Agenda and minutes

Venue: Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BG

Contact: Tracy Scollin Tel 020 8359 2315 Email: tracy.scollin@barnet.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes of last meeting pdf icon PDF 373 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes were approved as an accurate record.

2.

Absence of Members (If any)

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Cllr Zubairi.

3.

Declaration of Members' Disclosable Pecuniary interests and Non Pecuniary interests (If any)

Minutes:

None.

4.

Report of the Monitoring Officer (If any)

Minutes:

None.

5.

Public Comments and Questions (If any) pdf icon PDF 358 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

A public comment received from Mr John Dix, and officers’ response, was noted.

6.

Members' Items (If any)

Minutes:

None.

7.

Community Participation Strategy pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

Mr Will Cooper, Deputy Head of Strategy – Strategy and Engagement, presented his report, the fourth update to the Community Participation Strategy. He noted that the budget proposals would be presented to Policy & Resources Committee (P&R) the following week for approval. 

 

A Member asked how value for money from the different charities is measured. Mr Cooper stated that a lot of time is spent on designing a mechanism for evaluating outcomes, and that Barnet Council expects all recipients of funding to report back on how the money was spent.

 

A Member enquired how the needs of the community were understood, given that consultations do not capture all sections of the community. Mr Cooper responded that this is combined with feedback from Ward Members, trusted community organisations, the Engage Barnet online portal and various other sources of information.

 

A Member asked what steps are being taken to ensure that this is a living document and direction of travel, and asked about the timetable, such as around the mapping of community assets. Mr Cooper responded that a Strategy Manager will be working on implementation as soon as the Strategy has been approved. The mapping of assets is currently underway. The most urgent matter is to resolve the Barnet Together settlement, and for an action plan to be put in place.

 

A Member asked about the Council recognising and supporting its many volunteers, for example introducing accreditation and further investment. The Member also asked why there are some community groups still not engaging. There was also concern that too much is being expected of volunteers and community groups who were possibly carrying out work that was unsafe for them to do. Mr Cooper responded that many volunteers are enthusiastic but the Council would not want them to put themselves in any danger.  Mr Cooper agreed that the reach of Barnet Together is insufficient, adding that the team is working on this and has an idea of the communities that are not involved.

 

A Member noted that there are 1000 volunteers registered who have not been deployed. Mr Cooper responded that there are several reasons; some residents later become unavailable after registering, and some opportunities do not suit some volunteers.  However, the team is confident that the people on the database are keen to volunteer, as a new database was implemented and updated during the pandemic.

 

A Member enquired about crowd funding and how donations could be supported to a sufficient level to receive match funding. Mr Cooper would follow this up after the meeting.

Action: Mr Cooper

 

A Member enquired how much funding each of the organisations had received under the Community Innovation Fund. Mr Cooper responded that there were three categories; the smallest providing funding of £2000, up to the ‘big idea’ which awarded up to £100,000. The priorities for the fund are:

 

  • support for unpaid carers
  • digital inclusion project
  • residents at risk of losing jobs,
  • residents at risk of losing functionality and mobility. 

 

Mr Cooper outlined the funding awarded under  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Community Safety Governance Review pdf icon PDF 580 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman introduced the officers’ report which outlined the community safety governance review, and outlined where responsibility for community safety sat across different governance bodies including Environment Committee, Safer Communities Partnership Board (SCPB) and the Community Leadership & Libraries Committee (CLLC).  

 

The Head of Governance, Andrew Charlwood, reported that the other aim of the report was to provide an update on recent internal changes around where community safety functions sat in different directorates. In November 2019 community safety functions had moved from Environment Directorate to the Assurance Directorate for an interim period. Following a review, some services had remained in Assurance and others had transferred to Family Services as follows:

 

Assurance:

 

  • Responsibilities as outlined the Community Safety Accreditation scheme of Powers including:
  • Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership
  • Environmental Crime
  • Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)
  • Prevent Agenda (including Hate Crime)
  • CCTV
  • Covid -19 Enforcement

 

New areas of responsibility in Family Services:

 

  • Domestic violence (DV)
  • Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG);
  • Reduced Offending (RO)
  • Integrated Offender Management (IOM)
  • Violence, Vulnerability & Exploitation (VVE)

 

Mr Charlwood noted that Declan Khan, Head of Counter Fraud Operations would work closely with Tina McElligot, Director, Children’s Social Care on functions that cut across the two directorates.  

 

Mr Charlwood reported that Barnet’s governance arrangements in relation to community safety had been reviewed to ensure that these were in line with best practice and the legal framework, and to help clarify the roles and responsibilities of the boards and committees in relation to community safety to minimise cross-over and duplication.  The CLLC has a role to undertake crime and disorder scrutiny. It was noted that although this had been carried out annually via an annual report on community safety, it had not been made explicit in the Constitution until the recent changes had been made. The legal framework around the community safety partnership had also been reviewed, and some benchmarking against other Councils carried out, which had demonstrated that the SCPB was consistent with other similar sized local authorities in its make-up and operation. 

 

Mr Charlwood added that the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the SCPB, CLLC and Environment Committee had been reviewed, and actions agreed as detailed in Appendix A had been progressed. Section 1.4 of the report had set out the updates to the ToRs to provide greater clarity on which aspects of community safety sit with which governance body. 

 

A Member asked where ‘youth crime’ sits. The Director of Assurance, Clair Green reported that youth crime remains within Family Services.

 

A Member stated that it is unfortunate that the Opposition Spokesperson for Community Safety only received the papers for the SCPB and was not a member of the Board. The Chairman noted that CLLC could not decide on this matter.

 

A Member reported that there had recently been an extreme level of incidents of anti-Semitism in Barnet, and she asked who to approach in the Council. Mr Khan responded that the Community Safety Team (CST) should be contacted but the police must also first be the first point of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 178 KB

Minutes:

Officers reported that Governance has been working with all services on a comprehensive review of the work programmes of CLLC and SCPB to ensure that all areas covered in their terms of referenced were reported to the Committee regularly.

 

A Member enquired whether the Council would put out communications around EU settled status, which would be introduced in June 2021. Ms Scollin would request a written briefing on what the Council is doing in relation to this. 

Action: Governance Officer

 

A Member enquired about the Hendon Hub proposals, adding that CLLC should discuss this and have an opportunity to comment. Mr Charlwood reported that this would be on the agenda for the Policy & Resources Committee in July 2021 and that a paper on the future of the library service in Hendon would be reported to this committee in due course.

 

RESOLVED that the Committee noted the Forward Plan.

 

 

10.

Any item(s) the Chairman decides are urgent

Minutes:

None.