Agenda item

·         Annual refresh of the Barnet Safer Community Partnership’s Community Safety Strategy

A report from the Barnet Community Safety Team was received.

Mr Clifton reported that the Strategy was reviewed annually, and priorities refreshed where needed, to reflect changes in crime and ASB trends as well as changes in the LB Barnet organisation. He asked for the Board’s comments and endorsement of the Strategy.

Proposed local changes to the Strategy as well as national changes were outlined in the report including:

·         Safeguarding of children and young people involved with or impacted by crime and ASB - additional objective focusing on violence, vulnerability and criminal exploitation following the Barnet OFSTED inspection

·         Continued focus on the safeguarding of vulnerable adults and children, supported by the collection of specific data

·         Increased partnership focus on preventing environmental crime – working with partners to deliver interventions that balance prevention and enforcement

·         Continued focus responding to violence against women and girls (VAWG)

·         Closer working with Re and Barnet Homes – the Director of Regulatory Services, Re and the Head of Housing Management, Barnet Homes were now statutory SCPB members

·         Increased focus on the role of public health within the SCP. Mental health and substance misuse continued to be a cross-cutting issue affecting victims and offenders. Public Health being part of the council presented an opportunity to strengthen joint working and to respond to areas such as substance misuse and mental health issues.

·         Police Borough Command Unit (BCU) merger with Barnet, Harrow and Brent; brought challenges as well as opportunities.

·         Reducing offending – changes in the National Probation Service (NPS) and the introduction of the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) had impacted on performance, including in Barnet. HMIC inspection in 2017 in London showed that improvements had been made since 2016 but more needed to be done, especially around protecting the public and reducing reoffending. The Barnet Community Safety Team was working closely with the MPS, NPS and CRC to ensure effective partnership working to manage offenders, especially those who reoffend.

Ms Fiona Bateman welcomed the greater emphasis on safeguarding adults and added that a subgroup had been set up to focus on supporting victims; she suggested discussing outside the meeting how she could work with the Community Safety Team to achieve the priorities of both. She added that hate crime had been a high priority for the subgroup. Mr Clifton agreed that he would meet with Ms Bateman.

Action: Mr Clifton/Ms Bateman

Ms Djuretic noted that the focus on prevention was welcomed though it would be helpful to add to this by articulating the toxic impact of substance misuse on domestic violence and mental health problems. Mr Clifton noted that the full Strategy did include such detail.

Superintendent Louis Smith welcomed the amendment to the high-volume crime priority which makes it more explicitly focused on tackling Burglary as this is a key issue in Barnet.

Mr Leader noted that a lot of vulnerable people were impacted by crime in a less direct way, eg by fire. He wondered whether priority outcome 4 in the document could be explored in more detail. Mr Clifton responded that the central focus was on SCP’s responsibility to deliver the Community Safety Strategy in relation to crime, ASB and substance misuse as detailed in the Crime and Disorder Act. It had been recognised that these had strong links to safeguarding issues so this was the reason for that focus. However he recognised that safeguarding was a broader issue. He enquired whether the Fire Service routinely received intelligence to alert them to vulnerable people so that they could carry out visits. Mr Leader responded that the Fire Service was not made aware and was often unable to reduce the risk. Ms Bateman noted that the subgroup was trying to tackle this and that fire deaths were also a priority.

Ms Ansdell suggested that in light of news that morning, of major organisational changes to the NPS, the section on reducing reoffending in the Strategy may need to be revisited. The change would involve more joint working and the introduction of one senior leader for the HMPPS having overall responsibility for the NPS and CRC. She explained that this would mean ‘business as usual’ although there would be an emphasis on collaboration and reducing reoffending. Mr Clifton agreed that the implications would need to be discussed.

Ms McElligot noted that the LB Barnet had recently produced a Vulnerable Adolescent Strategy and she would welcome this being linked in to the Community Safety Strategy. There was greater emphasis on activity to ‘destruct the perpetrator’. This was in synergy with the violence strategy produced by Family Services; action plans underneath the priorities were an important aspect in order to break vicious cycles.

The report was noted.