Agenda item

Update to the Board on the findings from the Barnet Community Safety Strategic Assessment:

·         Performance

·         Trends and patterns

·         Key findings

Ms Kiran Vagarwal presented the annual Community Safety Strategic Assessment to the Board. The findings of the report would help inform Barnet’s 2015-2020 Community Safety Strategy.

Based on figures relating to the past 12 months Barnet remained one of the safest London boroughs with a low crime rate; the rate per 1000 population was 23% lower than the London average. Barnet had the third lowest rate of violent crime of all 32 London boroughs.

Barnet had achieved an overall 21% reduction across the MOPAC7 crime types over the past 5 years and a 5% reduction over 2016/17 alone.

There had however been a 15% increase in motor vehicle theft though numbers were still low.

There had been an increase in the number of ASB reports in the past year after a number of years of successive reductions. The Barnet Safer Communities Partnership continued to develop working to reduce this.

Despite falling crime rates, crime had been the second highest concern for residents in the Spring 2017 residents perception survey. Developing a plan to engage more with communities and help to improve residents’ perception would be discussed at a future meeting. [ACTION]

During 2016/17 the Barnet Safer Communities Partnership had developed a new 2017-2020 Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy. A partnership focus was central to this and its objectives were to prevent VAWG, improve outcomes for victims and their children, hold perpetrators to account and enhance joint working between agencies.

During 2016/17 local Hate Crime reporting centres had been set up in recognition of the underreporting of Hate Crime. The Partnership had also secured funding from the MOPAC London Crime Prevention Fund for the next 2 years which would be used to raise awareness, encourage reporting and improve access to justice for victims.

In line with a London-wide trend since 2014 there had been a significant increase in reported violence with injury (VWI) in Barnet – it was believed that changes in reporting and recording practices had contributed significantly to this. Barnet had the third lowest rate of VWI per 1000 population out of all 32 London boroughs.

There had been a small significant number of issues in Barnet in relation to gangs and serious youth violence; at June 2017 92 young people were being supervised by the Youth Offending Team and of those 60% were believed to be gang-involved. There had been a reduction in Serious Youth Violence in the last 12 months including an 8% reduction in knife crime to 318 offences in Barnet. The Partnership had secured funding for two years from MOPAC to preventative school engagement work and a Family Services REACH Programme.

There had been a sustained reduction in re-offending over the past year. The Barnet IOM continued to demonstrate a reduction in offending of its cohort members of approximately 40%.

The Partnership had secured funding from the MOPAC London Crime Prevention Fund for a Barnet Reducing Reoffending Partnership Coordinator (RRPC). The RRPC would focus on developing effective working relationships with key stakeholders; developing a model of best practice and referral pathways between key partner agencies including mental and physical health providers, housing, domestic abuse services and substance misuse services as well as education/training/employment providers.

Burglary remained the only major volume crime which occurred at a rate well above the London average in Barnet (22% above average London burglary rate). Barnet currently had the 8^th highest burglary rate in London and despite a significant reduction being achieved in the past two years this remained a key priority. Alongside current interventions Barnet council and the police had implemented a joint project to expand the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera coverage across the borough.

Mitigating risks from terrorism and extremism and supporting the borough’s diverse communities was also a key priority. The Community Safety Team had, together with the Prevent Coordinator, managed the delivery of the Prevent Partnership action plan.

Ms Vagarwal proposed draft strategic priorities which were agreed, further to a discussion, subject to minor changes. The Chairman noted that ‘Hate Crime’ and ‘VAWG’ did not sit together but both needed to be a major part of the strategy. . She would forward a final draft to the Board by email for comment.

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