.

·                     Highlight to perpetrators our zero tolerance approach that they will be held to account for their behaviour either through enforcement or intervention to change their behaviour

Further detail was provided with regards to the 4 following partner objectives and what actions were to be undertaken to ensure each objective was met

1.            Preventing Violence against women and girls

2.            Improving outcomes for victims and their children

3.            Holding perpetrators to account

4.            Enhancing joint working practices between agencies

With regards to future commissioning she explained this would be influenced by a number a factors, namely;

·         Focusing on local need

·         Looking at the evidence of what works in order to meet new challenges

·         The involvement of third sector organisations in commissioning

·         Pooled budgets

·         Support models of early intervention and the maintaining of crisis provision

·         Early disclosure leading to more victims and families to support

·         Services to consider women from outside the borough fleeing violence

·         The need to calculate cost of VAWG across agencies  to support cross sector buy in

·         Clearly identifying outcomes and indicators – early intervention

·         Considering the statutory duties under the Equalities Act

With regards to budget the council’s annual budget for DV and VAWG services is £771,210.00.This covers two posts and a commissioning budget of £650,806.02.

Families Services also commission a young people’s perpetrators programme listed under commissioned service 3 and 4 from their departmental budget

There are currently 5 Violence against Women Girls VAWG) Commissioning Projects

1.      Advocacy Services

2.      Refuge Services

3.      Perpetrator Services

4.      Risk Assessors

5.      DV MARAC (new commission)

Other VAWG services in the Borough include:

·                In March 2015 Barnet Council and Barnet Homes in partnership with  Solace Women's Aid and Jewish Women's Aid were successful in a  bid for the amount of £100,000 to set up a women's refuge for homeless victims approaching Barnet homes .

·                In February 2017 Barnet Council and Barnet Homes in partnership with Solace Women's Aid and multi specialist agencies like IKWRO, Asian Women Resource Centre, Mental health…. were successful again for a bid of £100, 000 to sustain refuge while supporting those with specialist and complex needs

·                Barnet Homes One Stop Shop (OSS) - In September 2015 Barnet homes in partnership with multi agencies –Solace WA Victim Support, Jewish women Aid, Police, IKWRO, Asian resource centre, 3 solicitor Firms(family law, housing, Immigration), a Barnet Magistrate, Cyber  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Strategic Lead for Safer Communities introduced the report which related to the proposal to remove the non-CIL funding element from the Area Committee budget allocation for 2017/18 as the majority of grant applications are for CIL funding. This proposed changed would create a saving of £605,000 which would help meet the budget gap in 2017/18.

She confirmed that although the saving was identified there would still be a budget of £800,000 across the Area Committees to be spent in 2017/18 for CIL-related environmental infrastructure projects.

Following discussion the item the Committee agreed the recommendations.  

RESOLVED -

1.    That the Committee noted the proposal to remove the non-CIL element of Area Committee funding from 2017/18 in order to save £605,000 to help balance the council’s overall budget for next year.

2.    That the Committee noted that the council was still able to fund ‘people and community’ based projects through the Corporate Grants Programme.

The Chairman introduced the work programme.

RESOLVED - The committee noted the work programme.

There were none.